SNL Skewers the Thought Process Behind That Tone-Deaf Pepsi Commercial
Pepsi just about broke the internet last week with their disastrously tone-deaf ad, featuring Kendall Jenner staving off police violence during a protest…by handing the cops a Pepsi. Though the company thankfully pulled the ad afterwards, that didn’t save them from the backlash – or a ribbing from Saturday Night Live (SNL).
In the skit, SNL imagines the director and creator of the ad (played by Beck Bennett) on the day of the shoot, as he gleefully describes the pitch to his sister on the phone. As she responds, his face slowly transforms, looking grimmer and grimmer. “Uh-huh. Uh-huh…so, sorta tone-deaf?”
He then runs the commercial past another relative on the phone. “Uh-huh…No, we’re celebrating these cultures!…Mm. Mm. Oh. Got it. Just kind of using them…to sell a soda?”
He asks them to pass the phone to a black neighbor. He begins to tell her how the commercial is a “sort of an homage” to the Black Lives Matter movement, stops abruptly, and says, “Don’t even touch it? It’d be insane to touch it? Right. Okay. Don’t even show police?”
At the end of the skit, Kendall Jenner (played by Cecily Strong) comes on set, describing the commercial to her sister Khloe on the phone.”Um, I stop the police from shooting black people by handing them a Pepsi. I know! It’s cute, right?”
(Via The Hollywood Reporter; image via screengrab of the SNL skit)
Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!
—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
Follow The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google+.
Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com
