If you have been even remotely alive and connected to the world this past week, there are probably two names that were impossible to miss - Pepsi and Kendall Jenner - even overshadowing the increasingly attention-getting antics of he who is known to his buddies as the Trumpster.
Now don't get me wrong, there are already far too many words written and way too much attention showered on the entire Kardashian Klan, primarily for the wonderful job they all do of being, well, Kardashians. Not to be confused with those extraterrestrial long-necked humanoids known as the Cardassians, of course; although they too move to establish a dominant presence in any social setting, so the two species do have that in common!
It never ceases to amaze me how much furore, fire and brimstone can be stirred up by as innocuous a prospect as a TV ad for a soft drink that has been even more globally ubiquitous than the Kardashian brand itself. I mean, how seriously are we supposed to peer in, examine, digest and draw conclusions from an ad for a can of soda?
Well, if the reaction is anything to go by, make that very seriously indeed! Unquestionably, the pervasion (invasion) of social media into not only our personal lives, but also as a power tool for business and marketing purposes, today means that nothing is hidden for long and once the machine rebels, then you better get ready! The very machine that can fuel a feeding frenzy on a company's latest hot product can turn cancerously against its creators, and sink them in the process. Social media were the marketer's wet dream, but the tide can turn against one in a heartbeat, showering one in this case with a deluge of warm, flat cola.
While social media may have evolved into an aspect of everyday life, they have simultaneously become the medium for (sometime so-called) social conscience, where any offender can be singled out and word spread to tens of millions in an instant, with the right support. If there is photographic evidence to go along with it, even better. The President of the free world himself has come under fire for his endless twittering on questionable subjects in even more questionable fashion, but somehow, it didn't stop him from getting the big job.
The new rule seems to be that one must make absolutely sure one's new ad (or whatever else, including the underwear) is squeaky clean before ever risking public dissemination, and then, and only then, does one release it out into the twitterverse or facebookfray or instagramdram. So, what the hell was Pepsi thinking?! Surely they had not only expensively expert campaign creative/marketing/management personnel behind the ad, but presumably had road-tested it in some discreet fashion with focus groups or the like?
Now as I said, and not being a Millennial, I am not sure I am a fan of social-media-as-real-life, and everything must be shareable/shared and watch out if it can't or shouldn't be, because we will find it and get you. This is not a social conscience, it is social media shaming, and there is a massive, gaping difference between the two! It's one thing for young people living under a far-off archaic third world regime to be posting about war, torture and inequality on their streets, yet it's entirely another to be using the same media to troll a famous golfer for his various extra-marital affairs or a teen pop star who started acting up whilst growing up.
However, this point is kind of a moot one, because Pepsi are using that very social media with great success, and they just had to know that the Millennial masses are watching every move they make, and are primed to jump up and down in celebration at an "incredible new ad!" whilst being completely capable of growing horns and becoming the cancerous beast eating them alive for their "abhorrent and disgusting new excuse for an ad!"
What's the lowdown and what's all the fuss about? Well, our gal Kendall, representing any typical young person today (cough!) is in the middle of a photo shoot (ahem!) when she spots her peers out-and-about protesting major issues of the day, and lo-and-behold, she has a lightbulb moment and decides to forgo her lucrative modeling career (splutter!) so she can join the Millenial masses in fervent protest over some great social injustice her peers are upset about. And also, lo-and-behold, she miraculously went from platinum blonde to decidedly duskier tones in the process; I wonder what point that is supposed to make?!
I am not going to get into all the accusations or various ways this can be interpreted, overinterpreted, or misinterpreted, but suffice it to say that cultural appropriation (another fave subject of social media shaming today) is a major concern, and indubitably, Pepsi's positioning of a glamorous (blonde-turned-brunette) white model in some kind of alignment with the "Black lives matter" movement caused the pot to boil over. One can of Pepsi at a time. Our gal Kendall apparently changing the world with one can of Pepsi handed to a police officer is not what the Millennial masses want to see, it seems.
Pepsi got this whole thing entirely wrong. I am not sure I agree with the level of horror expressed and leveled at them, as I am pretty certain they were trying to express the importance of even brief moments of "love and unity" between opposing sides of an issue. But they should have known this would backfire, and surely someone in the entire creative team and process, especially their social media gurus and staffers, told them it would?
In the end, Pepsi did what everyone must do today in this world of social media shaming - they apologised - even expressing regret at what they have done to Kendall Jenner herself, who apparently is "devastated". In this new world, one is allowed to make even horrific mistakes, as long as one acknowledges it within 24-72 hours, and then expresses sincere regret thereafter. Now everyone can go back to being seen exiting the store with a Pepsi in hand, instead of covering it with a brown paper bag!
The whole politically correct thing is not something I am a huge fan of, not least because it is often a hypocritical political correctness. In that, as long as it's someone else who has sinned, then it's fine to raise absolute bloody hell and shame them, but let's not talk about what may be in one's own head or related mistakes one may have made in the past. The Internet is an unforgiving place with a permanent memory, and there have been a few social media shaming celebrities who got caught out by people questioning their motives, upon finding similar sins in their pasts.
The one thing that the Trumpster and I do agree on is the way that political correctness now makes it impossible to speak one's mind, or even open one's mouth, without the risk of being nailed to the cross of social media and subsequently stoned for it. Even if in his case he should keep some of his more questionable opinions to himself! But for example, one headline responding to the Pepsi ad and accusing the company of being "tone deaf" drew ire from other individuals, claiming that this response was further insulting, to the hard of hearing. Where does it end? Have we become so keen to blame and shame on social media, that we let go of common sense in the process? We strive to take offence even when clearly none was intended? Every single group on the planet must be considered, in advance, and our thoughts edited, in case someone might be able to draw offence? Again, where does this end?
Nevertheless, I bet that Pepsi learnt a tough lesson this week about trying to market directly to the Millennial masses via social issue-based social media and ads, and the lesson is that the message still counts, regardless of which currently-in-vogue Millennial face they use to promote their brand. Today, the Pepsi can and brand has been sorely dented, and it will need hammering back into place again.
Unless, wait, they knew exactly what they were doing all along, and they got preciesly their desired result - people all over the globe speaking that magic five letter word - PEPSI! ;)
