Pepsi’s new ad featuring Kendall Jenner sets Twitter ablaze

A new advert by Pepsi which features celebrity Kendall Jenner on Wednesday set social media, especially Twitter, ablaze with critics saying that the commercial makes light of a nationwide protest, namely the Black Lives Matter protest in the United States which arose following police shootings of African Americans.

According to NBC News’ analysis of the advert which was released on Tuesday, Jenner is in the middle of a photo shoot when she happens to notice a protest march making its way down the street.

It’s not clear what the smiling, attractive demonstrators are upset about, the only clues being their placards reading “peace” and “love” and “join the conversation.”

But Jenner decides to join them anyway, beckoned into the throng by a handsome man with a cello. She rips off her blonde wig, wipes away her lipstick and joins the marchers. The beaming, break-dancing protesters are a far cry from the often fractious demonstrations that have broken out across the United States over the past few years.

In Pepsi’s version, no one seems too worked up about anything. Jenner fist-bumps one of her recently adopted activists, before grabbing a can of Pepsi from a well-stocked ice-bucket.

Then comes the ad’s climax — and perhaps the part that has caused most uproar. Jenner reaches the remarkably calm front-line of the protest. She spots an officer, walks up to him and hands him the Pepsi.

He takes a sip, a woman wearing a nose-ring and a traditional Muslim headscarf takes a photograph and everybody cheers.

The ad has sparked accusations that Pepsi has appropriated a racial protest movement to sell a global fizzy drinks brand. Many people believe the final scene in particular is a direct reference to one of the defining images of the Black Lives Matter movement: a photograph of Ieshia Evans, a 28-year-old nurse being detained in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Here are a few reactions to the advert on twitter:

 

Pepsi said the advert, titled “Jump In,” was produced by PepsiCo’s in-house content creation arm, Creators League Studio.
The company said the ad “features multiple lives, stories and emotional connections that show passion, joy, unbound and uninhibited moments.”
Pepsi said it was designed to “truly reflect today’s generation and what living for now looks like” and it described Jenner as someone who “exemplifies owning ‘Live For Now’ moments.