Published September 4, 2026
Kendall Jenner's Pepsi Ad was a 2017 commercial in which the model handed a can of Pepsi to a police officer at a staged protest, an image the brand framed as bridging tensions between demonstrators and cops. Backlash pulled the spot within 24 hours after critics called it a tone-deaf borrow of Black Lives Matter imagery, and the scene fueled months of remixes and real-world protest stunts that made it a widely cited case study of a brand misreading its moment.
Overview
The commercial ran two minutes forty seconds in its long cut and 30 seconds in the version Kris Jenner shared on Twitter[6]. Its plot walked Kendall Jenner from a photoshoot in a blonde wig into a marching crowd, where she smeared off her lipstick, grabbed a Pepsi, and offered it to a riot officer who smiled and drank. Critics noticed how closely the crowd shots and placard slogans borrowed from Black Lives Matter iconography while stripping out anything that made real protests dangerous or specific[1].
The mockery online took a few distinct shapes. Users spliced Pepsi cans into famous photos of protests and police brutality to show what the ad actually looked like when placed next to real confrontation[6]. Writers ran frame-by-frame readings pointing at the ad's random Muslim photographer subplot and its treatment of Kendall's blonde wig and lipstick as costume for radicalism[1]. Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., and Lena Dunham were among the public figures who cuttingly ripped the ad apart[3].
The scene also jumped into physical space as a 'Pepsi Challenge,' where people at actual demonstrations tried to hand riot officers a can of soda and filmed the reaction, usually a refusal or worse.
Origin & Background
On April 4, 2017, Pepsi released a two-minute-forty commercial starring Kendall Jenner, and Kris Jenner tweeted the 30-second cut the same day congratulating her daughter and thanking the brand[6]. Speaking to Women's Wear Daily the day before release, Jenner described the Bangkok shoot as 'fun' and said the campaign's living-in-the-moment concept was 'really something that I'm about'[3].
Backlash landed within hours of the video hitting YouTube, and Pepsi pulled the spot the day after Kris Jenner posted it, replacing the celebratory posts with an apology addressed to Kendall rather than to protest movements[3]. Jenner herself said nothing publicly and deleted her two Instagram posts about the campaign[3].
How It Spread
Twitter carried the first wave of anger. A tweet from @GrimmKardashian calling the ad 'everything wrong with our culture in 30 seconds' collected over 7,500 retweets and 11,900 likes[6]. Music writer Dorian Lynskey pointed out that the setup was a bloodless echo of the 1999 Chemical Brothers video for 'Out of Control,' directed by W.I.Z., in which Rosario Dawson downs a bottle of Viva Cola in front of Mexican riot police before the whole scene turns out to be a TV commercial playing in a shop while real riots break the windows outside[1]. The comparison spread through Mashable and other outlets as proof that the ad's setup had already been used as satire almost two decades earlier[1].
Pepsi's decision to apologize to Kendall Jenner rather than to protest organizers spurred a second round of criticism, with activists and celebrities piling on the direction of the apology as itself part of the problem[3]. The stunt did not stay online. On May 1, Portland protestors offered a can to police at a May Day march, and when officers ignored the gesture the demonstrators started throwing full Pepsi cans at them, hitting a Portland Fire medic and prompting police to revoke the march permit[2][4]. In Seattle the same day, pro-Trump and anti-Trump activists at Westlake Park shared a 'peace joint' and a can of Pepsi as a mocking reenactment of the ad's climactic scene[5].
How to Use This Meme
The 'Kendall Jenner Pepsi' format is invoked as shorthand for a brand appropriating protest imagery. The 'Pepsi Challenge' variation was staged at real protests, where activists mocked the ad by offering officers a can of soda, sometimes lobbing it at them when the gesture was ignored[2][5]. In online debate, the reference gets pulled out whenever an advertisement borrows the visual language of political demonstration to sell a product.
Cultural Impact
The commercial became a shorthand punchline in advertising coverage of 2017 and after, cited whenever a campaign borrowed protest imagery to sell a product. News outlets from the Guardian to the Independent to the Seattle Times treated the physical Pepsi-throwing at May Day protests as a direct reply to the ad[2][4][5]. Pepsi's apology to Kendall Jenner rather than to protest movements amplified the story, drawing another round of criticism from activists and celebrities who said the direction of the apology was itself part of what was wrong[3].
Fun Facts
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The Chemical Brothers video that predicted the setup, 'Out of Control,' used the same beat as satire in 1999, eighteen years before Pepsi played it straight[1].
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Portland Police '@' tagged Pepsi's official Twitter account after being pelted with the brand's cans at the May 1 May Day march[4].
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A Portland Fire medic was hit by a full can of Pepsi during the May Day clash, though the medic was not injured[2].
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Kendall Jenner never issued a public statement on the ad and deleted her two Instagram posts about the campaign[3].
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In Seattle, opposing political activists shared a joint and a Pepsi at Westlake Park in a joke reenactment of the ad's final scene[5].
Frequently Asked Questions
A 2017 Pepsi commercial in which Kendall Jenner leaves a photoshoot, joins a protest, and hands a can of Pepsi to a police officer, framed by the brand as a moment of unity[3].
Pepsi released the spot on April 4, 2017, and Kris Jenner tweeted the 30-second version the same day, congratulating her daughter and thanking the brand[6].
The ad became shorthand online for corporate co-option of protest imagery after critics said it borrowed Black Lives Matter visuals to sell soda[1].
It is invoked whenever a brand appears to co-opt a social movement, sometimes by pasting a Pepsi can into a historic protest photo or by attempting a live 'hand a cop a soda' bit at a real demonstration[2].
The ad was pulled the day after release; it is still referenced historically in media coverage of advertising missteps and brand crises around protest imagery[2][5].
