The Controversial NFT Drop of Pepsi
From praise to condemnation in the blink of an eye
On December 8, Pepsi came up with a tweet that awakened curiosity among its followers. They were talking about a drop, but what was it about? Could it be about NFTs?
It was a day later when Pepsi revealed the details of its project that raised significant hype: they were going to release an NFT collection. The impact of social media was immediate, the NFT community was much hyped for it! Pepsi offered its 1843 for free -sparing the remaining 50 for upcoming events. The NFT enthusiasts were going to pay only the gas fee as the requirement of the transaction. Pepsi was going to kick off a waiting list on December 10 which would allow them to sort minting requests in the first-come-first-served manner.
This story came true -but with several unexpected setbacks of varying magnitudes!
1. Negligible Hazard: There was a significant support from the crowd for Pepsi’s NFT initiative. A small proportion of the reactions were coming from innovation-resistant followers who condemned this project. Their most common point was about Pepsi making a wrong choice by being a part of the NFT community -what a malapropos criticism. Some Pepsi drinking Twitter users stated that they were going to stop consuming Pepsi because of this NFT project. Not everyone will be onboard with new ideas!
2. Mildly Severe Hazard: The second point was righteous and much more troublesome: people were waiting for the clock to hit 12:00 PM EST for the waitlist to be open for registration. While some visitors stated mentioned their troubles with connecting to the server due to heavy traffic, there were also a notable number of tweets pointing out the confusion of people: after signing the connection request for the wallet, there was no notification indicating if the connection was successful. This lack of signage led visitors to sent multiple requests to the server and sign the request repeatedly.
3. Very Severe Hazard: Tables had turned upside down, Pepsi was at the edge of the hell as there was a strong backlash: it was revealed that numerous wallet connections were completed prior to the opening time of the waitlist which should not be possible under normal circumstances.
This unfortunate incident spread so swiftly over Twitter and casted doubt to the legitimacy of the drop. Pepsi lovers were upset and disappointed with how Pepsi handled the drop. Later the same night, Pepsi acknowledged that all the wallet connections required to be named in the waitlist would be disqualified.
I find it worth mentioning that, before all this turmoil started, a Twitter user had mentioned their concern about the bots getting all the waitlist spots as the system is opened. In response, Pepsi affirmed that they had a plan.
The waitlist will be announced to the public on December 14 and we will learn about the lucky ones.
Takeaways from Pepsi's NFT drop:
Regarding #1: Not everyone will be fond of your ideas. Don't let them bring you down as long as you act with integrity.
Regarding #2: Run pre-tests and be sure to resolve all the problems encountered before going live. Don't forget the power of confirmation/feedback messages and be sure that everyone receives them :)
Regarding #3: Legitimacy is difficult to maintain, yet indispensable. Either bots or so-called smarties will visit the backdoors frequently. You would not like to devastate your public image because of them.
Final words: Hype is cute but utmost care is a must. It does not matter if you are a giant MNC in the real world, master Web 3.0 before igniting a related project or you may drag yourself into the fire!