Overview

Kendall Jenner's Pepsi Ad refers to a commercial for Pepsi starring Kardashian family member Kendall Jenner in which Jenner joins a protest and offers a police officer a can of Pepsi. As soon it was posted online, the commercial was widely criticized and mocked online for its tone-deaf attempt to evoke the tense relationship between protest movements in America such as Black Lives Matter and police, which the commercial purports to ease via Pepsi.

Background

On April 4th, 2017, Kendall's mother Kris tweeted the 30-second version of the advertisement, congratulating her daughter and thanking Pepsi. The tweet has since been deleted, and the ad has been removed from the internet. In the 30 second version of the ad, Kendall Jenner is doing a photoshoot in a blonde wig when she notices a protest happening outside. At the nod of a handsome protestor, Kendall takes off her wig, smears off her lipstick and joins the protest. She grabs a can of Pepsi and proceeds to hand it to a cop standing by. The cop sips it with a smile and the camera zooms in on Kylie's face. The 2:40 version is shown below.

Developments

The ad was instantly criticized on Twitter. Among the many things people took issue with, some of the most popular were the sterile way Pepsi portrayed protests, the fact that it seems to suggest a Pepsi would bridge the gap between protestors and police, and the positioning of multi-millionaire Jenner as a leader of the counterculture. One tweet by @GrimmKardashian,^[1] shown below, said "this is everything wrong with our culture in 30 seconds. may sound like an overreaction, but it's not. every frame of this ad is poisonous." His tweet gained over 7,500 retweets and 11,900 favorites.

Many other Twitter users offered detailed analysis of what the ad got wrong. For example, a popular series of tweets by Olivia A. Cole^[2] mocked the racially tone-deaf nature of several frames of the ad (examples shown below).

Others mocked the ad by inserting cans of Pepsi into famous pictures of protests and instances of police brutality (examples shown below).

Other users mocked and criticized the disconnect between the wholesome way Pepsi portrayed a protest by comparing it to actual Black Lives Matter protests and the general racial tension between black Americans and the police.

Apology

Pepsi at first defended the ad saying it conveyed an "important message of harmony" (below, left). However, amid continued backlash, they pulled the ad the following day (shown below, right).

On April 6th, The Washington Post reported that Pepsi's apology to Jenner had also spurred a backlash.^[7] Online, activists, including Deray McKesson, tweeted their outrage toward the soda company (examples below). He tweeted^[8], "It's incredible that @pepsi apologized to Kendall. She chose to be a part of that ad. Pepsi needs to apologize to the protestors."

Other users followed, criticizing both Pepsi and Jenner for their participation in the commercial, as well as Pepsi's decision to apologize to its star.

Media coverage of Twitter's reaction was widespread. Twitter Moments,^[3] People,^[4] Washington Post,^[5] NY Times,^[12] The Sydney Morning Herald,^[13] The Independent ^[14] and many more.

Chemical Brothers Video Comparison

Some Twitter users noted that the entire controversy was reminiscent of the music video for "Out of Control" by The Chemical Brothers.^[6] In the video, actress Rosario Dawson drinks a cola during a standoff with Mexican police forces. The camera then pans back to reveal the commercial is being played in a store outside of which actual violent protests are happening.

Protests With Pepsi

On April 15th, at the Battle for Berkley, some appeared and attempted what Kendall Jenner does in the commercial and give the police a can of Pepsi to try and soothe tensions. User Vito Gesualdi uploaded a video of himself at the event trying to give cops Pepsi, an act he called the "Pepsi Challenge" (shown below, left). His video gained over 2.9 million views. Channel The Last Stand also attempted the stunt, gaining 12,000 views shown below, right).

On May 1st, at a May Day protest in Portland Oregon, several protestors showed up with cans of Pepsi, even offering them to the police at one point (shown below). When the police refused, they were pelted with Pepsi cans. The event was covered by The Independent,^[9] The Guardian,^[10] The Huffington Post,^[11] The Oregonian,^[15] The Seattle Times,^[16] News Australia,^[17] and more.

Search Interest

External References