Everything from tone deaf marketing to blatant racism
to poor-shaming, sex trafficking and virus-spreading,
there were some very inappropriate ads that ran in 2020.
Now, some brands fessed up
and others are sticking to their guns,
but one thing is for sure,
they were all huge marketing fails last year.
(upbeat music)
Now, let's talk about a little thing called trust.
A brand without it won't get far these days
and I have said it time and time again,
it is not good enough to just have a good product anymore.
People want to buy good products from good people
who share the same morals, beliefs, and values.
They want to buy from brands they trust.
And once a brand loses the trust of its customers,
they're unlikely to ever win that customer back again
because there's just too much competition out there.
So if one brand doesn't align with its customers' values,
they'll just take their business
and their money to one that does.
And because of that...
one little marketing woopsies can really make
or break a brand or business these days.
Just ask these 10 brands that faced
some serious heat in 2020
thanks to their major marketing fails.
Hey Posse, what's up.
It's Alex and in this week's video,
I'll be talking about 10 marketing strategies
that were totally face-palm-worthy in 2020.
And yes, I'll just tell you right now,
one of them does involve a Karen.
Now, whether your name is Karen, Bob, Billy, Sue, Sally
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All right, now, let's get started with my list
of major marketing fails in 2020.
And heads up, these are seriously cringe-worthy
and you will definitely feel uncomfortable at times.
I know, I sure did
which is exactly why we should be talking about it.
All right, number one on my list is Kraft.
So what started as a well-meaning marketing attempt
to promote their beloved Mac N' cheese product
on National Noodle Day.
Yes, it is a thing, quickly spiraled out of control
when Kraft launched this marketing campaign
urging people to send nudes to their loved one
during the pandemic to provide comfort and make them smile.
Now, while it might seem funny at first glance,
the campaign quickly received tons
of negative feedback and backlash from the public.
Many people calling Kraft's attempt
at a funny marketing campaign wildly inappropriate
considering the fact
that their main target audience is children.
So some critics even accused the company
of promoting child sex trafficking
and exposing children to sexual suggestions and any windows.
Yeah, definitely not the type of PR
that Kraft was looking for.
They promptly removed the content
from all of their channels.
Number two on the list is L'Oreal Paris.
The Black Lives Matter movement
blew up to epic proportions in 2020 and rightfully so.
After countless unjust murders of black citizens
and literally centuries of systemic racism in the US
and places all over the world,
thousands of protesters took to the streets
to fight for equality and justice.
And naturally, many businesses and brands
shifted their marketing to show their support
and stand in solidarity with the movement
and all that it entails, which is really great
except when the marketing is not a genuine reflection
of the brand's values or viewpoints.
So L'Oreal Paris was one of the many brands
that received public backlash for its seemingly
inauthentic statement regarding the movement.
And that's because back in 2017,
L'Oreal Paris ended its contract
with its first ever transgender ambassador
after she spoke out about racism and white supremacy,
claiming that her statements were "at odds
with the brand's values".
So naturally, the black community was quick
to call out the makeup company on their blatant gaslighting
and fake attempt to stay relevant.
Now, I feel like I shouldn't have to say this,
but jumping on the bandwagon is not a marketing strategy.
If your brand doesn't genuinely support the values
and ideals of a particular movement or cause,
then it should not claim that it does
without taking some serious action to back it up.
You guys, performative marketing is not cool.
All right, number three on the list, Giant Foods.
So now here's an example of what happens
when you don't consider current events
in your marketing strategy.
This US-based supermarket chain rqn a full-page ad
encouraging people to host gatherings over the holidays
and even share food.
Their advertisement which featured
a platter of classic finger foods
like shrimp and fruit and cheese also read... "Hosting?
Plan a super spread."
Super spread?
That is your marketing message in 2020?
Yeah, probably not the best message
to send out in the middle of a global freaking pandemic.
Giant Foods later apologized
for the insensitivity of their advertisement
stating that in hindsight
they realized it probably wasn't the best choice of words.
No kidding.
Number four, Darlie Toothpaste.
After the murder of George Floyd
sparked outrage all over the world,
many brands began the long-overdue process
of rebranding their racist logos or marketing campaigns.
Finally! Companies like Quaker Oats
with Aunt Jemima and uncle Ben's Mrs. Butterworth's.
But one of the most appalling re-brands
that the public demanded
was Colgate's "black person toothpaste", Darlie,
one of Asia's best selling toothpaste brands.
Founded in 1933, the brand was initially named Darkie.
Its original logo was a man in black face wearing a top hat
and a tuxedo while showing off his big, shiny white smile.
Now, this brand has been criticized for its racist logo
for decades and has only made minor tweaks over the years
such as changing the name from Darkie to Darlie
and changing the face of the man in the logo
to be more racially ambiguous.
Now Colgate's being criticized for dragging its feet
after it claims that it would be reviewing
and evolving the brand back in June.
Now, it is brands like this that make me wonder
how do you even exist?
I mean, Colgate, you have a million different toothpastes.
You should just eliminate this brand completely.
And next on the list is The Safety Warehouse.
So what happens when your advertisement
builds up people's hopes and dreams,
but is extremely misleading?
