Why Was Kendall Jenner's Pepsi Ad So Terrible?
by EG
When Kendall Jenner of Keeping Up with The Kardashians shot that controversial Pepsi ad, she probably was hoping that she'd become the face of her woke generation. Instead, she became a laughing stock and a symbol of clueless insensitivity. How could Jenner and the creative minds behind the commercial have gotten it so wrong? The Hollywood Reporter's Miriam Bale has an explanation. Read about it below.
The already infamous Kendall Jenner Pepsi ad was a blowout of youth and race exploitation gone wrong. The commercial, in which model Jenner plays a model who follows a model-cute musician into a protest modeled after Black Lives Matter, was taken down by the company within a day of its debut, followed by this apology: "Pepsi was trying to project a global message of unity, peace and understanding. Clearly, we missed the mark and apologize."
The company was likely aiming for something closer to the iconic 1971 ad "I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke," featuring an international chorus singing on an Italian hill, and recently introduced to younger viewers through prominent placement in the final episode of Mad Men. Now is the right time, as it was then, for a pop commercial to mark a generational shift (in both cases, about three years after a major political upheaval).
And the new Pepsi ad almost got there! Because of her family, particularly her older sister Kim Kardashian, Jenner would be the perfect person to signal, by removing a blond wig and too much makeup (as she does in the commercial), a new and more androgynous aesthetic; we see her magically change into two-tone stiff denim, totally in contrast to the bodycon dresses with plunging necklines that her sister became known for.
But when Jenner takes off her wig in the ad, she cavalierly hands it to a perplexed black woman. And it just gets worse from there. Instead of celebrating the values of Generation Z, the commercial ends up symbolizing what has been characterized as the Kardashian/Jenner family’s somewhat vampiric relationship with black culture. (Most of Jenner's siblings, and her mother, have had well-publicized romantic relationships with black people, yet remain, for the most part, publicly apolitical. And sisters Kylie and Khloe have famously experimented with their looks in ways that appropriate or approximate typically black features and styles — thick lips, cornrows, etc.)
Where exactly did things go wrong here? Both the Pepsi commercial and the 1971 Coke ad were put together collaboratively. But per the Daily Mirror, the Pepsi ad was put together by an all-white team. The initial partnership that conceived the Coke ad was made up of a white man, Bill Backer, creative director on the Coca-Cola account for the McCann Erickson advertising agency, and Billy Davis, the black music director on this account from the agency. Backer came up with the international angle while in Ireland, on his way to meet Davis in London. When Backer presented the line, "I’d like to buy the world a Coke," Davis was less enthusiastic about the idea than Backer assumed he’d be.
Read the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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