Pepsi debuted a new commercial today featuring Kendall Jenner giving a can of pepsi to a police officer after leaving a fashion shoot to join a protest. The commercial had potential. It begins by using Skip Marley's powerful political anthem "Lion" and images of a political march, and Asian violinist and Muslim photographer (consciously attempting to be diverse for once). But it's use of a protest march quickly trivializes the political message of both the song and the politics behind the marches as soon as it's celebrity sponsor, Kendall Jenner, appears on screen.
In the video, Kendall shows interest in the passing protesters initially, but goes back to posing for a fashion shoot. Then the violinist from the opening appears to join the march out of boredom, not out of passion. Then clips of girls casually smiling and eating as the protests takes place seems to imply that they do not not care about the march at all unless they get attention for it. Next the Muslim photographer suddenly goes from working on photos to angrily throwing her work (why was she chosen as the character to lash out?). Kendall appears again, but this time she cannot take her eyes of the march. But not until the cute violinist beckons her to join does she strip her unnatural blonde hair, makeup, and costume to join the cause. The "cause" becomes cool as Kendall struts to the front of the march with her casual jean ensamble and her can of pepsi. The march stops as they come to a line of police officers, but all is well as Kendall offers a pepsi (copying the recent Iesha Evans photo and the iconic "Flower Power" photo).
The commercial implies that these marches are spontaneous and fun, completely ignoring the fact that political marches are not about appearances but about rallying for change. This commercial is selling pop. It does not stand for anything but selling pop, and uses political activism as if it's purely a popular trend. There's a difference between exploiting the political atmosphere and providing social commentary. Hopefully the people behind this add will not ignore the criticism and truly attempt to digest where this cringe worthy ad campaign went wrong. Unfortunately, if history has taught us anything is that we rarely learn from our mistakes.
Video URL:
https://youtu.be/PCEm21aTh5Q
Articles on the ad:
http://www.teenvogue.com/story/pepsi-commercial-kendall-jenner-reaction
http://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-books-music/news/a21797/kendall-jenner-pepsi-commercial-skip-marley/
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