Let’s be honest – there’s something quietly compelling about witnessing something go wrong in real time.
It’s a simple pleasure. An innocent but entirely oblivious act can spark the schadenfreude in all of us, like a friend mispronouncing a commonplace word or taking a tumble in a manner that could have earned them £250 courtesy of Lisa Riley 20 years ago.
Brand slip-ups: Worst marketing campaigns
It’s easy to stand on the sidelines and heckle as well-meaning marketers execute ideas that seem silly to us when we don’t know the brief or the rejected ideas that got them there. Still, sometimes marketers do get things unambiguously wrong. From big tech mishaps to tone-deaf cringefests, these blunders offer valuable lessons for anyone looking to build – and protect – their brand.
Let’s dig into some recent missteps from big brands and see what these cases teach us about the importance of media awareness, reputation management, and a sharp brand strategy. In other words, let’s see what not to do.
1. Crushing it? Hardly. Apple’s ill-advised iPad ad
In its attempt to showcase the newest, slimmest iPad, Apple made a… questionable choice.
The ad featured a series of beloved creative tools and instruments (think cameras, a piano, even a trumpet) being crushed under a hydraulic press, only to reveal the new, paper-thin device at the end.
The intended message is clear: this tiny device does the work of all of these tools. Apple aimed to showcase its product’s sleekness and the notion that the new, more svelte model included elements of each of those creator tools, but the move backfired.
Creatives around the world were unimpressed, and the backlash forced Apple to apologise for what they admitted was a failure to “read the room” correctly.
The issue? The ad symbolised a shift in Apple’s image: from the rebellious underdog to a corporate monolith ready to flatten anything in its path – including valuable artistic tools and platforms.
The fact that this was at a time when AI threatens to replace artistry and craftsmanship to put artists under unprecedented pressure can only have made matters worse. In this light, the advert takes on an even more sinister light, with technology crushing the creative spirit to leave something much lesser in its place.
Lesson: Read the room. Understand who your loyal customers are and don’t alienate them with insensitive choices.
Apple’s ad serves as a cautionary tale: no matter how big your brand, a lack of self-awareness can make you look out of touch.
2. The Wonka Experience: a “golden Ticket” gone sour
Now, this one needs no introduction – but for the sake of SEO, humour me.
Imagine paying for your children to attend what is marketed as an utterly enchanting Willy Wonka experience. Advertised using AI-generated imagery that showed an immersive sea of sucrose, you visit to see a few small decorations, and some confused actors with AI-generated scripts in an otherwise empty warehouse – they didn’t even have enough sweets to go around. In Glasgow, organisers promised a magical journey – but the reality was anything but.
From disappointed parents to disgruntled kids, the experience was a flop, and complaints poured in immediately. Within hours, the event was shut down amid a storm of outrage that even required police intervention. Now, we did get to enjoy some fun sad off-brand Oompa Loompa memes out of it – but the organiser swiftly became “the most hated man in Glasgow” and deleted all his social media profiles.
Lesson: Don’t overpromise, and fail to deliver.
This floundering fiasco was a harsh lesson in managing customer expectations and remembering that, while marketing can create hype, the product has to match it.
If you’re adding a digital spin to something, it needs to add real value – not simply smoke and mirrors. Without resorting to AI to fabricate an entire set and premise, the organisers would have been forced to make one of two choices: 1) invest heavily in their offering and up production values to match their lofty ideas, or 2) send the whole thing down the fudge pipe and start over with a less ephemeral idea – preferably one that is rooted in reality.
3. Thirsty work: Pepsi’s ‘unifying’ ad (feat. Kendall Jenner)
Pepsi thought it had a winning formula: blend social movements with a celebrity to create a stir and drum up sales.
Released during the Arab Spring of 2017 and borrowing imagery of the Black Lives Matter movement, the ad shows Kendall Jenner joining protesters and diffusing a dangerous situation by handing a can of Pepsi to a police officer, apparently resolving the tension with a single sip. The attempt to promote unity was painfully out of touch and trivialised very real, complex social issues. The backlash was swift and (as it often is) merciless – so much so that Pepsi pulled the ad almost immediately.
Lesson: Don’t pretend that your marketing exists in a vacuum and don’t trivialise real-world problems
Brands need to tread carefully when referencing social movements or activism. People don’t want their struggles turned into marketing tropes, especially by brands that aren’t authentically involved in the cause. A more sincere approach might have been to fund causes directly or elevate the voices of activists without trying to profit from the message.
4. Burger King’s unpalatable Whopper advert
You’ll have seen Burger King’s “Mouldy Whopper” campaign; it attempted to promote its use of natural ingredients by showing a Whopper gradually decaying over time. Now, I will say that I actually enjoyed the novelty of this idea – but the execution simply doesn’t align with the customer journey here.
The campaign was intended to highlight the lack of preservatives and artificial additives in Burger King’s foods, differentiating itself from its rivals, particularly McDonald’s where its US recipe burgers “don’t rot”.
However, the imagery of a mouldy burger festering into a spore-ridden heap did more to turn stomachs than build appetites. Customers were understandably repulsed, and the campaign didn’t achieve the desired effect of portraying Burger King as healthier or more natural.
Lesson: Consider your audience’s appetite – both literal and figurative. In this case, trying to show freshness by highlighting decay didn’t resonate with people’s desire for an appetising meal. Before you launch a campaign, it’s vital to carefully consider whether your message aligns with how your product is perceived, and avoid visuals that could leave a bad taste in the audience’s mouth.
5. Literal whitewashing from Dove
2017 was a good year for bad marketing. Bodywash brand Dove attempted to demonstrate its commitment to diversity by running a short video advert on its social media.
Dove have done some really good body-positive marketing such as its well-received Real Beauty campaign, but this time, the brand got careless.
You’ll probably be aware of the centuries-old racist trope that white people are clean and black people are dirty… but apparently no one involved in making this advert thought that it might not look good for a soap company to show a black person turning into a white person.
This was probably an honest mistake on behalf of the marketing team or the film maker – primarily because the full length advert shows the white person turning into an asian person at the end – but that first few seconds were enough to spark outrage, and rightly so.
Lesson: Take a step back and think of other ways that your work could be interpreted. When you’re in the midst of creating something, it’s easy to miss something that’s obvious to others so take a moment to think twice, involve others in the process and be more aware of cultural sensitivities.
The big takeaway: Why Reputation Management Matters
So, what can we learn from these high-profile marketing fails? For brands, especially in today’s digitally-driven, highly opinionated marketplace, reputation is everything.
Every misstep is magnified, and the cost of “missing the mark” can be enormous – from alienating loyal customers to losing the trust of an entire demographic.
That’s where expert advice comes in. Carrington offers a range of services, from PR and media strategy to reputation management, profile-building, and copywriting.
With Carrington’s expert guidance, you can steer clear of costly missteps, align your message with your audience, and navigate the fast-paced world of modern media with confidence. After all, why risk becoming the next infamous marketing fail when the path to brand success is just a conversation away?
