Running Head: THE POWER OF PEPSI

  PepsiCo:  

The Power Of Pepsi The “Brand of Generations”’ Misfires Connecting Social Responsibility With Youth 

 

Rebecca Dupont PUR 6215 Summer A 2019 

THE POWER OF PEPSI

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

OVERVIEW 2 COMPANY BACKGROUND 4 

HISTORY OF PEPSI 4 CORPORATE SNAPSHOT 5 CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS: JOIN THE PEPSI PEOPLE 6 BRANDING FOR THE GENERATIONS 7 THE ELUSIVE YOUTH 8  

CORPORATE CHARACTER 10 MISSION STATEMENT 10 VALUES 10 PERFORMANCE WITH A PURPOSE 10 CORPORATE REPUTATION 12 

TIMELINE OF EVENTS 13 RESPONSES 14

SOCIAL MEDIA RESPONSE 14 MEDIA RESPONSE 15 PEPSICO’S RESPONSE 16 

FINANCIAL IMPACTS 16 IMPACT ON STOCKS 16 IMPACT ON SALES 17 IMPACT ON REPUTATION 17 THE IMPORTANT MULTICULTURAL PERSPECTIVE 18 

MOVING FORWARD 18 REFERENCES 21 

 

 

 

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THE POWER OF PEPSI

OVERVIEW 

On April 4, 2017 Pepsi released their two and a half minute campaign “Live For Now” on

Youtube featuring reality television star Kendall Jenner as a young model who leaves work to

join a peaceful protest (Monllos, 2017).

The short film features Jenner in what appears to be a high class fashion shoot where she leaves

due to hearing protesting outside of the studio. The video makes a point of the diverse crowd

with one woman wearing a hijab and several

other protesters of diverse backgrounds. It is

unclear what the protest is for other than

signs held up featuring words of peace, love

or “join the conversation” (Smith, 2017).

Figure 1: Jenner stars in commercial (Smith, 2017)

Jenner passionately takes her wig off and lipstick to join the ambiguous activists, fist bumps one

activist and joins the marchers and dancing mob. This display of lighthearted and untroubled

protest starkly differs from the reality of protests within the United States.

Jenner proceeds to grab a Pepsi from an ice cooler, approach a police officer at the frontline

which appears unrealistically calm, and hands him the Pepsi. Demonstrators hold their breath,

record and await the police officer's response. He proceeds to smile and accept the fizzy

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THE POWER OF PEPSI beverage as a peace token and all appears resolved at the protest as the crowd cheers (Smith,

2017) .

Within 24 hours of the posting of the video, social media outlash spiraled and criticism

snowballed to all media outlets. Majority of the criticism of the skit was circled around the

trivialization and appropriation of the Black Lives Matter movement and the realities of police

brutality associated with peaceful protests (Smith, 2017).

Since the launch of Pepsico’s Performance With A Purpose 2025 Agenda, for over a decade one

of the brand’s key objectives revolved around positively impacting and enriching the lives of

people (Pepsico, 2016). The brand has championed human rights, diversity in managerial roles,

empowering women and fostering equality through their initiative internally and externally on a

global scale. In an attempt to reconnect with the elusive millenial youth and generation Z through

Kendall Jenner and express their brand values of global peace, human rights and unity, the

company misfires by the perceived appropriation of a national protest movement. Some argue

the choice of Jenner’s place in an effort to promote their social concerns and company efforts of

global unity were a mismatch due to her lack of relevance to the topic.

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THE POWER OF PEPSI

Figure 2: Jenner compared to Iesha Evans during the Baton Rouge protest (Smith, 2017)

The key components of this case from a corporate communication perspective include the

significance of understanding one’s stakeholders, and message analysis. A lack of understanding

the youthful stakeholder for Pepsico deemed consequential failed to communicate a message

meant to express the brand’s commitment to diversity, inclusion and global unity.

COMPANY BACKGROUND 

HISTORY OF PEPSI 

Pepsi-Cola and Frito-Lay merged to become Pepsico Inc in the year 1965 and adapted as a snack

and soda company for the past 50 years (Pepsico, 2019). The company continued to grow

dramatically in the 1970’s under the management of Donald M. Kendall who advertised on a

massive, unprecedented level, and diversified the company’s products to also expand overseas

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THE POWER OF PEPSI (Reference For Business, 2016). With growing popularity, by the 1970’s it was a common phrase

to “join the pepsi people”. Today the company is one of the world’s largest providers of soda and

snacks of over 200 countries with 22 brands and collected over $65 billion in revenue last year

(Bailey, 2019).

