In 2017 this advert broke the internet and not for the right reasons, reality tv star and model Kendall Jenner starred in Pepsi’s controversial advert which many people thought the advert was making light of police brutality. It’s not uncommon for household companies to miss the mark thinking that they were doing the right thing, but alas Pepsi failed miserably.
Visually, the advert portrays Jenner in the midst of a photo shoot witness a protest and immediately leaves to join it with a can of ice, cold, crisp Pepsi as her companion, with that same can she gives it to a policeman at the protest, immediately creating unity and eradicating police brutality, right? – is it too outside of the box to question how out of touch a multimillion dollar company and celebrity can be?
“Problematic in imagery and content, primarily because it contributed to the notion that there is a fairy-tale, light way to ease conflicts that have existed in this nation for hundreds of years.”
Bernice a. king
Anyone can understand the sentiment and message of Pepsi’s advert, a hint of feminism, a dash of diversity and a pinch of peaceful protesting to solve police brutality here. It’s clear what the advert tried to portray, however, to think that protests where mainly Black people and people of colour are fighting for their lives for basic human rights and equality, should be commercialised and reduced for a Pepsi advert, is so wilfully redundant and regressive. Inadvertently, the advert implicitly implied that the Black people who have lost their lives or were affected by police brutality was in jest as it was reduced to a poorly made advert.
The controversial advert was highly criticised and after apologising Pepsi immediately wiped the advert off the internet, but didn’t Pepsi know that the internet never forgets? Many people thought that Pepsi was monetising and making light of social movements, in particular Black Lives Matter. And, ignoring the atrocities that the Black community has experienced for centuries. Additionally, the advert was problematic because a privileged white woman was now the face of social justice activism, which is deeply offensive to Black people who fought and died for their liberation.
Bernice A. King, Martin Luther King’s daughter, tweeted Pepsi sharing her opinion, she deemed it to be “problematic in imagery and content, primarily because it contributed to the notion that there is a fairy-tale, light way to ease conflicts that have existed in this nation for hundreds of years.”
In the mid to late 2010s, mainstream feminism became popular, the punchy slogans of “GRL PWR”, “girls supporting girls”, “This is what a feminist looks like” and many more were overflowing everywhere, it was inescapable! Simultaneously, the main themes of the Pepsi advert were protest and unity, it also had undertones of mainstream white feminism whilst capturing the essence of performative activism and capitalism.
Additionally, the environment of the Pepsi advert was at a lively protest, solving inequality one sip at time with a can of Pepsi, it’s evident that the values of this campaign has a liberal and neoliberal ideology.
Banet-Weiser theorises popular feminism and its relationship in digital media, “in the contemporary media and digital moment, media outlets and systems can easily absorb the visualization of basically any experience. Economies of visibility fundamentally shift politics of visibility becomes the end rather than a means to an end.” – this is intrinsically parallel to the Pepsi advert.
The advert was heavily criticised for implicitly expressing that protestors need to unite with the police to keep the peace and to solve social injustices. It’s evident that both Pepsi and Kendall Jenner didn’t intend to offend anyone but unfortunately both parties missed the park, but is it a surprise for a multimillion-dollar company to capitalise off of big moments?
At least we have memes to remember this disaster of an advert!
