Pepsi just can’t let things naturally blow over before trying to fix things, even if they kind of did the right thing this time.
It’s been a bad month for Pepsi, a company that was sandblasted for its tone-deaf ad campaign with Kendall Jenner. In that ad, protesters confronted police officers only to have things deescalate when Jenner presents a can of soda. It was textbook everything you should do to piss off the keyboard warriors, and Pepsi paid the price.
Rather than let things breathe for a little bit, the soda company is tossing itself back into the thick of things with another stab at cashing in on millennial social justice. This time around, Pepsi is a little more concise with their idea and aren’t going so hard in the paint to keep the shareholders happy. In fact, the company is going out on a limb a bit to directly associate themselves with social causes that not all of their customers agree with.
Pepsi is proposing a campaign that would be altering its logo on cans to reflect specific social justice causes. these include women’s rights, Black Lives Matter, NoDAPL (the Dakota Access Pipeline) and LGBTQ rights. It’s not perfect, as people looking for something to be upset at Pepsi about will find what they’re looking for in the #PepsiCAN slogan attached to the campaign. Those people need to breathe.
There’s no denying that they haphazardly smeared egg all over their face with the tone deaf and legendary ad starring Kendall Jenner. But this is a step in the right direction and is doing what other companies doing backflips for PR help aren’t — putting the money where it counts.
Here’s Pepsi’s ad rollout for the campaign:
To be completely fair, they’re actually trying to do the right thing. Part of the proceeds will be donated to the causes associated with the can, so there’s that. But it’s hard to root for Pepsi when this is capitalism at its most transparent, not to mention the fact they can’t let their first snafu breathe.
Those who will never forgive them for making a mistake like they did are entitled to their opinion. But we can all agree that the company is at least trying o make a difference and the donations are a huge deal that can’t be discounted.
