There have been many terrible advertisements since the beginning of the use of propaganda, but this infamous Pepsi commercial starring Kendall Jenner is one of the most recent monstrosities. This ad simplifies the motive of the BLM movement by offering support towards the police force, it poorly depicts what a protest looks like, and it white-washes an issue that impacts black lives.
For context, this advertisement was released in 2017. Throughout 2016, there were many protests regarding the murders of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, leading to a rise in the Black Lives Matter movement. The BLM movement and the use of protests were becoming more prevalent throughout the United States. This advertisement tries to fit into the rhetorical situation of the time by portraying a protest, but it ultimately fails by inappropriately depicting the events that were occurring at the time. This commercial seems to infantilize the issue of BLM by showing how easy it is to bring peace– it is apparently as easy as offering a Pepsi can to a police officer.
The BLM movement specifically targets the police force in the United States. Police officers are not taught how to calm down a situation– they are taught how to react. This makes it extremely easy for innocent citizens to be shot and killed, especially black men. This commercial reduces the significance of the movement and the necessity for there to be reform by promoting the idea that there can be “middle ground”; however, this is not an issue where middle ground can exist when so many black and brown people are dying from police brutality.
In this video, the protest that is happening in the background seems to be… joyful. The people do not show real emotion– they are simply yelling. Towards the end of the advertisement, everyone smiles and hugs each other. Any photograph of a real protest shows how angry the people are, how sad they are, how pained they are. A real protest has deeper meaning and significance, whereas the video makes it seem as though it is just some sort of “act”.
Not to mention, the people in the video are overwhelmingly white. The white-washing of a movement that specifically supports black lives seems extremely bizarre and misses the point. Kendall Jenner’s appearance is also a miss. It was an odd placement for her to be the face of this advertisement, when she has no understanding of the BLM movement as a wealthy white woman.
Pepsi Protest
BLM Protest
Overall, the advertisement was extremely off-putting and faced a lot of backlash. Pepsi pulled the advertisement, and Kendall publicly apologized. However, this commercial really does make one question– What were they thinking???
I remember when this ad first came out and the unanimous backlash it received. Exactly like you stated the ad does not show the reality of a protest or the true meaning behind it. Instead, the offering of a can of Pepsi gives a false representation and does not show how important the issues are that people protest about, and how the road to change is never easy. Also, I really liked how you showed an image from the Pepsi ad and contrasted it to a BLM protest, which further shows how Pepsi’s representation could not be farther from reality.
I was going to do this ad because I just remember how shocked and disgusted everyone was and rightfully so. This commercial was overall a joke and like you said they definitely sugarcoated the raw emotions of having something important to protest about. The fact that they used giving a cop a Pepsi to solve all problems and gain peace is ridiculous. The use of Kendall Jenner as the face of this commercial was confusing and odd for me as well.