In our parents’ generation, the Coca-Cola ad “I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing” was an absolute success. I guarantee that if you ask them about the ad, they will be able to hum the tune or sing a few bars. In the advertisement, we see a group of, what looks like every day people, passing a bottle of coke to the next person as they continue to sing. The message is clear, bring our world together through communication.
Fast forward to earlier this week, and we see Pepsi replicating the same advertisement with a modern twist Except instead of teaching the world to sing, we watch one of our famous-for-being-famous celebrities making googly-eyes with a musician before walking through a protest to hand a police officer a can of Pepsi. The protesters cheer and all of their problems have now dissolved into an abyss. Yay! Thanks Pepsi.
After watching this ad, I wondered, how could this have happened? What out of touch Pepsi executive said, “You know what the kids like these days, activism.” What marketing team compiled a protest images and used it to construct a commercial? What told them to make Kendall Jenner, someone far removed from any movement of this kind, the face of such an ad?
My theory: view count.
If you look at the most viral videos lately, they involve unpacking some kind social issue. Whether it is the importance of say latinx over latina or latino, or why microaggressions are inappropriate. This idea of being “woke” has gotten many videographers, typically on Facebook and Twitter, view counts in the millions. As a corporation how can you look at that and not think of the opportunity?
However, this ad and many of these “woke” videos make activism seem like a passive action. Like it is enough to empathize with marginalized people or to talk about it in your friend circles. Don’t get me wrong, that is very important. However, remember that it takes more to stop people from getting shot by the police before they are read their rights. It involves putting yourself out there, on the front lines, expecting to bulldozed over for what you believe.
Not all of us are willing to do that.
So, to have an advertisement that makes handing an officer a Pepsi save the day, makes light of the people who risk their lives every day. Perhaps, this is a sign that activism has become easy to fall off the lips of our generation, to the point where it is being integrated into our commercials. It’s up to us to change that.