Adriana Rodriguez

Professor Karlianne Seri

WRT 102.72

27 February 2018

Keeping Up With Kendall and Pepsi

On April 4th of 2017, Pepsi released a commercial alongside reality t.v star, super model and cultural influencer Kendall Jenner. The commercial begins with the opening of a Pepsi can then, the camera pans back and forth between a march and Kendall Jenner. In the march, there are people of different skin color, gender and age protesting for peace. Like in any other protest, the police shows up to stop it. When the camera pans over to Kendall Jenner, she is shown in the middle of a photoshoot. Kendall ignores the march until someone invites her to join. When Kendall joins the protest, she hands a police officer a can of pepsi which ended the need for a protest because unity was established as the police officer accepted the Pepsi can and took a sip. The social media world revolted, questioning the purpose of the commercial. Obviously, Pepsi is trying to promote their product but, why did they decide to market it by using issues that are currently being battled? Why did they include Kendall Jenner? Why did Pepsi think that a can of their soda would bring world peace? Pepsi was effective in their use of persuasive pathos to connect with their intended audience however, the persuasive ethos established through Pepsi and Kendall Jenner caused the commercial to be ineffective in the end.

Pepsi uses the protest as an emotional appeal to their audience. The protest in the commercial is very similar to the ones happening in present-day due to the fight between the current government and the governed. People in today’s society are fighting for women’s rights, immigration reforms, gun violence, the Black Lives Matter movement (BLM) and police brutality. The commercial sparked a similarity to the BLM movement when policemen were shown trying to stop the protest.The police is a huge portion of the reason why the BLM movement exists and in any protest, they are the ones trying to end it. Because the police is negatively thought of, while people were watching the commercial, they might of had some possible feelings of anger. Something to notice from the commercial was that the people in the protest are similar to the people protesting “in real life”: the young minority. Having relevant issues and relatable people presented in the commercial is an effective way in which the advertisers related to their audience. In a way, Pesi is saying that they understand what their audience is facing and they are establishing compassion. Connecting to an audience is very effective because it creates a relationship between the advertisers and their audience.

Another successful use of emotional appeal in the commencal is the background music. The song was definitely trying to persuade  the audience to do something. The song is “Lions” by Skip Marley. The lyrics of the song include: “yeah, if ya took all my rights away”,”hates been winning but the lovers aint done”. These lines suggest that there are people whose rights are being taken away and all of the hate in this world has encouraged the hate to spread. This sends a message to people to reassure them of what is happening. Besides the visual of the protest, the song is really emphasising the issues in the commercial and the current events. In the song the verse is a call action. The verse states: “cause we are the lions, we are the chosen were gonna shine out the dark, we are the movement, this generation, you better know who we are who we are”. In this verse the singer is insinuating that this generation is the generation that needs to step up and make a change.

The effectiveness of the commercial took a downfall because of Kendall Jenner’s ethos. The Kardashian-Jenner family is known to be very controversial. Although Kendall is not a Kardashian, she is affiliated with them because Kendall’s half sisters are Kardashians. The Kardashian fame rose because of Kim Kardashian which in itself is a controversial topic. Normally, people say that they are famous for nothing because their profession isn’t one that commonly brings people fame; they aren’t athletes and they don’t sing or act. The Kardashians also have their own reality t.v show: Keeping Up With the Kardashians. For people who have no real talent or no real importance to society, why do they think their life is so important that they have to air it to the entire world? The main reason I believe that this family receives the attention that they receive is because if how plastic they are, literally. They are known for enhancing their body parts to recreate their image. Because Kendall comes from this family and is a supermodel she has a very superficial image .The audience certainly did not forget about the Kardashian-Jenner image when they watched Kendall in the Pepsi commercial.What does Kendall know about fighting for her rights? That is what most people asked themselves when they saw the commercial and that is what we see in the commercial. While the march advocating for peace is going on, Kendall in shown modeling at a photoshoot. This sparked in the audience’s mind how out of touch she is with the rest of the “normal” people. Her life seemed very privileged which does not establish credibility to be the face of a peace protest. Before Kendall joins the march, she removes her wig, bold lipstick and the photoshoot dress. When Kendall joins the march she is shown in natural makeup and in the most cliche “casual” outfit: all denim. Her intent of “fitting in” also showed how unrelatable she is to the people who don’t have a life like hers. She had to “downgrade” her image to fit in. Kendall’s ethos created turbulence in the purpose of the commercial which added to the backlash that it received.

The ethos established by Pepsi was the top of the cherry for the unsuccessful commercail. Throughout the commercial Pepsi was building up the ethos that they were creating for themselves. The commercial begins with the opening of a can op Pepsi. We then see cans of pepsi repeatedly throughout the commercial like on a countertop. The Pepsi logo has a specific shade of blue which is easily notable.The blue colors are sneakily placed in different shots throughout the commercial, specially in the march where there are some people wearing at least one blue item and a guitar case front and center in the shade of blue. At the end of the commercial, Kendall Jenner takes a can of Pepsi and hands it over to the police officer, the officer then accepts the can, opens it up and drinks it. The crowd from the march cheers indicating that the need for the protest was over because the officer took the Pepsi can from Kendall. Maybe Pepsi was trying to say that if society found something in common, then people will lean to ou their differences aside and unite however, that it not what people perceived. This scene in the commercial struck people with disrespect at the idea that Pepsi though that  with a can of their soda, all problems will disappear and world peace could be achieved.

Overall, Pepsi’s commercial started off on a successful path because the advertisers did a good job in creating a relationship with their audience through the peace protest that took place however, the ethos established in the commercial created the downfall of its efficiency. By using Kendall Jenner in their commercial Pepsi thought that they could attract a large audience which it did however that large audience is the audience that did not approve of the commercial. Kendall Jenner has a very specific brand to her name and not one to be known for advocating for people’s rights. Pepsi’s ethos did not balance Kendall’s ethos either. In the commercial Pepsi is shown as the cure to world peace which people found ridiculous. Maybe Pepsi could of used the protest as persuasive pathos without the ethos in the commercial then, it would of been more effective however, the combination of both resulted in the disaster that it became.