Social Cues: When your cringeworthy commercial backfires, here’s what to do next.
Social Cues is our look at what people are talking about across Twitter and Facebook.
Social media is not a forgiving place, but there’s a method to get out of the madness.
On Tuesday, Pepsi found itself at the center of social media backlash over its commercial showing Kendall Jenner ending a protest and standing up to police with a can of soda. The ad ended up creating an online protest against Pepsi, with people accusing it of being tone-deaf toward the many social movements happening in the US.
“Pepsi was trying to project a global message of unity, peace and understanding. Clearly we missed the mark and we apologize,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday, long after the memes and backlash surged on social media.
Bernice King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter, had one of the most retweeted responses to Pepsi’s ad, criticizing the company for making light of police responses to protests.
Nivea faced similar backlash on Wednesday after it published an ad on Facebook with the slogan “white is purity.
