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Kendall Jenner’s new Pepsi advertisement has been pulled after it became the subject of heated discussion online.
The two-and-a-half minute commercial, which saw the model ditching a photo shoot to join a crowd of protesters marching with signs that read “Peace”, “Love” and “Join the Conversation” before handing a police officer a can of Pepsi, didn’t go down well with many viewers, who criticised its ‘tone-deaf’ approach to the issues underlying real-life protests today.
One of the people who commented on the ad was Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr, who wrote: “If only Daddy would have known about the power of #Pepsi.”
It didn’t take long before Pepsi made the official announcement they were pulling the advertisement and cancelling any future plans for its further rollout, as well as issuing a public apology to Kendall.
“Pepsi was trying to project a global message of unity, peace and understanding,” the company said in a public statement issued this week.
“Clearly we missed the mark, and we apologise. We did not intend to make light of any serious issue. We are removing the content and halting any further rollout. We also apologise for putting Kendall Jenner in this position.”
While Kendall herself has stayed noticeably silent in the wake of the backlash, a source close to the Kardashian-Jenner family reveals the model “would have been absolutely mortified” by all the controversy.
“Anything offensive is just not her. She means well, always,” the source told People.
While both Kendall and her mother Kris had initially shared excited tweets reacting to the release of the Pepsi spot, they’ve since deleted all social media relating to the commercial aside from a throwback snap on Kendall’s Twitter of Cindy Crawford posing with a Pepsi bottle.
