WalMart and Target turn Pepsi blue

The link-up between Pepsi and Amazon to give away squillions of free mp3s has hit a problem: US Retailers have taken the hump at giving shelf-space to a promotion for a company they see as a competitor.

This is bad for Pepsi - in-store pushing of the free mp3s has been scanty at WalMart and Target - but worse news for Amazon who have been airbrushed out of the picture to keep retailers happy:

In an apparent response to retailers’ concerns, Amazon’s name has been banished from the front of Pepsi bottles carrying the promotion – rendering it invisible in supermarket aisles to passing shoppers.

Similarly, Amazon’s logo is on the back of cardboard multi-pack cartons of cans that are stacked on the shelves of mass discounters and supermarkets, next to the product’s bar code and nutritional information.

Considering this was Amazon's big push to trumpet its new download service outside of the Geekosphere, that's got to be a big let-down. No figures yet on how many tracks have been given away.