The Grio
During a city council meeting in Portland, Oregon, a man tried to give the mayor a Pepsi.
The protester, who identified himself as Carlos Enrique, told council members, “What I realized is that the language of resistance has not been properly translated.” He then approached Mayor Ted Wheeler and took a can of Pepsi out of his jacket, which he offered to the mayor. “So this is for you.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” the mayor said, visibly nervous. “Not a good move! Don’t do that again. Not a smart move.”
Enrique then pulled another can of Pepsi from his jacket and cracked it open, saluting the mayor with it, before two police officers intervened and removed him from the city council meeting.
The stunt was reminiscent of the recently-pulled Pepsi ad starring Kendall Jenner which saw Jenner join a protest movement and follow the crowd all the way up to a line of policemen. In the ad, she gives a police officer a can of Pepsi, prompting him to crack a smile.
The ad was pulled after it sparked considerable backlash as well as accusations of co-opting the Black Live Matter movement and trivializing protests and their real purposes.
After the Pepsi demonstration, Mayor Wheeler advised those in the room not to repeat Enrique’s action for their “own safety,” cautioning that “if this were the Boston city council, that would’ve ended differently.”
