Pepsi Pulls Out Controversial Kendall Jenner Ad After Social Media Backlash

Pepsi pulled out the controversial ad with Kendall Jenner and issued an apology for “missing the mark.” This comes several days after its international release and one day after social media backlash against the ad reached its peak.

Pepsi issued a statement on Twitter about the pull-out, which at the same time also apologized to the public and to Kendall Jenner as well. They said, “Pepsi was trying to project a global message of unity, peace, and understanding. Clearly, we missed the mark.” They also said that have halted further roll out of the ad and the campaign around it.

The Pepsi Ad And Social Media

After the ad came out, Twitterverse started to react to the ad and the message it conveyed. Most posts hit it for taking light of the protest movement. In particular, it was hit for trivializing the recent Black Lives Matter movement where demonstrators often have violent clashes with riot police.

Some of the tweets that were posted called out Pepsi for this. One user wrote: “How nice of Kendall Jenner to stop in the middle of her photo shoot to end social injustices by giving that cop a Pepsi. MLK who? Rosa who?” One user posted an old photo of Martin Luther King being accosted by the police and captioned it: “Now wait, one second officers. I have a Pepsi.”

As the jokes and the memes grew, the most brutal tweet of them all came from Bernice King, MLK’s daughter. She also posted a photo of her father in the frontline of a protest, with a policeman pushing him back. She aptly captioned it: “If only Daddy would have known the power of Pepsi.”

Madonna Mocks Pepsi, Kendall Jenner Hides Her Face

The Queen of Pop Madonna could not resist mocking Pepsi on Instagram. She posted a photo of herself holding a Coke in her hand and captioned it with a gold medal emoji. She also remembered how her own Pepsi commercial was pulled out 30 years ago because she was seen kissing a black saint as reported in The Standard.

According to the Daily Mail, Kendall is reportedly heavily affected by this controversy. She was shown arriving in Paris days after the ad was released. Kendall attempted to hide her face while hurriedly walking through the terminal with guards accompanying her. She previously claimed she was not involved in the ad’s creative process.