If you’ve worked in an ad agency, you know how stressful it is to get your copy, visuals and social media updates perfect every single time; especially while juggling multiple clients.
It’s only human to occasionally mess up, and most often it’s likely that your mistakes will go unnoticed.
But then again, we’re dealing with the internet where posts are eternal and netizens are cruel!
We’ve all come across tweets and articles about Major Marketing Fails and honestly, it’s a guilty pleasure for us to see even big brands with their huge media teams and million-dollar budgets make cringe-worthy mistakes.
But, we really feel their pain!
So here’s our list of Major Marketing Fails!
Predictor Pregnancy Test:
Remember when we said that posts on the internet are eternal; well, Dutch brand Predictor felt the heat when an ad from way back in 2011 went viral last month. To be fair, the humor in this ad cannot go unnoticed and was just begging for the internet to troll it.
The Tweet back says it all!
Heinz QR Code Scandal:
While most often we can hold brands responsible for marketing fails, this is just one of those unforeseen events that landed Heinz in a real soup!
When a German customer scanned a QR code on one of the ketchup bottles, it led him to a pornographic site.
Granted, the bottle had expired and so had the particular linked website. It just so happened that QR code now led to a website domain that was re-purchased by a pornographic site.
Heinz was then forced to apologise to the particular customer who uploaded an image of the QR code and the pornographic site on Facebook. Which, of course, went viral. To the extent that, several news websites covered the story.
While most of these marketing fails are taken in light humor, sometimes brands mess up with terrible ads with the worst timing. Check out these next ads, which we think are truly distasteful!
Cinnabon – Carrie Fisher Tribute.
We know that brands are all desperately vying for the attention of millennials hoping for some profitable virality. An easy way to do this is to share pop-culture references. Well, here’s one way NOT to do it.
Ugh! 2016 was a terrible year for music and entertainment fans with a series of unexpected celebrity deaths. The death of beloved Star Wars actor Carrie Fisher was mourned by all and this is how Cinnabon chose to pay a tribute to her, which we think is in bad taste!
Here’s a tweet that pretty much sums up everyone’s feelings towards Cinnabon.
While Cinnabon deleted the tweet and released an apology, this one’s going to last in people’s memories for awhile.
4. IHOP’s Objectifying Pancakes:
In the quest to remain relevant and humorous in the eyes of millennials, sometimes brands go horribly wrong. A flat out no-no is the objectification of women. Advertisers have got to stop using the bodies of women for humor.
Thankfully, we can always rely on the Twitterati to call out on brands BS. After receiving severe backlash, IHOP issued an apology statement and now stick to posting food-related content Only!
Vera Bradley’s #ItsGoodToBeAGirl Campaign:
Bag and accessory brand Vera Bradley came out with the campaign last year intentioned at celebrating what’s special about being a woman. Women on the streets were interviewed and their responses were converted into social media posts and outdoor ads. While the campaign was aimed at celebrating femininity, the ads seemed to have reduced women to simple lattes and lipstick.
These posts can still be acceptable as aspects of femininity, but some ads went terribly wrong.
Ads such as this were seen all over NYC and well, Twitter fans did not take it lightly. It’s ads like this that put back the feminist movement back by so much!
Vera Bradley did take the heat for these ads and have since changed the tone of the campaign to make it more era-appropriate!
Lessons Learnt: Sometimes, marketing mistakes are inevitable and a simple apology can rectify the situation. But, more often than not, brands mess up with tonality and representation as a whole. This can cause a severe dent to the image of a brand and can alienate audiences. Brands should especially be careful when dealing with social issues. Gender equality is a major social issue and associating your brand with it has to be done right!
In this age, any publicity may not be good publicity!