How Pepsi Could Have Preemptively Avoided Kendall Jenner Ad Fiasco

Have you seen the Pepsi commercial starring Kendal Jenner (available on YouTube here)? In the advertisement, Kendall is in the middle of a photo shoot and notices a protest march in the streets. Inspired by the crowd, she suddenly leaves the set mid shot to join the movement. Meanwhile, others from various ethnic backgrounds have already done the same. The scene shows everyone smiling and enjoying each others' company as they carry signs with messages of peace. Some are even dancing. The grand finale depicts Kendal picking up a can of Pepsi and handing it to one of the guards. He smiles and allows the crowd to continue marching joyfully.

This utopic scene is certainly a far cry from historical protests such as the one that took place in Ferguson after the death of Michael Brown. "This ad trivializes the urgency of the issues and it diminishes the seriousness and the gravity of why we got into the street in the first place," activist DeRay McKesson told NBC News correspondent Gabe Gutierrez. Bernice King, the youngest daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., posted an image of her father mid-peaceful protest — literally being pushed back by a police line and tweeted: "If only Daddy would have known about the power of #Pepsi."

According to Pepsi's response, they were "trying to protect a global message of unity, peace and understanding" and "missed the mark." How could Pepsi have preemptively picked up on how the public would react and avoided this public relations nightmare? Bharat Krish, founder of RefineAI, suggests a new approach to testing video advertisements before launching to the public. Through the RefineAI platform, advertisers can share their video with a diverse audience of pre-enrolled and vetted beta testers. They view the video while the platform gauges their emotional reactions and engagement level through facial expression analysis. The viewers also provide ratings on the story, audio and visuals. Furthermore, they include qualitative feedback for further context. I had the opportunity to watch a live demonstration at the NY Tech Meetup on February 5th, 2019.

So how could RefineAI's platform have prevented the Pepsi fiasco described above? You can review a summary of the platform's results and assessment here.