However, many critics accused the soda company of trivializing and belittling a significant equality movement for profit. Civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter Bernice King spoke out by tweeting a photo of her late father being pushed backwards by a police line with the caption, “If only Daddy knew about the power of #Pepsi.”
The soda company responded directly to King, writing, “We at Pepsi believe in the legacy of Dr. King & meant absolutely no disrespect to him & others who fight for justice.”
The ad also faced scrutiny from media outlets with a Washington Post headline proclaiming, “Pepsi Tried Cashing In on Black Lives Matter With a Kendall Jenner Ad. Here’s How That’s Going,” and Adweek deeming it “tone-deaf.”
By the following day, at 1:45 p.m., Pepsi officially pulled the commercial and released a statement, “Pepsi was trying to project a global message of unity, peace, and understanding. Clearly, we missed the mark, and we apologize. We did not intend to make light of any serious issue. We are removing the content and halting any further rollout. We also apologize for putting Kendall Jenner in this position.”
Jenner did not address the controversy at the time; however, she shared her reaction during an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, which aired in October of that year. Explaining on camera, “I trusted everyone. I trusted the teams. But after I saw the reaction and I read what people had to say about it, I most definitely saw what went wrong. I was so stuck, and I really didn’t know what to do, that I completely shut down…I would never purposely hurt someone ever, and I would, obviously, if I knew this was gonna be the outcome, like, I would have never done something like this. But you don’t know when you’re in the moment.”