Pepsi posted an advertisement showed Kendall Jenner leaving a photo shoot walking to a police and handled the officer a can of Pepsi to prompt cheers. After the video went out, it triggered people’s memories of the Black Lives Matter Movement and people started to compare this video with the image showing the Black Lives Matter protester Leshia Evans “facing police waring riot gear during a demonstration over the fatal shooting of a black man by police”. (Daily Mail, 6 April 2017)
In less than 24 hours, Pepsi pulled the ad from the internet. “Pepsi was trying to project a global message of unity, peace and understanding. Clearly, we missed the mark and we apologize,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday. In the statement, Pepsi also stated that they didn’t intend to avoid the mistakes and they were ceasing the campaign and will prevent further mistakes. Also, they apologize for making trouble for Kendall Jenner. Pepsi had previously defended the commercial in a statement, claiming the ad was global and it reflected people from all around the world coming together in the spirit of harmony, which is an important message to convey through this campaign. Pepsi responded that “Pepsi believe in the legacy of Dr. King & meant absolutely no disrespect to him& others who fight for justice”. The company also said the ad “features multiple lives, stories and emotional connections that show passion, joy, unbound and uninhibited moments.” It was designed to authentically reflect people living nowadays and what their lives look like now and it described Jenner as someone who “exemplifies owning ‘Live for Now’ moments.”
Through this ad, Pepsi has indeed succeeded in bringing people together and now people from all different walks of life are coming together to rip the commercial in Twitter. However, Pepsi seemed to miss a lot of reputation and a backdrop of protest against police brutality. Users on social media called for an immediate boycott against Pepsi and accused the company of undermining the Black Lives Matter movement. Even Pepsi’s response was quick and they apologized and immediately removed the ad, customers’ still having doubt on Pepsi’s sincerity because this ad almost feel like the brand did it to get people talking as it went everywhere. Besides apologizing and removing the ad immediately, the company may also make another ad to show their respect of the Black Lives Matter movement. In addition to making the statement, the company may also hold a press conference and the spokesperson should announce in front of the public to apologize for the mistake.
The crisis could have been prevented by doing more sufficient preparations. For example, Pepsi could neutralize the issue before it become crisis to prevent costly damage to client business. To be specific, in order to prepare enough to prevent the issue hit critical mass, Pepsi could have used early warning system to identify emerging threats, such as imminent research to have a prediction of how the public will response after releasing the advertisement on social media platform. Before releasing the ad, the company could also plan for how they will assess the risk and respond.
Sophie's Blog 
It is hard to advertise with the serious issue such as races or politics. I think at the beginning Pepsi did not suppose the commercial to be relevant to racial questions, but it had the potential to be racial relevance. Once being opposed to the serious issues and grabbed huge attention, anything a commercial brand does will be a fault, as it will be considered as for the money. Thus I don’t think to make another commercial showing respect will do help, but more likely to be opposed again by saying “you still want to gain profits from this case!” Sometimes big companies are the natural imaginary enemy of ordinary people.
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