Why The Kendall Jenner Pepsi Ad Is A Disaster (with VIDEO)

[Guest]

Why the Kendall Jenner Pepsi Ad Was Such a Glaring Misstep

by Daniel D’Addario

Video in the link below

http://time.com/4726500/pepsi-ad-kendall-jenner/

Things were easier for executives when all a major soda brand wanted to do was buy the world a Coke.

The 1971 "Hilltop" ad, in which a group of global singers came together to belt out a tune about how their soda of choice could unite nations, stands out even today for its massaging of self-interest (we'd like you to buy Coke) into an appealingly substanceless ideology (Coke can make people feel better and come together). Adjacent to a movement but not actually political, the ad set the template for a certain streak of TV advertising that's currently back in vogue: Masticate and digest sentiments on the street and then sell them back to the people.

Pepsi, Coca-Cola's longtime rival, is the latest company to try this strategy. The soda brand has run into controversy with its recently pulled two-and-a-half-minute ad in which model Kendall Jenner joins a protest and seems to defuse tensions with police officers by handing one a can of soda. It follows the Coke playbook, using a vaguely defined, outside-of-history sense of uplift (the protesters Jenner joins have laughably generic signs reading "Love" and "Join the Conversation") that's meant to feel urgent and contemporary.

And yet whatever its intentions, this ad is a glaring misstep. In any climate, an ad that seems to explicitly reference both black anti-police-violence protesters and Vietnam War protesters, all to sell soft drinks, would be misguided. That's to say nothing of the fact that the recent incidents in which protesters have faced down police have been black people without famous names (like Baton Rouge protester Ieshia Evans) taking real risks, not white supermodels dispensing cola. This is a particularly tense and stressful moment during which many casual media consumers have become, to one degree or another, much more careful in parsing and understanding images. This ad's fast-and-loose approach to protest imagery—going beyond the vague hippie costuming of the old Coke ad to turn real moments of high tension into an opportunity to celebrate commerce and fame—sounds a discordant note. (In an apology, Pepsi said: “Pepsi was trying to project a global message of unity, peace and understanding. Clearly we missed the mark and we apologize. We did not intend to make light of any serious issue.")

It's not hard to understand, though, why it got made. A recent wave of high-profile ads have used easily-understood, vaguely political messaging to transmit the idea that to buy a given product won't just make you happier—it'll make you more virtuous. Take the overwrought Budweiser ad from this year's Super Bowl, in which the story of German immigrant and brewery founder Adolphus Busch is used to communicate that to buy Bud is to be in conversation with America's status as a nation of immigrants. This ponderous idealogical shift followed the previous year's Super Bowl ad for Bud Light, in which Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen sought to unite Americans, already in a state of division months before the election, behind the "Bud Light Party." To consume Bud Light or Bud proper (which rebranded itself as "America" during summer 2016) was to be a citizen engaged in the nation, even as all you're doing is having a drink.

Budweiser and Bud Light's political engagement, dopey as it was, ended at the concept of America being great, and the brand is identified as a quintessentially American beer. When Chrysler ran ads more about the city of Detroit's travails than about its automobiles—well, at least they made their cars there. And Airbnb's pro-diversity Super Bowl ad this year came from a company that facilitates global travel. Pepsi's ad, more than anything, seemed baffling and random—more like the strange Super Bowl ad depicting the construction of a wall using 84 Lumber, or Coca-Cola's attempt to curb cyber-bullying in a 2015 ad campaign.

It's telling that even an ad as seemingly sui generis as the Pepsi disaster has multiple antecedents, ads that used contemporary ills as a way to get attention without the subtlety such a maneuver requires. Ads that use a landscape of division and unrest as the starting point for a sales pitch are now unremarkable. And a commercial that softened the imagery of protest by some percentage—keeping the general storyline of citizens hungry for social change but avoiding the specific image of Jenner handing a soda to a police officer—would have been cynical, but unremarkable.

The particulars of this ad make it bizarre, but they're only a short walk away from what other brands are doing. It's no longer enough to sell soda or beer or lumber. Companies now attempt to rise above media chatter by "starting conversations," even as their natural risk aversion and the limited role they actually play in our lives mean those conversations are pointless and circumscribed. If Pepsi were actually to make a commercial that dealt frankly and in a clear-eyed way with police violence, it would still be weird! They are a soda company. But it'd at least be an attempt at the conversation they claim to want, rather than an inauthentic cash-in on many people's unhappiness. Pepsi's ad fails not solely for its insensitivity but its overextension of that familiar thing, faux-wokeness to sell a product, past the point where it can be reasonably ignored. Coke, in the 1970s, was upfront about their desire to cure malaise by selling soda; togetherness was a happy byproduct, not the goal. That message may have been dressed up in the style of its era's protest movement, but at least it was honest.

 

Source: Time http://time.com/4726500/pepsi-ad-kendall-jenner/

 

[Bambino 24,139]

Seriously? The world just overlooked the tragedy that happened in Syria and all it cares about is a stupid Pepsi ad featuring one of the talentless hoes from the Kardashians? ****ING SERIOUSLY?

[Gaga Monster 13,001]

We have much worse issues to worry about than this ad, people need to get priorities straight, what about Syria??

