Transcript:
Marketing teams are tasked with the difficult job of grabbing your attention and convincing you to buy stuff in years past many have succeeded in creating effective and compelling marketing campaigns for businesses but every once in a while they get it horribly wrong it can be pretty devastating while great ads can lift a company up awful ads can easily destroy it this can result in serious brand damage profit loss and in rare cases bankruptcy you can probably think of a few but what are the worst of the worst well I’m Michael was 25 and here are 25 disastrous marketing fails that actually happened 25 DiGiorno hashtag why I stayed campaign after NFL player Ray Rice was suspended for beating his wife Twitter blew up with a hashtag why I stayed trend thousands of women spoke out about why they stayed in their abusive relationship so in a foolish attempt to stay relevant there’s one oh Pizza humped on the hashtag Trent not to share their own story but to sell pizza turns out the company didn’t take the time to understand what the hashtag was about and just fired off hashtag why I stayed you had pizza once they figured out their error they deleted the tweet and profusely apologized still might be smart to look into the hashtags before using them 20 for you to free album apple and u2 have had a strong relationship together since their early beginnings in the 1980s with the release of the iPhone 6 they both thought hey wouldn’t it be great if we just gave away you twos new album to all iPhone owners turns out it wasn’t so great it was quickly mocked online with people comparing it to music spam it was such a problem that Apple developed an entire instruction page on how to remove the music if someone wanted to it apparently wasn’t an easy process 23 lipitor malpractice add in a lipitor add a man by the name of dr. Jarvik appears on screen and claims to be a doctor a big part of the ad hinges on his celebrity as a professional recommendation however it turned out dr. jariabek never practiced medicine in his life and never held a medical license Pfizer quickly pulled the ad after being investigated for malpractice 22 Walmart bakes Isis cake a man went to a Walmart to have a cake made with the Confederate flag on it with the words heritage not hate the bakery denied his request later the man went to the same Walmart and requested the cake be made with the ISIS battle flag they made it of course the man was outraged Walmart apologized claiming the Baker didn’t know what the flag represented the real question is what birthday were these cakes for 21 God of War 2 animal abuse fail to create a lot of buzz and capture the violent tone and feel of God of War 2 Sony rolled the dice and decided to throw a huge party with the dead carcass of a goat included that are yet guests reached inside the goat still warm gut and age awful organ meats from its stomach when word got out in the media animal rights activists had a field day Sony quickly apologized 20 Starbucks encourages race discussions thinking their baristas are not only brewers of delicious coffee but also ambassadors for peace Starbucks encourage customers to discuss race with them after the brief says wrote race together on each coffee cup the campaign ruffled a few feathers turns out most people don’t want to talk about a touchy subject right as they get their coffee 19 subway sexy Halloween costume backfire Subway’s core message has always been there the healthier fast-food option one of their ads in 2014 tried to push this message by encouraging women to look sexy in their Halloween costumes by eating their food let’s just say it did go over too well once it got massive negative attention subway pulled the ads 18 SanDisk a sheep campaign with the iPod becoming a worldwide phenomenon SanDisk tried to push back and compete against Apple’s popular product however they went about it the wrong way calling it a sheep they mocked anyone who had an iPod as sheep the ads didn’t win over anyone who had an iPod and the cool campaign only brought that negative press and ridicule 17 the assurance billboard gets a double take by all accounts the assurance billboard was totally fine with a purple background and big white text it read cover your home in a click the problem came when the font was too close together blurring the lines of some of the words many people thought it said cover your home in a dick it spread all over the internet and insurance was quick to take the Billboard down 16 Spirit Airlines photo scandal campaign Spirit Airlines is known for going low in their ticket prices but this marketing campaign took it to a whole new level after a celebrity nude photo hacking scandal spread online involving Jennifer Lawrence Kate Upton and Rihanna Spirit Airlines decided to use the media storm to their advantage their ad read our bear fare was hacked while showing a drawing of a woman covering herself up yeah it was pretty much the definition of tasteless fifteen Nordstrom’s Hanukkah sweater backfire after releasing a faux ugly Hanukkah sweater Nordstrom immediately went under fire for its offensive portrayal of Jewish women claiming it perpetuates negative stereotypes the sweater had the words high-maintenance on the front once the outrage swirled Facebook Nordstrom took notice and pulled the sweater from their lineup 14 holiday in Super Bowl ad holiday and was undergoing major changes and wanted to advertise it to customers however they made the poor decision