Pepsi goes flat

A weird ad with something to offend everyone

Even by the standards of modern television commercials, the now-defunct Pepsi ad starring supermodel and Kardashian sibling Kendall Jenner was dumb. In it, Ms. Jenner, who is part of a good-looking crowd of dissidents, approaches police officers on the front line of the protest. What the protesters’ specific gripe is isn’t apparent.

Unlike her fellow protesters who keep their distance, Ms. Jenner appears to have a strategy for winning over at least one of the cops. Coquettishly, but with the mysterious confidence that comes from being one of the Kardashian sisters, Ms. Jenner walks up to one of the cops and hands him a can of Pepsi. Instead of reacting with suspicion, the officer cracks open the soft drink, takes a gulp and smiles. Another officer watches warily before smiling himself. At that point, Ms. Jenner is once again surrounded by protesters. They inexplicably erupt into cheers as if the sheer act of giving a cop a dose of high-fructose corn syrup is a major accomplishment.

The ad was released online Tuesday, April 4, the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. Criticism began trending instantly on social media, where it was mercilessly skewered for lifting imagery from legitimate protests. Because its incoherence was exceeded only by its smugness, it was easy to hate. To its credit, Pepsi took the criticism seriously and pulled the ad on Wednesday. Pepsi also apologized to Ms. Jenner for making her the object of ridicule.

The moral of the tale is simple: The integrity of protests is so important to democracy that trivializing even one of them to sell liquid candy is going to offend a lot of people.