In the early years of the 20^th century, Americans began to use the phrase “protest” to demonstrate their opposition to the government, a form of action that would soon be used as a mass civil disobedience infrastructure. However, in the famous Pepsi commercial featuring Kendall Jenner (released in 2017), the intent is the exact opposite.

The commercial begins smoothly, as a young cello player pops open a can of Pepsi amidst clips of a young, diverse group of people walking along the street, laughing, dancing, and smiling. It isn’t until about 20 seconds into the commercial where things start to get confusing; Is this a block party or a protest? What exactly are they ‘protesting’ for? The same queries arose as over 12.5 million proceeded to watch and question the ad. Little did Pepsi know that their ‘Live For Now’ campaign would create such a backlash.

Watch the commercial here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA5Yq1DLSmQ

Problem #1: The Protest

Pepsi’s intentions were understandable. After they released a statement about the commercial and how it was supposed to signify “peace, unity, and understanding” their intent was clearer. Nevertheless, the message was poorly created. While many viewers infer that the ‘protest’ was centered around the Black Lives Matter campaign, the actual point of it is indistinguishable. As people in the commercial hold signs with hearts and peace signs, it seems that all relevant civic issues were thrown into one big dance party with Jenner as captain. The protest clearly does not shed light on one individual problem, and because of that people were extremely offended. Jenner’s demonstration is essentially depicting ‘protest’ as something to do for the fun of it, not for the more important matters at hand.

Problem # 2: Branding

Pepsi essentially turned a political protest into a branding opportunity, a cruel way to market their product. Rather than calling attention to any relevant social issues, they instead used the commercial to disrespect those who have legitimately fought for what they believed in and paste their brand all over it. The icing on top of the cake? Pepsi took it upon themselves to feature someone as irrelevant as Kendall Jenner, a woman who has no significance in society other than to stand in front of a camera and look pretty. Quite frankly, if the point of the commercial was to call attention to protest, political action, and ‘standing together’, they should have featured an inspiring political figure, not a model.

Problem #3: The Message

Perhaps the most detrimental part of the commercial is the message at the end. After Jenner hands an unarmed policeman a can of Pepsi, he opens it, takes a sip, and smiles toward the crowd as they all scream and cheer. A can of Pepsi can apparently solve all the world’s problems, right? This was essentially the message that people took away from the commercial, whether Pepsi intended it to be that way or not. The last scene was also associated with another famous image from a police brutality protest. The original image shows Ieshia Evans, a protester for black rights, moments before being arrested for blocking highway traffic. The 2 photos are almost splitting images of one another. Many were offended by the similarity between the two because Jenner hasn’t experienced the same caliber of anguish that Evans did. Evans was essentially standing up for something she believed in (so much so that she was arrested for it) while Jenner can cure the world of its problems with a can of carbonated soda.

After the commercial was released on YouTube, many people took their anger to Twitter. Bernice King, youngest daughter of Civil Rights Movement hero Martin Luther King Jr., even took to Twitter to call out Pepsi and their disrespectful message. She tweets, “If only Daddy would have known about the power of #Pepsi” with an image of her father being held back by authorities. This goes to show how many people Pepsi truly offended.

The Pepsi commercial was an overall marketing failure. The protest, branding, and message all contributed to the online outrage that followed. The commercial was eventually pulled offline and Pepsi released multiple statements apologizing for their commercial. While they did see it was wrong and offensive, never forget that the next time you’re at a protest, hand the police officer a Pepsi and everything will be at peace.