Here are some of the strangest advertising campaigns ever!
9 - Nice Trunk Space Imagine being an exec at Ford Motors.
And someone at JWT India comes to you with the idea of an ad showing three young women
tied up in the trunk of a Ford car, with then Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi giving
a peace sign driving!
You’d say no right?!
Yeah, well, actual Ford execs didn’t say no, and they got fired over the ad!
The ad triggered a massive outcry, with women's rights groups criticizing the company for
insensitivity and outright misogynistic behavior.
The ads were released in India, where politically incorrect ads are still shown on a regular
basis.
Obviously the controversial ad was trying to promote the large trunk space of the car,
but…...really…...we’re still trying to understand the humor angle here.
Another version of the ad shows Paris Hilton driving the car, taking out her reality TV
competition, the Kardashians.
After the social media uproar, Ford quickly ordered the ad to be pulled down, and issued
a formal apology stating they deeply regretted the incident and agreed with their Indian
partner that it should have never had happened, because it was contrary to the company’s
standards.
8 - Smiling Bob Remember back in the day when we were all
bombarded with spam emails that advertised pills promising us bigger junk?
Ahhh the good ol’ wild west days of the internet!
Do you guys remember the one company that took those spam emails to the big stage?
Enzyte is an herbal nutritional supplement that supposedly promotes quote "natural male
enhancement," which is their way of saying hey, our pills makes your junk bigger!
Of course, there’s no proof or even a hint of a suggestion that their product works.
Enzyte’s effectiveness was called into doubt and the claims of the manufacturer had been
under scrutiny from various state and federal organizations.
The company basically straight up lied in their marketing.
The object of the ads was to make people think they could make things bigger by taking a
wonder pill, when the company knew that it didn’t work.
The ads were actually unintentionally, or maybe intentionally hilarious, as it showcased
a man named Bob whose life got 20 million times better when he took the pill.
But c’mon, most of us knew that the pills don’t work.
The founder of the company and his mom both went to jail because of bad business practices!
Can you guys think of an ad campaign that had more lies than this one?!
Let us know in the comment section!
7 - Keep It Clean Back in April 2017, NIVEA released probably
the most controversial ads of that year.
Their facebook ad was aimed towards the company’s Middle Eastern customer promoting a new invisible
deodorant.
It showed the back of a woman’s head with long dark hair, with the rest of her body
wrapped in a white robe.
Underneath, the slogan stated, WHITE IS PURITY.
The post was captioned with, “Keep it clean, keep bright.
Don’t let anything ruin it, along with the hashtag, Invisible.”
The ad quickly came to the attention of social justice warriors all over the internet!
Twitter was filled with people who were calling for Nivea to fire anyone in the marketing
department who approved the ad.
NIVEA promptly removed the ad from Facebook, and a spokesperson for the company formally
apologized for the post.
They stated that the image was inappropriate, and that the ad wasn’t reflective of their
values as a company.
They also stated that diversity and inclusivity were NIVEA’s core values, and they take
pride in creating products that promoted beauty in all forms.
White’s obviously a color associated with purity, and we don’t really think Nivea
meant it the way people took it, but then again, that’s just us!
File this one under dumb corporate mistakes!
6 - Just don’t do it
Not even Nike is safe from marketing blunders!
Nike released a TV commercial back in 2000 that was a little too much for a family to
see on TV.
The commercial starred three-time Olympian runner Suzy Favor-Hamilton.
You would think having a famous Olympic runner starring in a commercial advertising Nike’s
running shoes is a sure way to resonate with consumers, but Nike didn’t exactly do things
right!
The commercial had Hamilton starting a bath in a dark spooky house.
While brushing her hair, she opens the mirror cupboard and puts her comb inside.
As Hamilton shuts the mirror, there’s a guy with a Jason mask in overalls standing
behind her!
As this dude rushes her with his chainsaw, she’s able to slip out the door and outrun
him because of her Nikes.
Doesn’t sound that bad right?
Just a commercial inspired by classic movies!
Wellll the ad was banned because of the overall mood of the commercial, which was way too
serious.
Let’s be honest, anytime a dude with a chainsaw is trying to go after someone, it doesn’t
exactly put people in a happy mood!
After Hamilton escapes, the slogan of “Why sport?
You’ll live longer” pops up.
Nike’s classic movie remake was meant to be a throwback, but all it did was probably
stir up PTSD for some people!
5 - Here’s My Social
LifeLock Incorporated is an American identity theft protection company that used an “innovative”
ad campaign, so to speak.
In order to prove the efficacy of its system, LifeLock promoted itself by publicizing its
CEO’s social security number.
Ummmm, yeah, maybe the CEO can write off the scams on his taxes?!
Back In 2007, the Lifelock ads were seen all over the place.
CEO Todd Davis openly challenged hackers to use and steal his identity, being confident
in the fact that they could never do it.