CORPORATE SNAPSHOT 

PepsiCo is one of the world’s top ten leaders in food and beverage providers with Mondelez

International as the #1 competitor of the company followed by Coca-Cola (Owler, 2019). The

New York based company holds an advantage over most competitors due to the diversified

business model in snacks which accounted for $52% of the company in 2013 (Bailey, 2019) and

leads to PepsiCo profits to almost twice of Coca-Cola.

QUICK FACTS: 

● 267,000 Employees

● $2.3 Billion dollars in funding

● Over 500,000 social media

followers (Facebook & Twitter)

● 36% Senior Female Executives of

Color

● Women are paid within 1% of men

of equal skill & positions

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THE POWER OF PEPSI Figure 3: Pepsico portfolio (Bailey, 2019)

CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS: JOIN THE PEPSI PEOPLE 

Pepsico and celebrity endorsements prevailed throughout the brand’s history, with

groundbreaking deals that set the standard for celebrity endorsements and history. Some of the

first brand awareness initiatives created for Pepsico

were by Kendall, including a photo in the newspaper

of Vice President Nixon holding a Pepsi at the

Moscow trade fair in 1959 (Reference For Business,

2016). Although not an endorsement, Pepsi became

the signature drink of the 1960’s with teenage baby

boomers as their

Figure 4: Michael Jackson endorsement (Telegraph, 2017) generation and by 1985 the Cola wars emerged with

the blind taste test of Pepsi and Cola. The brand realized the potential of influential figures in

society, and catapulted future marketing initiatives to connect with the generations.

Brand awareness only grew with the groundbreaking celebrity endorsement of Michael Jackson

in 1983 for $5 million dollars (Box, 2018). The king of pop was one of the first celebrity

endorsements consumer’s had seen, and was the highest paid endorsement agreement in history

until it’s time. Pepsico marketing and Michael Jackson’s tour were inseparable, and unified the

company with the youth, the generation and what consumers might see as trendy and it worked

with increased market shares and sales (Herrerra, 2009). The company pursued further

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THE POWER OF PEPSI endorsements with Beyonce, Britney Spears, Pink and Enrique Iglesias in a 2004 Super Bowl

commercial. This new success of brand awareness and celebrity appearances with Pepsi products

opened doors for future celebrity partnerships.

In a classic attempt to tap in with the youth, the endorsement of Kendall Jenner in 2017 comes

easily foreseen. In 2014 she was named one of the top 24 most influential teens by Time

magazine, and is the highest paid fashion model to date (Time Staff, 2014) The company’s intent

to encompass their global human rights and diversity efforts while connecting with pop culture

backfired in the short clip.

 

BRANDING FOR THE GENERATIONS

In the 1950’s Pepsico created a

permanent shift in their marketing by

the works of president Donald M.

Kendall to solidify the target market

and new brand identity as now “all

about the youth” (Sarosh, 2018). In

Figure 5: Pepsi’s Branding (Pepsico, 2011) 1958 the company’s slang featured “Be Sociable,

Have a Pepsi” and a few years later “Now It’s Pepsi For Those Who Think Young”.

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THE POWER OF PEPSI

The start of the 1960’s greeted a new exciting youth of the baby boomers, who’s general

optimism about the future formulated the brand’s slogans varying from “Feelin’ Free” and

“Come Alive”. This generation would later be identified as the “Pepsi Generation” by the brand

(Sarosh, 2018,). This continued into the 70’s vibe where the youth embraced Pepsi’s catchy

tongue twister slogans and the brand’s marketing perfectly mirrored the time’s attitude of pop

culture.

The 80’s marked the celebrity endorsements and continued the youthful connection with slang

like “The Choice Of a Generation”.

Pepsi branding in the 90’s capitalized on the Pepsi Generation connection, and featured

“Generation Next” and reconnecting the older phrase “For Those Who Think Young” once again

(Sarosh, 2018). The endorsements with pop culture icons continued into the 21st century and

Pepsi incorporated global unifying phrases of branding like “Every Pepsi Refreshes The World”.

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THE POWER OF PEPSI

THE ELUSIVE YOUTH 

The younger generations have not proved any easier for Pepsi in recent years to connect with.

According to Adweek (2016) a brand once iconic for it’s youthful generational support now

deems it’s largest consumer base 65 or older. Rising health concerns for carbonated drinks have

also influenced this change, although the company has designed healthier food options and

objectives in their Performance With A Purpose efforts.

