PepsiCo
Martin Luther King Jr.'s youngest daughter took to Twitter Wednesday to call out Pepsi for a recent ad starring Kendall Jenner.
"If only Daddy would have known about the power of #Pepsi," Bernice King tweeted on Wednesday, alongside a photo of her father being pushed back by police.
The image of Martin Luther King Jr. stands in stark contrast to the image of Jenner in Pepsi's ad, in which the model joins a protest and makes a police officer smile by handing him a can of soda.
Bernice King is the CEO of the King Center, an organization dedicated to carrying on her parents' legacies of nonviolent social change. Tuesday was the the 49th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.
King isn't the only person criticizing Pepsi's ad. The commercial immediately sparked controversy when it was released Tuesday, with critics saying the ad was tone deaf and co-opted imagery from a Black Lives Matter protest.
"This is a global ad that reflects people from different walks of life coming together in a spirit of harmony, and we think that's an important message to convey," Pepsi said in a statement to Business Insider on Tuesday.
The company declined to say whether or not the commercial will still be aired on television and promoted via social media following the backlash.
If only Daddy would have known about the power of #Pepsi. pic.twitter.com/FA6JPrY72V
- Be A King (@BerniceKing) April 5, 2017An assassin's bullet hit him, but my father laid down his life. He knew. "I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you..." #MLK pic.twitter.com/HtZaLt4Lm3
- Be A King (@BerniceKing) April 4, 2017EVERYONE: well at least 2017 can't possibly get any more tone-deaf
AD EXEC: hold my pepsi pic.twitter.com/RYh4bIVKNM
- Bob Vulfov (@bobvulfov) April 4, 2017So all us dark people have to do is convince a cop that the Pepsi we're holding isn't a gun.
- Kashana (@kashanacauley) April 4, 2017Coke execs tonight after watching kendall's pepsi ad pic.twitter.com/3u7Ti01bpi
- JamesMichael Nichols (@JMN) April 4, 2017