Clueless PepsiCo execs never saw the epic fail coming.
The only thing soda hucksters achieved with a tone-deaf ad, released Tuesday then, rightly, pulled the next day — using postmillennial sweetheart Kendall Jenner, 21, as cannon fodder in the political and cultural war — was uniting a fractured nation against a greedy corporate giant. Nice work for a fizz peddler.
The buzz in advertising circles is that the makers of Pepsi today are crying in their pop, while seeking out something stronger.
They’d pinned their hopes of winning the struggle for hearts, minds and market share against competitor Coca-Cola on a “woke” 2-minute, 39-second “short film’’ that was intended to go global. It wound up doing the seemingly impossible: uniting Black Lives Matter protesters, pussyhat-wearing women’s activists and marchers surrounding Trump Tower in a sense of moral indignation with ordinary, nondemonstrating folk.
“They didn’t see how it would insult everyone’s intelligence and make people angry,’’ a Madison Avenue source (who was not involved in the soft-drink debacle), told me. “All to shove sugary drinks down people’s throats.”
With the sense-defying title “Live for Now Moments Anthem,” the ad reportedly was cooked up by Pepsi’s in-house creative team, the Creators League Studio.
It features young, white Jenner, a reality-TV star and model whose fame pedigree stems from being the daughter of transgender tastemaker Caitlyn (formerly Bruce) Jenner and Kris Jenner, and who claims Kim Kardashian West as a half-sibling.
She’s seen posing for a photo shoot near a protest, though whatever is being agitated for or against (racial justice or free, fattening soda for supermodels?) is not revealed by generic signs bearing such slogans as “LoVE,” “PEACE,” “uniTY” and the cringe-worthy “Join The conversation!”
She then rips off her blond wig, tosses it at a random black woman and, presumably, sheds the shackles of working as a highly paid mannequin. The nouveau brunette joins the angry throng, finally cutting through the manufactured tension by grabbing a can of refreshing, sugar-free Pepsi Max and handing it to an apparently unarmed police officer. He drinks the diet beverage without complaint.
The crowd cheers, turning a roiling scene of discontent into a teachable Kumbaya moment.
Predictably, though not to anyone laboring in the bowels of Pepsi, fury coupled with bewildered disbelief rang out from all corners.
Posting a picture of her slain father being pushed back by cops, Bernice King, daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., tweeted, “If only Daddy would have known about the power of #Pepsi.”
PepsiCo spokespeople responded by apologizing as fast as they could — even to Jenner, who, as of this writing, hasn’t spoken up. But before the controversy broke, and after she taped the offensive ode to carbonated commerce, she gushed in a “behind the scenes with Kendell Jenner” video: “It’s really exciting. I think it’s an honor to follow in some of the most iconic people’s footsteps.
“It’s really cool and, yeah, I’m really excited about it. It’s a dream come true. I’ve, like, always dreamed of being part of some kind of commercial or anything, and to be a part of Pepsi is awesome.”
Late-night TV was savage.
On CBS, the host of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” cracked, “It starts with a throng of beautiful, multi-ethnic people protesting in the streets of — I’m gonna guess — Newport, Rhode Island.
“So far, we don’t know what has caused all of America’s hot extras to take to the streets, but I’m guessing it’s a protest for
Attractive Lives Matter.”
Ouch.
Madonna made the contretemps all about her, posting to Instagram a caption — “When you wake up and realize that S*** just really doesn’t make sense. Side Note: My Pepsi commercial was pulled 30 years ago because I was kissing a black saint! #ironic.”
I’ve often been at odds with the current slate of protesters, especially those with Black Lives Matter.
But mocking defenders of civil rights, trivializing the struggles of people who, over the generations, have lived and died for causes, in a sleazy bid to sell product is the height of bad taste. It’s an insult to everyone.
My column criticizing “Fearless Girl,” the metallic munchkin standing, arms akimbo, in New York City’s Financial District, had many readers decrying what I consider its false message: Women are victims.
Several suggested that the bronze rendering of a girl child be turned around, rather than maintain its current position staring down the “Bronze Bull” sculpture. Then the bull and the girl would serve as potent symbols of unified American strength in times of financial insecurity.
It won’t happen.
Crass act
When trying to get into a top-tier New York City public school, it pays to have a well-connected parent.
Relocating to the city in 2014, Deputy Mayor Richard Buery pulled strings to push his son to the head of the class, The Post reported.
He obtained the personal cellphone numbers of school leaders and was taken on private tours of the best institutions by principals and administrators. His son was then welcomed into highly regarded Middle School 51 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where that year, just 380 kids out of 1,729 applicants were accepted.
I’m happy the boy has a shot at a stellar education, but it’s not fair that others don’t rate this kind of apparent special treatment.
What a doll!
My heart is warmed by things that come out of the mouths of babes.
She insisted that the doll resembled her because she’s “pretty” and was dressed as a doctor, which little Sophia Benner aims to become, wrote her mom, Brandi Benner, in a viral Facebook post.
Adults could learn from her example.
Andrea Peyser featured in "Weiner" documentary
Weiner, the unrelenting documentary of Anthony Weiner's total collapse in the New York City Mayoral race that was to be his chance for redemption, features a scene with Andrea Peyser taking on the flawed politician.
Kyle Smith, Andrea's NY Post colleague said of the movie:
"There's another man here whose moral failings are indisputable, and that would be the subject of "Weiner." How on earth did documentarians Elyse Steinberg and Josh Kriegman finagle this much inside access to the meltdown of a once-promising political dynamo? Sheer hubris, of course, and their film is a brilliant monument to it."
When Anthony Weiner's press secretery, Barbara Morgan says, "She's not a real reporter," we burst out laughing. These people were so clueless.
It's political theater at its finest!
Buy Now! AVAILABLE from:
Andrea Tells it as only she can!
"Andrea Peyser is a godsend, and I can't start my day without her." - Sean Hannity
"With Peyser's slashing wit and keen eye for liberal hypocrisy, CELEBUTRRDS is guaranteed to score a direct hit on pampered Hollywood spokes-persons and other great liberal thinkers." - Ann Coulter
Celebutards: The Hollywood Hacks, Limousine Liberals, and Pandering Politicians Who Are Destroying America
Andrea Peyser is a columnist for the New York Post, writing on the social and political issues important to Americans.
Her commentary has brought her awards from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and Columnist of the Year from the New York State Associated Press
for 2005.
