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There are many reasons why an advertising campaign might fail. Maybe there wasn’t enough of a budget dedicated to spreading the word. Or, the ideas weren’t creative enough to make the product stand out from competitors.
Marketers also note that to have a successful campaign, one has to have a single clear goal. You shouldn’t try to cover all the bases with one campaign. So, if you’re aiming for more social media subscribers, don’t also expect to get more website traffic or sales. Go one step at a time.
But, sometimes, the goals are clear, the marketers have plenty of money, and the ad does stand out but it’s still a failure. That’s because it stands out for all the wrong reasons. It is so out of the box that it goes a bit overboard.
Over the years, there have been plenty of such examples. Today, we want to present to you the ones that were kindly collected by Oxford College of Marketing and put on their highly entertaining and informative TikTok page. Scroll down to cringe at these magnificent lapses of judgment.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Groundcontroltomajortom 2 years ago (edited)
Racism sexism and fat shaming all in the top 5, and all aimed at women.... says a lot!
ToGo 2 years ago
This is appalling. Awful message aside, do peta not realise you can be a vegetarian and still put on weight? You can even be an overweight vegan. Not only is the ad disgusting, it's just wrong on all fronts.
rullyman 2 years ago
One of my friends has been vegan since 1980 (back when it was really difficult and processed vegan foods barely existed). They've been larger for years and years due to inflammation and other health issues, and side effects from mental health medication. It's not uncommon to be overweight and vegan
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sturmwesen 2 years ago
Nice of them,too. So we never forget they are as$holes.
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Maria Maria 2 years ago
Vegetarians are 30% more likely to suffer from depression. Depression makes people gain weight, and so do antidepressants.
Coline Savy 2 years ago
aside from the fatshaming it's really lame for an organization which is supposed to help animals to put the focus on people. First because "vegetarian" is not a weightloss diet: french fries, pasta and cakes are vegetarian. Also you don't become a vegetarian to loose weight, you do it because you refuse to pay for animal abuse. What kind of organization thinks: "hey forget about the animals, let's tell people they'll get slim"?
Roan The Demon Kitty 2 years ago (edited)
My sister actually put a lot of weight on after becoming Vegan. (though she's starting to lose more again now too, and she was never obese) , but she used to be an absolute twig before.
The noughties culture was wild. Misogyny was rampant everywhere, being gay was lame, and fat people were the butt of every other joke. And while many of us might have laughed at the fat Monica jokes, it’s not quite as funny seeing them now. Arguably, they are the cringiest part of watching Friends reruns.
But just as Jennifer Aniston pointed out in her interview, the sensitivities have changed over time. Even at the end of the 2000s, PETA’s fatphobic “Save the Whales, Lose the Blubber: Go Vegetarian” ad was met with a strong negative reaction. The ad was taken down a month after being installed in Jacksonville, Florida.
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#2
Cyber Returns 2 years ago
Yes. Yes they do. And they call the police on him every time he starts
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Nina 2 years ago
Holy F**k, this is so wrong they should be slapped so hard they go back in history
Ken Beattie 2 years ago
How did no one in the chain of command not say "Hmm, maybe that's not a good idea"?
Tee Rat 2 years ago (edited)
The person who created this said he had posted this in previous years and this was the first time he received serious backlash and he is a black man himself. Each Pure gym runs their own social media and he was forced to remove the post by corporate.
whaaaaaaaaaa 2 years ago
Yeah but who cares he's black, that has nothing to do with anything and obviously doesn't make this right
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PrincessMudPuppy 2 years ago
Holy Sh#t y'all!!! I just don't understand the thinking? Was there only one person in charge of promotions/advertising? Dear Lord!! (This from an atheist) How did this get published? When people wonder what White Privilege is, this is a SMALL taste. Only someone who has no concept of slavery could compare their workout to being a slave.
PrincessMudPuppy 2 years ago
OMG!! This was created by a black trainer!! I take back my white privilege comment. I just read an article about Dude who made the ad. WOW
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SuperChicken 2 years ago (edited)
Get back to the job that really matters? On Mother's Day? I thought, this is the day that the ONLY prime job that mothers would do is to sit back, relax and enjoy the day while being pampered. At least, that's what we did for Mom on Mother's Day. Also, aren't we in the 21st century? I'm sorry, I think I need more coffee to really comprehend this.
