The world we live in today requires us, humanity, to be very conscious and up-to-date on what is happening around the globe. Mega soda corporation Pepsi, somehow forgot the severity of this with the release of their latest ad. A couple of days ago, Pepsi released a 2 minute and 39 second short film that they assumed would demonstrate how humanity needs to unite and support one another. Though Pepsi’s message had great intentions, the delivery of the message was a whole different matter.
Drinking a Pepsi can bring peace?
In the ad, model and "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" star Kendall Jenner is at a photo shoot while witnessing people protest in the background.
Jenner then stops her shoot, takes off her wig, smears her lipstick, grabs a Pepsi and hands it to one of the policeman on the Front Lines. The policeman accepts the Pepsi, smiles and then all the protestors start rejoicing as if some great victory had been won.
Within minutes of the ad going viral, there was severe outrage from all over with people bashing Pepsi over how insensitive their ad was. People felt Pepsi was insinuating that Drinking a Pepsi can end conflict and bring peace. The outrage against Pepsi even prompted Martin Luther King Jr’s daughter Bernice King to tweet “If only Daddy would have known about the power of Pepsi," with a picture of MLK getting pushed in the chest by police.
Pepsi has since pulled the ad and apologized for their grave oversight in not seeing how the ad would be deemed made in extremely poor taste.
If only Daddy would have known about the power of #Pepsi. pic.twitter.com/FA6JPrY72V
— Be A King (@BerniceKing) April 5, 2017
Do better next time, Pepsi
As huge of a conglomerate as Pepsi is, they should have without a doubt known better than to create an ad that would be viewed as them suggesting drinking a soda could help resolve the major social injustices that currently plague our world.
Nike, another huge conglomerate, created ads taking a stand against the social injustices that occur in our world and Pepsi should look to them for tips. Nike’s Equality ad for example, that was released after Trump’s Muslim ban, was a powerful one that directly addressed society’s injustices.
If Pepsi truly wants to make their “mark” in projecting unity, they should create an ad that shows the real people who are on the front lines fighting for the rights of humanity, like the BLM movement and Women’s March. One can only hope Pepsi has learned their lesson from this huge debacle and will be more conscious of the ads they create moving forward.
