Twitter is dragging Pepsi for its ill-conceived Kendall Jenner ad

Impact

Not many people are feeling the joy of Pepsi tonight. 

Earlier on Tuesday, soda giant Pepsi released a new ad featuring Kendall Jenner that used protest imagery, women in hijabs and Kendall Jenner taking off a blonde wig to sell soda. The commercial ends with protesters confronting police officers and Jenner handing one of them a cola to ease the tensions. 

The head-scratching commercial has elicited an overwhelming response on social media, most of which can be boiled down to two words: Keep It. 

A lot of people of color took umbrage at the image of a white woman stopping police officers by handing them a Pepsi. 

A lot of people had a problem with the ads' protest imagery, which depoliticized something as inherently political as a protest. 

Still, others made fun of the ad with lighthearted jokes about the ad's absurdity. 

Hopefully, this backlash can act as a wakeup call about whether or not it's a good idea to co-opt political imagery to hock soda pop.