Kendall Jenner and Pepsi — can we just talk about this for a minute?
The ad commences with a can of Pepsi being cracked open in tandem with Skip Marley’s “Lions.” People of all backgrounds, colors, and passions are marching to the lyrics, but several individuals are too busy with their work to take notice. An Asian man is playing the cello, a Muslim woman is painting, Kendall Jenner is modeling.
Even though hundreds of people are in boisterous protest, Jenner takes a moment to realize the scene before her. As Marley booms, “We are the lions,” Jenner looks like she’s finally awoken from her glam-induced stupor. The Asian man and Muslim woman follow suit, but not without a few sips of ice-cold Pepsi.
Shots of the melting pot of men and women are played; black men are breakdancing, white men are playing the guitar, and Jenner hands her blonde wig to her African-American assistant.
The camera focuses on Jenner as she moves in slow motion through the seemingly stagnant crowd. She somehow manages to lead the gathering of protestors with a can of Pepsi in hand.
People are giving the model props for her courageous assistance, and they fade into the back-ground as mere cheerleaders. Jenner is shown walking in stride, undeterred by the threat of police brutality or jail time. She has one mission in mind, and nothing and nobody will stand in her way.
Not even America’s hundreds of years of systematic oppression.
The brunette hands a Pepsi to an officer in uniform, and the world stops turning. As the Muslim artist snaps a photo, the hiss of a freshly opened soda is heard.
The cop has drunk the Pepsi, and everybody thunders in applause.
“Live Bolder. Live Louder. Live for Now,” ends the commercial.
Apparently, the commercial ends racism, too.
Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, and Martin Luther King, Jr., who?
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