Controversial Pepsi Commercial

Controversial Pepsi Commercial Pulled Starring Top Model Kendall Jenner.

Written by Ashton Craft – PRCA 2330

In the past, many brands have made mistakes when promoting their products. Well, Pepsi may have won the award for the biggest. The well-known soft drink Pepsi, received large amounts of backlash after airing a commercial starring supermodel Kendall Jenner on April 5, 2017. Many people were shocked, hurt, and extremely angry at Pepsi and the 21-year old model because of the message that was portrayed in the commercial.

The commercial begins with Kendall Jenner in the middle of a photo shoot wearing a short blonde wig. The camera then cuts to protesters in the middle of the street demanding global unity and peace, or that was the message Pepsi intended for the advertisement. The crowd of protesters include individuals of all ethnic groups cheering and marching together to obtain peace. The scene which was the most disturbing is when Jenner becomes distracted from her photo shoot because of the protesting going on nearby. She then removes her blonde wig, strolls through the crowd, grabs an ice cold Pepsi from a tub, and hands it to a police who seems very intimidating and aloof. The police then takes a sip of Pepsi and everyone cheers because it seems every problem in the world had been solved instantly. NOT.

The reason the commercial became so controversial is because not only did the message come across as “oh, i’m a rich supermodel. Let me hand a police a soda and solve all the world’s problems in the blink of an eye” but the timing of the airing of the commercial was terrible.

“This ad trivializes the urgency of the issues and it diminishes the seriousness and the gravity of why we got into the street in the first place,” activist DeRay McKesson told NBC News correspondent Gabe Gutierrez.

If the message from McKesson wasn’t eye opening enough for you, here is a tweet from the youngest daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Bernice King:

Pepsi immediately apologized and withdrew the commercial by saying, “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. We also apologize for putting Kendall Jenner in this position.”

In my opinion, the commercial could have been successful if they hired average individuals, not a celebrity as the main role. Also, the police used in the commercial should have been all different races, rather than all white.

In regards to Public Relations, one thing Pepsi did correctly is how quickly they responded and removed the commercial. Their fast and meaningful response showed how Pepsi did not “intend to make light of any issue” as their apology stated. This strategy relates to conflict management. Pepsi’s response to all of the backlash is an example of the final stage in the conflict management process, recovery phase. An article explaining Pepsi’s smart response stated, “one rule of good reputation management is to fix or solve a potentially damaging problem, or pledge to do so as quickly as possible. Often this is the toughest part, because under some circumstances it could involve a product recall, reformulation, or termination of a key executive. In this case the fix was expensive, but highly doable” (Crenshaw, 2017).

Crenshaw, Dorothy. (2017, April 06). Pepsi’s Smart Response to its PR Controversy. Retrieved from https://crenshawcomm.com/pepsis-smart-response-pr-controversy/

Smith, Alexander. (2017, April 05). Pepsi Pulls Controversial Kendall Jenner Ad After Outcry. Retrieved from https://nbcnews.com/news/nbclk/pepsi-ad-kendall-jenner-echoes-black-lives-matter-sparks-anger-n742811