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We live in an attention economy. But because we have access to constant stimulation, it can be incredibly difficult to grab someone’s focus, especially if you’re trying to advertise a product or service. So companies need to come up with bold, creative ideas to engage consumers. They just have to be careful not to make massive mistakes, or their customers won’t ever let them live it down.
Netizens have been discussing some of the worst marketing campaigns that companies have ever run, so we’ve gathered a list of these painfully bad ideas below. From unintentionally making insensitive comments to seemingly inviting customers to mock them, these campaigns definitely should not have gotten the green light. Enjoy reading about these PR disasters, and be sure to upvote the ones that you believe should have cost someone their job!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
That Bloomingdales as they just came out with encouraging you to "spike your friends drink when they're not looking".
RELATED:
#2
The Kendall Jenner Pepsi Ad, when Pepsi involved themselves in racial politics.
Pepsi created an ad that ran for a microsecond, which stepped into the lane of the Black Lives Matter movement. They thought drinking a pepsi could end police violence.
It didn't go well.
#3
Healthy Choice foods had a promo where you could earn 500 frequent filer miles by sending in 10 bar codes (and it was 1000 miles per 10 bar codes at first). An engineer discovered that their promo applied to 25 cent pudding cups, too.
So he bought $3150 worth of pudding, donated it to food banks, and earned over 1.25 million frequent flier miles - enough for 31 round trip tickets to Europe! He even got a tax refund for his charitable donation of the pudding.
When a massive, successful, world-renowned company wants to launch a new marketing campaign, there are hundreds of factors for them to consider. They have to think about what their current customers want, as well as how to attract new ones. They have to maintain the spirit of the brand that they’ve built over many years, while still providing a fresh take on their products. And, of course, they have to try not to offend anyone.
According to Good Brand Consultants, the harsh reality is that most marketing campaigns fail. So it’s important for companies to do all they can to set themselves up for success. And the first way to do so is to have strong positioning. A business should make it crystal clear what they stand for and how they differ from other companies.
#4
The NYPD put a call out on Twitter for people to tweet their favorite stories and pictures with NYPD officers.
Yup. They got an epic load of pictures of NYPD officers beating the [hell] out of young black men.
#5
The Susan Boyle album release promotional hashtag #susanalbumparty
Give it a close look.
Daniel Atkins 7 hours ago
Reading that like Sean Connery in the Saturday Night Live Celebrity Jeopardy skit.
#6
"Irish mist" whiskey wasn't translated when sold in Germany and saw a drop in sales, this was due to the German word "mist" meaning "manure" in English.
It’s also important for brands to have strong messaging that will stick with consumers, if they want to have a successful marketing campaign. This might be a great slogan, a strong brand voice, or a catchy jingle. But it’s crucial that the tone of voice and messaging are consistent across all platforms. Everyone should be on the same page, so customers are never confused.
If a company has already been struggling with unsuccessful campaigns, Good Brand Consultants notes that they might need to audit their brand messaging. By getting feedback from customers, they can figure out exactly how to tighten up their advertisements. Sometimes, simple messaging is better. Meanwhile, company leaders must ensure that everyone on their team is aligned, or the company won’t ever have a unified voice.
#7
In the early nineties, Hoover vacuums had a promotion in England that offered plane tickets for buying a vacuum. People were buying vacuums and throwing/giving them away, and just completely overwhelmed them. They lost tons of money on this.
#8
In Georgia, there was an anti obesity campaign that paired pics of sad looking fat kids with harsh captions. Didn't go over very well.
#9
A tornado ripped through Northern Kentucky some years ago. A car dealership decided it would be a good idea to create an ad that read "For every car sold, we will donate $100 to help those affected by the tornado." That lasted less than a week. Local news covered it and the general consensus was that it was a [trashy] move on their part. I compare it to the Facebook posts "If this picture gets a million likes, this boy will get a new heart."
Every business is bound to make mistakes from time to time, but if you want to prevent making massive PR disasters, ADMA has some tips. First, they note that companies cannot neglect privacy reform in their data practices. It’s also important that they have clear and authentic copywriting in their campaigns. When it comes to analytics, they must rely on data, rather than intuition. And nowadays, it’s crucial to have multi-channel marketing to pull customers from a variety of platforms.
#10
Disney Cruise lines advertising by playing the music from Under the Sea. If I'm going on a cruise I sure hope the ship stays on top of the sea...
Cammy Mack 6 hours ago
That's Disney for you. Stumbling through the mist of entertainment, completely unaware of how incompetent they really are.
#11
The Pepsi Millionaire contest in the Philippines back in 1993.
Instead of a single bottle cap being printed with the winning number "349", over 800,000 were printed. Pepsi knew nothing about the mistake and announced the winning number.