RajunCajun 2 years ago
every joke I keep thinking of just gets worse, so I am just going to keep my mouth shut.... this is so bad I want to send it to my mom.
However, PETA is, of course, not the apologetic type. Instead of trying to maintain the company’s decorum, a move we’re so used to seeing these days, they doubled down on their statements.
“America's obesity epidemic calls for tough love à la Dr. Phil and America's Biggest Loser,” said president and founder of PETA, Ingrid Newkirk, in a response to Huffington Post. “Not more coddling and mock shock over a billboard pointing out that the majority of fat people need to have some discipline and remember that being fat means being a bad role model to our children, many of whom are now so fat themselves that "teeter-totter" has come to describe their wobbly gait.”
Quite a statement for an organization who has never been concerned for people’s wellbeing and advocates for animal, not human, rights.
#4
Chihuahua Mama 2 years ago
I thought this was a clip from the "Blurred Lines" music video... same message tho
Nina 2 years ago
What the actual .... How is it possible no one thought; hey maybe this message is disturbing on so many levels?
MaximumKarmaSaint 2 years ago
Oh, wait to you see some of the mobile game ads.
Load More Replies... 𝕔𝕚𝕟𝕟𝕚𝕖𝕞𝕠𝕠𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕒 2 years ago
What’s the ad supposed to be selling? Good thing I don’t like eggnog, but still wtf
Queen Jackson. 2 years ago
“I don’t like eggnog” please, not falling for that one.
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Michael Largey 2 years ago
At a Christmas party someone spiked the eggnog of our vice principal, a life-long teetotaler. Not fun to watch. Or funny, either.
#5
The Scout 2 years ago
While the ad is completely out of touch, and it is kind of vile to use the picture this way, the standard disclosure agreement of an ad photo absolutely covers this. So legally they should have been in the clear. Like with the poor male stockphoto model that unknowingly became the national posterboy for erectile disfunction...
Noel Bovae 2 years ago
Yep, just like when Joey (I mean, "Mario") was a poster boy for VD.
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Zoey Rayne 2 years ago
I hope the model and her lawyers got BK in some legal trouble for this.
#6
Prince of Darkness 2 years ago
bondage. they've self-censored the word bondage. have people really become this fucƙing fragile?
Tamra 2 years ago
Blame corporations. Bored Panda censors words to appease advertisers.
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Jrog 2 years ago
The kids were all children of Balenciaga employees. Parents were present at the shooting and Gabriele Galimberti, the photographer, requested approval for the photos before submitting. The tone and content was requested by Demna Gvasalia, the controversy-loving Creative Director for Balenciaga, who also had final approval on the photo editing and contextualization of the ads. This clashes hard with the brand doing damage control announcing they would take legal action against the advertising company (which, apparently, they never followed through).
Ken Beattie 2 years ago
Thanks for that extra info. I was wondering whether they weren't meant to be bondage but were in fact some other leather wearing demographic.
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Gardener of Weeden 2 years ago (edited)
Maybe I am too naive, but to these children the gear is just weird clothes/ costumes. At this age (I hope) they still have the innocence that kissing = sex. When a 5yr old told me he was gay, I asked what that meant, " It means I love boys and girls" And Love is NOT sex EDIT: I do not agree with these pics though
Ken Beattie 2 years ago
Bit like how kids viewed the Villlage People back in the day. We didn't think they were gay, or dressed like male strippers. We just thought cool! Cowboy, cop, biker etc.
Load More Replies... Alewa 2 years ago
The kids have no idea what they're doing. Not different than using kids for any other ad imo. Not sure why a brand would want to go for this kind of image, or want the customers this ad is likely going to attract.
Gmaddles 2 years ago
The same rich customers they have now will continue to buy Balenciaga and the like forever. If sweatshops and child labor don't stop the fashion industry in its tracks, why would this?
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A commercial that might have benefitted from a little standing up for themselves, is the infamous Dove Facebook ad which they deeply apologized for. At least, that’s according to Lola, the woman who acted in it.
“If Dove have defended their creative vision and defended their choice to use me as a dark-skinned woman, defended the reasoning for using me first, [they] could have put a different type of narrative into play.”
#7
General Anaesthesia 2 years ago
It began with Homo Habilis, 2.7 million to 1.7 million years ago.
