Madonna, Queen of Instagram, just threw some serious shade at Kendall Jenner's Pepsi ad
You can always trust Madonna to tell it like it is. And, that's precisely what she's done on Instagram after Pepsi's advert featuring Kendall Jenner was mocked around the world for being tone-deaf.
In the highly unlikely event you missed it, Pepsi's ad opens with a protest, during which millennials brandish cringeworthy signs like "join the conversation". Kendall Jenner, who's taking part in a photoshoot nearby, joins the protest and gives a riot police officer a can of Pepsi, bringing the political rest to an end.
Unsurprisingly, the ad drew the ire and derision of the internet. Pepsi pulled the plug on it and apologised for having "missed the mark".
Madonna, Queen of Instagram, made a not-so-subtle dig at the Pepsi ad. "When you wake up and realize that Shit just really doesn't make sense," she mused. "Side note: My Pepsi commercial was pulled 30 years ago because I was kissing a black saint! 👼🏾 #ironic," the singer added.
Back in 1989, Pepsi pulled its two-minute TV ad featuring Madonna singing and dancing after her music video for "Like a Prayer" attracted criticism from religious groups due to its inclusion of religious imagery. The video featured burning crosses and the seduction of a saint, and some people mistakenly assumed the video was part of the Pepsi ad. Madonna's shade-throwing didn't end there. She then shared a throwback photo of herself holding a can of Coca-Cola at the 1999 Grammy Awards.
You shady, shady kween, Madonna.
Topics Instagram
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
