Kendall Jenner’s ‘tone deaf’ Pepsi spot prompts online backlash

Comedian Jim Gaffigan also mocked the ad in a tweet. TMZ reports that the company has released statement apologizing for the ad. Kendall has also taken down all references to the ad from her social media. ‘MLK who? Rosa who?’

In a press release for the commercial, Pepsi said the ad meant to capture the “spirit and actions of those people that jump in to every moment”. This isn’t the first commercial she’s ever starred in nor is it the first one she’s starred in this year, but there was something odd right off the bat about this Pepsi commercial.

Here’s the Kendall Jenner/Pepsi ad that has everyone confused/upset/buying Coca Cola. People accused the brand of trying to ride the wave of pro-immigrant and unity sentiment shortly after Donald Trump announced his Muslim ban.

The ad has received a serious amount of backlash online.

“What a disrespectful ad. People are being arrested and dying fighting for justice”.

Kendall Jenner’s recent Pepsi ad, which seems to invoke the Black Lives Matter Movement, is being bashed around the world for its utter insensitivity and tone-deafness. Some online commentators called out the stark differences by posting an image taken by Reuters photographer Jonathan Bachman in Baton Rouge previous year showing a black women in a dress standing passively as police armed in riot helmets and heavily padded suits took her into custody.

Then comes the ad’s climax – and perhaps the part that has caused most uproar.

But many Twitter users noted that the dynamics between Black Lives Matter activists and some authorities have been less than congenial; others charge that grassroots movements and capitalism are not exactly kindred ideologies.

Kendall Jenner stars in a new Pepsi commercial that shows a group of young people in a staged protest, ending in cheering when Jenner hands a police officer a can of the soda.

The two-minute spot focuses on Jenner in the middle of a photo shoot, donning a platinum wig, as protesters walk by, piquing her interest.

She is now “one of them”.