 "What happens when brands cross the line")
Cringe-worthy, insensitive, trivialising an important issue — these were just some of the criticisms that brought down a recent Pepsi ad featuring Kendall Jenner and dealt a body blow to the brand’s image. What was it about this commercial that generated so much discussion? And what lay behind the apparent miscalculation by a brand whose advertising has long been hailed as effective?
It is not just a bad script or a wrong reading of prevailing popular sentiments, the root cause is deeper. It is a classic case of brand ‘over reach’. Marketers tend to over estimate a brand’s significance in
