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!
#21
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.
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26points
#22
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.
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.
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25points
#23
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.
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.
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25points
#24
Having the U2 Album "Songs of Innocence" being an automatic download to my iTunes Library.
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24points
#25
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.
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.
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20points
#26
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.
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19points
#27
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...
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19points
#29
Cracker Barrel or Bud Light didn’t go over too well with their primary demographic.
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18points
#30
Regan using "born in the USA" without Springsteen's permission.
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18points
#31
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.
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.
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17points
#32
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.
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15points
#33
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.
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15points
#35
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.
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14points
#37
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.
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12points
#38
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.
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12points
#40
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.
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11points
