In the era of Donald Trump and the rise of the alt-right, a movement took shape which pledged fierce opposition against the President's xenophobic, racist and misogynistic agenda. The day after Trump was sworn in, protests around the country and around the world sprang up like wildfire; the message being the same: #resist!. Since then, The Resistance have banded together to protest Trump's Muslim ban and disrupt town hall meetings; in particular, when the Republican-led Congress tried to implement Trumpcare. Because of the efforts to raise the public consciousness about the severity of Trump's dangerous to-do list on his agenda, the administration's attempts to block refugees from entering the United States has hit road blocks from the lower courts and Speaker Paul Ryan was forced to remove the American Health Care Act from bringing the massively unpopular bill to a vote in the House of Representatives.
In short - The Resistance has scored two major victories against the Trump White House, with another rally planned for Tax Day, April 15th, demanding that the President release his tax returns to the public.
So......wanna see an ad in which a major corporation and a Kardashian blatantly try to exploit a social movement to sell their soft drinks?
There are so many things that are wrong with this ad, and various critics have made better, more insightful comments than I will in writing this piece, but the big picture on why this ad doesn't work is that, at it's core, it's just deep down cynical and shallow as hell. From the meaningless and apolitical protest signs (how does one "Join the conversation!" & what does that even mean?!), to the shot of Kendall Jenner ending a potential hostile confrontation with the police by giving one of the officers a cold can of Pepsi, complete with applause and fist bumps from the protesters! Yeah - you totally stopped a non-confrontation by giving a cop a soft drink! You go, rich white girl! Now that we've broken down that barrier, maybe we can hash out police brutality next!
The music, the imagery, the vague message - all of it just comes off as corporate executives seeing that mass protests are becoming more frequent these days, and decided to capitalize off of what the Resistance is actually about - fighting back the rising tide of nationalism and creeping authoritarianism, among other topics/issues, in the hopes that Millenials are too stupid to see past the guise of "Hey, we're totally awoke too, brothers! Drink our brown fizzy water!" The whole thing shouldn't get our collective knickers in a twist, but we all should be having a long, hard belly laugh at how ridiculous and unabashedly cynical Pepsi Co. is.
In short - The Resistance has scored two major victories against the Trump White House, with another rally planned for Tax Day, April 15th, demanding that the President release his tax returns to the public.
So......wanna see an ad in which a major corporation and a Kardashian blatantly try to exploit a social movement to sell their soft drinks?
There are so many things that are wrong with this ad, and various critics have made better, more insightful comments than I will in writing this piece, but the big picture on why this ad doesn't work is that, at it's core, it's just deep down cynical and shallow as hell. From the meaningless and apolitical protest signs (how does one "Join the conversation!" & what does that even mean?!), to the shot of Kendall Jenner ending a potential hostile confrontation with the police by giving one of the officers a cold can of Pepsi, complete with applause and fist bumps from the protesters! Yeah - you totally stopped a non-confrontation by giving a cop a soft drink! You go, rich white girl! Now that we've broken down that barrier, maybe we can hash out police brutality next!
The music, the imagery, the vague message - all of it just comes off as corporate executives seeing that mass protests are becoming more frequent these days, and decided to capitalize off of what the Resistance is actually about - fighting back the rising tide of nationalism and creeping authoritarianism, among other topics/issues, in the hopes that Millenials are too stupid to see past the guise of "Hey, we're totally awoke too, brothers! Drink our brown fizzy water!" The whole thing shouldn't get our collective knickers in a twist, but we all should be having a long, hard belly laugh at how ridiculous and unabashedly cynical Pepsi Co. is.
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