Pepsi Shocked At Release Of Jackson Fire Footage

The day after Michael Jackson‘s death, we compiled a list of things that made Jackson unlike the rest of us. Number 9 on our list was the Pepsi commercial shoot disaster from 1984, but try as we might, we couldn’t find the mythical footage anywhere. Honestly, we were a little relieved, it sounded like something we might not want to watch anyway, and we threw a different version of the commercial up on this site. A few days ago the real accident footage, which has actually been kept private for 25 years, was finally leaked. We were horrified by what we saw and actually felt terrible, and Pepsi apparently feels the same way.

In a statement released yesterday, Pepsi spokeswoman Nicole Bradley wrote, “We don’t know how the footage became available. Twenty-five years later, we’d question why anyone would want to share such frightening images. It was a terrifying event that we’ll never forget.” As far as taking the footage off the internet, that’s something Pepsi may not be able to do anything about. Bradley said, “We don’t know who owns it, so we have no recourse as far as I know. I can only tell you what I know. We didn’t put it up and we don’t know where it came from.”

After watching the video, we realize that Jackson endured years of mocking over an incident that severely injured him, and makes this footage seem more tragic. RIP M.J. [Photo: GettyImages]