The biggest problem with the Pepsi protest ad was its choice of
“star,” Kendall Jenner.
Among other gross impressions, this “spot” -- which in its original form told a
“story” that ran for two minutes and 40 seconds in length -- positioned this pouty-faced member of the Kardashian clan as the face of resistance in America.
There is so much wrong with that that one hardly knows where to begin. First of all, no Kardashian, to my knowledge, has ever demonstrated any interest in anything social
other than social media.
Maybe Kendall Jenner thinks deeply about social issues. But if she does, she has certainly kept this part of her life very
private.
Other than every one of her famous relatives, she is the last person you would ever believe would ditch a high-paying modeling gig to suddenly join
a protest march -- as this spot would have you believe. That’s Kendall in the photo above taken from the spot, contemplating this protest rally unfolding nearby.
And second, isn’t Kendall Jenner the kind of privileged richie that today’s catch-all protest movement is railing against (among many other things)?
How did the creators of this campaign ever think they would get away with putting this one-percenter at this campaign’s forefront? It does boggle the mind.
And she’s not just any rich person, either. She’s a Kardashian -- a category of celebrity all its own -- one that makes a ton of money for its
members, but at the same time generates ridicule like few others can.
Here in Hindsight Land, where are all vision is 20-20, it is hard to believe that not
one person in the creative and production team who made this spot ever expressed reservations about pinning this spot’s success on someone whose image would be so wholly incompatible with the
spot’s message.
But wait a minute here. Is it really so hard to understand how this concept went from the idea stage to production? There are those who
are labeling this spot with predictable adjectives such as “stupid” and “tone deaf.”
But here’s the thing: There is much
about our “popular” culture these days that is stupid. In fact, some might say all of it is. In this context, it is not hard to understand how someone somewhere might fixate on Kendall
Jenner and conclude that she is the face of young America today.
This perception might not have been true, in fact -- but nevertheless it is possible to
believe that someone would think so. This is the era in which the unbelievable becomes fact.
In a world where Donald Trump can be elected president of the
United States, surely a Kendall Jenner or a Kim Kardashian can strut believably through a fictional, generic protest march in a TV commercial to present a policeman with a can of
soda.
Or maybe not. Certainly, the social-media jury was quick to condemn this spot to death, and Pepsi killed it before the day was out
yesterday.
One wonders what the outcry, if any, would have been like in the era (which wasn’t that long ago) before social media became this thing that
dictates to all of us what we’re supposed to like and dislike, or else.