Like a Prayer (song) the soft drink, she did not bother to hold even a can of the product, leading the author to comment that "Madonna the pop star was going to do it her way, no matter what Madonna the businesswoman had agreed to do". She maintained all along that the Pepsi commercial and the music video were two different commodities and she was right to stand her ground. Taraborrelli noted that after "Like a Prayer", the recruitment of pop stars and athletes to sell soft drinks became commonplace. However, none of them generated the level of excitement on par with Pepsi's failed
Like a Prayer (album) Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of three million units. After the advent of the Nielsen SoundScan era in 1991, the album sold a further 575,000 copies. "Like a Prayer" has sold over 4 million copies in the United States. In Canada, the album debuted at number two on the RPM Albums Chart on May 1, 1989. It remained on that position during four weeks, before dropping to the third position the week of May 29, 1989. The album was present for a total of 37 weeks on the chart, and was certified five times