Millenials and the following youth differentiate their marketing and branding needs from the

generations which preceded them. According to Fromm, & Garton (2013), a salient quality of

solidifying trust with these generations is branding that cares. Engagement and partnerships with

reputable non-profits and charities are means of gaining this trust, while creating company

programs for humanitarian reasons internally as a company also prove appealing. They

continued to state over half of millennials, when asked, claim they would be more willing to

purchase a product if it was a brand they know

supports a cause. (Angone, 2014) also argued these

generations can “smell” fallacies and ingenuine

branding attempts to lure their support and

transparency and sincerity are key.

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THE POWER OF PEPSI Not only are these generations more curious about philanthropic and sustainability efforts, these

generations are also the most diverse in history with millenials 39% non-white and 48% in the

following generation (Richard & Parker, 2018). These new generations of youth are the most

educated in history, most culturally aware, and prepared to identify tone-deaf companies.

Figure 6: The multicultural millennial (Richard & Parker, 2018)

CORPORATE CHARACTER 

MISSION STATEMENT

“CREATE MORE SMILES WITH EVERY SIP AND EVERY BITE” (Pepsico, 2019)

Pepsi’s mission statement is divided into five distinct categories of focus for consumers,

customers, communities, the world and shareholders all incorporating the importance of

inspiring happiness.

VALUES

One of the main points for Pepsico’s values revolve around global impacts of inclusion, diversity

and a sense of global togetherness as stated on their values page as “succeeding together”

(Pepsico, 2017). The company’s sustainability strategy from 2017 mirror’s the key values with

objectives to advance human rights globally, promote diversity, gender equality and promoting

women’s economic success (Pepsi Co., 2017).

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THE POWER OF PEPSI

PERFORMANCE WITH A PURPOSE

In 2016 Pepsico announced their Performance With A Purpose corporate social

responsibility agenda with goals to hit by 2025, and each year releases a report updating

accomplishments, mishaps and added growth to the program (Pepsico, 2016). The agenda

focuses on three key objectives: People, Planet & Product. Accordance with their “Live For

Now” campaign, the company’s investment in human rights on a global level can be seen in their

goals and sustainability reports towards the “People” objectives.

For the goal of 2025 Pepsi included

goals for human rights, fostering gender

equality, and diversity in the workplace.

For human rights goals, the company

sets global standards and goals for their

Global Human Rights Assessment

Program, Sustainable Sourcing Program

Figure 7: Pepsi’s Diversity Commitment (Pepsico, 2017)

and Sustainable farming program to ensure all employees are receiving respect

and human rights in the workplace (Pepsico, 2017). In the 2017 report they conducted successful

human rights audits on their Sustainable Sourcing program for 96% of their suppliers. Another

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THE POWER OF PEPSI human rights goal of the company is to provide access to safe water to 25 million people by

2025, which they revealed progress towards with their work in Jordan in 2017 by providing more

water to refugees and locals than consumed by the company (Pepsi Co, 2017).

Gender equality goals for the company include having 50% of management roles as women,

equal pay and a total of donations to reach $100 million dollars to empower women by 2025

(Pepsico, 2017). The company progressed towards these goals in 2017 with 39% of management

roles as women compared to 27% in 2016, donating 14.3 million dollars to empower women, the

gender pay gap was only 1% and the development of an internship program for young women in

Pakistan.

Lastly, Pepsico detailed their commitment to diversity where they set a goal for 2025 to increase

their percentage of senior executives of color greater than their current 36%. Pepsi continues

their global outreach for their corporate responsibility by also instilling several diversity

programs in Mexico including Different Abilities and Golden Years which both empower and

employ disabled individuals and seniors. Pepsi also helps fund educational opportunities for

underprivileged youth females in Turkey to prepare them for the workforce which is one of the

few global diversity efforts the company hopes to impact communities on small and large scales.

CORPORATE REPUTATION

Pepsico’s history of corporate reputation has championed over the years. In 2016, the company

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THE POWER OF PEPSI ranked # 97 in the top 100 CSR Global RepTrak with a score of 64.7 (Reputation Institute,

2016). According to the Harris Poll in 2016 Pepsico ranked #59, beating Starbucks and Chipotle

that year (The Harris Poll Releases Annual Reputation Rankings For The 100 Most Visible

Companies In The U.S., 2016). Many factors lead to the positive reputation of the brand,

including their reputation for steady dividend payments of 40 consecutive years and high

investments in healthier ingredient research (Lomax, 2013). Pepsi’s quick response and

resolutions to criticism also contributed to their reputation of listening to their stakeholder’s

concerns.