[Guest]

Just now, Gaga Monster said:

We have much worse issues to worry about than this ad, people need to get priorities straight, what about Syria??

We talk about Syria all the time

[Gaga Monster 13,001]

Just now, kyanewest said:

We talk about Syria all the time

The Syria thread I made didn't even get a page meanwhile the Kendall Jenner commercial has 7 pages

[The Child 18,997]

8 minutes ago, Bambino said:

Seriously? The world just overlooked the tragedy that happened in Syria and all it cares about is a stupid Pepsi ad featuring one of the talentless hoes from the Kardashians? ****ING SERIOUSLY?

Seriously? You claim to not care but yet you cared enough to click on this thread and wrote what seems to be a pointless post that adds nothing to the thread's topic.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Gaga Monster said:

The Syria thread I made didn't even get a page meanwhile the Kendall Jenner commercial has 7 pages

Because the terrorism issue is such a complex one and not many people on this forum is an expert about this country's history or middle east in general. Meanwhile, with Jenner we're more familiar with it but Syria is always covered in the media 

[Bambino 24,139]

6 minutes ago, CrazyMonster said:

Seriously? You claim to not care but yet you cared enough to click on this thread and wrote what seems to be a pointless post that adds nothing to the thread's topic.

It's not pointless. The point I was trying to make is that everyone needs to calm the **** down. Everyone is losing their **** over something stupid when there are other issues that really need to be worried about.

[littlepotter 74,825]

This is so ****ing stupid, no one cares about your damn commercial or anyone's opinion on it. What are they trying to prove, that a big company is only interested in doing stunts to increase publicity and sales, even if it's not politically correct? SHOCKER

[The Child 18,997]

6 minutes ago, Bambino said:

It's not pointless. The point I was trying to make is that everyone needs to calm the **** down. Everyone is losing their **** over something stupid when there are other issues that really need to be worried about.

Yeah but you could have made your point in a better way. Slut shaming is never right.

[DrewStevens 5,249]

5 minutes ago, Bambino said:

It's not pointless. The point I was trying to make is that everyone needs to calm the **** down. Everyone is losing their **** over something stupid when there are other issues that really need to be worried about.

The "we shouldn't worry about X because Y is worse" rhetoric is nonsense.

Yes, what happened in Syria is awful and it's far worse and more serious than this controversy; but that doesn't mean this isn't important either.

The ad reflects the reality of the US. It reflects how social justice is taken for granted and seem as a "cool" way to approach the youth, which in my opinion is despicable. 

We can pay attention and worry about this and about Syria at the same time, just like we can worry about countless things. 

[Bambino 24,139]

Just now, CrazyMonster said:

Yeah but you could have made your point in a better way. Slut shaming is never right.

I didn't slut-shame anyone... yet

I called her a "talentless hoe" I could've said "bitch" instead of "hoe" but that's just a ****ing word. Is she talentless? Yes.

[The Child 18,997]

Just now, Bambino said:

I didn't slut-shame anyone... yet

I called her a "talentless hoe" I could've said "bitch" instead of "hoe" but that's just a ****ing word. Is she talentless? Yes.

You did slutshame her but yeah keep on with your hypocrite behavior, telling us how we should talk about Syria instead of this. I'll talk about Kendal & you'll talk about Syria. Period. Deal with it.

[Bambino 24,139]

7 minutes ago, DrewStevens said:

The "we shouldn't worry about X because Y is worse" rhetoric is nonsense.

Yes, what happened in Syria is awful and it's far worse and more serious than this controversy; but that doesn't mean this isn't important either.

The ad reflects the reality of the US. It reflects how social justice is taken for granted and seem as a "cool" way to approach the youth, which in my opinion is despicable. 

We can pay attention and worry about this and about Syria at the same time, just like we can worry about countless things. 

I get your point. The thing is that it's just an ad. Like seriously, it's TV, a soda ad, it's not supposed to be serious, or taken seriously, and you know what, maybe not even supposed to feature a serious topic such as this but it did happen and Pepsi removed the ad and apologized.

5 minutes ago, CrazyMonster said:

You did slutshame her but yeah keep on with your hypocrite behavior, telling us how we should talk about Syria instead of this. I'll talk about Kendal & you'll talk about Syria. Period. Deal with it.

You're immature and you keep failing to get the points I'm trying to make here and that's your problem. If you think discussing a Kardashian is more important than Syria, or more important than discussing the point of this thread (an ad about police violence) then you have issues but hey that's none of my business.

[DrewStevens 5,249]

Just now, Bambino said:

I get your point. The thing is that it's just an ad. Like seriously, it's TV, a soda ad, it's not supposed to be serious, or taken seriously, and you know what, maybe not even supposed to feature a serious topic such as this but it did happen and Pepsi removed the ad and apologized.

No one is saying this ad is more than just an ad. But it is stupid, cringeworthy and quite offensive. 

Protests for social justice are supposed to be taken seriously so making them seem like something trivial to sell a soft drink deserves backlash. And it got even worse when Kendall Jenner was supposed to be part of this protest when she has done nothing for social justice.

The ad sparked the real conversation on how some people still love to use a privileged figure as the face of a social justice cause instead of putting the real people who have fought for human rights. It happened not a long ago with the movie Stonewall and it happened again with this ad.