Portland Man Pulls Kendall Jenner Pepsi Move At City Council Meeting; Panic Erupts
It's my turn to try and keep Portland weird.
A couple of days ago, Pistol Pete, the Iceman had some nice viral action of a dude sauntering down the street with a syringe behind his ear, like a man's man from a previous era would stash a smoke up there. You remember this guy, right?
Well now, we've got a full blown Kendall Jenner episode.
Kendall who? Episo-wha?
Quick backstory:
Pepsi came out with a ridiculous ad, which has subsequently been pulled, showing Kendall Jenner leaving a photo shoot to join a smattering of good-looking young "protesters" who rah-rah when she hands a can of Pepsi to a cop at the rally. Like all relations can be solved over a carbonated beverage. The spot has been mercilessly eviscerated on many social media platforms with varying degrees of scorn ranging from tone-deaf at least to trivializing and glamorizing protests dealing with serious social causes.
It got so bad that Pepsi was in full back pedal mode:
“Pepsi was trying to project a global message of unity, peace and understanding,” the company said Wednesday in a statement announcing the ad had been yanked. "Clearly we missed the mark and we apologize".
So, a man riffing on that commercial, pulled a can of Pepsi out of his pocket during a Portland, Ore., city council meeting and handed it to the mayor. That sudden move caused Mayor Ted Wheeler to panic and security guards had to rush in and subdue the man. One city commissioner said, "that was scary."
You see, Portland is a very tense city these days.
A February 9th police shooting of a black teenager triggered days of protests. Demonstrators have targeted the Mayor and Portland's city hall with more intensity since a grand jury in March concluded there was no criminal wrongdoing on the part of the officer who fired the fatal shot. Protesters have disrupted council meetings, yelled at city employees and camped outside the mayor's home allegedly slicing his tires.
The man with the can, Carlos Enrique, identified himself as a former Boston Herald journalist (he reportedly is not) who had just re-located to Portland. He signed up to give testimony regarding towing boats left on city docks, but that was just a smoke screen. He segued to criticizing the mayor's handling of the city's protests while referencing the Pepsi ad.
After some rambling and talking over each other, Pepsi guy said, "The language of resistance has not been properly translated to you. So this is for you," he said as he stood up and started walking toward the mayor.
As he put his hand is his pocket, the mayor shouted, "uh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Not a good move, not a good move." As someone else shouted "whoa" in the back of the room, Pepsi guy pulled out a can and handed it to the mayor, who replied, "thank you, don't do that again, not a smart move." As Pepsi guy pulled another can from his pocket and popped the top, two men rushed in and subdued him.
The mayor laughed nervously, saying, "Please, folks, do not do that. For your own safety, don't do that, OK? I appreciate it. Welcome to Portland, if this were the Boston city council that would have ended differently".
Full story here.
The whole schmere here.
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