Recently Pepsi released an ad featuring Kendall Jenner. It presented the celebrity going forth to be a part of a protest, and decided that to ease oppression brought onto the protestors by police, she hands an officer a can of Pepsi. The outright backlash from millions on Twitter proved the advertisement to be a failed attempt in trying to connect with the millennial generation. In fact, there was so much negative reaction online they had issued an apology by the end of this week.
This isn’t the first time a company decided to capitalize on a hot trend in order to sell to millennials (just look at the Real Cost™), but it seems that what made the ad leave many with a sour taste was how ignorant it was of the reality of the nature of social movements. In a way, it serves as a reminder why multi-million dollar companies shouldn’t be the heroic guardians of social justice.
On Wednesday I attended a concert performance at my university, entitled “Wake Up Everybody, Today is a New Day,” performed and organized by Adelphi students. Among the songs and spoken words of peace and unity performed at the concert hall, an interesting piece was presented in front of the audience...
“We’d like to do a poem for you called ‘The revolution will not be televised.’ Primarily, because it won’t be.”
This piece, written by Gil Scott-Heron and performed by Adelphi’s Jason Spradley and Najee Hunt, spoke of the essence of civil rights movement, and why it cannot, or even shouldn’t, be shown to the general public, as if it were a sporting event they can just tune in at 8:00PM EST.
“The revolution will not be brought to you by the Schaefer Award Theatre, and will not star Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia…”
Through powerful lines that strike like a sharp piano chord, Scott-Heron’s piece is a firm reminder of how we can’t expect corporations to be our guardians of the social movement. Good intention or not, their primary goal is always to sell us something.
“The revolution will not go better with Coke. The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath. The revolution will put you in the driver’s seat.”
The movement today, and the years of revolution that preceded, won’t just be resolved between a celebrity savior and a police officer over a soft drink. The fight for justice today, against brutality, for the rights of gender, race, and sexual minorities, is something the common people, you and me, should contribute to every day.
Let's hope Pepsi understands this, too.
