Singer Madonna just joined the growing backlash over the tone-deaf Pepsi commercial featuring Kendall Jenner. The “Like a Virgin” singer hit the soft drink company, which had pulled out the offensive advertisement after the public uproar, through an Instagram post.
Kissing a black saint
She called the commercial “S**t” which really “doesn’t make sense.” The singer also found it ironic that 30 years ago, Pepsi pulled out her commercial because she kissed a black saint in a music video. The two-minute advertisement, aired in 1989, showed Madonna singing and dancing.
It was aired after her music video “Like a Prayer” was criticized by religious groups because she used religious images. There were burning crosses and a part in the video where Madonna, a Catholic, seduced a saint. People thought her music video was part of the Pepsi commercial, Mashable reported.
Besides Madonna, Bernice King, the youngest daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights icon, also took a dig at the Pepsi commercial. She tweeted, “If only Daddy would have known about the power of #Pepsi,” The Telegraph reported. Her father had a lot of encounters with police officers. The commercial had a similar scene.
The power of Pepsi
However, in the Pepsi advertisement, Kendall Jenner, a commercial model, and reality star, made it so easy to melt the hearts of police officers tasked to secure an area against Black Lives Matter protesters by simply giving the cops an ice-cold can of the soft drink.
The commercial was bashed in social media for being tone-deaf.
Pepsi immediately retreated by pulling out the offensive advertisement. In a statement, the multinational company apologized. The company explained it was trying to project a global message of unity, peace, and understanding. Pepsi admitted it missed the mark but insisted it did intend “to make light of any serious issue.”
The beverage manufacturer also said sorry to Kendall Jenner for placing her in an awkward position.
Critics pointed out that the choice of tapping the sister of controversial reality star Kim Kardashian to be the star of the commercial was a bad one because she is a rich, young white model in a Black Lives Matter advertisement. In 2016, professional ballerinas also protested a Vogue video that used Kendall as a model posing as a ballerina. The professional dancers said the video disrespected real ballerinas.
