{"id":6252,"date":"2017-04-28T07:00:57","date_gmt":"2017-04-28T12:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/?p=6252"},"modified":"2017-04-24T17:55:17","modified_gmt":"2017-04-24T22:55:17","slug":"misrepresenting-the-nature-of-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/2017\/04\/28\/misrepresenting-the-nature-of-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"Misrepresenting the Nature of Protest"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An actual Black Lives Matter protest. Photo by Johnny Silvercloud, Flickr CC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A few weeks ago, Pepsi released an advertisement with Kendall Jenner wherein the young celebrity takes a stroll through a crowded protest, sodas in hand. The commercial received a lot of criticism and was taken off the air almost immediately. In an <\/span>article<\/span><\/a> in <\/span>The Ubyssey,<\/span><\/i> University of British Columbia sociologist <\/span>Rimal Wilkes<\/span><\/a> describes some of the issues with the commercial, particularly how it misrepresents the nature of protests.<\/span><\/p>\n

To begin with, the commercial sports a diverse set of protesters, but that makes it difficult to imagine what exactly they\u2019re protesting — Racial inequality? Environmental issues? Furthermore, the crowd in the ad looks like people who are quite privileged, which goes against what protest is about. As Wilkes explains, Kendall Jenner\u2014as a famous fashion persona\u2014is unlikely to share in the same risks or dangers associated with protesting or the issues which drive it. Wilkes explains,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“It\u2019s too overtly politically correct. The diversity doesn\u2019t look right …\u00a0This ad is about protest as a way of expressing coolness. Those aren\u2019t the people we should be celebrating. We should celebrate the people who are putting in so much work and whose lives are on the line.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Further, an advertisement like Pepsi’s\u00a0glorifies a pro-capitalist corporation and ethos, which also goes against most protest and resistance mentalities. Wilkes argues,<\/span><\/p>\n

“I can\u2019t think of too many [protest] movements that are pro-capitalist. Real young people in a real protest simply wouldn\u2019t\u00a0rally around a product like the way they do in this ad. Pepsi\u2019s goal,\u00a0then,\u00a0is\u00a0about branding. They want you to think, ‘I\u2019m like these people! I\u2019m young and good looking and cool!’ … This kind of insidious branding\u00a0is everywhere.\u00a0This commercial is getting picked on, but there\u2019s an element of randomness to that. This isn\u2019t the first commercial to have problematic representation.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago, Pepsi released an advertisement with Kendall Jenner wherein the young celebrity takes a stroll through a crowded protest, sodas in hand. The commercial received a lot of criticism and was taken off the air almost immediately. In an article in The Ubyssey, University of British Columbia sociologist Rimal Wilkes describes some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1957,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,13,85,14],"tags":[39112,39110,96166,39115,781,39111],"class_list":["post-6252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-inequality","category-politics","category-race","tag-culture","tag-inequality","tag-pepsi-ad","tag-politics","tag-protest","tag-race"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1957"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6252"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6259,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6252\/revisions\/6259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}