Once the attacks on Pepsi factories and trucks started the executives decided to offer $20 to anybody holding a "349" cap.
It gets worse from there.
#12
When Ulta sent an email with the subject line “Come hang with Kate Spade!” after Kate Spade [ended her own life]. That’s the wildest one I saw in real time.
Can you recall any particularly tragic marketing mishaps that you’ve witnessed before, pandas? Keep upvoting the stories that give you second-hand embarrassment, and let us know in the comments below which brands you don’t expect to ever recover. Then, if you’re interested in checking out another Bored Panda article featuring PR blunders, look no further than right here!
#13
Bic Pens for Her.
Bic released a brand of pens "just for her." They are/were pink or purple, probably just colored variations of your standard Bic throwaway pen. After the Amazon reviews revealed that pretty much everyone thought pens just for women were really stupid (you should read them; they're hilarious), media outlets started talking about them and reading those reviews aloud on the news. There were hundreds of snarky blog posts about it, and those sites that write lists of things grouped the Bic for Her pens in with other disastrous gender-specific products (like Dr Pepper 10, which is for men, apparently). It was just a bad idea, and the internet really grabbed hold of it before Bic could explain why they thought it was a good idea. I don't know if they even sell them anymore.
#14
Back when "Top Thrill Dragster," a 420 ft tall shoot-up-and-over roller coaster ride opened at Cedar Point, the banners all said "Reach for the Sky, 420!"
They were down the next day.
#15
There was a viral campaign for Saw 5 where you go to their website and enter a friend's phone number, which has Jigsaw call them with a message that you've been kidnapped. This resulted in some people calling the police and causing a bit of a panic. It had to be shut down.
Luke || Kira (he/she) 2 hours ago
Such "prank" could potentially be LETHAL to people with psychosis or some other condition that removes the borders between fiction and reality.
#16
Having the U2 Album "Songs of Innocence" being an automatic download to my iTunes Library.
UselessKnowledgeFont 7 hours ago
I haven't listened to it in over a decade, but I recall thinking that it was great to walk fast to
#17
The recent one by YourTaxis in Australia where they asked people to share their taxi experiences by twitter. Everyone just shared their bad experiences including a few from women who were [attacked] by taxi drivers.
#18
I'm missing the source for this, but apparently Coca Cola had what they thought would be a universally appreciated advert of three consecutive images: a guy looking sad, the same guy drinking Coke, the guy looking happy respectively. However, they had not factored in the fact that in many countries, they read from right to left.
#19
All you can eat crab legs at Red Lobster. When you can have as much as you want, you don't care to really dig out the meat. You just throw it out and ask for more.
Someone lost their job over it.
#20
American Eagle “good jeans” campaign with Sydney Sweeney.
ben woskje 3 hours ago
how on earth is that a "worst marketing campaign" ? Plenty of free publicity from manufactured pretend outrage... sales increased over 25% and profit surged.... maybe just stick to the man-hate content BP.
#21
Lots of good ones here already but adding to the list: The Peloton holiday ad that boiled down to:
"Wife, I got you a Peloton for Christmas."
(Next Christmas) "Hubby, I got in shape for you for Christmas. I'm eternally blessed because you got me a Peloton."
#22
A hair salon in Edmonton released this ad, claiming that you can look good "in all that you do," featuring a woman with a black eye, and her partner standing behind her.
#23
I forget which Olympics it was, but I think McDonalds offered a free item depending on what medal the USA got in a particular event (I think it was like the monopoly where you peel off the sticker to see what event). Long story short, the U.S cleaned house that year, and McDonalds was stuck with giving away free burgers and drinks to everyone that won, which was pretty much everyone.
Daniel Atkins 7 hours ago
Man this is lazy writing with no research. It was the 1984 summer games due to the USSR and the eastern bloc countries boycotting the games in Los Angeles. This was retaliation for the US and others boycotting the games in Moscow due to the Afghan war.
#24
Sony's "PSP White is coming".
Cammy Mack 7 hours ago
They could have done a Kirk/Uhura kiss type advertisement. I thought that up in two seconds. It's not difficult.
#25
Dr. Pepper 10
It's not for women.
I mean I get they were trying to be funny and I get the point they were trying to make. But to me it came off as just a bad idea.
#26
"What can brown do for you?" from UPS.
Cammy Mack 6 hours ago
Puns about the color brown aren't my favorite thing, but they're a solid number two.
#27
My college's (Drake University) campaign for recruiting prospective students 3-ish years ago was "The D+ Advantage." Because we all want to be D+ students. I mean, I enrolled anyway, but everyone still makes fun of it on campus.
#28
Never Forget this one.
#29
This ad, I still have a hard copy flyer from vision expo 2001 somewhere.
