Earlier this month, Kendall Jenner appeared in a Pepsi ad that quickly became criticized by the Internet and the media. What was supposed to be an iconic moment for the 21-year-old model quickly became memorable for the wrong reasons as it morphed into a hotbed of controversy. Just days after it was released, and then taken down, the ad was mocked in a sketch on Saturday Night Live. The soda company also personally apologized to Kendall.
Now, Caitlyn Jenner is speaking up on the matter and defending her daughter. In an interview with The Daily Beast, CNN commentator Margaret Hoover asks Caitlyn about how she goes about doling advice to her kids, especially in regards to the commercial.
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"It wasn’t Kendall’s fault," Caitlyn tells the reporter in a video, below. "Yes, it was a bad situation with Pepsi. Kendall is the most wonderful, adorable, sweet young woman, OK? She’s a model. She got hired by Pepsi. She was very excited to go do a Pepsi commercial, kinda like Cindy Crawford did. And Cindy Crawford is like her hero and idol."
Caitlyn also said that when her daughter first read the script, she was happy with it and thought it was "quite good." “Then it came out, and oh boy!” she says. “There was a group of people out there that just thought, ‘Wait a second, this is not working!’ Kendall was very surprised."
The 65-year-old also says that it was "a small group" that "shut it down very quickly," adding that "72 percent of the people liked the commercial."
Of the experience, Caitlyn adopts a very sportsmanlike attitude, remarking: "Anytime you’re involved with something you want it to be successful. Unfortunately, this was not successful."