Analyzation of Kendall Jenner's Pepsi Ad and Heineken's "Worlds Apart" Ad

In today’s world, there are several different topics that people disagree on. Maybe one of the largest disagreements in today’s society is equality. Whether it be equality for all races, or equality for all genders, people in today’s society can’t seem to find a middle ground. There have been multiple media sources sharing their thoughts and opinions on equality. Some get their point across while some end up starting more drama than they intended. In Kendall Jenner’s commercial for Pepsi, and Heineken’s “Worlds Apart” ad, they use very different styles in their videos, but they both strive to send the message that the world needs equality. They achieve this by using to their advantage the different camera angles, color schemes, and story lines.

In the “Kendall Jenner for Pepsi” ad, the camera circles back and forth between people of all different races and backgrounds. The ad features several different people, all of whom are very different. However, though they seem to have nothing in common, they are all drinking a Pepsi. The camera makes sure to highlight the drink in every shot to further their point that we all have something in common. The people featured all begin to hear commotion from outside, causing them to stop what they’re doing and look out on the street where they see a march for peace. The camera then spans to Jenner, who is in the middle of a street photo shoot. She leaves mid shot and joins the march, Pepsi in hand.

She then walks over to the police officer standing at the end of the street, ready to stop the crowd, and hands him a Pepsi. The on-screen crowd took this as a victory for peace, but everyone off-screen took it as an offensive, unrealistic representation of how this world truly works. Pepsi was trying so hard to market to the younger generation that they got carried away in all of the lights and overall loudness of the video. Though Kendall Jenner is a big face for the younger generation, it appears that Pepsi focused more on selling their drink in style, rather than remembering to send a good message. Perhaps the hidden message in this commercial was that everyone has something in common, as all the people featured had Pepsis in hand. Perhaps Pepsi wanted to say that they are an advocate for peace, and want everyone to stand together. But whether they meant those things or not, the ad ended up sending the message that winning the battle of equality is as easy as sharing a Pepsi with an officer of the law. While a big chunk of the war is admitting that people share a lot of the same qualities, and that makes everyone equal, the solution to this problem portrayed in this ad would not happen in the real world. It takes everything people have worked for and invalidated all of that hard work by implying that people are making this too hard, and the answer is simple. Maybe the answer is simple, but society is still a long way to uncovering it.

The only thing similar about the Pepsi ad and the Heineken commercial is that they seem to want to send the same message. While Pepsi ended up sending a message with a more negative meaning, Heineken took a different approach. This ad uses speech to promote the understanding of one another. Two strangers are put in a room, having already given statements about how they feel about a certain controversial topic. They get to know each other, and discover that the other person is friendly. They are then shown the videos of their original statements, and it is revealed that the topic is about one of the persons in the room. The pair are told that either they can leave and ignore what happened today, or they can sit down with that other person and talk about why they originally thought those things while having a Heineken beer. They all sat down, and spoke calmly and without fighting. They came to the realization that just because someone is different, or has different beliefs than you, doesn’t make them a bad person; It makes them human. In one of the pairs, there was a transgender woman. Unaware at the time, the man that was put with her and she started to get to know one another. They told each other about everything and seemed to be making pretty good friends. The video was shown, and the man was in shock. He felt extremely guilty that he had said something that affected the woman he had come to know. They sat down with their drink, and talked it out. The man saw that just because someone has made different choices from him, or has a different background doesn’t make them bad, or unclean. He saw the differences, and he began to welcome them into his life.

This commercial sends the message that yes, everyone is different and has conflicting values and ideas to your own, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to see past all of that and show respect.

Heineken managed to send their message effectively through the use of different camera angles. Located in a sort of warehouse, the commercial is shot through a variety of close-ups, and security camera views. This offers a more distanced feeling, but it also lets the audience know that these are real people who are having this conversation. When talking about their personal lives, the camera is close-up, and focused on the person’s face. The audience sees their reactions to everything, and the message is shown through the screen. The warehouse is one of a grey color scheme, and all the people who come in are wearing very neutral tones. This suggests that Heineken wants the speech to be the thing that stands out, and when the drinks are pulled out, their bright green bottles stand out against the grey tones to bring them into focus. This ad, unlike Pepsi, avoided the loud story line and bright colors and instead sent their message in a personal and effective way.

The fight for equality is one that has been around for quite a long time. There have been many disagreements surrounding it, and many have stayed unresolved. These two ads both want the same thing, and both try to send the message for peace and respect. Like with anything else, one must be careful when addressing such a controversial topic because it only takes a few people with a certain perspective on something to either pull something up, or tear everything down. The Pepsi ad had intentions to imply that we all have things in common that can bring us together, but one small mistake had the whole world overlooking that and instead breaking it apart. Heineken sent the same message and achieved it by staying grounded, and staying true to what might actually happen in real life. With so much going wrong in today’s society, it is important that we all stick to and believe in the larger messages in these ads. In a divided world, having respect and believing everyone is equal will be what pulls everything back together.