Wednesday, April 05, 2017

Pepsi's Ad that United the Internet - but not positive for the brand

This article from WIRED highlights the new Pepsi ad featuring Kendal Jenner and the idea that Pepsi unites us all behind a cause. The ad received 1.6MM views in 48 hours with 5x more down-votes than up-votes on YouTube.

This ad shows two things - Pepsi completely missed the mark on what they were trying to get across in the ad. While it has had a ton of views, the power of the internet and fast spreading information has caused, almost unanimously, all viewers to dislike Pepsi.

As a result, Pepsi has seen a lot more negative impact from this ad and has since pulled the ad. However, the internet has taken this mistake one step further that Pepsi can't just 'pull'. Memes have been made of a Pepsi being inserted into rough protests and continues to highlight to poor taste of the original ad.

In the future - Pepsi should consider testing the ads and making sure the feedback from the internet doesn't have this exponentially poor reflection on the brand.

 “Pepsi was trying to project a global message of unity, peace and understanding. Clearly, we missed the mark and apologize,” Pepsi said in a statement. “We did not intend to make light of any serious issue.”

https://www.wired.com/2017/04/pepsi-ad-internet-response/

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