Pepsi has pulled a commercial featuring model Kendall Jenner after the ad prompted outrage and ridicule from those who said it trivialised rights prot
Pepsi has pulled a commercial featuring model Kendall Jenner after the ad prompted outrage and ridicule from those who said it trivialised rights protests and public unrest in the United States. The ad, released late on Tuesday, shows the fashion celebrity and reality TV star in a photo shoot, when she sees protesters marching. Removing her wig and makeup, Jenner joins the crowd and hands a baseball cap-wearing police officer a can of Pepsi, prompting him to smile while marchers cheer and hug.
Pepsi has since apologized to Jenner. The advertisement drew criticism on Twitter, with users saying it belittled the anti-police violence protests over recent years in cities including Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore following police killings of unarmed black men and women. According to the beverage company, “We were trying to project a global message of unity, peace and understanding,” the company said in a statement. “Clearly we missed the mark, and we apologize. We did not intend to make light of any serious issue. We are removing the content and halting any further rollout.”
Observers quickly condemned the ad, which did not make clear what the marchers were protesting. Many on Twitter criticized the advertisement as a play on today’s Black Lives Matter movement, and circulated a 2016 image of Leshia Evans as a point of comparison. Evans, standing passively and wearing a dress, was detained by police in riot gear during a protest in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, not long after the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling by police.
It was not the first time Pepsi has touched a nerve. In 2013, it pulled an online ad for its Mountain Dew beverage amid complaints the spot embraced racial stereotypes and made light of violence toward women. The ad featured a battered white woman on crutches trying to pick out her assailant from a police lineup featuring five African-American men and a goat.
