What was Pepsi trying to achieve with its 'tone deaf' Kendall Jenner ad?

For a big business, putting out a controversial ad can be a bit like teetering across a tightrope. And that meansPepsi just took a tumble.

On Wednesday, the soft drink titan pulled one of its ads featuring model Kendall Jenner as a protester whohandsa can of Pepsi to a police officer facing a crowd of demonstrators.

The ad drew sharp criticism online, where it was accused of trivializing and mimicking imagery from recent protests for social justice causes particularly last July's protest against police brutality in Baton Rouge, La.It was onlinefor about 24 hours.

Terry O'Reilly, ad industry veteranand host of CBC Radio's Under the Influence, thought the ad was "tone deaf" and out of character for Pepsi; traditionally, thecompany's ads haven'twaded into world issues.

"Coke is the one that usuallytakes this territory," he said, bringing up thefamedI'd Like to Teach the World to Singhilltop ad from the 1970s.

O'Reilly thinks part of the problem is that Pepsi made the ad in-house, withoutan ad agency on hand to offer objectivity.

"It makes Pepsi feel so self-importantthat it's hard to watch."

'Big time attention'

O'Reilly said it's a "new era" for advertising, one where companies have started(and are sometimes pressured) to takestanceson divisiveissues and mix politics into their messaging. Both Airbnband building supplycompany 84 Lumber ran prime-time ads during February's Super Bowl targeting President Donald Trump's stance on immigration.

But these types of ads havethe potentialtobackfire and alienate large swathes of anaudience.That's what O'Reilly thinks happened here. "I'm sure they knew it wasgoing to be somewhat contentious," he said.

At first, Pepsi defended the ad, saying in a statement that it showed "people from different walks of life coming together in a spirit of harmony." But Pepsi apologized less than a day later,saying the adhad "missed the mark."

Many other big brandshave had their ads yanked Sony once pulleda "racist" ad for its PSP devicewhile Wrigley's had to pull its ad ofa man "barfing" up a dog.And PepsiCo, Pepsi's parent company, has faced an ad backlash before.In 2013,Mountain Dewscrapped one of its ads criticizedfor portraying racial stereotypes and appearing to make light of violence toward women.

Pepsi's decision doesn't come as abig surprise to O'Reilly. "The upsideis that everyone is talking about it," he said. "Attention is the oxygen for every brand. And this is big time attention."

'Blatantly awful and tone deaf'

John Pylypczak, president of the Toronto brand agency Concrete,could see what Pepsi was trying to tap into but thought thedelivery was poor and had a "certain desperation" to it.

"I think they had no choice but to pull it because it was just so blatantly awful and tone deaf," he said. "These are important issues and you can't trivialize it like that."

While the adhas scored Pepsi a ton of publicity, Pylypczakthinks the company wouldn't have wanted to gain attention through controversy. "It's a tough one to defend."

Mitch Joel, the Canadian president of the digital agencyMirum,said Pepsiwould have knownit was taking a gamble with the ad and that it may have even paid off if the motive was getting attention.

"It's a stunt. They are pulling a stunt," he said. "It's doing what Pepsi needs to do in a very compressed market for them to sell sugar and water."

Pepsi apologized for putting Kendall Jenner "in this position." But Joel said he can't see the misstep hurting Jenner's or Pepsi's brand in the long term.

"By the time this piece is published, there will be someone else that did something more ridiculous and more stupid," he said. "All will be forgotten tomorrow."