In the age of new media, products and political messaging are inseparable. With the rise of political messages embedded within commercials, the intended messages encoded by the producers of such content can be decoded in several ways, taking into consideration the audience’s sociocultural context and the recent political climate. With hopes of spreading a global message of unity and acceptance, Pepsi launched an advertisement starring Kendall Jenner which faced major backlash.
The commercial, which was shortly pulled, displayed a protest that is blocked by the police until Kendall Jenner resolves the conflict between the police and the protestors by handing the officer a can of Pepsi. The Pepsi can, as said by the creative team that conceptualized this commercial, was meant to serve as a symbol for hope and resistance since it was inspired by the infamous photograph by Marc Riboud titled ‘The Ultimate Confrontation: The Flower and the Bayonet’. The audience, however, interpreted it in an oppositional manner and criticised the company of trivializing significant social issues like the Black Lives Matter movement, police brutality towards minority groups and the immigration ban. Though this video displays individuals of multiple ethnic groups, such as the Asian cello player and the Muslim photojournalist, the message of diversity and multiculturalism that it was meant to denote was lost when the protest was led by Kendall, a wealthy white model, who has not struggled with firsthand oppression. The dominant ideology of the creative team was to create an advertisement that resonates with the beliefs of this generation. Using their institutional knowledge, it is apparent that the company believed that using a current influencer would be beneficial in reaching millennials. To reinforce that Pepsi stands with the values of activism and equality that the youth holds, the song used in the background is “Lions” by Skip Marley. This song connotes the importance of resistance and how the youth has the courage to fight for social justice. However, the audience does not partake in a dominant-hegemonic reading and the reception of the song’s message is not positive though it skyrocketed in the charts.
Overall, Stuart Hall’s theory of encoding/decoding is applicable in this example since the message encoded by the creators is clearly warped in the process of distribution and the receiver rejects the message. Finally, the audience is in an oppositional position which defeats the purpose of the commercial entirely which is to boost sales by creating a connection with today’s youth. Aforementioned, the majority of Pepsi’s creative team are white. Thus, one strategy to improve their production of content that resonates with the youth is to make their team more diverse and invest in detailed market research prior to the circulation of its advertisements. As a result of doing this, the company can potentially increase their product sales since they can cater to the needs of various social groups.
References
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/critics-notebook-real-problem-kendall-jenners-pepsi-ad-991932