Just How Realistic Is Pepsi’s Protest Advert?

(Top image: screen shot from the new new Pepsi Max advert)

Delicious and virtuous soft drink Pepsi Max has a new advert that is making the world a better place at this very moment. Watch it here.

… done? Okay good. Can you feel it? That’s the burden of years of oppression being lifted from your shoulders, a cathartic feeling not unlike when you burp after drinking too much soda.

The video features Kendall Jenner, who leaves a modelling shoot in order to join a protest. It ends up with her having a really great time with the police who are overlooking the protest.

It’s set to an inspirational anthem by Skip Marley with the lyrics:

We are the lions / We are the chosen / We’re going to shine out the dark
We are the movement / This generation / You’re gonna know who we are

Woah! Really makes you think!

Some naysayers on the internet have criticised the advert both for commercialising protest movements to sell fizzy pop, and for representing the police as quite nice people when actually they’re total arseholes. This strikes me as a pretty ungrateful attitude to take when someone’s genuinely trying to do good.

Whether they really want to change the world, or just boost their sales figures, is a debate that we’ll still be having years from now, but the immediate question is how effectively they captured the spirit of protest. I’ve looked through some key moments and weighed it all up.

THE MESSAGE

Pepsi ad

I don’t want to accuse Pepsi of choosing an innocuous slogan so they can market protest iconography without saying anything political, but the only way “Join the conversation” is going to startle the powers that be is if that conversation starts, “Do you know what it’s like to clean up your own mother’s piss?”

What Pepsi have failed to realise here is that authenticity is now marketable, and nobody is really going to go on a protest in order to say almost literally nothing.

Photo by Henry Langston

Responding to criticism about the ad, Pepsi said, “This is a global ad that reflects people from different walks of life coming together in a spirit of harmony, and we think that’s an important message to convey.” Personally, I think the above is a more important message to convey.

If that doesn’t work, what about these?:

Photo by Henry Langston

What’s the matter Pepsi, too real? Okay, how about this?:

You could have appropriated this and changed it to “All governments and politicians will soon be swept away in a wave of delicious refreshing Pepsi.”

Or maybe they could have gone with:

Photo by Henry Langston

Perhaps this is not “on brand”.

Photo by Henry Langston

Come on, Pepsi – the stage is yours, say something!

THE STRUGGLE IS REAL(LY FUN!)

Pepsi ad

Pepsi ad

One thing that strikes you in the ad is that everyone’s having a fantastic time throughout. And why not? Empowering yourself should be a joyful experience, and certainly not one that could be violently disrupted by having your head caved in by the repressive arm of the state.

Pepsi have nailed the tone here. Protesting is always this fun. Look:

Photo by Simon Childs

SEXY PROTESTERS

Pepsi ad

Pepsi ad

The best thing about protest, from a marketing point of view, is fresh faced idealism. Only young, sexy people can be bothered to change the world before they become disillusioned, accept the grinding “realities” of life under capitalism and their faces begin to sag.

Photo by Tom Johnson

See what I mean? I can see dollar signs.

THE COPS

Pepsi ad

This is the controversial bit. The advert has been accused of sanitising the police. This criticism is particularly resonant given some of the most important protests in the US recently have been under the banner of the “Black Lives Matter” movement, which is protesting against racist cop violence and the killing of black people by the police.
But hey, this guy above still looks pretty stern, no?

Photo by Oscar Webb

But sure, not as stern as these guys.

Pepsi ad

Anyway, we don’t get to find out how the advert’s police officers would have reacted had anybody transgressed the agreed parameters of protest, because everyone’s too busy having a non-threatening time dancing and encouraging people in cafes to join in. Instead, Kendall Jenner offers the cop a Pepsi, which leads to…

Pepsi ad

Woo! Much rejoicing! Strained relations between the controversial “Join the Conversation” movement and the police have been saved thanks to a delicious soft drink. I guess everything is fine now and institutional police racism is at an end – certainly, these protesters are satisfied.

But for context, here’s how interactions with the police on protests can sometimes end up in real life:

Photo by Tom Johnson

Photo by Chris Bethell

But think about it: were these guys carrying conciliatory cans of Pepsi about their person for just such an eventuality? And if they had, would they have been punched in the head or made to eat tarmac? Presumably not, and so once gain I see no reason to doubt the verisimilitude of the advert.

In short, aside from a few minor errors to do with the messaging (see my suggestions), I think the controversy surrounding Pepsi’s advert is unwarranted.

Pepsi ad

Photo by Tom Johnson

@SimonChilds13