Kendall Jenner’s protest Pepsi spot prompts online backlash

NEW YORK (AP) – Model and Kardashian clan member Kendall Jenner’s turn as a Pepsi-wielding protester has some on social media decrying the imagery as appropriation of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The “Live for Now Moments” video released Tuesday has Jenner in a platinum wig on a photo shoot when protesters amble by. She rips off her wig, smears away her lipstick and joins them, eventually handing an officer on the demonstration line a can of Pepsi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFOX8GJ3mgA&t=2s

Reaction on social media ranged from some saying the imagery was tone deaf, to it evoking a widely circulated photo of Black Lives Matter protester Leshia Evans last year in Louisiana.

Pepsi is defending the ad saying it “reflects people from different walks of life coming together in a spirit of harmony.”

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