Kendall Jenner had some words about that Pepsi commercial before any of us saw it, and, welp...
Hindsight: It's 20-20! And it must be especially sharp today for Kendall Jenner and Pepsi, as they're both experiencing the neither sweet nor fizzy taste of putting one's foot in one's mouth.
If you're not living in a cave out of the range of cell service, you know by now that the global soda empire paid Jenner, a global celebrity, to be in a Pepsi commercial so comically tone-deaf and embarrassing, it's been mocked around the world from the moment it was released (when it wasn't also causing people's eyes to roll out of their heads).
In case you haven't seen it, the conceit is simple: Kendall Jenner is in a photoshoot, when she joins a vague protest nearby, gives a riot cop a can of Pepsi, and somehow negotiates a truce between everyone. It's hilariously dumb and crass.
At first, Pepsi tried to defend its commercial with a trite statement to the press, replete with avoidable misspelling. Then it pulled the commercial and threw itself under the bus, attempting to save Kendall Jenner:
— Pepsi™ (@pepsi) April 5, 2017
It's almost noble, trying to save the caboose of the global celebrity you put at the center of one of the most historically idiotic advertisements to ever see the light of day.
For her part, Kendall Jenner has yet to say anything on the matter, though she did delete a couple Instagram posts.
She also had this to say to Women's Wear Daily prior to the clip's premiere (emphasis ours):
Yeah, so: If this strikes you as typically nondescript celebrity-speak, well, it is! Celebrities are trained to give boring answers like this. Except what you have above is a ringing endorsement of the very thing Jenner clearly didn't take a single second to think about (while cashing what was undoubtedly a pretty sweet paycheck). In other words, if Kendall Jenner tries to tell you she never backed the ad, stay woke, as it were.
Because, again, while she hasn't yet issued a statement about the ad, she had no problem fav'ing a bunch of Tweets in praise of the ad on Twitter, either:
Oh, and one more thing: Yes, the ad was shot in Thailand. Here's a look from behind the scenes!
Pepsi commercial filming today on soi 28. ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ #charoenkrung #moviemagic
A post shared by Luke Satoru (@luke_satoru) on Feb 2, 2017 at 11:28pm PST
Ah, Bangkok: A city in a country that, it's been pointed out, has seen some upheaval in recent years!
Was pointed out out to me that Pepsi ad was shot in Bangkok. You know, Thailand. You know, an on again/off again military junta.
— Charlie J. Johnson (@Charliemagne) April 5, 2017
And, of course, a place where protesters have been killed by riot police, in a country where extrajudicial murder by the army is, let's just say, a bit of a problem.
In other words, the cherry on top of this absolute, complete fiasco. And you thought it couldn't get any better. Just wait until we find out that Steve Bannon once took a side-gig home-schooling the Jenners in Civics and Government. At this point, it's not something you could entirely rule out.
