With the emergence of tweets surrounding the hashtag #PepsixKendall, it’s pretty clear that people aren’t so happy about Kendall Jenner’s new ad. The 2-minute, 30-second commercial spreads the message that borders can be crossed and the complicated issues of race relations, Black Lives Matter, police brutality and the occasional protest can all be solved by – oh, yes – a Pepsi!
Twitter was, well, livid.
Me watching the new #PepsixKendall ad: pic.twitter.com/Tu5V25boIR
— Danielle Barraza (@danyellisdope) April 4, 2017
1. Why/how are they hiring these people?
2. They all get in a room and approve these kind of ads?#PepsixKendall pic.twitter.com/HmLT9o1IPV
— Jonathan Tolbert (@JTolbertIV) April 5, 2017
Regardless of what was in the content of the ad, it had to go through countless approval meetings, editing sessions, and a crew had to shoot this. Someone wrote this! Apparently, no one made enough waves to make ad executives see just how bad this idea was. I can just picture them now: “Kendall Jenner can totally solve oppression with a single can of Pepsi.”
Some Twitter users didn’t quite catch on to the issues.
I see the snowflakes on Twitter are up in arms again over yet another trivial “controversy”. #PepsixKendall #PepsiAd #Pepsi
— Biasagaism (@Biasagaism) April 5, 2017
YOUR FIRST CAMPAIGN WITH @pepsi IS THE BEST COLLABORATION I'VE NEVER SEEN💙 I'M REALLY PROUD OF YOU @KendallJenner !! #PepsixKendall pic.twitter.com/AWbr5cfKXn
— ️️ (@kennyismyangel) April 5, 2017
Others really hit on the serious implications this ad makes.
My fave. #pepsifail #pepsi #pepsikendall #PepsixKendall pic.twitter.com/wDpbc3AQcX
— Eric Schlein (@EricSchlein) April 6, 2017
#pepsi #PepsixKendall #PepsiAd pic.twitter.com/iYVQX6YGAo
— Kenya Wright (@KenyaWrightBook) April 5, 2017
Which is good, because honestly, I don’t think there’s any other way to get that into the heads of the people that approved this horrific piece of work. PR for various companies should take note of how strongly audiences react to these kinds of mistakes. Hopefully brands that are trying to make the next social impact ad are paying attention.