In early April, 2017, Pepsi debuted a new 2:30 long advertisement online. This ad featured superstar Kendall Jenner, and aimed to hit home with a younger generation in the midst of a tense time in our world and especially the US. The ad starts out well, and seems to be heading in a good direction, but this is all ruined by a scene at the end where Kendall hands a Pepsi to a police officer to “ease tensions” between the officers and the crowd. This sounds innocuous enough, but unfortunately for Pepsi they missed the mark entirely, resulting in major backlash so bad that the ad was pulled from all media platforms and it became infamous as one of worst PR blunders in recent history. So what was so bad about this ad anyway?
2 Comments
Aubrey Keller
11/12/2018 10:14:25 am
You make a good point that for large companies the consequences of controversy can be less severe than for individuals. People who enjoy drinking Pepsi's are unlikely to boycott the brand due to the controversy. However, people had no existing loyalty to Justine Sacco, and, thus, were quick to form a negative opinion off of the one association they had with her.
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Molly Shea
11/14/2018 01:13:07 pm
Super into your in-depth analysis on this. You’re totally right — I still do associate Pepsi with this commercial which is too bad for Pepsi. What are your thoughts on Kendall Jenner’s association with this commercial? Do you think of her differently?
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