Cadbury Schweppes Agrees to Pull 7 Up Ad Depicting Prison Rape, Bloomberg News, May 24, 2002.

Cadbury Schweppes Plc agreed to stop airing a 7 UP soft drink television commercial called "Captive Audience" after human rights organizations, including Stop Prisoner Rape, protested that the ad was callous.

The advocacy groups charged that the ad, created by Young & Rubicam, made light of rape in prison. The ad aired during teen and young adult shows on NBC, Fox, WB, UPN, ESPN and MTV networks, according to a May 6 statement by Dr Pepper/Seven-Up Inc.

"Unfortunately, jokes about rape in prison have become alarmingly common," Lara Stemple, executive director of Stop Prisoner Rape, said in a statement. " Sexual violence is occurring in prison right now, to real people, causing real suffering. Simply put, prisoner rape isn't funny."

In the ad, a 7 UP spokesman hands out cans of the soda to prisoners and refuses to pick up a dropped can. Later, the ad shows the spokesman in bed with another man who refuses to take his arm from around him as a cell door slams.

"Their points were valid," Dr Pepper/Seven Up spokeswoman Philippa Dworkin said about the protest. The ad, which has been on the air since March, was pulled immediately, she said.

7 Up is made by Dr Pepper/Seven Up Inc., which is the largest unit of London-based Cadbury Schweppes. Young & Rubicam is a unit of London-based WPP Group Plc, the world's second-largest advertising company after Interpublic Group of Cos.