Pepsi Pulls Kendall Jenner AD After Backlash PepsiCo has apologized and pulled the controversial commercial that caused outrage on social media in the last 24 hours, Reuters reports. The ad trivialized issues surrounding racially motivated injustices happening nationally, in places like Baltimore, Ferguson and elsewhere. It stars reality star Kendall Jenner in what looks like a Party City wig, catering to cops at a fake protest. SMH. “Pepsi was trying to project a global message of unity, peace and understanding”, the company said in a statement. “Clearly we missed the mark, and we apologize. We did not intend to make light of any serious issue. We are removing the content and halting any further rollout.” Well, clearly you missed with flying colors, PepsiCo. When Reuters tried to reach out to reps fro Kendall, no one responded. How convenient. Who thought it was a good idea to appropriate injustice anyway??
Luvvie Dishes On Her AT&T Partnership & More! For years, internet famous creatives have struggled to flip Likes, Retweets and Shares into viable careers outside of their Wifi connection. And they’ve tried everything from freelancing to podcasting to YouTubing to frisbeeing away quality content for free without ever breaking into the impossibly competitive digital media industry. At times, it seemed impossible to turn tweets into dollars–rent-paying, food-buying, self-supporting dollars–until ambitious tastemakers like Luvvie Ajayi proved you could flip Twitter fame into offline power moves with golden partnership opportunities. Best known for her wildly popular blog Awesomely Luvvie and must-see tweets , Luvvie created her very own lane as a fiercely funny Black woman in a very white and unfunny space making her an essential leader of the new-age diversity movement. We chatted with the hilarious Twitter maven-turned-best-selling author (“I’m Judging You: The Do-Better Manual”) who recently hosted a beautifully melaniny soirée for top influencers at the Black Enterprise Women of Power Summit ( powered by AT&T ) in Phoenix. “The Black Enterprise Women of Power Summit already attracts amazing women and everybody I invited said yes. So, we had Bozoma Saint John from Apple, Elaine Welteroth from Teen Vogue, Debra M. Chase who is a major TV producer, Nina Shaw who’s an attorney–the who’s who of Black Hollywood… AT&T asked me ‘what would you serve people who want to come to your house for dinner’ and I said rice and great seafood and red velvet cupcakes and they made it happen!” Most aspiring influencers can only dream of reaching Luvvie’s level of eSuccess that sparked a friendship with beloved Shondaland Mayor Shonda Rhimes who loved her deliciously witty Scandal recaps and offered the partnership of a lifetime. “Shonda loved my book and thought it lended itself to television so I’m partnering with Shondaland and hopefully it becomes a television series” Her bookshelf-worthy best-seller I’m Judging You: The Do-Better Manual nudged her into the mainstream where she flourished with a universally enjoyable funny but the journey wasn’t easy. “I got the idea to write this book in August 2014 because somebody plagiarized my work and took about three paragraphs of it and put it in something they were writing and didn’t give me credit… I had a brainstorm session with myself where I just tried to figure out the things I want to write and points I want to make–I wrote a proposal for it to my book agent, sent the proposal out and it got bought by Henry publishing… I wrote this book over 5 months in 6 or 7 countries, 4 continents and I was just very clear about what I wanted to write, I had my proposal as my outline and when it came time to actually write it wasn’t as difficult because I already knew what I wanted to say” Proudly Black and magical, Luvvie is thrilled that her voice touched those who don’t necessarily look like her but still relate nonetheless. It feels good to know that my writing crosses all types of age and gender and geographic boundaries, for me, it’s important to not just be preaching to the choir… I always feel firm that I’m a black woman first, I write for Black women, but it’s a huge compliment to know that other people can still relate to my writing” With success, comes waves of success-thirsty strangers who want to know your every secret to winning and it’s always very simple. “I’ve done what’s authentic to me and I’ve done the things that I’ve loved doing for a long time. I’ve been blogging for 14 years so people see the success that’s happening now, it’s not overnight, it’s not a 1-tip thing, I’ve just been doing this writing online for a long time” What’s NEXT for digital media dynamo Luvvie Ajayi? Well… “I’m gonna keep doing the things I love…working with Shondaland to develop the show, doing more speaking engagements, just stuff that I enjoy” You can purchase Luvvie’s best-seller here , read her addictive blog here and follow her on Twitter here . Special thanks to AT&T for its commitment to supporting Black excellence. Awesomely Luvvie/AT&T