Well, just ask The Safety Warehouse
who publicly advertised new Zealand's
first ever mass cash drop
with a vague promise of dropping $100,000 from the sky.
So people showed up in mass numbers to this event
but when the cash drop began
and people realized the money falling from the sky
wasn't actually real, but instead fake money
and $500 vouchers, a riot quickly began.
The Safety Warehouse stands behind its marketing
saying that real money was given out at the event.
However, many people think
that the marketing strategy was dishonest
and distasteful playing on the hopes
and dreams of people who really needed the money the most.
Definitely not a very good marketing strategy
especially during a global economic crisis
when literally hundreds of thousands of people
are struggling to find jobs and make ends meet.
The next stop is Unilever's Fair and Lovely.
Okay, so another epic rebranding fail attempt,
the Asian whitening skincare product Fair and Lovely,
which renamed itself to Glow and Lovely
in response to the global outcry to end racism.
However, the brand failed to address
how its product, a whitening cream
contributes to the issue of racism in the first place.
And it continues to push the same product
just under a new name.
So someone really should have told them
that changing the name of their product doesn't mean
if the product is still rooted in racism.
Okay, number seven on the list is Aldi.
Now, here's another example
of a completely well-meaning marketing attempt
that just read the room very, very badly.
And as a result ended up offending a lot of people
and coming off as insensitive and unaware.
So Aldi grocery store teamed up
with a popular social media influencer
and created the #AldiPoorestDayChallenge
with the idea that January 24th
is referred to as the poorest day of the year
because of all of that holiday spending.
So the influencer was challenged to feed her family of four
on a budget of only $32 a week, shopping exclusively at Aldi
and showing her grocery hauls and meals to her following.
Now, although Aldi had good intentions
of demonstrating how far a dollar could be stretched
in its stores,
the challenge left a bad taste in the mouths of many
coming off as insensitive to the families
that were barely scraping by
and on budgets much smaller than $32 a week.
Many people felt that the store was making a game
out of people's real life struggles and hardships.
Number eight on the list is Volkswagen.
Now, this might be the most face-palm
- worthy marketing fail of the year.
And coming from a massive company like Volkswagen,
it really makes you wonder
who in the hell is approving this ad campaigns?
So this German Volkswagen video ad
was promoting their new car, the Golf 8.
It showed a giant white hand
pushing a black bystander away from a parked golf
before flicking him into a restaurant called Petit Colon
which translates from French to "little colonist".
After the ad caused a massive uprise on social media,
the ad was removed
and Volkswagen did issue an apology
saying "No one from the team realized
that flicking away a person is inappropriate on its own
and racist in the context shown.
We should have never made a mistake like that,
neither of the agencies nor we.
We must apologize for that and no ifs and buts,
and ensure that something like it can never happen again."
Volkswagen, which was founded in 1937
under the Nazi regime, by the way and also used slave labor
from concentration camps to build vehicles
is now the largest car manufacturer in the world.
So it really goes without saying that a company that big
and with that sort of past should really be going
out of their way to not make such obviously offensive
and racist ads.
All right, next on the list is Domino's.
This ad fail single-handedly proves
that you can't run blanket ads for different markets.
Domino's "Calling All Nice Karens" ad was ran simultaneously
in New Zealand and Australia
stating that it's a tough time to be a Karen.
And that if you were a nice law-abiding mask-wearing Karen
they wanted to give you a free pizza.
So obviously the ad was meant to be lighthearted, funny
and bring people together with pizza and in Australia,
that's exactly what it did.
The Aussies took absolutely no offense to the ad.
And Domino saw no backlash in that market.
However, going over to New Zealand
which is literally right next door
and you would think would respond the same to the ad,
had a very different reaction.
People massively criticized Domino's
for their tone deaf marketing,
because Karen is typically associated
with an over-privileged white woman.
So the idea of giving that person more free stuff
while ignoring the minorities
and the oppressed was not an idea
that New Zealand thought was very funny.
So it really goes to show the importance of market research
and knowing who you're speaking to.
The New Zealand Domino's apologized for the ad
and removed it from their marketing.
And number 10 on the list is Khloe Kardashian.
Khloe received a lot of backlash lately
after promoting the prescription migraine medication
Nurtec ODT in a sponsored post to her 26 million followers.
Now, Khloe isn't the first high profile celebrity
that Big Pharma has paid to endorse their products.
We've seen the same thing
from numerous other influencers and celebrities in the US.
However, that doesn't make it right.
And people continue to raise concerns
about the ethics of allowing high profile stars
to market medications directly to consumers.
In fact, this practice is so questionable
that the US is actually one of the only countries
in the world that allow this type of advertising.
The American Medical Association has previously called
for a ban on that practice,
claiming that it contributes to an inflated healthcare cost
and interferes with doctor-patient relationships.
And while you can't say that every celebrity
who has endorsed a drug has ill intentions,
you can't deny the fact
that they are not medical professionals
and definitely should not be educating
or influencing the public
on what drugs they should be taking.
I mean, come on you guys, this is ethics 101.
So which marketing fail was most cringy for you?
Comment below and let me know.
Until next time, I'm Alex, ciao for now.
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