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Robert T 2 years ago
Looking in the mouth like that is more usually done when inspecting horses. Hence the saying "never look a gifthorse in the mouth".
ColdSteelRonin 2 years ago
The purpose being to determine its age based on the wear on the teeth.
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Becky Samuel 2 years ago
Checking the teeth is something that was done when choosing slaves at market. Checking a horse's teeth (or any other livestock) is still an important part of assessing their value. This woman is being compared to a possession that has to prove her value by her physical fitness.
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Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 2 years ago
I would just like to point out that Audi has nothing to do with this! He's still a kitten! He's still obsessed with my old toys.
Fabian Bernard 2 years ago
An Audi 100 ad in the 90's was also ( in France) ''Il a une Audi, il aura la femme '' ( ''He got an Audi, he'll get the woman'')
#8
Nina 2 years ago
It should've been the other way around. The gay son needs a strong heart because apparently his dad is a homophobic a-hole
𝕔𝕚𝕟𝕟𝕚𝕖𝕞𝕠𝕠𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕒 2 years ago
I first interpreted what you said as the homophobic dad telling his son that HE was gay 😭
Load More Replies... Cyber Returns 2 years ago
I've got a fragile heart. No one knows who it belongs to or where I got it from, but they keep asking me to stop playing with it
The CareTaker 2 years ago
oh man, I actually saw that ad in some mags from a doctor's office, I remember showing my mom and us going omg...... Since I was Gay that was really messed up
𝕔𝕚𝕟𝕟𝕚𝕖𝕞𝕠𝕠𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕒 2 years ago
Even if you’re not gay it’s still really messed up
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Becky Samuel 2 years ago
Flora sell a margarine spread made with plant sterols that lowers cholesterol.
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#9
Caroline Kimber 2 years ago
Not especially funny for those who have had suicide attempts or suicidal thoughts.
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Appalachian Panda 2 years ago
Can I just say that I hate the word "unalive", and I think using euphemisms for perfectly normal everyday words is stupid.
Alyssa 2 years ago
Yeah it’s lame and makes a mockery of the seriousness of it too.
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Jrog 2 years ago
This ad was not received poorly overall, it just had very vocal opposition in the USA from an extremely small group of internet activists led by UK-based bloggers Holly Brockwell and Ben Goldacre. Hyundai quickly decided to recall the ad because this kind of ads are not aimed at direct sales of vehicles (their fuel-cell car sales were below 1000 units/yr) but at company-image building. Any kind of counter-campaign would harm the brand more than any good the ad would do.
UpQuarkDownQuark (he/hey you) 2 years ago
I’m more offended by the use of the term “unalive.” Utterly ridiculous.
The ad famously showed a dark-skinned woman, played by Lola, changing her shirt and turning into a light-skinned woman. Many considered the video racist by implying that one can wash away the color of their skin.
“To have the opportunity to show that I do feel beautiful and I am valued in media was extremely exciting for me. So, for it to come out and be taken out of context and then kind of spiral into a global controversy was really overwhelming and quite upsetting as well,” Lola commented on the situation.
#10
Groundcontroltomajortom 2 years ago (edited)
Just shows how out of touch (with reality ironically) these guys really are!!
WonderWoman 2 years ago
It is the reality they are trying to create. These oligarchs will invest in things that are used for disasters and reap the benefits of climate change, but never do anything to stop climate change.
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Rohit Remesh 2 years ago
Nothing to see here, just a robot trying to exhibit human mannerisms..
Cactuar Jon 2 years ago
Seems like his compassion and common sense chip were both experiencing technical difficulties that day.
Mara Is… A Surgeon 2 years ago
That’s..yucky, to say the least -someone with family affected by the hurricane
Holly Hunholz 1 year ago
Same as trump throwing paper towels to the people, as their president he probably thought that all he had to do:(
#11
Fire Singer 2 years ago
2018!? I think the most horrifying part of this whole post is these are not from 50-60+ years ago. Not that it's much of an excuse but at least a little bit of one. To do something like this in 2018 you have to just not care that your racism is showing.
Ozymandias73 2 years ago
Oh hell no! WTF?! How tf did that get approved and who were the a**holes that thought it up in the first place?
Auntriarch 2 years ago
Yeah that's totally wrong, should have gone past fat people to end up with a thin person
Zoey Rayne 2 years ago
Why?! Why include the offensive, racist metaphor when people's skin tones have nothing to do with beer? Even if high level employees at the company are racist, why show the public?!
