On April 4th of 2017, the use of ethical awareness to sell products was reached with a (since pulled) Pepsi commercial, showcased alongside reality TV star Kendall Jenner. The commercial, released amidst the disputable Black Lives Matter Movement (BLM), unveils a secret advantage on how to combat police brutality: a can of Pepsi.
The commercial begins with the opening of the carbonated soft drink and a man brilliantly playing the cello. Why? No clue. The camera then pans back and forth between a seemingly placid protest and Kendall Jenner. The signs held in the protest are not in any way profane or controversial to say the least. ‘Join the conversation’ is one that seems to appear more than often throughout the entirety of the commercial.
During the camera shot of the march, what comes out as obvious to me is how multicultural the ad already is. Evident when shots of a Muslim woman drawing is shown next. But of course, the main focus is the can of pepsi sitting right in front of her. The camera then pans over to Kendall Jenner, who just happens to be doing a photoshoot right next to the protest route. She appears amazed when she looks over to the march, obvious that she has never come in contact with a civil protest until now. Next, more random and unrelated shots of events during the protest ensues, and then we have Kendall who seems to appear very done with modelling and pulls off her wig to join the protest.
Let’s keep in mind that she has absolutely no idea what they’re protesting for, but does that really even matter in this time of age? When Kendall joins the protest, she instinctively grabs a can of pepsi from an assorted tub of chilled Pepsi that someone just happened to bring in the middle of a protest and of course, strides to the front of the mob with it in hand. The TV star ended inequality and racism when she passes the can to a curiously unprepared police officer who, realizing she is white, calls off riot control and thoughtfully accepts the soft drink. And alas! The protest has ended with one sip of the drink from the police officer. The crowd goes wild and the actual mission of the protest is long forgotten.
A few questions that came to mind when I viewed this commercial are: What even was the message of this commercial? Why did they include Kendall Jenner instead of an actual person of color? Why did Pepsi decide to market their product by using issues that are currently being combatted? Why did Pepsi make it seem as though their product can bring world peace?
As expected, the commercial experienced a lot of backlash. The advert was severely criticized by people of the social media world for using a privileged, white, model to create peace between activists and law enforcement through a drink.
To me, this advert was just very foolish and unneeded. Although I can see how Pepsi used the protest as an emotional appeal to their audience since it is very similar to the protests occurring today (especially the BLM movement), I believe Pepsi could have used a different concept to advertise their product and did not need to bring in a very important and sensitive social issue into their commercialism. Thankfully, Pepsi has apologized for the controversial advertisement and has since not repeated the same mistake with their commercials.
Citations:
Victor, Daniel. “Pepsi Pulls Ad Accused of Trivializing Black Lives Matter.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 Apr. 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/business/kendall-jenner-pepsi-ad.html.
“People Are Not Happy about Kendall Jenner’s New ‘Tone-Deaf’ Advert for Pepsi.” Topics, https://www.sbs.com.au/topics/life/culture/article/2017/04/05/people-are-not-happy-about-kendall-jenners-new-tone-deaf-advert-pepsi.
Briese, Nicole. “Here’s What an Actor in Kendall Jenner’s Pepsi Commercial Has to Say About the Controversy.” Brit Co, Brit Co, 8 Apr. 2017, https://www.brit.co/heres-what-an-actor-in-kendall-jenners-pepsi-commercial-has-to-say-about-the-controversy/.
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