#SocialMediaFail
In April, Pepsi released a controversial ad featuring Kendall Jenner, sparking much controversy due to the way they portrayed a protest, with people saying they were appropriating a nationwide protest movement.
They pulled the ad only a day after they released it, following much backlash on Twitter.
In the ad, Kendall Jenner leaves a photo shoot to join a protest, where she grabs a can of Pepsi and hands it to an officer standing at the front line.
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People reacted harshly to the ad, saying that the company misrepresented the seriousness of the situation, and used a national issue to promote their product.
Bernice King, the youngest daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., posted a picture of her father on twitter, with the caption “If only Daddy had known about the power of #Pepsi.”
Some people boycotted Pepsi products, while others mocked the brand, responding with satire on Twitter.
Pepsi released a statement on Twitter following King’s tweet, saying they “[were] trying to project a global sense of unity…. Clearly we missed the mark, and we apologize. We did not mean to make light of any serious issue.”
DeRay McKesson did not think Pepsi’s apology was adequate, saying that they “didn’t apologize to all of the people who have been protesting for two years, didn’t apologize to the people who dedicated their lives and their time to these issues and to understand the urgency of them because in so many cases, there’s so much at stake including people’s lives.”