#12
Miss Mali 2 years ago
How many people does this have to get past??? Nobody thought this was a bad idea???
Nadine Debard 2 years ago
You know how much us French people suck at foreign language and culture? Now you now. Not proud of it.
Sometimes the companies even have to apologize for the ads they did not approve. For example, Unilever had to issue a statement regarding a rogue ad for their margarine brand Flora.
A South African ad agency created a poster in which bullet-shaped words saying “Uhh, Dad I’m gay” are aiming at a porcelain heart. At the bottom, the slogan “You need a strong heart today” proudly sits next to Flora’s logo.
Unilever claims that they never approved the ad and that they find it “offensive and unacceptable.” The ad company that did produce the poster then issued their statement apologizing for “the unintended offence it has regrettably caused.”
#13
ToGo 2 years ago
Why does it say 'you' then? Surely, it would say 'they' if it was just about pretzels.
Jrog 2 years ago (edited)
The outrage was about this phrase being a mantra in the pro-anorexia circles, nothing to do with implications of body shaming toward the reader. Comparing thin pretzels with thin unhealty anorexic people was effectively idiotic. Once again, a very small but vocal group of internet users complained, and the company took the ads down... just to replace them with another pro-anorexia motto, "As good as skinny feels", because sometimes you really need to double down and take away any doubt about whether your marketing manager is just an unlucky gonzo or a bona fide imbecile.
Carolyn T. Smythe 2 years ago
Oh, sure! "You can never be too thin." Have they no concept about eating disorders?! Seriously!
LadyVischuss 2 years ago
Anyone notice the abnormally long yellow cab??? Yes I know it's 2 vehicles
#14
Panda-sized Potato 2 years ago
These were sent to members of the press as part of a press package. They immediately asked for the back. Possession is illegal in most states. In some states, shipping is illegal.
ColdSteelRonin 2 years ago
Thats why they asked for them back. "We did what now?"
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John Murphy 2 years ago
such a silly thing to outlaw, this is why i carry around a sock filled with pennies
Josh Tarjan 2 years ago
Suppose you're in California. You get these in the mail. Then you send them back. That looks like two misdemeanors right there. Thanks, EA. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN§ionNum=21810
#15
Deborah B 2 years ago
Ancestry.com is a mail-in-your-DNA which provides an analysis of racial origin. Their ad showed a consensual romance developing between a black slave and a white slave-owner, ignoring the historical reality, which was white men raping black women, and the resulting children being born into slavery.
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Stuart 2 years ago
Not sure who needs to hear this, but interracial relationships were a thing back then as well. Without context we have no idea what this ad is really about. It could be a northern New York relationship for all we know.
Bryn 2 years ago
They were but they were EXTREMELY rare because even in Northern states, non-white people were considered... other. Prior to 1865, interracial couples were extremely rare and after 1865 there were still rare. So while it did happen, it wasn't something that was advertised. And this ad was not about that. This is only showing a snippet of the ad but the ad had to deal with southern ancestry.
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David 2 years ago
Questionable ad but also it is kind of c**p to assume every interracial relationship back when was "because of slavery". There are plenty of documented cases even though on the whole it was hush hush. I have a relative a few generations back who married a Native American woman and tried to keep it a secret because back then that was "scandalous".
RedMarbles 2 years ago
No doubt there were also real relationships, but seems likely they would have been greatly outnumbered by situations in which there was rape of slave by owner, whether through physical force or due to the power dynamics of owner vs. owned.
Load More Replies... jennifer brinkman 2 years ago
If you believe conservatives there were MANY benefits to slavery. Don't know which horrors were benefits though.
Robert Beveridge 2 years ago
What are y'all complaining about? These are obviously scenes from 11th grade history class in Florida...
Burger King also tried to take the spotlight off themselves when they were being called out over an ad in which a woman is suggestively eating one of their sandwiches. They said the poster was created in Singapore and was intended to be used only in the Singapore market. As if that makes approving the poster an okay thing to do.