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

APRIL 4, 2017 

● Pepsico posts “Life For Now Moments Anthem” two and a half minute video to Youtube

● ~12:00 PM negative feedback and criticism in comments and shares from viewers begins

on Twitter, Tumblr & Youtube

● ~7:00 PM Iesha Evans & Kendall Jenner comparison tweet goes viral on Twitter

Pepsico’s president Brad Jakeman deleted tweet about the excitement of the ad

APRIL 5, 2017 

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THE POWER OF PEPSI ● 9:15 AM Bernice King Tweets criticism & tweet goes viral

● 10:44 AM Pepsico Tweets an apology for the add & announces the removal. The

company also apologizes for Jenner’s position.

● 1:30 PM Pepsico removes “Live For Now Moments Anthem” from Youtube & other

marketing outlets

RESPONSES

SOCIAL MEDIA RESPONSE: THE POWER OF PEPSI 

According to the data analysis conducted by the Brandwatch React Team, the company received

1,677,000 mentions within the 24 hours of the ad posting which is over a 21,000% increase

(Gemma, 2017). With all this activity increase about the brand within the 24 hour time period,

58.6% of mentions were categorized as “negative”. Of these mentions, the most common word

used to describe the Pepsico ad with Jenner was “tone-deaf” which accounted for 77% of the

engagement according to Amobee technology (Schultz & Diaz, 2017). It may appear an

important point to mention the use of the word “tone deaf” in this scenario versus the usage of

the word “racist”. The company was not necessarily

pinned for a racist ad but more so criticized for a

lack of understanding the climate and misreading

their external stakeholders.

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THE POWER OF PEPSI Possibly the most influential viral tweet from the incident was from the daughter of Martin

Luther King, Bernice King, who tweeted an image of her father struggling with police that read:

“If only daddy had known the power of #pepsi”  (Loon, 2018) 

Figure 1: Tweet by Bernice King “The Power of Pepsi” (Loon, 2018)

The tweet received 182 million impressions (Schultz & Diaz, 2017). 

MEDIA RESPONSE

Several news channels and newspapers covered the issue including the New York Times, and

The Washington Post and NBC News (Victor, 2017). The media focused heavily on the social

media reactions, Kendall Jenner’s involvement with previous endorsements, and the company’s

questionable decision to create the film in house (Smith, 2017).

PEPSICO’S RESPONSE

In response to the viral turmoil, the brand released a statement via Twitter on April 5, 2017 with

the statement that read:

“ Pepsi was trying to project a global message of unity, peace and understanding. 

Clearly we missed the mark, and we apologize," Pepsi wrote in a statement on 

Wednesday. "We did not intend to make light of any serious issue. We are removing the 

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THE POWER OF PEPSI content and halting any further rollout. We also apologize for putting Kendall Jenner in 

this position." 

 

FINANCIAL IMPACTS 

IMPACT ON STOCKS

Surprisingly during the

advertisement release and viral

outrage the company’s stocks

rose and immediately plummeted

following Pepsico’s apology and

removal of the video (“PEPSI

AD STOCK SURGES DURING

SCANDAL Plummets

Figure 8: Pepsi Stocks After Jenner Ad ( Pepsi Ad Stock etc., 2017) After Apology”, 2017).

IMPACT ON SALES 

Although the “Live For Now” campaign caused brand purchasing intentions to be an all time low

at 28%, it did not seem to impact the sales (Marzilli, 2017). According to their end quarter sales

of June 2017, the company still earned revenue with a 2% increase (Bomey & Meyer, 2017). The

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THE POWER OF PEPSI brand’s total revenue for the quarter was $2 billion and was a 5% increase compared to the

previous year.

The brand’s immediate response to communicate an apology and pull the ad might have been

what saved consumer buying willingness. The overall purchasing willingness percentage only

changes by 1% preceding and following the crisis, and was most likely do to the response time

(Carufel, 2017). Nickelsburg (2018) argued the youthful generation’s dollar vote might not be as

strong as previously thought for sales impacts, since only 38% of millennials in the study

reported a stronger purchasing intention based on corporate social responsibility for human and

civil rights.

IMPACT ON REPUTATION 

The company’s reputation according to the Global

CSR RepTrak top 100 ranking did not changed

from the ranking in 2016 to 207 at #96 but the score

dropped from 64.7 to 63.4 (Global CSR RepTrak

100, 2017). Somehow on the Harris Poll the

company ranked higher a year later from #45 to #59

for corporate reputation (“THE 2018 HARRIS

POLL RQ SUMMARY REPORT”, 2018). The

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THE POWER OF PEPSI only conclusion that might be made from this Figure 9: Pepsi’s Willingness to Buy Pepsi (Carufel,

2017)

seemingly lack of reputation change was due to the response time of the company.

