10 – Absolut Vodka-Sponsored Mexican Invasion,
- A few years ago, Absolut Vodka ran ads in Mexico showing a pre-Mexican-American war map of North America. This was when several south-western U.S. states were still part of Mexico, and Absolut cheekily captioned it ‘In an Absolut World’.
- To extremists, Absolut was inciting racial division by suggesting buying their vodka would help Mexico reclaim the United States.
- Americans and Mexicans alike found the ad offensive, so Absolut offered a lame passive-aggressive apology, which basically suggested consumers were at fault for misunderstanding their intentions. That excuse probably made sense to them after a few vodkas.
9 – Sony: PSP White,
- Speaking of companies needlessly inciting racial division … Sony’s ads for the white edition of their Playstation Portable were hilariously misguided. The billboard advertisement, which ran in the Netherlands, showed a Caucasian model, dressed in white, aggressively clutching the face of a cowering black model.
- Sony claimed the ad made more sense in the context of the wider campaign, but it’s more likely they were trying to be provocative and bit off more than they could chew.
- Another failed, risqué campaign for Playstation featured posters at a UK train station platforms. The posters read ‘Take a Running Jump Here’. These were quickly pulled on grounds of bad taste and amid fears they would spark public safety concerns. I s’pose it was notch up from their prototype poster design: ‘Buy a Playstation or kill yourself!’
8 – New Coke,
- In the Eighties, soft drink juggernaut Coca-Cola was losing ground to competitor Pepsi. Desperate to compete, Coca-Cola introduced a new product called ‘New Coke’, which had a sweeter taste than the original Coke. The public drank that shit up.
- However, like a wayward husband having a mid-life crisis, the public soon started missing ‘old Coke’. Many chose to stock up on the original version, fearing it would become permanently unavailable, and Coca-Cola’s colossal fuck-up became an accidental marketing masterstroke.
- Three months later, old Coke was re-introduced as Coca-Cola ‘Classic’ where it again reigned supreme as the king of soft drink mountain. The failure New Coke was re-branded ‘Coke II’, but endured low sales before returning to its home planet.
7 – Burger King Has No Idea,
- Although this ad only ran in Singapore, it annoyed women the world over. It’s pretty subtle, so in case you don’t get it the sandwich represents a penis. Ha …ha…haaauhgh.
- This isn’t the first misfire from Burger King. The company’s had more than its share of disastrous ad campaigns.
- For instance, in the 1970s, Burger King created a demented mascot called the Burger King, who looked outrageously creepy and liked sneaking into people’s bedrooms. The mad monarch was eventually retired, presumably because he had a handful of arrest warrants to his name.
- Burger King also ran a highly sexualised ad to promote SpongeBob Square Pants. The ad had the Burger King, pre-arrest, measuring women’s waists to the tune of ‘Baby Got Back’.
- Another ad featured a naked woman singing in the shower, while others caused offence to Mexicans and Hindis because of caricaturised representations.
6 – Virgin Mobile US,
- In 2012, Virgin Mobile US ran an ultra offensive online ad that was thought to trivialise rape.
- The ad depicted a middle-aged man standing behind a woman, covering her eyes with one hand and clutching a wrapped gift in the other. So far so Fifties sitcom … until you read the accompanying tagline: ‘The gift of Christmas surprise. Necklace? Or chloroform?’
- Not sure what kind of juvenile asshole conceived the ad, but Twitter users wasted no time expressing their outrage.
- Even founder of Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson, who no longer owns Virgin Mobile US, condemned the ad, calling it ‘ill-judged’.