#16
Jrog 2 years ago (edited)
Consider at the time there was a sensible social issue about immigrants trying to cross the Channel by jumping on the back of trucks while they were waiting for boarding in France and Belgium. It was a risky move for the stowaways (some tried to hitch a ride in a refrigerated truck and died of hypothermia, some were killed while jumping on the moving trucks, or tried to hang to the underside of the trailer and were crushed when falling under the wheels). It was a real problem for truckers, who could be arrested and tried for aiding illegal immigration or even for human trafficking, despite them not being complicit or even aware of the presence of stowaways. It was also common to access the cargo space by cutting through the trailer side, en expensive damage, and often whatever cargo was inside was spoiled (such as foodstuff being eaten or thrown out to aid other crossers, crates used as toilets or opened to look for stuff to steal).
MaximumKarmaSaint 2 years ago
Yeah, those aren't the immigrants that represent the rest of them, thankfully.....hopefully....
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VonBlade 2 years ago
Tasteless? Seems to me it's spitting facts. None of the "darkies go home" Enoch Powell-ites had a problem with Sir Mo, because he won medals. If anything it's one of the best burns on the Tory/Daily Mail/Outraged of Tunbridge Wells set there is. Everyone deserves a safe home, not just the talented sports people.
Shark Lady 2 years ago
When Sir Mo admitted/announced that he didn't arrive in the UK in the most legal of ways, I thought certain people were going to have a heart attack.
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#17
Kel_how 2 years ago
What the hell is even with this picture?? What does it have to do with gaming?
Nupraptor 2 years ago
The PSP launched in a piano black model. They were releasing an all white variant and somehow thought that this was a good way to advertise it.
Load More Replies... Shaun Coleman 2 years ago
How does a white person manhandling a black person sell Sony Playstations? What is the thought process here?
Bookworm 2 years ago
It's a white person manhandling a black person in a fairly threatening/dehumanizing way
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SuperDarkStudios 2 years ago
As a PlayStation fanatic. What does this even have to do with PSP and gaming at all
#18
Lem Johnson 2 years ago
Nah this isnt a reach, it was super controversial at the time, pepsi got so much s**t for it because it was in the middle of the BLM riots and the ad very much read like "white woman solves racism with pepsi". It was super tone deaf.
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crazydogmama 2 years ago
That's what that was from! I didn't see this commercial, did NOT realize exactly how bad it was. Wow,
Load More Replies... JB 2 years ago
The message of the ad was a white woman handing a white cop a Pepsi solved racism and anti-black police violence in America. Pepsi was trying to capitalise on the Black lives matter movement and the public outcry over police murdering black citizens. It was very poorly done.
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Šimon Špaček 2 years ago
If Pepsi backed them with their fleet of warships, it would work probably.
Jrog 2 years ago (edited)
Pepsi never had such a fleet, it's an urban legend. They received 17 submarines and three surface ships as payment. in 1989 the Russian Navy was bloated, expensive and not backed by state funds anymore, so Admirals were eager to offload some old junk, mostly to steal the proceeds of the sale. Pepsi had a long standing relationship with Republican politicians, including Nixon, that allowed them to enter the Russian soft drink market early on, with an agreement that allowed them to move Stolichnaya vodka to the USA. This granted them the greenlight from Bush/Reagan for an unheard-of deal, accepting Russian military assets (even if 50 years old, unseaworthy and decommissioned by two decades) as payment for sale of their goods in a market marred by a now worthless currency. The ships were immediately turned to a Finnish scrap dealer, granting Pepsi way more value in steel weight than the goods' value in rubles, a world-breaking media campaign and some everlasting company lore.
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Gmaddles 2 years ago
This makes me want to v@mit. You just made coke even more popular than Pepsi, besides the horrible flat, syrupy taste of said Pepsi. This commercial was actually pretty telling of the simplification of complex subjects which then conveys a message of not being "that bad" Racism has a complexity that few can understand so we have to learn and listen and read, not give a Pepsi to somebody
Vermonta 2 years ago
It's reminiscent of “Flower Power” is a historic image captured by photographer Bernie Boston. Taken on October 21, 1967, during an antiwar march to the Pentagon, the iconic photograph demonstrates a young Vietnam War protester placing a flower into a rifle barrel held by the United States National Guard soldier. Side note: the National Guard does not enjoy being ordered to point guns at people in their community.
Josh Tarjan 2 years ago
Stop, children, what's that sound? Everybody look - what's going down? (Takes on a whole new meaning.)
