Pepsi Sets off Firestorm With Tone Deaf Pandering Ad

This is the type of stupid and bad that gets not only a change in ad agencies…But the entire Marketing Department canned. The folks who did this are so involved in drinking their own bath water, they are utterly clueless and too narcissistic to see or care about the trees…Much less the forest.  This ad panders and trivializes at so many levels it’s ridiculous. Pepsi is in for a well-deserved shitstorm from the public over this.

Time for an idjit flush at headquarters.

This one os so bad, I’m putting it under the thread – “The New Jim Crow”.

A second-by-second breakdown of Kendall Jenner’s unspeakably tone-deaf Pepsi ad

Here’s a second-by-second breakdown of this ad, which for some reason clocks in just above two minutes:

0:03: We first see our cello player, just strumming away on a helipad, which is personally my favorite spot to cello-out. He quickly transports indoors, where it’s dark and the air-circulation is apparently lacking. He becomes very sweaty.

0:08: Meanwhile, young attractive people are out in the streets. They’re here. They’re sincere. And they have perplexing signs with additional vowels.

0:15: Say hello to our resident Muslim Woman Wearing Hijab (super topical, right?). She’s working with some arts and crafts and drinking Pepsi, but boy, she is not so pleased.

0:23: SOUND THE KENDALL ALARM! WE HAVE KENDALL JENNER ON THE PREMISES! Here, we meet Kendall at work, posing seductively in a roll of tin foil not drinking Pepsi and totally oblivious to all of the Important Things happening around her. But don’t worry, sweet ones. This ad presents a story arc that shows Kendall undergoing a transformation — LITERALLY AND FIGURATIVELY HA HA HA. 

0:47: What’s that noise? Why it’s the commotion of our diverse crowd of street marchers holding provocative peace and heart symbol signs. This intrigues our dear cellist, who has apparently turned on a lamp and taken a shower. I must join them, he decides, and I must bring my cello, for without music, I am nothing. (I’m projecting).

0:49: In the midst of all these people standing up for Important Things, there are still ladies out here brunching. Ladies love brunch, what can I say! Don’t you women know that protest is the new brunch? WAKE UP SHEEPLE. (Although it’s cool, they’re drinking Pepsi so they’re a part of it in their own special way.)

0:55: Let’s check back in with our Muslim Woman in Hijab. She’s still toiling away by herself and becoming increasingly frustrated with the progress of her arts and crafts project, so much so that we actually HEAR THIS LADY ROAR. Until she discovers… She is not alone.

1:13: Okay just in case you thought this wasn’t a legit cool young people thing (it has been awhile since we’ve seen Kendall), we have the requisite soda commercial breakdancers on the premises. They’re here to pop, lock and disabuse you of any such illusions.

1:18: Seriously dude, how did you get so sweaty earlier and when did you have time to shower?

1:34: It’s a good thing our friend here took that shower because with a simple head nod he is able to convince Kendall to walk off the job. Classic move, bro. If Hollywood doesn’t greenlight a romcom based entirely on this head nod, I will, as soon as I have the power to greenlight romcoms.

1:38: Kendall is a changed woman. She wipes off that oppressive dark lipstick, removes that oppressive blonde wig (y’all, it was a wig the whole time! Can you believe it?) and is ready to party — I mean protest!

1:43: Uh-oh, it’s the police. So topical.

1:51: Kendall’s chilling out, maxing, relaxing all cool. She’s drinking Pepsi (one of us, one of us) and sporting an all-denim getup, not her previously oppressive tin foil garment.

2:05: Oooooh boy. I’ve been watching this for more than two minutes. Also, the police are all standing there like, just watching with stern faces. They are not holding signs, they are not breakdancing and in case you didn’t think I noticed, they are not drinking Pepsi. But.. what’s that? It’s Kendall. And Kendall knows how to solve this intractable sociopolitical crisis.

2:09: Did anyone catch that incredible moment?!?!? Oh, duh, the Muslim Woman in Hijab who has been heartened by Kendall’s act of bravery.

2:12: An officer takes a sip of Pepsi and OH MY GOD THE COPS DRANK PEPSI! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!? WE WON! WE WON! THEY FINALLY AGREED TO GIVE PEPSI A TRY!

This all ends with an exhortation to “live bolder, live louder, live for now.” And nothing has inspired me to do that quite like this ad.

 

Leaving America

If you have a chance to travel to Europe, check out the local TV. The Ads, particularly on British TV are 10 cuts above most of what you will see in America. This is the new British Stansbury Christmas Ad which is making waves felt in the US already – If you are a cat owner, you probably will recognize a little of Mog in your own cat.

Department Store John Lewis is known for some of the best ads annually. This certainly beats the hell out of the jingle driven drivel presented on US TV –

This one from the Lottery company in Spain. It engages the watcher by telling a story in one minute –

And this from German Grocer LIDL and it’s “Christmas Class”

Apparently, the concept of grabbing the audience with quality over quantity sailed over our advertiser’s heads. As advertisers on cable now chew up 20 minutes of an hour program – maybe these clowns could learn something about why folks are increasingly buying ad blockers and watch commercial free on the Internet. Familiarity, in terms of ceaselessly being bombarded with the same poorly constructed information indeed breeds contempt.

