Less than a day after appearing online, Pepsi's latest ad -- which starred Kendall Jenner -- has been pulled by the higher-ups at the soft drink corporation. The fake-woke commercial, during which Jenner strolls through a cheery protest and hands a Pepsi to an unsuspecting cop, incited immediate backlash across social media. Figures like Charlamagne, DeRay Mckesson, and MLK's daughter slammed the company for attempting to co-opt relevant social justice movements in a shameless attempt to sell more sodas.
Pepsi has pulled the ad from its YouTube channel and has presumably cancelled all future TV placements for the roundly rebuked commercial. Jenner has also scrubbed her social media profiles clean of all evidence of being involved with the pseudo-progressive campaign.
“Pepsi was trying to project a global message of unity, peace and understanding. Clearly, we missed the mark and apologize,” the company said today in a statement that was also posted on its Twitter page. “We did not intend to make light of any serious issue. We are pulling the content and halting any further rollout.”
The corporation also apologized to Jenner for unwittingly making the 21-year-old model vulnerable to such harsh online criticism. The ad is still up via certain YouTube channels. Watch below (while you can), and tell us if you think Pepsi was right to cave to all of the backlash so quickly.