According to Comcowich (2017), 85% of consumers develop their opinions about brands

depending on how they respond to a crisis. In Pepsi’s scenario, their quick response to the ad and

removal emphasized their quick method to resolve the issue, and might have been the reason

their brand suffered few financial and reputational losses.

THE IMPORTANT MULTICULTURAL PERSPECTIVE 

The “Live For Now” ad presented a clear message of Pepsi’s lack of understanding the youth and

their multicultural youth consumers. Since this ad was created in house, many questioned

whether a lack of cultural diversity within the campaign lead to the tone deaf impression (Victor,

2017). Marketing Week author, Hobbs (2017), argues proper market research with the

appropriate protest and activist groups and diverse populations might have prevented the

situation with diverse perspectives. Millenials are a multicultural new market the company

strives to connect with.

MOVING FORWARD

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THE POWER OF PEPSI Pepsico, with a rich history of philanthropy, globally advocates for diversity, human rights, and

equality, erroneously promoted their values through the one-sided “Live For Now” campaign.

The company once known as “The Brand of Generations” struggles to connect with the

multicultural, socially conscious, and youthful stakeholder of today. In an attempt to express

their global corporate social responsibility efforts, they accidentally appropriated a social protest

movement.

Although the company lacks past offenses of appropriation to capitalize on social issues,

companies of Pepsico’s enduring high reputation must evolve to understand their changing

stakeholders to accurately express their intentions of global unity. It appears from this scenario,

the company was forgiven for the tone-deaf campaign according to the small impact of brand

reputation and sales, but the impact of future repeat offenses is unknown. Luckily, the majority

of stakeholder’s impression of this situation responded with the term “tone-deaf”. Although a

negative response, many other viral reactions with top mentions charting “racist” might deem

less forgivable, and the company’s perceived lack of cognizance for the social climate might

have been slightly more permissible for stakeholders.

The future of Pepsico’s expression of values must diversify their market research to

communicate with the progressive youth. Millenials and the following generations are more

concerned with corporate social responsibility than the generations before them and Pepsico’s

Performance with A Purpose efforts appeal to these growing priorities. A company whose staple

consumer once consisted of the younger demographic needs to evolve their team’s angle for

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THE POWER OF PEPSI expressing initiatives. If this diversification and communication of efforts are achieved, Pepsico

might claim the youth as their “Pepsi People” once again.

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THE POWER OF PEPSI https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/pepsi-ad-kendall-jenner-echoes-black-lives-matt

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THE POWER OF PEPSI

APPENDIX 

 

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al-fans-174956/

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THE POWER OF PEPSI

TEACHING NOTES Target group: Graduates, Undergraduates 

 SYNOPSIS 

On April 4, 2017 Pepsi released their two and a half minute campaign “Live For Now” on Youtube featuring reality television star Kendall Jenner as a young model who leaves work to end a protest by handing a police officer a Pepsi. (Monllos, 2017). Figure 1: Jenner stars in commercial (Smith, 2017) 

Within 24 hours of the posting of the video, social media outlash spiraled and criticism snowballed to all media outlets, criticizing the skits trivialization of the Black Lives Matter Movement. (Smith, 2017).

Since the launch of Pepsico’s Performance With A Purpose 2025 Agenda, for over a decade one of the brand’s key objectives revolved around positively impacting and enriching the lives of people (Pepsico, 2016). In an attempt to reconnect with the elusive millenial youth and generation Z through Kendall Jenner and express their brand values of global peace, the company misfires by the perceived appropriation of a national protest movement with a privileged white influencer. LEARNING OBJECTIVE Understand the underlying causes of the negative feedback to the ad, and how the CSR might have been expressed more appropriately. KEY ISSUES 

◙ Social Protest Appropriation ◙Stakeholder perceptions ◙Understanding target demographic ◙CSR Communication

DISCUSSION How could Pepsico communicated their global corporate social responsibility more appropriately to the younger audiences?

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THE POWER OF PEPSI As conscious consumers, younger generations are less tolerant of cultural appropriation and aware of the social climate. Pepsico should have expressed their promotion of global peace and unity in a way that did not trivialize a social movement. Was Kendall Jenner an appropriate endorsement for the promotion of their sustainability efforts? Although Jenner is a strong influencer of the youth, her position to promote global peace might have been out of place. Regardless, there is no hard evidence to suggest it was right or wrong, rather an opinion of strategy.

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