Have a Pepsi and Scratch Your Head

Ma’am I can’t accept this

We have all seen the Kendall Jenner Pepsi ad. If you haven’t…

Every media outlet is comparing this ad to the “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” commercial below.

Now I see their easy comparison, the world is in a bit of chaotic times during the 1970s with the Vietnam War and Civil Rights still in people’s minds. Fast forward to 2017 and you have oppression from all sides including a familiar negative view on the police.

But there was another Coke ad that comes out of anger but at the end there is peace that is formulated by the product being sold. That is the Mean Joe Greene ad…

But those are just opinions right? Let’s get to the meat of this story on why in the world Pepsi would have green (I do it for the puns) lit this tone deaf ad. In fact, Pepsi utilized their own in house content creation team to do this, no agency used.

So you have the media picking apart the low hanging fruit of the poor political choice of having Kendall Jenner be the “hero” or using Black Lives Matter for financial gain.

However, here at Brandable I want to look into the business end of it (trust me the politics will still be there, don’t want to ignore them).

To say this ad is a complete failure is really missing the thought process that did go into the ad itself. Yes there are some very good points to the ad. So let’s get to what worked and what didn’t (which is what should’ve been on the board at Pepsi when looking at it)

The Good

1. The music choice. Skip Marley’s (Grandson to Bob) “Lions” is an awesome song. When you watch the first few moments of the ad, it fits extremely well with showing minorities as artists and protesting, talking about generations. We ignore the shot of Kendall at the start.
2. The early message. Now, not the message of Kendall being the hero. The message of protesting, artists hearing that call and joining. It is a picture painted by the director who is also an artist. Anger about making a protest seem like a block party is missing what the director was trying to show with those leading shots.
3. Lack of branding early. Holding off until the last shot for Pepsi to be shown was smart of the in house ad agency. It let the viewer focus on what was going on. Granted the resolution was not what we wanted…

The Very Bad

1. Kendall Jenner and the Millennials. Ok, so this entire ad for me screams Sony Spider-Man email hack where the executives are talking about the new generation and just throwing a bunch of stereotypes and seeing what sticks. In that email they talk about how “cool” EDM, Snapchat and ’70s fashion is. So I can see in a Pepsi meeting someone going “Those Kardashians are cool, let’s get one that hits with the millennials!” This would lead them down the dark path toward using protests (which are a millennial thing apparently) and their idea that unity isn’t happening without Pepsi and Kendall Jenner.
2. Cops. Using the BLM versus cops vein is really, really bad because of the violence. So I know I mentioned earlier that the message was good, that was the early part. The ad would have done better if it was a group versus a group. Make it as general and non-identifying as possible to something current that really strikes a negative chord, as does cops versus the population. This is where that Mean Joe Greene comes in, that worked for Coke because it is sports and not serious. This is society, these are lives we are talking about.
3. Generational message. This ad screamed of a generation that doesn’t understand the one either 1 or 2 generations behind. Because they went with a storyline in modern society, it really was one of the worst advertisements ever made, you cannot argue against that. If Pepsi had decided, as I mentioned earlier, to go with a general, fictitious situation, this ad may have worked at best or at the very worst just fallen flat with audiences. Brands have to tell a story, not utilize one that exists currently in society. Television ads need to showcase how your brand’s message works.

Buying the world a Coke worked because it was an idea people can get around and subtly hit on messages existing in the ’70s. Pepsi showed us what they thought was going on exactly in society and how their product would “solve” it. Did selecting their own in house agency breed a bit of negative group think? Possibly. This ad will definitely force them to select an agency this time to come up with a strategy at the very least that gives them direction on where to go from here.

Without any sliver of a doubt, that was one of the worst ads ever made.