Daniel Atkins 7 hours ago
The ad says August 23 it is not like it happened after September 11 or they knew what was going to happen.
#30
I remember the tourism board of Hong Kong put out ads saying it would "Take your breath away", right when the SARS epidemic broke out.
#31
Adecco Way to Work. Turns out they stole the idea, and their follow up social media response was basically transparent [defense]. Complete disaster.
WWF 9-11 campaign: Showed dozens of planes crashing into NY to illustrate the enormity of the tsunami in Asia. Apparently people get put off by images of 9/11 in advertising. Who knew?
JCP: Depending on who you ask, more of failed marketing than the campaign. The commercials were generally well liked and pushing back on One Million Moms got them some pretty good PR, but the loss of sales scared off their core consumer and they're trying to claw their way back.
Ninja edit: Head on apply directly to forehead! Remember these god awful commercials, great awareness but never brought in any sales because how is forehead goo better than just taking an aspirin?
Grace Sssssss 8 hours ago (edited)
Apply Directly to Forehead AAAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! I remember those!
#32
Cracker Barrel or Bud Light didn’t go over too well with their primary demographic.
sofacushionfort 6 hours ago
Approximately 100 years ago, the US shifted from a predominantly rural to urban population. This brought a wave of nostalgia for a disappearing way of life where small town communities were centered around the general store. The archetype of the “cracker barrel philosopher” arose, a wise elder who spoke common sense. That was the image sought by original chain restaurant in the old logo. Nobody in the 2020s would know of this ancient trope, but the ones who resented the change away from it showed the same resistance to the modern world moving away from them as they had in the 1920s
#33
Pepsi Stuff campaign for the Jet - the one the documentary series “Pepsi, where’s my jet” profiled might be the most epic one I can remember.
#34
Chevy had a create-your-own-commercial contest that allowed people to ad captions to footage of SUVs driving through exotic locations, which resulted in parody ads focusing on global warming and environmental degredation.
#35
Dr Pepper's customizable "I'm a Pepper" campaign - you could buy a branded t-shirt directly from them and replace "Pepper" in "I'm a Pepper" with anything you wanted... anything at all... Not sure who was in charge of monitoring those...
#36
Dominoes Pizza in Australia started a series of adds touting that there was going to be a 'game changer' coming soon. People were actually pretty curious, and interested to see what it was going to be. Turns out it was just a new pizza. That was square. Not even joking, they were made complete fools of.
#37
That commercial from the tobacco truth people.
Where they just used memes and kept saying "it's a trap".
#38
John Carter, and I include the title as part of the marketing campaign because they 100% name movies like this with an eye to how they will market it. Leaving off "Of Mars" probably cost them 50-100 million.
Daniel Atkins 7 hours ago
Huh? I thought it was because they crammed several of the books into one movie.
#39
That McDonald's campaign where they depicted a guy saying "I'd hit it" about their Dollar Menu items. Look, buddy, whatever you want to do with that double cheeseburger in your spare time is between you and whatever weird sites you visit.
#40
Groupon's 'Tibetan Curry' Superbowl ad received a whole metric ton of fall out, which led to CPB Group losing the account very publicly in less than 24 hours. It was harsh to watch, but unfortunately someone had to take the fall.
#41
Well, the Taco Bell Chihuahua ads were controversial with Hispanics and there was a sharp decline in sales for TB during a period when the ads ran. It also turned out that TB and their advertising company essentially "stole" the idea from two guys who pitched it to TB years earlier. Stole is kind of a loose idea here since you can't legally protect ideas, just execution of those ideas, but TB did lose the lawsuit.
#43
Gatorade by changing the names of products and not explaining their new before, during, and after stages of a work out that their product should be used for. Sales plummeted.
#44
The CMO of my company did a Twitter marketing push using a third party company without talking to me, the marketing manager who handles socials.
The company used the most recognizable meme old man in three of the ads. Did not go well for us.
The fix was firing them and letting me handle it from there.
#45
Probably any time a company tries to use facebook or twitter and people respond with what everyone really thinks.
#46
Regan using "born in the USA" without Springsteen's permission.
#47
Michael Dukakis' tank ride video pretty much destroyed his chance at the presidency.
Liliana Spiro 1 hour ago
Wasn't the issue here that people brutally roasted Dukakis for looking like M.A.D. magazine's Alfred E. Neuman?
#48
Maybe not something a lot of people noticed but Rick Perry's campaign ad has an pro religion anti gay pro america vibe to it. He used a piece of music by Aaron Copland, a very american composer to give his ad a real american feel to it. One thing that was overlooked though was that Aaron Copland was a homosexual. Just thought that was a bit funny.
#49
I think Samsung got in trouble for making the Galaxy S4 slogan "Applesauce".