Almost five years after the ad came out, the model featured in it made a video response about it. She claimed that the image of her that they used was taken from an online catalog of her pictures without her consent. She says that they never reached out to her and the way they used the image made her feel violated. Understandably so.
#19
Ronstantin 2 years ago
I think this could well have been a provocative joke that was never intended to discriminate against women, but the exact opposite. After all, the post takes this outdated phrase and reinterprets it in a positive way. I think it's hard to tell exactly what was meant. But it's often very easy to say that something was meant to be sexist.
Ken Beattie 2 years ago
It was definitely deliberately worded. They did it that way precisely to stir up attention.
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Gardener of Weeden 2 years ago
I am sorry... burger king = culinary career????? That has to be the joke right?
Per-Ole Sjuve 2 years ago
That's the only fail I saw in this. BK or McDonalds using words like "chef" and "culinary career".
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Jill Rhodry 2 years ago
I don't actually have a problem with this myself - like @Ronstantin says, it's a provocative joke - they knew it would go viral.
𝕔𝕚𝕟𝕟𝕚𝕖𝕞𝕠𝕠𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕒 2 years ago
Clearly they’re not going to get a culinary career from working at BURGER KING oh my god
Jojo_hobkin 2 years ago
This is an awesome ad actually. It got a lot of interactions and was wildly seen.
#20
Jrog 2 years ago
This happened 4 years after the bombing, the message was well intended but poorly worded. It is very common to brag about "surviving" a marathon among runners, they failed to connect the tone of the message with the past of the specific event. They quickly apologized and admitted the mistake.
David A Paterson 2 years ago
Especially the Boston marathon. It used to be, and perhaps still is, the most gruelling regular marathon in the USA, because there's a lot of altitude change in the steep uphill sections. Surviving it is major feat.
Load More Replies... Sven Grammersdorf 2 years ago
You gotta censor the word "bombing" now? TikTok is a f*****g joke
Becky Samuel 2 years ago
Ironic that the most offended person on this page ks the one whining about others being too easily offended. Get a hobby mate.
Load More Replies... #21
Mamza Paulse 2 years ago
Y’all saying genterfication are good either don’t know what it is, or are a******s. The issue is that after these people come and “make places better” the poor people can’t afford to live there anymore, food rent, it all becomes to expensive and people are forced to move and it is truly f****d up.
Pooka 2 years ago
And, sadly, it is a trend that has existed since the dawn of civilization. Humans always want to improve and make things 'better', often glancing right over the heads of those they step on or push out as they do so. Unfortunately, it's not likely to get any better with it having been established over so many millennia.
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celeste hall 2 years ago
the folks that own their homes can no longer afford the taxes sometimes the old tax rate is grandfathered in for the old home owners, but likely the difference will come due when teh home changes hands not just sold but inherited as well, so much of building generational wealth
Joe Bloe 2 years ago
I don't think gentrification is the devil people tend to make it. Sure when it's exaggerated it came out of hand, but every cities tried to make some part of their town nicer.
Aria Whitaker 2 years ago
Making "parts of a town nicer" is not the same as gentrification. At all.
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Rae Black 2 years ago
I see nothing wrong here, and I like Ink!. Besides, the neighborhood is inclusive, pretty, and creating new jobs.
Ellie Hope 2 years ago
It is bad in some ways, I live in East London and my area has been gentrified, local working class people can't afford the rents, local shops replaced by micro breweries, expensive coffee shops, artisan bakeries,
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Attention grabbing advertising copy can make or break an ad, and in the case of Pretzel Crisps, it was definitely the latter. The company used an infamous pro-anorexia line “You can never be too thin” when advertising their thin snacks back in 2010. When the backlash started rolling in, they didn’t really have a plan on how to manage it.
#22
Gmaddles 2 years ago
Well, there were A LOT of a$$holes openly planning parties, get together, gatherings, whatever that called it!
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ginshun 2 years ago
It was November of 2020. If they didn't know, they should have.
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SirWriteALot 2 years ago
2020 was the beginning. This ad was probably conceived, planned, approved and planned in 2019. Lay off
Pamela Blue 2 years ago
To be fair, these ads are planned many many months in advance. It wasn't a case of "reading the room" so much as terrible timing as the Covid pandemic began in 2020, probably just as this ad came out.
