Pepsico, the owner of Pepsi products produced a commercial which has created a firestorm on social media. The commercial is reminiscent of the renowned Coca Cola commercial featuring “I would like to teach the word to sing…” That commercial has been repeated for more than twenty years.
The last fifteen seconds of the commercial has a white female approaching a line of police officers, handing one of the officers a can of Pepsi. The officer opens the can and takes one drink. The crowd erupts into cheers and clapping.
The spot was almost immediately pulled from air because social media crazies compared the crowd to a Black Lives Matter demonstration and called the commercial racist. Pepsico succumbed to the pressure of political correctness and, in fear of backlash, apologized for the commercial. The critics went so far as to compare the depiction to the unrest in Baton Rouge, La., where a woman who refused to move out of the center of a street was arrested. Media outlets then found a still picture of that event and placed it side-by-side with a still shot of model Kendell Jenner handing the can of Pepsi to the cop.
Any depiction of law enforcement in a positive light is excoriated through every available media resource. The commercial appears to show people interacting in a positive environment. The complaint that protests are not “fun events” goes against the media pundits who described the unrest in Ferguson, Baltimore and Charlotte as a “party environment.”
The First Amendment guarantees free speech, except when that speech goes against an agenda. The threat of the label “racist” intimidates large corporations and many individuals from supporting the people who protect them every day. Also, the knowledge that the law enforcement community, other than the Fraternal Order of Police, will remain silent, which further empowers those who seek only to destroy.
On the day that the people rise up and say they will no longer tolerate this behavior, the tide will begin to turn. Until then, law enforcement will remain silent and allow this garbage to continue.