A Pepsi advertisement starring celebrity Kendall Jenner takes a lot of bad reviews on the internet, all blaming Jenner and Pepsi for creating such misleading ad.
The ad that went with the title "Live for Now Moments Anthem", provoked conversation, mostly saying about Pepsi's tone-deafness.
The 2-minute-39-second "short-film" shows Jenner in the modeling industry, throwing her wig away and left the photoshoot to join a protest. After sharing some nods with the protesters, the Keeping Up with the Kardashians star manages to bring everyone together by handing a police officer a can of Pepsi. He takes a gulp, and the demonstrators roar in approval.
The protest on the ad is about Women's Marches and Black Lives Matter.
While the ad was meant to put Pepsi's brand upfront, the internet disagreed about the concept. Within just 48 hours, the video on YouTube got nearly 1.6 million views with five times as many downvotes as upvotes. Internet users also created memes, evoking the ad.
Soda companies are targeting young consumers more than anyone else, and they have been pitching their ads to that specific demographic for years. Starting with Coca-Cola in 1971 with "I'd like to buy the world a Coke". Pepsi on the other hand, was targeting the young generations with slogans such as "Pepsi Generation" and "For those who think young".
This time, Pepsi thought that it was fun to spin the young people's ability to change the world, especially when it includes politics. But from Black Lives Matter to the Women's Marches, politically active people are already effecting changes all over the world, even without having models to star on a beverage ad.
Within days after the ad being released and many more people disliked the ad, almost no one has come to the commercial's defense. Pepsi defended it at first and later apologized,
"Pepsi was trying to project a global message of unity, peace and understanding. Clearly, we missed the mark and apologize," Pepsi said in a statement. "We did not intend to make light of any serious issue."
Moments later, it stopped defending it totally and pulled the ad altogether.
And as for Kendall Jenner, she decided to stay low away from the public until the uproar over her controversial Pepsi protest commercial dies down.
