How The New Pepsi Add Left a Bad Taste in Viewers Mouths.

Even though I’ve talked about my struggle with mental health in the past I’ve always avoided the darker subject, stomach depression. Mainly because I never wanted to be put in that box and I also didn’t want to accept it. What do I have to be depressed about? That’s the kind of reaction I got from people the times I did mention the way I was feeling.

On the outset they were right, viagra dosage  there are so many other people in the world who have it worse than me, I am lucky and blessed in so many ways – I don’t have a reason to feel depressed, do I? Shouldn’t I just get over it and be grateful for what I do have? These were the thoughts that would be attacking my already messed up mind, that just added to my guilt and feelings of low self worth. I’ve been scared to speak out & allow myself to accept the depression label because I felt like people would think it’s attention seeking or that I’m ungrateful for the things I do have.

What I’ve realised is, depression doesn’t care if you have a supportive family, it doesn’t care if you have an amazing career, a happy relationship or a strong friendship group.

You can have the best life in the world & be depressed. You can have the worst life in the worst & be depressed. There is no set formula that results in this illness. You might have had something awful or traumatic happen in your life that led to depression. Your mental health may have led to depression. I know for me, it was my OCD which caused me to isolate myself so much which eventually led me to suffer with it. However when you look into why my mental health problems started, there is no specific reason. There’s no major trigger, no traumatic event.  I had a happy home life, a loving family. I want anyone else who is struggling to know that it’s ok to admit you are suffering, that you have the right to acknowledge it. To say that you can’t be sad because someone else may have it worse is like saying you can’t be happy because someone else may have it better. If we’re fighting a constant battle with our own minds, surely we our feelings of unhappiness are valid? As with any mental illness, just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

Depression is literally forgetting what happiness feels like.  The day I accepted that I was suffering from depression was the day I really sat down and analysed my feelings but found I couldn’t – because I didn’t have any. I didn’t feel sad. I didn’t feel scared. I didn’t feel anything. Just numb. Nothing. Empty. It was like my body had turned off the “feelings” switch and I was just existing.

Only my very close friends had an idea of how I really felt, and they only knew 10% of how bad it was. That’s when the isolation starts. You can’t bear to be around anyone in a social setting because you need to sit with your thoughts. You have this intense need to “dwell”. Which is probably the worst thing you can actually do. This gives power to our negative thoughts. We’re not sharing them, we’re not saying them out loud, they are stuck in our minds, building up more strength. We isolate ourselves, feeding the thoughts because there is no one around to challenge them. They are too consuming to be able to focus on anything else in the real world. It’s like being stuck in your own bubble, not in an egotistical way but you’re just trapped and can’t find a way out. I didn’t want to socialise because I actually couldn’t be bothered to talk. I had no energy, nothing to bring to the conversation.

I know it’s hard to believe when you are feeling at your lowest but I’m writing this to let anyone affected know that it does get better. You might not ever be 100% “cured” but there are ways to manage your thoughts that will eventually make you feel happiness again. For me, it was starting a journey towards loving myself enough to know that I don’t deserve to feel like this. Caring about myself enough to be healthy and have good people around me. Believing that I am worth the time and energy I’ve put into my career and relationships. Knowing that I deserve that love I’m trying to give everyone else. Asking for help when I really need it is a big one! It doesn’t mean you’ve failed or you’re not a strong person. The opposite actually, it means that you know your own worth and you’ve decided that you’re strong enough to make the changes you know you need to make to grow and heal.

Written by Suzan Yasemin Selçuk

My mental health platform is @crazycreativecool if you guys wanted to check it out!

 
Even though I’ve talked about my struggle with mental health in the past I’ve always avoided the darker subject, clinic depression. Mainly because I never wanted to be put in that box and I also didn’t want to accept it. What do I have to be depressed about? That’s the kind of reaction I got from people the times I did mention the way I was feeling.

On the outset they were right, order there are so many other people in the world who have it worse than me, I am lucky and blessed in so many ways – I don’t have a reason to feel depressed, do I? Shouldn’t I just get over it and be grateful for what I do have? These were the thoughts that would be attacking my already messed up mind, that just added to my guilt and feelings of low self worth. I’ve been scared to speak out & allow myself to accept the depression label because I felt like people would think it’s attention seeking or that I’m ungrateful for the things I do have.

What I’ve realised is, depression doesn’t care if you have a supportive family, it doesn’t care if you have an amazing career, a happy relationship or a strong friendship group.

You can have the best life in the world & be depressed. You can have the worst life in the worst & be depressed. There is no set formula that results in this illness. You might have had something awful or traumatic happen in your life that led to depression. Your mental health may have led to depression. I know for me, it was my OCD which caused me to isolate myself so much which eventually led me to suffer with it. However when you look into why my mental health problems started, there is no specific reason. There’s no major trigger, no traumatic event.  I had a happy home life, a loving family. I want anyone else who is struggling to know that it’s ok to admit you are suffering, that you have the right to acknowledge it. To say that you can’t be sad because someone else may have it worse is like saying you can’t be happy because someone else may have it better. If we’re fighting a constant battle with our own minds, surely we our feelings of unhappiness are valid? As with any mental illness, just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

Depression is literally forgetting what happiness feels like.  The day I accepted that I was suffering from depression was the day I really sat down and analysed my feelings but found I couldn’t – because I didn’t have any. I didn’t feel sad. I didn’t feel scared. I didn’t feel anything. Just numb. Nothing. Empty. It was like my body had turned off the “feelings” switch and I was just existing.

