Earlier this week, Pepsi released an ad featuring Kendall Jenner amid a sea of protesters. In the clip — which Pepsi has already deleted and apologized for — Jenner hands a can of Pepsi to one of the police officers overseeing the protest, and, voilà, all tensions between protesters and police are erased. Aping Jenner’s move, an activist at a Portland City Council meeting stood up mid-sentence and handed the mayor a can of Pepsi. It, unsurprisingly, did not end well.
“Not a good move,” Mayor Wheeler says in the video. “Not a smart move.” Which, sure. But then he follows it up with an uncomfortable comment that the interaction would have “ended differently” if it had happened at the Boston City Council, instead of Portland’s. Maybe it’s because he left out the part where Jenner rips off a blonde wig and pumps her fist in the air. That’s why it didn’t work.