At least here in Sweden.
#50
KFC had a commercial within the last four years stating "What part of the chicken is the nugget? At KfC, we serve POPCORN chicken."
To which I thought "Seriously? What part is the popcorn?"
Recently they had a commercial for "Popcorn Nuggets." Which throws their first commercial (even though it already did it itself) out the window.
#51
Google Glass. Insane technology. It has the ability to assist in a lot of areas of life, but was marketed as a novelty nerd item.
#52
The McDonald's Arch Deluxe was a $300 million failure.
The ad campaign was their most expensive to-date, and showed kids trying to the burger and being disgusted by it. The idea is "McDonald's isn't just for kids anymore!" but the whole thing failed spectacularly.
#53
I saw an ad for Klondikes (an ice cream bar with a hard chocolate shell) a few years ago with the usual "What would you do" theme, and a guy getting a bikini wax. I used to absolutely love Klondikes, but now I can't think about them without imagining pubic hair stuck in the chocolate.
#54
Not me but an agency.
Wanting to promote English literature bachelors and masters and they had added ‘English course’ as a keyword. I’d not approved that and in the first report they were like ‘this campaign is doing REALLY WELL’
Of course it’s doing well - millions of people are learning English, not millions of people want to do a literature degree. Cost a couple of hundred so could have been worse, but that was ONE KEYWORD.
#55
Campaign name: test
Keywords: test
Ad copy: test test
*Turn on*.
#56
Jaguar recently. Running it back helped some kinda hahahahah.
#58
More of a marketing campaign flop than an ad campaign disaster, but the New Coke campaign was a massive failure.
It was due to the managers looking in the wrong spot. The most important part of a research design in business is the management problem. You need to be answering the right question, otherwise it doesn't matter how well you answer it, the results will be all wrong.
Coca-cola thought that people wanted a new taste. So they created a whole new recipe. People hates this though, and it turned out that what people loved about coke was it's "classic" appeal. People hate change and they didn't want their favourite drink to change.
The whole "new coke" campaign was a huge marketing flop.
#59
I refuse to eat at Arbys until they get rid of the commercials with the fat guy about to have a heart attack yelling about how much meat is on their sandwiches.
#60
DraftKings and FanDuel. DraftKings had been around since 2012, FanDuel since 2009. Nobody had heard of them until they start bombarding viewers with commercials during NFL games this season. It seems this raised their profile enough for the US government to seriously investigate if daily fantasy leagues are gambling, and therefore illegal.
The fact DraftKings and FanDuel employees were using information to play and win at the other company's leagues added fuel to the fire.
#62
Those new Buick commercials, the ones that emphasize how little the new Buick's look like the old Buick's. There has to be a better way to sell a car than reminding everyone how ugly the old ones are.
#63
My favourite game, Earthbound, had the slogan "This game stinks!"
It did not do well in the US.
#65
Kmart "Ship My Pants" campaign, while very successful in terms of viewership, has had a lot of debate surrounding its effectiveness since their demo is senior citizens and parents of school kids. That'd be an interesting topic since it was fairly split in terms of "success".
#66
A friend of mine was working for an ad firm she told me a story about a cross promotional idea for Uncle Ben's rice where he (Uncle Ben) would help you out in Farmville. Unbelievably no one thought about the obvious racist connotation.
#68
One starcraft 2 pro team came into existance one day, it was a small team but had some known names on it
anyways on april 1st there marketing campaign began, they had one of the players write a long slander post about how terrible a team they were (noone would take it seriously its april 1st right?) needless to say noone got the joke and a bunch of hate started on them that took a while to explain
and then they decided to start a meme contest about there players, and unfortunately there 2 most known players were either fat or transgender so basically all the memes were incredibly insulting
that team didnt last long.
#69
The BK Chicken Fries commercial with the vibrating cell phone. Everybody in the room thinks its theirs when they are watching. So annoying.
#70
Many years ago, I ran a generic search based campaign to female shoulder bags as at the time I was trying to have my own e-commerce store, needless to say I learnt that you can't blindly run Google Ad campaigns with no preparation. I think I lost a couple hundred dollars on it or smth which at a time was a lot of money for me. So yes it was terrible.
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Liliana Spiro 1 hour ago
Honda 'Fitta'. Back in 2001 had to change the model name for the European market to 'Jazz' after the Swedes pointed out that "Fitta" in Swedish is a (somewhat crude) slang word for the nether regions of a woman’s anatomy
Liliana Spiro 1 hour ago
Honda 'Fitta'. Back in 2001 had to change the model name for the European market to 'Jazz' after the Swedes pointed out that "Fitta" in Swedish is a (somewhat crude) slang word for the nether regions of a woman’s anatomy
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