FIZZ-LE OuT
Pepsi quickly pulls hated Kendall Jenner ad
JUST can it!
Pepsi announced Wednesday it has pulled its universally reviled ad showing model Kendall Jenner resolving a racially charged street protest by handing the soft drink to a cop.
“Pepsi was 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.”
The spot, which received millions of YouTube views since it was released Tuesday, showed Jenner finishing a photo shoot before joining a protest of racially diverse young people facing off with police.
Pepsi also apologized “for putting Kendall Jenner in this position.”
A rep for Jenner did not return a call for comment. In the ad, the reality show star offers an officer a cold Pepsi — and the crowd erupts into cheers after the cop drinks it and smiles.
Social media users mocked all parts of the ad, right down to the gibberish protest signs that were apparently supposed to signify Arabic.
The spot made no specific reference to any of the numerous reasons protesters have been taking to the streets across America the past few years.
Parts of the ad were clearly meant to resemble famous images from recent protests — in particular the iconic photo of a black woman, Ieshia Evans, standing firm as Baton Rouge. La., police officers charged at her last July.
Bernice King, the youngest daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., tweeted a photo of her father squaring off with police and wrote: “If only Daddy would have known about the power of #Pepsi.”
The apology didn’t settle the mess, with critics wondering why the company apologized to its millionaire model rather than the people in the streets.
“It’s incredible that @pepsi apologized to Kendall. She chose to be a part of that ad. Pepsi needs to apologize to the protestors,” tweeted Black Lives Matter leader DeRay Mckesso*n.
Wall Street didn’t appear bothered by the flap. PepsiCo stock traded marginally higher than usual at $112.17 a share.
In 2013, PepsiCo pulled an online ad for Mountain Dew amid complaints. 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.