The ads emphasized their guarantee: that LifeLock would cover all losses and expenses up to
$1 million in case your identity was stolen.
If there’s one thing we know from watching enough movies about internet hackers, it’s
that to never underestimate them, or egg them on!
Needless to say, Davis’s identity was stolen several times!
One man in Texas used his Social Security number to take out a $500 loan.
An AT&T wireless account was opened in Georgia under his name and used to charge around 2300
dollars!
After several lawsuits showed the inability of the company to follow through with its
promises of keeping identities safe, the CEO answered that this only proved his company’s
usefulness, as his own identity was stolen onnnnnnly 13 times.
Yeah, that’s 13 times we don’t want our identity to be stolen?
LifeLock was actually levied a 12 million dollar fine by the FTC for deceptive business
practices and for failing to secure sensitive customer data.
Yep, this company is still in business today!
4 - No new taxes Just in case you didn’t know, Airbnb is
a multi-billion dollar company that connects people with spare housing with well, people
who need housing.
The company started in San Francisco and has kept its headquarters there ever since.
Back in 2015, San Francisco was about to have a vote on Proposition F, a ballot measure
that would have tightly regulated short-term home rentals in the city.
This basically was a measure that would have raised taxes on AirBNB.
However, AirBNB decided to release passive aggressive ads that didn’t quite go as well
as they had hoped.
The ads were seen on bus stops and billboards around the city, hinting that the company
was pretty unhappy about having to pay $12 million dollars in hotel taxes.
The ads AirBNB put out gave suggestions to the city on what to do with the 12 million
dollar tax payment.
Obviously, a lot of sensitive San Francisco residents’ weren't amused.
Let’s be honest here, AirBNB shouldn’t have complained about the taxes they would
have had to pay.
Everyone has to pay taxes, and no one wants to hear a giant company whine about taxes!
3 - Intense Business In case you guys didn’t know, Benetton Group
is a global fashion brand based in Italy.
The name comes from the Benetton family who founded the company in 1965.
Benetton is known for controversial ads throughout the years, but this one probably takes the
cake for weirdest.
Why a fashion group decided to do some advertising involving political figures is beyond us but
hey, it’s fashion.
Benetton released a series of ads depicting many high positioned government officials
in a strange let’s just say, intimate meeting.
By that of course I meant the ads depicted world leaders in a very intense lip locking
session.
There was one ad showing then President Barack Obama kissing his then Venezuelan counterpart
Hugo Chavez.
Then there’s another with Pope Benedict XVI kissing Imam Ahmed el-Tayeb…..the ads
were just really weird.
Benetton wanted people to embrace peace all over the world with their unhate campaign,
but c’mon, does anyone want to see world leaders locking lips?!
Benetton officials argued that they intended the images to portray the concept of “unhate,”
fostering tolerance rather than making a political statement.
Oh….that’s what that was!
2 - French Non-smokers right campaign Back in 2010, the French Non-Smokers' Rights
Association pretty much shocked all of France with its anti-smoking ads.
Yeaaaaah, it’s not exactly a pretty scene here!
The campaign showed female and male teenagers, either sitting or kneeling, with a cigarette
in their mouths, while a man has a hand on their heads.
The caption on the ad basically means that to smoke is to be a slave to tobacco.
The campaign was supposed to help stop the rise in smoking among 13 to 15-year-olds in
France in recent years.
The leader of the project for Non-smokers' Rights, Marco de la Fuente, stated that the
old argument of tobacco is bad for you just didn't work anymore, and the campaign’s
message was that tobacco was a form of submission.
Critics from feminist and pro-family campaigns stated that the campaign was offensive and
counter-intuitive.
The French Secretary of State for Family Affairs, Nadine Morano, termed the ads a public outrage
to decency and vowed to ban the campaign.
Following the ads, the Association of French Families filed an official complaint with
the national advertising regulators, accusing the campaign of violating ethics rules.
Heck, we might even be offended!!
Okay just kidding, we’re not…….
1 - White vs Black When it comes to advertising, Sony has had
more than a couple run ins with controversial ads.
However, its white vs black PSP campaign HAS got to take the cake.
When the PSP was first released in 2004, the only available color was black.
That is, until Sony decided to spice things up a bit and release a white version of the
PSP.
So what does a company like Sony do with two different colors for a product?
Have the two colors compete against each other, duh!
The images released featured a white girl dressed in all white in some sort of combat
with a black girl in solid black clothing.
Since the white PSP was the newest color, the images depicted the white girl defeating
the black girl, with one ad even showing the white woman grabbing the black woman's chin
as if she were in control of her!
Sony quickly removed the ads once the controversy started to avoid any sort of negative activity.
We understand what Sony was trying to do with the ads and the fact that it’s a Japanese
company, but how did no one in the marketing department see how this could have been perceived!
Here’s what’s next!