The Pepsi indignation
Where was the Jenner clan when Kendall agreed to make That Ad?
Is Kendall Jenner to blame, even a little bit, for participating in a widely mocked and subsequently dumped Pepsi ad? PepsiCo apologized to her for “putting her in this position,” but ... well, why? Did Pepsi make her do it?
Did the 21-year-old hot-modelof-the-moment not know that Pepsi’s marketing and advertising honchos conceived an ad that would rip off imagery from Black Lives Matter protests and position guileless Kendall as soothing race relations with a can of soda?
Didn’t she or her powerfully eagle-eyed mother and manager, Kris Jenner, see the storyboards before she agreed to the gig?
The Jenners have gone to ground, so they were not available to comment on the fiasco and the extent to which either Kendall or Kris was involved in the creation of the ad or its production.
But experts in reputation and branding management are skeptical that the super-famous, super-savvy Jenner-Kardashian clan would not have known the details of what they were getting their second-youngest member into.
“Generally speaking, the bigger the celebrity, the more they have the ability to say no to things,” says Gil Eyal, CEO and founder of marketing firm HYPR, who has worked with hundreds of celebrities and brands, including Pepsi ( but not the Kardashians).
Some hot celebrities, with huge Millennial social media audiences (Kendall has 78 million on Instagram) coveted by brands, have wide creative control, while smaller celebs have almost no say, Eyal says. “(Major stars) have publicists and attorneys who will vet things, and if there’s anything they don’t like, they can veto it.”
Ordinary models might show up for the shoot and just do what they’re told. Not the Kardashians, who are “extremely sophisticated” when it comes to managing their brand and media, says Eric Schiffer, CEO of Reputation Management Consultants, who describes himself as a strategic adviser to A-list stars in Hollywood and has known Kris Jenner and her ex-husband, Bruce Jenner, since their kids were young.
“There are photo boards of all these commercials, so they know exactly what’s going to happen,” Schiffer says. “They did not enter into this in naïve fashion; it was a giant miscalculation that reared its ugly soda head. ... This is a case when content slapped them in the face.”
But, Schiffer says, “this is going to be OK. She’s going to make it through this, because the global entertainment consumer has a terrible memory whenever a ‘scandalopera’ happens.”
Erik Bernstein, vice president of Bernstein Crisis Management, says he believes Kendall Jenner had no involvement in the conception and production of the ad. “But there’s also no way that her own PR team did not know the whole content before she went to the shoot” in Thailand.
But he agrees Jenner probably won’t be damaged.
“The rules are just so different for celebrities, and her audience is a bunch of kids, anyone from age 12 to early 30s,” Bernstein says. “Her most rabid fans do not care about her behavior.”
Eric Dezenhall, a veteran crisis manager in Washington, says young celebs especially are so used to being praised for whatever they do, they don’t always think through things.
“In all likelihood Jenner thought this would be a warm and fuzzy spot with a politically correct message, so no one on her team could necessarily envision the blowback,” he says. “Her job was to show up and look good, and she did that.”
One lesson for celebrities, Bernstein says, is: Live by social media, die by social media.
“Social media lets it all happen so much faster,” Bernstein says. “People who are outraged can figure out quickly that other people are outraged, too.”
His advice to celebs: “Consider how anything can be misinterpreted. Other people are not the same as you; consider putting yourself in other people’s shoes.”
“It was a giant miscalculation that reared its ugly soda head. ... This is a case when content slapped them in the face.” Eric Schiffer, Reputation Management Consultants