of comparing their changes to the changes of a transsexual it was tasteless and played for Laughs in a clever wink and nudge needless to say it was poorly received 13 just for feet racist ad just for feet had huge ambitions they wanted to be an athletic shoe superstore and put all their hopes on a Superbowl ad in 1999 believing the ad would rock at their business just four feet had no idea it would do the exact opposite the ad featured four white men hunting down a barefoot Canyon runner knocking him out and forcing just for feet shoes on him the ad was decreed as imperialistic and racist just four feet became known as a racist company soon after they filed a lawsuit against the ad agency but eventually the lawsuit was dropped in just four fede filed for bankruptcy the last store closed in 2004 twelve Urban Outfitters Kent State University failed Urban Outfitters released a vintage sweater with faux dirt and blood on it the problem it has the Kent State University logo on it Kent State University was the site of 1970s protests where the National Guard fired on unarmed war activities killing four and injuring nine others Urban Outfitters claimed they weren’t trying to make that connection but pull the shirt from the lineup anyway 11 BP oil spill ad Vail after the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010 BP decided to do damage control spending 50 million dollars on advertising with their CEO apologizing claiming they’d clean up the mess and fix the problem it only poured more salt on the wound getting slammed by the media and President Obama for spending millions on advertising rather than cleaning up the mess and helping compensate people for lost jobs 10 Bloomingdale’s date-rape ad during the holidays the last thing you want to do is scare off any customers Bloomingdale’s clearly didn’t get the memo in one of their ads a man with an eerie demeanor is looking from behind as a woman looks off to the side smiling the ad red spike your best friend’s eggnog when they’re not looking not soon after the internet blew up with rage the green the ad as a promotion for date rape 9 Groupon Superbowl ad in 2011 Groupon released the Superbowl ad about today and first it looked like a serious piece on the plight of the Tibetan people however in the second half it turned into a fun gentil ad talking about how great their curry is the uproar was swift and quick with people upset the Groupon would make light of a suffering country ate Under Armour’s Battle of the ballers t-shirt Under Armour released a t-shirt with the silhouette of basketball players lifting a basketball hoop up like the iconic Battle of Iwo Jima photo calling it battle of the ballers critics lashed out against the shirt saying the company was making light of American veterans 7 Susan Boyles Twitter mess happens Susan Boyles marketing team tried to use a hashtag campaign to bring attention to her new album however they may have wanted to take a second to think through the hashtag Susan album party owl of I’ll let you figure out what went wrong 6 Oh Bovie India add the mattress company Ogilvy India random ad showing Malala yousufzai getting shot falling to a curl on mattress and then bouncing upward to the girl fighting for girls education yousafzai was shot by the Taliban before becoming an education rights activist let’s just say using her horrific story to sell mattresses didn’t go over so well five life alert terrifying ad life alert takes their business very very seriously in an attempt to scare people into buying their product they aired an ad of an old lady at the bottom of the stairs unable to get up screaming so terrifying were the ads that people flocked to the company’s Facebook page to complain Life Alert stated however they thought the ends justify the means people should be aware of the seriousness of letting their loved ones be helpless without their product for dr. pepper treasure hunt as a promotion dr. pepper suggested there might be one million-dollar coin in the Boston granary burial ground the final resting place of Paul Revere Samuel Adams and other national figures terrified treasure hunters would come out to destroy the site the city shut it down and criticized the company for a cheap disrespectful publicity stunt three Levi’s controversial body image ad Levi’s has released an ad trying to push a positive body image message saying hotness comes in all shapes and sizes however the three models in their ad only showed people with slim figures not representing the average person an ad watchdog vlog quickly denounced the ad saying it didn’t represent any women over a size six to Hines QR code when you scan a QR code on a Heinz ketchup bottle chances are the last thing you’re expecting to find is a porn website but that’s exactly what happened to one man who scanned a German Heinz ketchup bottle being taken to a porn site rather than the main Heinz page Heinz apologized to the man by giving him a personalized ketchup bottle one pets the ad trivializing black lives matter recently in 2017 pet C aired an ad featuring protesters going up against police officers then kendall Jenner walks up to the police handing them a Pepsi can as if that’ll solve everyone’s problems shortly after it got raked over the coals online for making light of the black lives matter movement Pepsi quickly apologized and pulled the ad saying their intention was to promote unity peace and understanding
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