Only my very close friends had an idea of how I really felt, and they only knew 10% of how bad it was. That’s when the isolation starts. You can’t bear to be around anyone in a social setting because you need to sit with your thoughts. You have this intense need to “dwell”. Which is probably the worst thing you can actually do. This gives power to our negative thoughts. We’re not sharing them, we’re not saying them out loud, they are stuck in our minds, building up more strength. We isolate ourselves, feeding the thoughts because there is no one around to challenge them. They are too consuming to be able to focus on anything else in the real world. It’s like being stuck in your own bubble, not in an egotistical way but you’re just trapped and can’t find a way out. I didn’t want to socialise because I actually couldn’t be bothered to talk. I had no energy, nothing to bring to the conversation.

I know it’s hard to believe when you are feeling at your lowest but I’m writing this to let anyone affected know that it does get better. You might not ever be 100% “cured” but there are ways to manage your thoughts that will eventually make you feel happiness again. For me, it was starting a journey towards loving myself enough to know that I don’t deserve to feel like this. Caring about myself enough to be healthy and have good people around me. Believing that I am worth the time and energy I’ve put into my career and relationships. Knowing that I deserve that love I’m trying to give everyone else. Asking for help when I really need it is a big one! It doesn’t mean you’ve failed or you’re not a strong person. The opposite actually, it means that you know your own worth and you’ve decided that you’re strong enough to make the changes you know you need to make to grow and heal.

Suzan Yasemin Selçuk

p.s My mental health platform is @crazycreativecool if you guys wanted to check it out!

 
In decades past, more about Pepsi was considered to be ground breaking. They included people of color in advertising before their other big soda counterparts were on board with the idea. Their ad campaigns were pretty up there on mainstream diversity, stuff some examples including ads with Beyoncé, Michael Jackson and Pink to name a few. So, it completely baffles me why the company thought their latest commercial was a good idea.

The company presented the internet with what I’m guessing was supposed to be taken as a ‘personality to activist’ type of movement. A young, white model is shooting a campaign when she looks out and sees people in the street with signs marching. The model then walks out of her fashion shoot and pulls off a blonde wig and thrusts it into the hands of a black woman standing in the vicinity and walking forward, leaving the black woman in the proverbial dust. Bearing in mind that black women and many other women of color have been at the forefront of protests for years, it immediately put a bad taste in a lot of mouths.

After that, the white model then looks to other groups of people of color for the go ahead as she makes her way to the front of this March. We truly do not have enough word space to get into the plethora of subtle themes Pepsi ran through within a two minute and change commercial.

The bigger of the themes were the bold silencing of the black woman at the offset and then the black men, who seem to gravitate around the white model, fitting the savior trope, while the model continued to move ahead to the front of the protest, using them and then leaving them behind… which is all too familiar. All of the minority groups the model looked to for the okay before centering herself: a young, white, able bodied woman, in front and as the face of this march.

The model then approaches a non violent line of police officers and offers one of them a Pepsi as a carbonated branch offering. Smiles are all around and I can’t help but think about the (not) All Women’s March that happened in January. It reminded me and so many others of what social media looked like the day of the march, so many white women being condescending towards other protests and using themselves and their one day of march as the bar for people for being peaceful and taking selfies with cops while protesting. They absolutely missed the point, and Pepsi furthered the divide.

The protests and marches that have been happening for ages were never intended to be violent. Black Lives Matter and ‘I can’t breathe’ and the numerous matches for racial, social and political change are not violent. When the cops are already greeting you in riot gear with shields and tear gas because of the color of your skin… I’d say that’s not being peaceful. People are getting arrested and having bodily harm inflicted, but hand them a Pepsi right?

The model, being a white woman, greeting police with a bright smile and a can of soda. Newsflash: they don’t see her as threatening.

As a matter of fact, as far back as history goes, white women tend to be the standard in who needs the most “protection.” The company may think it’s just a commercial but, effectively they’re saying Eric Garner would’ve still been alive if he had handed a cop a Pepsi in front of the bodega where he died trying to make a living. Sandra Bland would’ve left her traffic stop alive if she’d had a Pepsi. Alton Sterling should’ve had three huh? Would the police would be looking for those missing girls in DC if they had Pepsi for them?

Viewers immediately pointed out how absurd and asinine that notion is, but again- here we are. In true fashion, Pepsi at first doubled down on their decision to go forward with the ad, despite backlash. Ultimately, they’re deciding to pull it. The overall theme of the commercial was supposed to be activism and coming together and it sorely missed the mark. Activism is not aesthetic. It’s not a marketing tool.

With everything going on in the governments and looming fears of rights being stripped away, activism and protest is becoming more and more commonplace. It’s always been around. There is time and place and outlet though.

Written by Aubri Elle

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