I used to kid around back in the dark days of teaching. Those were the late aughts, the years when our economy was tanking, the sky was falling, home prices were battling the stock market to see who could hit new lows daily, and pessimism was found everywhere. In the classroom, it meant that I had over 40 students in classes and that good teachers were fired.
Oh, I’m being too harsh. I need to soften that language. They didn’t get fired–they just weren’t a part of our school the next year. PThey were given pink slips. Many teachers received them. Some got to stay and some had to go. If you were the last in the hiring door, you were the first out when cuts just had to be made. Things were grim and it wasn’t very pleasant.
But I used to kid around that we should get a sponsor for our school. No money in the state or district anymore? No problem. We’ll just become Pepsi High School, home of the Colas. Goooooooooo, Pepsi! Yet, I wasn’t kidding–we lost good teachers and our classes were ridiculous in size. I had over 200 kids total in a day and former classrooms were now storage facilities for desks and other school equipment.
What’s more shameful in the long run–having Cola as your mascot or losing good teachers and being overcrowded in the classroom?
Pepsi made the rounds yesterday and today in my classes. They just came out with a two-minute-thirty ad for their product that featured Kendall Jenner. Many young people of all colors were walking down streets, holding signs, in protest of something. Cops were standing watch, Kendall gives one a Pepsi, and the crowd goes wild. Whatever. I’ll post it at the end here.
The big deal, and the reason I showed it in class, is that it got pulled. People complained for a number of reasons–corporations promoting themselves poorly, Pepsi exploiting the Black Lives Matter movement–and when people complain, and things get dicey, companies pull their ad. I can understand the rationale of people who were offended by the ad (a simple Internet or Twitter search will give you numerous examples), but I also don’t think Pepsi set out to offend people. But they did, and the ad is gone, complete with Pepsi’s apology to the American public AND Kendall Jenner.
These are teachable moments for me. These should be teachable moments for all people. Opinions matter, though the minority opinion is getting harder and harder to voice these days. Only a few of my students had seen the ad until I showed it, though. I know it’s only a Pepsi ad, and it’s just Kendall Jenner, but it really set off a firestorm of opinion.
There were so many opinions going in the last few days that many looked past the Sarin gas that Assad is using on his own people in Syria. My students now know of that genocide, too.
Sometimes, you can’t wait around for articles to annotate if you want people to know what’s happening in that real world.https://youtu.be/dA5Yq1DLSmQ