Introduction
The Live Louder advertisement was released by the Pepsi Company in 2017, featuring Kendall Jenner as one of the key figures. The famous public figure participated in an alleged rally intended to contribute to society. The ad is almost three minutes long, with plenty of activities performed by a variety of side characters, who also play an important role in supporting the cause behind the Live Louder campaign (Gunawan 404).
None of the characters in the ad are either singing or speaking, as there is only a song playing in the background. The Live Louder advertising is an example of the company communicating with the intended audience through the interface of symbols of unity and commonality. The inherent idea nurtured by Pepsi was to include those values in its advertising and develop a strong bond between the given ideals and the Pepsi Company.
The Setting and the Intended Audience
The first person shown in the advertising is an Asian-American male sipping Pepsi who just took a break from playing his cello. The next scene shows a female of Middle East descent that is editing photos, and there is also a can of Pepsi on the desk. After that, a march with people holding blue signs saying “join the conversation” and “peace” is shown. The audience is then introduced to Kendall Jenner, a model of Caucasian descent, being photographed.
There were no signs of the campaign being linked to the Black Lives Matter movement, but the company’s decision to showcase a march heavily resembled the given context. The intended audience of this particular advertisement was the minority populations looking for unity and solidarity. Ultimately, the ad showed a diverse crowd of marchers celebrating the ability to come to an understanding, but minority communities were not involved in the discourse, at least according to the contents of the advertising.
The Performers
One of the main topics that were allegedly covered by the Pepsi Company in the Live Louder campaign was police brutality that seriously affected the African-American community. The increasing level of sensitivity toward the incorporation of race-specific elements in advertising was not covered by Pepsi in a bold manner, causing the company to experience negative backlash (Sung and Yih 1351). While people marching in the streets were of different backgrounds and races, both main characters – Kendall Jenner and the police officer – were of Caucasian descent.
The Asian-American male and the Middle-Eastern woman encouraged Jenner to participate in the protest, and she agreed to join the march. As soon as a group of police officers emerges near the crowd, Jenner approaches the police officer and offers him a can of Pepsi. He drinks it and smiles at his fellow officers as the march continues. While the events described in the ad hold little to no significance in terms of the contents, the cultural context is not approached in a reasonable way, as the climax of the plot is an interaction between two Caucasian people.
The Distribution Context
The Live Louder advertising was distributed by the Pepsi Company as a means of communicating the organization’s values and the connotation of the need to end prejudice and racism. Nevertheless, the initial message that the target audience was able to grasp only related to how Caucasian persons might never be able to reach an understanding when it comes to minority issues. During the process of distributing the advertising, the company did not hint at any cultural contexts by simply showing a band of marching people of all races and ethnicities. According to Timke, the original message that the Pepsi Company pursued was to spread a message of unity and positivity (7).
Despite the relationships between different ethnicities being rather complex, the Live Louder failed to approach them from at least two various perspectives. It significantly reduced the company’s chances to find reconciliation and define its message from the ad as all-inclusive, open-minded, and appropriate for all ethnicities and races.
The Pepsi Can
Another symbol that has to be reviewed within the framework of this semiotic analysis is the Pepsi can. Through the interface of the latter, the Pepsi Company tries to send a message of unity and camaraderie that can be identified and shared by people of all ethnicities and races. Even though the climax of Pepsi’s advertising only features two Caucasian individuals sharing the can, the company’s attempt to show commonality was somewhat symbolic to at least a part of the community.
The idea here would be that when the officer drinks Pepsi, he agrees to convey the message of unity forward and stand in line with the marching community. Yet, compared to how Coca-Cola utilizes its Coke cans, Pepsi seems to miss the point when trying to display a Coca-Cola-like utopia (Sung and Yih 1353). There are also lyrics that support the cause in the case of Coca-Cola’s advertising.
For the Pepsi Company and its Live Louder campaign, a can of Pepsi was an instrument intended to help the organization go beyond the connotation of utopia and create a way of engaging the world instead. The words “Live Louder” symbolize the need for a community that would walk forward in a joint manner, similar to the crowd from the advertising. The company is making a statement with the help of a mere Pepsi can that is not usually perceived as a means of communication. The most evident decryption of the advertising would be that a can of Pepsi could protect the march from police brutality, as both law enforcement and protestors enjoyed the drink and reached an agreement toward the end of the ad. Pepsi picks an inherently realistic way of portraying the world and placing its product within the environment. Nevertheless, the company evidently failed to account for the complex cultural context and seemingly forced the tensions to increase instead of mediating them.
Discussion of the Ad
The key problem with the ad, from the points of semiotics and cultural connotations, was that Pepsi failed to make a bolder statement when focusing on the inherent diversity and the need to overcome long-standing societal issues, such as police brutality and the complex relationship between minorities and the law enforcement. The Pepsi Company did not offer any alternative viewpoints, exposing the target audience to one-fold advertising where one Caucasian individual shared the message of peace and unity with another Caucasian person, and they both enjoyed it, with a peaceful march still running in the background.
The problem portrayed in Pepsi’s Live Louder advertising could not be resolved with the help of a single can of the company’s signature drink and a short message hinting at unity and peace. Even though the essential message sent by the Pepsi Company was relatively distinguishable, the decision to include two Caucasian actors sharing the message of equality was inappropriate and unadvised. It may be concluded that the company’s intentions did not live up to the target audience’s expectations and damaged the organization’s image to a decent extent.
Works Cited
Gunawan, Elizabeth Susanti. “Semiotic Analysis of Adapted Advertising Communication between China and Western Pepsi “Rising” Global Advertising.” Serat Rupa Journal of Design, vol. 1, no. 3, 2018, pp. 398-417.
Sung, Billy, and Jennifer Yih. “The Direct and Indirect Effects of Anger and Its Cognitive Appraisals in Public Relations Incidents.” Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, vol. 31, no. 5, 2019, pp. 1344-1358.
Timke, Edward. “Social Media and Advertising.” Advertising & Society Quarterly, vol. 18, no. 2, 2017, pp. 1-14.