A new video educates Pepsi on what real police-on-protester interactions look like, and spoiler alert: it isn’t all hearts, peace signs, and fizzy beverages.
ThirtyRev, a company creating films that “contribute toward making the world a safe, just, and sustainable place,” created a jarring yet empowering parody of Pepsi’s latest ad, showing water protectors at Standing Rock resisting police and the brutality they endured for doing so. The two-minute film is set to Skip Marley’s “Lions,” the same song used in Pepsi’s now infamous commercial.
Simply titled “Fixed Pepsi Ad,” ThirtyRev’s video shows police using tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper spray, and concussion grenades on water protectors. In response to the violence, Indigenous activists remain visibly resilient and united.
The final slide of the video reads “Water Is Life,” ironically accompanied by Pepsi’s logo.
Image: ThirtyRev/Youtube
Pepsi messed up royally with its “resistance”-themed ad last week, which co-opted recent social justice movements to sell caloric, caffeinated drinks to the masses. The commercial, starring Kendall Jenner as a change-making protester, quickly went viral — but for all the wrong reasons.
A day later, Pepsi pulled the commercial, saying the brand clearly “missed the mark” in its goal to create an ad promoting “unity, peace, and understanding.” But activists used to challenging the system aren’t ones to be messed with — and they clearly aren’t pacified by Pepsi’s apology.
In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to remove water protectors from Standing Rock, and move forward with the construction of the Dakota Access and Keystone XL Pipelines without tribal consent.
Water protectors, however, continue to fight, resisting Trump’s efforts to construct pipelines that are in violation of tribal treaties and would cause adverse impacts on the environment.
