Pepsi Commercial Essay

The Pepsi commercial that was released on April 5, 2017 caused a lot of controversy because people think that it was an exploitation of Black Lives Matter and other social movements. They said that is offended some of our history’s most well-known people like Martin Luther King Jr. The commercial starts by showing model, Kendall Jenner in the middle of a photo shoot as she catches a glimpse of large crowd of people protesting down the street. The commercial then films a few seconds of people from different ethnicities. Pepsi is showing that everyone can find peace and can come together to enjoy a Pepsi. People are protesting with signs that read “peace” and “love” and “join the conversation” which is very similar on how today’s protest are like. People are playing musical instruments and dancing in the streets. Kendall makes eye contact with a man carrying a cello. She then takes off her blonde wig, wipes off her lipstick and joins the crowd. This is to symbolize that once she takes off her wing and wipes off her makeup she is just like everyone else, dealing with the same issues. The part that caused the most uproar was when Kendall walked up to the

Activist DeKay McKesson said, “this ad trivializes the urgency of the issues and it diminishes the seriousness and the gravity of why we got into the street in the first place.” In other words, they are making it seem like this commercial made these issues less serious by making it seem like everything can be solved with Pepsi. Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Junior, posted a picture of her dad in his protesting days and put “If only Daddy would have known about the power of #Pepsi.” Events that took place in this commercial can really hit close to home to people that have had family members protest for justice or have even been protesting for their rights