Kendall Jenner's Pepsi advert is an unpleasant reminder of the racism that still exists in the f

It's not a good day for Pepsi or Kendall Jenner. The company and reality tv star have faced a wave of criticism for the advert they tastelessly released last night.

The advert makes light of Black Lives Matter, a civil rights movement that gained traction in the US after the deaths of two black men, Michael Brown and Eric Garner, at the hands of two Police Officers. A far cry from the Pepsi loving cop Jenner bounds up to in the advert, presenting him a can as scores of (mostly white) 'protestors' cheer behind her, and merely two in a long list of deaths.

Not only is this crass, appropriating and tone-deaf advertising, but it also turns one of the most important and iconic images from the protests that have rocked the US and its African-American community since 2014.

Following the death of Alton Sterling at the hands of Baton Rogue police last summer, Ieshia Evans was photographed by John Bachman at the demonstration that followed, in what quickly became a widely shared image on social media.

It was an untimely release - yesterday marked the 49th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's assassination.

memes created

A clear example, then, of the ways in which companies have long used black experiences to appeal to a white market, and for their own commercial gain.

Chances are some of you will have packets of this rice in your cupboards. It's quick, easy, and has been on supermarket shelves since the 1940s. The creation of two white men, Erich Huzenlaub and British scientist Francis Heron Rogers, the packaging for this easy cook rice has featured 'Uncle Ben' since 1946.

Flickr; TheImpulsiveBuy

Commercial legend has it that once Rogers and Huzenlab sold their product to Mars Inc, one of the projects (white) collaborators decided to use the maitre d' at one of his favourite restaurants as inspiration for the logo. Mars claim that the original 'Uncle Ben' was a 'rice farmer, famous for the quality of his crop'. He's definitely not the man in the logo, raising problematic questions of transposable identity.

To make matters more uncomfortable is a double whammy - rice farms in the South were worked by slaves, who were often referred to with the pejorative 'Uncle' (think of the derogatory associations to the phrase 'Uncle Tom'), which meant a man who was subservient and secondary to white people. Although he may be smiling, the character created by the image of the fictional 'Uncle Ben' is evocative of cheerful servility, and is an uncomfortable reminder of past relations.

It's not just men who were victim to this stereotype. Aunt Jemima, a brand name for the Quaker Oats Company's line of pancake mixes and syrups, has been trademarked since the 1889, and is one of the best examples of how commercial organisations use race to their advantage.

Lifted directly from the minstrel shows of the 1800s, performances in which white people would don black face and parody black stereotypes, Aunt Jemima is the embodiment of a racist archetype, the 'mammie figure'.

This was a stereotypical depiction of the black women who were nannies to their owner's children during slavery. Previous incarnations of the logo included a bandana commonly associated with the character. The grammatically incorrect slogans used by black actresses in adverts for the product were stopped by the company some time ago, but the character herself remains.

Here's some irony for you - the brand is owned by Pepsi.

Flickr: Jeepers Media

. Oh, and does anyone remember when Ashton Kutcher donned brownface for a PopChips ad?

Pepsi have since pulled the advert and apologised to the public. A clip of it can be found in this Fork My Life video:

Updated April 6

#Food