The internet is in an uproar and it's a Kardashian's fault—or, at least, a Jenner sister. After a few days of teasing the campaign on her social media, the 21-year-old Kendall Jenner debuted her new commercial with Pepsi. It's called, in keeping with our nonsensical times where words no longer stand for ideas and down is up, "Live For Now Moments Anthem."
You almost don't need to watch it—you can imagine it—but somehow it's even worse than you think it'll be. Jenner is busy at a stuffy fashion photo shoot but keeps getting distracted by a march of protestors walking past her window, until she decides to join them. The protest is blocked by a line of police officers, so Jenner thinks quickly and hands one a Pepsi. He smiles. She smiles. She fist-bumps a black guy.
The torches are lit, the pitchforks are hoisted. Hellfire has rightfully rained down upon Pepsi in the hours since Jenner posted the clip yesterday evening, with much of the criticism coming in the form of sardonic but anguished tweets. "I wish Eric Garner knew all he needed was a Pepsi," wrote director Xavier Burgin.
The campaign is tone-deaf, almost surreal in its thoughtlessness, and perverse in its attempt to use the fear and suffering of Americans to sell soda. It's also a little old-fashioned. Coca-Cola launched a similar campaign almost half a century ago, bouncing off protest motifs from the Vietnam War era.
Many cultural critics consider "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" to be one of the most famous—or at least most popular and most successful—ad campaigns of all time. The song was catchy, the imagery was sweet: a large group of perfectly multi-culti young people holding Coca-Cola bottles and wishing for a world in which we can "sing in perfect harmony." Buy the world a Coke, these carefree hippies suggest, and we won't have any more war.
"I think it was the flower power era, and most of America was tiring of the Vietnam war," said the song's co-writer Roger Greenaway in 2015. "The lyric, although not overtly anti-war, delivered a message of peace and camaraderie."
So genius was this campaign, and so important within the advertising industry, that invoking it was a satisfying and wise ending to one of the most critically acclaimed series in the last decade. Mad Men ended with dastardly ad executive Don Draper reaching enlightenment on a hill surrounded by hippies—and then realizing he should exploit that feeling for a Coca-Cola campaign. Star Jon Hamm said after the finale that it took years to clear the usage, but the fight was worth it for that priceless symbolism. Don Draper's greatest achievement is a solid ad concept.
Some of the most memorable advertisements in history have piggybacked on otherwise serious or even devastating cultural issues. In 1995, Nike displayed a marathon runner's HIV-positive status over film of him training, with the "Just do it" tagline forcing you to wonder what your excuse was for not lacing up. Benetton ran its logo atop (real) images of dead Croatian soldiers in one campaign and death-row inmates in another. Apple played off Cold War fears in their infamous 1984 commercial (also inspired by George Orwell's 1984). Dove somehow ignited an entire generation of women to love their bodies while also telling them their bodies need Dove beauty products—those ads have been running for 13 years now.
But Pepsi's new campaign tries to capture something more specific with its protest imagery—it conjures up everything from the Black Lives Matter movement to the Women's March or any of the numerous protests following Donald Trump's election in November. But it ultimately fails to reference anything in particular, which is its biggest offense. Just look at the "protest" signs featured in the ads, which symbolize hashtag activism at best and subtle Pepsi slogans at worst.
Pepsi's crime may be less in the concept—though the concept is a crappy one, and seems lifted straight from a recent Saturday Night Live sketch imagining the awkward conversations likely happening in ad agencies right now about how to properly co-opt the suffering of minorities to sell Cheetos. It may be in the execution. Maybe don't cast Kendall Jenner. Maybe don't use a song by Bob Marley's grandson for the soundtrack. Try being way more subtle or way more provocative—not this middle-of-the-road grab for capturing "the moment" without seeming to know what the moment is. Maybe figure out what you're trying to say.
Kaitlin Menza is a freelance features writer. She lives in New York. You can see more of her writing at kaitlinmenza.com.