Aimée Drouin 2 years ago
Yeah but this ad looks Super Bowl 🏈 related, so it would have been the first Sunday of February 2020, BEFORE the world shut down and “super spreader” became a term.
#23
Caroline Kimber 2 years ago (edited)
I don't think they intended to be malicious.....would it have had a different reaction of it had said 'son'? When I was a child, I was asked to do the washing up....it's just chores that children do. But this is just my opinion.....not looking to start any arguments :)
Nicky Shrimps 2 years ago
Just bad marketing to only a small demographic. Should have said "someone special" to advertise to all who like Easter sweets.
Sandra Gleeson 2 years ago
Would it also have been 'bad' if the ad read, treat your son? I dont get this, the kid was doing some house chores, not everything has to do with stereotyping people, sometimes its just an ad
#24
Chihuahua Mama 2 years ago
The icecream impregnated her? The icecream gets you laid? I'm more offended by the ad not making sense than the religious mockery tbh
VioletHunter 2 years ago
I'm more annoyed by the marketing industry's tendency to sexualize food. I find that disgusting. I don't want to think of sex when I'm eating ice cream.
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The Scout 2 years ago
This one reminds me a bit of the "shock ads" by Bennetton in the 90s. They did their fair share of over-the-top posters like bloody bullet-riddled shirts or dying AIDS patients, but the one that nearly got them banned in Italy was of a priest and a nun kissing.
Jrog 2 years ago (edited)
Those shock ads were powerful social messages though, very needed at the time. Their campaigns were curated by Oliviero Toscani, a world-class photographer very involved in spreading social awareness on critical social issues. His campaigns focused the public discussion on the struggle for racial equality, fight against homophobia, action against AIDS, social damage from organized crime, opposition to executions for prisoners, support of body positivism, opening to gay adoptions, promotion of safe sex, criticism against the Catholic Church. Notwithstanding the commercial use made by Benetton of the photos, the collaboration allowed furthering the debate on those critical issue in a way nothing before could.
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Who knows? 2 years ago
Not to be “that” person but it’s still not okay to make fun of people because of their likes or beliefs
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Little but Fierce 2 years ago
Immaculate conception refers to Mary'a conception being free of original sin and not her conception with Jesus. But the Apocrypha has that Mary's parents Anne and Joachim (I wish more people knew Jesus' granddaddy was named Joachim) were infertile and conceived without sexual intercourse. Mary's conception and the concept of personal sin vs original sin was a huge debate in the Middle Ages as the belief was that sex was inherently sinful ergo no conception via sex could not have sin attached. Hence the idea that Mary's parents divinely conceived a child without sex. However that is not a widespread belief and IIRC the story of Anne and Joachim only appears in the Gospel of James. So... it's debatably not wrong to refer to immaculate conception as conception without sex.
Fester Sixonesixonethree 2 years ago
Oh come on - religion deserves all the mocking it gets AND MORE!
At first, they decided to just go with it, tweeting that “thin just happens to be a good word to describe the shape of our product.” But when the uproar started getting louder, they gave into the pressure and changed the ad copy to… “Tastes as good as skinny feels,” a famously controversial “thinspiration” phrase. It didn’t take too long for them to remove that too, and pretend it never happened.
All in all, it seems that this trend of awful misjudgments is not going to end any time soon. People think, “We’re over this, we’re a progressive society,” and then Balenciaga steps in and the counter for 'days without marketing accidents' is back to zero. At least, we’ll always find material for another list like this one.
#25
Ima Manimal 2 years ago
All this time I’ve been thinking that the Big Mac special sauce was thousand island dressing.
Imagineer 2 years ago
I don't see the problem with this one. Just everyone seems to have sex on their minds so really anything can upset them.
Tyranamar Seuss 2 years ago
Sexual innuendo it advertising is purposeful and prolific. This wasn't an innocent mistake. It just backfired.
Load More Replies... Maria 2 years ago
"I'd hit it" is slang for "I would have sex with it". However made the poster clearly did not understand the slang term.
Load More Replies... weirdo biatch 2 years ago
i mean atleast it wasnt that bad but seriously they need to do better reseach
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What do you think ?
Panda-sized Potato 2 years ago
Some of these came down to bad phrasing. Others were just plain tone deaf.
Panda-sized Potato 2 years ago
Some of these came down to bad phrasing. Others were just plain tone deaf.
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