#brand-risk

#brand-risk

Pepsi's 2017 commercial starring Kendall Jenner attempted to link soda with unity and protest movements. The ad showed Jenner leaving a photo shoot to join a demonstration, ultimately handing a Pepsi to a police officer in a moment of supposed reconciliation. Critics immediately accused the brand of trivializing Black Lives Matter and real social justice movements, appropriating protest imagery for profit.

If you've never heard the term, ragebait marketing is simple: a brand does something polarizing or controversial - sometimes accidentally but often intentionally - with the goal of going viral by wreaking havoc in the comments and inspiring think pieces and millions of dollars in free publicity. And the truth is, it works - at least on the surface, if you measure the success of a campaign in views.