To Pepsi and Kendall Jenner,
Normally I enjoy your commercials of celebrity filled glitz and glamour. I have loved you when Britney Spears, Pink, and Beyoncé were donned in gladiator outfits singing an outstanding over of Queen's "We Will Rock You". I have loved every catchy jingle, grew up with Pepsi girl, Hallie Eisenberg, it has been one wild ride, that was until yesterday evening. While I was swamped with homework I was getting tweet notifications and texts about "that ridiculous Pepsi ad" and for a moment, I thought nothing of it. I decided at one o'clock in the morning, while finishing up homework for the evening I would see what the big deal was.
The visuals within the first minute and forty-five seconds, seeing the people march in the streets. Seeing a Muslim woman and Asian man, both struggling to find their muse; this is what I originally thought what your ad was centered on. I was sorely mistaken and I won't lie, I was actually heartbroken with how the rest of the advertisement played out. Why did you think it was necessary to literally trivialize what people are fighting for out in the streets--our American streets?
This is where you, Kendall Jenner, come in. Sure, Pepsi paid you to model in a couple shots in the beginning of the advertisement, but I have to ask: why on Earth did you think it was an okay advertisement to be in? Especially if you knew how it would end. Why didn't you suggest an alternate ending or choose not to participate in it? I have to drill you with these thought-provoking questions because this whole advertisement clearly says that neither you nor Pepsi did any thinking when you were shooting this.
I am disappointed and I am angered because with all of you being so in-tune with social media, you have read the stories and yet, still chose to turn a blind eye. You made light of what protestors such as Black Lives Matter, the LGBTQ+ community, and Women's Rights do. You have made light of the decades of tensions between police and the Black community. You have made light of the issues people are marching in these streets for all for more zeroes at the end of your checks and you all should be ashamed.
I understand, to a certain extent that you want the world to open up to conversation about these issues but this was not the way to go because at the end of the day, offering a police officer a Pepsi in the middle of unrest won't solve anything. Offering minorities Pepsi while they are being killed, arrested, taunted, and bullied, won't solve anything. So next time, Kendall, make sure you know what you're in for and ask vital questions if social justice is involved and Pepsi, don't enter a conversation if you only know little about it. The important thing that you all learn here is to educate yourselves before entering the conversation and ask questions, people will listen if you do so.
This is why I've always preferred Coca-Cola,
An angry Afro Colombian-American Woman
