Jenner cried over Pepsi ad
TV: Keeping Up With The Kardashians première addresses backlash
Remember Pepsi’s tone-deaf Kendall Jenner commercial back in April? The one that made people furious, because it appropriated images from Black Lives Matter protests to sell a soft drink?
Pepsi quickly pulled the ad after intense criticism — and in the six months since the controversy, Jenner hasn’t publicly responded.
She saved it all for the 14th season première of E!’s Keeping Up With The Kardashians, which aired Sunday night. The Kardashian family has said Jenner was very upset over the backlash; the première confirmed that, yes, the 21-yearold supermodel was mortified.
Although the episode ended with Jenner sobbing, it was a slow build to her breakdown. In fact, the word “Pepsi” never came up during the entire hour.
It all started as Jenner called her half-sisters, Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian.
“Are you OK?” Kourtney said. “You sound so sad.” “I’m all right,” Kendall sighed. “I talked to Simon today,” Kourtney said, likely referring to Simon Huck, a public relations guru and Kim Kardashian West’s close friend. “He was like, ‘The news lasts 24 hours.’ ” “It’s lasting longer,” Kendall said flatly. Cut to an on-camera interview with Khloe, who said: “Kendall did a commercial and basically caused a huge controversy. It sucks, because Kendall’s been taking the blame for it all. Kendall tries really hard to be socially conscious and aware of the jobs that she takes and to really think about how things affect other people, so it weighs really heavy on her heart.”
Later, Kendall said when she got the offer, she was thrilled to join the list of celebrities who have done Pepsi ads, from Michael Jackson to Beyoncé to Britney Spears.
“I trusted everyone,” she told the camera. “But after I saw the reaction and I read what people had to say about it, I most definitely saw what went wrong. I was so stuck, and I really didn’t know what to do, that I completely shut down.”
The following scene showed Kendall talking to Kim on the phone.
The new issue? Her father, Caitlyn Jenner, was going on a book tour. Kendall was worried Caitlyn might say something to make things worse.
So Kim called Caitlyn and told her not to answer questions about the Pepsi ad.
Naturally, Caitlyn did not follow that advice, instead saying Kendall knew all about the ad’s script beforehand and thought it was fine.
The episode ended as Kendall went to talk to Kim, about three weeks after the commercial was pulled.
She was upset about Caitlyn, but even more about the entire situation.
“I feel really bad that anyone was ever offended. I feel really bad that this was taken such a wrong way,” Kendall said.