 

Move Over, LeBron!

Seems NBA players aren’t the only ones who can sell sports shoes…

Democrat Texas State Senator Wendy Davis wore a pair of sneaks during her 12 hour epic filibuster attempt last week to shut down Rethugly efforts to stop abortion in Texas.

Since then, those sneaks have been the hottest sport shoes on Amazon!

Wendy Davis’ Filibuster Shoes Provoke Passionate Amazon Reviews

Who knew a filibuster is actually a great form of product placement?

The Mizuno Women’s Wave Rider 16 running shoe, worn by Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis (D) during her epic filibuster earlier this week, have become a symbol of the pro-choice position, at least if recent Amazon reviews are any indication. (They also were the best-selling shoe on Amazon on Friday)

The shoe’s Amazon page has been bombarded by the site’s users, creating an online forum for people to celebrate or deride the Texas state senator. (Davis wore the shoes during an 11-hour filibuster that in large part prevented the Texas state Senate from passing one of the harshest anti-abortion bills in the country.)

 

Geez, I can just see Speaker Boehner now, schlepping a pair of venerable Chuck Taylors…

 

Obama Fried Chicken? Goodbye Colonel

Seems that some folks in the US, as well as in China have hit upon the idea using “Obama” name recognition to peddle fried chicken…

Sign atop Obama Fried Chicken and Pizza at 110th St. Nicholas Ave. in New York City

NYC’s ‘Obama fried chicken’ restaurants ruffle feathers

Two city fast-food joints are calling themselves Obama Fried Chicken – and the new names are ruffling some feathers.

Eateries in Brooklyn and Manhattan plastered the new President’s last name on their awnings recently.

And some passersby are cringing, saying the name change plays into old racial stereotypes.

“Why name it that? Just because Obama is black, they’re going to put his name on a fried chicken place in a black neighborhood?” said Akilah Nassy, 16, outside the Brooklyn store.

And here, in China –

Obama Fried Chicken? In China, it’s on the menu

For all the grief the Obama administration is getting from China for filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization about Chinese tariffs on American chicken exports, perhaps the president should be suing China for royalties instead.

We’ve seen Obama peddle chicken for Kentucky Fried Chicken in Hong Kong, so it was just a matter of time before he broke loose and got his own franchise here in the mainland.

Obama Fried Chicken, or at least what we assume OFC stands for, was found earlier this week in Beijing and comes with the slogan written underneath in Chinese: “We’re so cool, aren’t we?”

Indeed…

It’s all about selling product.

 

The New Jim Crow – Does Google Marketing Data Empower Racial Discrimination?.

Is Google Empowering a New Generation of Jim Crow?

This from a 3 part series on how Google collects user data and utilizes it as a product to sell to companies wishing to market products.

The question is, and remains – how is that data utilized by companies? Turns out the data can not only be utilized to segregate consumers by income – but by race.

The implication here after the sub-prime mortgage scandals targeting blacks and other minorities for higher priced, and predatory loans, is that the basic tools for racial discrimination are present in the data collected by Google. Tools which will be utilized by the folks who brought you higher interest rates for black folks on everything from cars to houses – to further economic and job discrimination.

This is an excerpt from the article – follow the link and read the entire article to understand how it works.

The Cost of Lost Privacy, Part 2: “Pain Points,” Discrimination and Advertiser Use of Google Data

Reempowering Racial Discrimination: This targeted price discrimination based on behavioral tracking, unfortunately, directly enhances the most traditional kinds of racial discrimination. Study after study has shown that employers, financial lenders, car salesmen and other merchants continue to charge black and Hispanic customers more for the same service when they can identify them.

For example, a study by the Urban Institute using paired “testers” — one white person and one person of color with similar economic profiles — found that non-white homebuyers received less favorable financial terms from mortgage lending institutions. Job seekers face similar discrimination with one study, where nearly identical resumes were sent to 1300 help-wanted ads, found that resumes with a “white-sounding” name were 50 percent more likely to get a call for an interview than one with a black-sounding name.

The Internet was supposed to let people escape such easy discrimination, but behavioral tracking makes such identification trivial. Add together someone’s taste in music and a few more characteristics and you have an almost perfect proxy for race. As Rebecca Goldin, a George Mason University professor, argued in a 2009 article, it’s clearly illegal to discriminate based on race, but if companies offer loan rates based on their shopping habits, it raises the question of “would it be legal or ethical to use the kind of music one buys to determine his or her loan rate?”

Given that we know straight up racial discrimination happens all the time in these commercial transactions, what the Internet supplies is a multivariate datamining opportunity to discriminate in ever more precise ways that may largely escape legal scrutiny.