Pepsi: Martin Luther King's daughter Bernice responds to axed advert starring Kendall Jenner

Advert 'contributed to the notion that there is a fairy-tale, light way to ease conflicts that have existed in this nation for hundreds of years'

The daughter of Martin Luther King has made a rather blistering comment on Pepsi's controversial advert starring Kendall Jenner.

The commercial, which showed Jenner handing a can of fizzy drink to a police officer and presumably achieving world peace, caused uproar over claims it co-opted police killings of black people in America.

Pepsi has now pulled the advert and issued a statement saying it "clearly missed the mark" and apologised for "putting Kendall Jenner in this position".

Responding to the commercial, Bernice King posted an image of her father being held back by police on Twitter and wrote: "If only Daddy would have known about the power of #Pepsi."

Her tweet was shared more than 117,000 times and 'liked' by over 200,000 people.

Following her comment, she wrote in the Huffington Post and said that the advert "contributed to the notion that there is a fairy-tale, light way to ease conflicts that have existed in this nation for hundreds of years".

She continued: "That way to what my father would call 'false peace' was depicted as being cleared by a white woman in a moment parallel to a photo of Ieshia Evans, a black woman who bravely stood before law enforcement in Baton Rouge, LA last July during a protest against police brutality."

Commending Pepsi for pulling the ad, King said she hoped the experience would educate people and bring them together.

"This moment is ripe for personal, organisational and community transformation," she wrote. "Let's not miss the moment. Together, we can."