Why are we all so sensitive?

Why are we all so sensitive?

By Elise Christian April 2017 Ok, so I don't know if maybe it’s just me, but doesn't everyone seem a little too sensitive nowadays? It’s as if everyone is waiting for someone to do something even a tiny bit controversial so they can start kicking and screaming. Maybe this post will also prove to be one of those controversial things, but I can't work out why people seem to have a permanent bee in their bonnet.

I suppose the reason this has been brought to my attention recently is because of the response to the latest Pepsi advert featuring Kendall Jenner. Just in case you don’t know who Kendall is, she’s a 21-year-old American reality TV star who has appeared alongside her famous Kardashian sisters (the most famous being Kim Kardashian) in the reality TV show Keeping up with the Kardashians. She has also established herself in the modelling world and has modelled for Vogue and Victoria’s Secret.

In the advert, she is seen taking part in a photoshoot until she notices a protest going on outside. She then rips of her wig, grabs a can of Pepsi, walks through the protest crowd and offers a policeman a can of Pepsi as peace offering. The crowd then cheers and applauds. Since the advert was aired, many viewers have drawn parallels with the Black Lives Matter protests, as they say many of the scenes look the same. People have taken to social media to sarcastically make comments about Kendall Jenner stopping police brutality with a can of Pepsi and it does look as though people are genuinely upset.

Pepsi were quick to defend the message in their advert and said it was intended to show people from different walks of life coming together in harmony – in other words they did not mean to offend anyone. But my point is – of course they didn’t! I’m getting increasingly frustrated with people reaching the conclusion that everything has

underlying messages and personal hidden agendas. No one can do or say anything that relates to a slightly sensitive issue without someone, somewhere turning it into a media storm that lasts for days and that nobody can escape from. Pepsi is one of the biggest companies in the world, so they were probably overjoyed to use Kendal Jenner in their ad, who is currently one of the biggest models in the world. They would not have risked harming their sales figures by posting something designed to offend by trivialising important issues.

You might also recall the Sainsbury’s Christmas advert from 2014 which depicts the famous meeting of First World War soldiers in no man’s land on Christmas day in 1914. The scene in the advert shows the soldiers putting their guns down, climbing from the trenches and meeting halfway across no man’s land to exchange Christmas presents - one of which is a chocolate bar which Sainsbury’s were selling to raise money for the Great British Legion.

I thought it was great and it made me smile, but the advert at the time was said to have received 240 complaints by people who called it disrespectful. It seems that a moving story from history cannot be revisited – even for positive reasons like fundraising, without somebody getting upset. It’s as though we should all bury our heads in the sand and pretend that nothing emotive ever took place before this very moment we are in. Maybe people are just upset that these issues are being revisited in a very commercial way, but don’t all adverts try and connect with us in an emotive, relatable way on some level? That’s why adverts are always full of bunnies and kittens in biscuit packets because these cute animals tap into our emotions and make us feel something. That’s also why companies have previously used such emotive Christmas adverts about lonely old people – we see and remember these adverts to the point that I am able to sit and write about them a couple of years later. And more to the point, it hasn't made me go and buy anything. If people can't sit and watch an advert without feeling compelled to rush out and spend money, then maybe that's an issue they need to take up with themselves. For the people who do enjoy the adverts and might spend some money as result then good for them - they are obviously happy, and it should be left at that.

Going back to the Pepsi advert, I personally think this advert is just a bit too happy-clappy for everyone. It’s like when paramedics or nurses see blood, gore and death every day – many of them make jokes about it to keep the

morale up and it’s not because they actually believe in the face value of these jokes or think it’s funny, it’s purely because we’re human and making light of a serious situation makes it easier to cope with. So, I believe that if Pepsi had intended to mirror scenes from Black Lives Matter protests then it would have been for this sole reason – to make an issue surrounding police brutality and black people, which is very serious and upsetting, not be so serious and upsetting, at least just for the short duration of the advert. It has been described as ‘tone deaf’ which maybe it is – but maybe it wouldn’t matter if people didn’t spend so long scrutinizing everything and looking for problems.

I’m a fairly sensitive person myself and I certainly don’t lack in emotion, but I just dismissed this as another ditsy advert – not dissimilar to the Herbal Essences shampoo adverts over the years that make you cringe to the point where you want to shut your eyes and cover your ears.

And above all, if I was offended by the ambiguous Pepsi advert, I wouldn’t take to social media to complain about it and project more negativity at everyone on my friends list. This is one of the places I think social media falls down – it’s becoming more and more of a platform for people to air grievances, which means its slowly becoming a source of negativity. If you’ve got a bone to pick, why not just write a blog post, like me!