34 Failed Products, Campaigns and Rollouts by Companies That Should’ve Known Better

Unawareness at its finest
34 Failed Products, Campaigns and Rollouts by Companies That Should’ve Known Better
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Heading up an ad campaign for a multi-billion dollar company seems completely terrifying — especially after reading these examples of what not to do. Drumming up ideas and knowing that if we haven’t considered every way it could blow up in our faces is a pressure we just can’t handle.

We commend the courage of these marketers, but we fully condemn their complete lack of awareness. We’re sure that hindsight was a tough pill to swallow.

Wendy’s

The 2006 adaptation of Charlotte's Web released a series of Wendy's Kids' Meals promotional toys. WENDY'S Charlotte's Nedf Web LIMITED EDITION WILBUR COLLECTOR/FIGURINE Apparently they thought the best way to advertise a movie about a pig's desire to not be eaten was with a restaurant that serves bacon burgers. CRACKED.COM

Carl’s Jr.

Carl's Jr. gets X-Men's Mystique to promote their X-Tra Bacon Thickburger. MAN UP The burger is so manly she has to turn into a man to enjoy it. CRACKED COM

Pepsi

Public votes that backfired big time PEPSI NUMBER pepd FEVER A Pepsi contest in the Philippines had a grand prize of 1 million pesos, but an error at the bottling plant led to 600,000 winning bottles. Riots and even grenade attacks injured dozens and killed 5 people in the deadliest marketing disaster in history. CRACKED

Mountain Dew

Public votes that backfired big time DUB THE DEW Mounta Dew that De De 7 This very short-lived 2012 promotion had Mountain Dew fans name its new drink. Suggestions like the contest winner, Hitler did nothing wrong had Mountain Dew apologize to consumers, claiming that they lost to the Internet. CRACKED

Molson

Canadian brewing company Molson had college kids post party pictures on Facebook to promote their brand... SALE MEST to MOLSON Lite CANADIA Coors FINE 4 FILSNER LAGER BEER BEER FLOZ (155ml) LIGH ...and they got slammed for supporting alcohol abuse when binge-drinking students (some underaged) lost their S**t. The backlash caused them to end the contest early and hide the promo pictures but they'd promised the student with the funniest, most interesting photos a holiday in Cancun, Mexico, so they had to pronounce a winner (of legal drinking age) anyway. CRACKED.COM

Audi

34 Failed Products, Campaigns and Rollouts by Companies That Should’ve Known Better

Iron Man 3

Panic ensued when a Missouri movie theater hired fake agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., complete with fake weapons, to storm a screening of IRON MAN 3... CRACKED COM less than a year after the theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado.

Popchips

CRACKED.COM In 2012 popchips released a commercial starring Ashton Kutcher in brownface. Не played a Bollywood producer named Raj, complete with a mock Indian accent. The ad was quickly pulled after it caused an online outcry.

Electronic Arts

In 2009, EA shipped brass knuckles along with their upcoming game, The Godfather II to press members for promotional purposes. They soon learned The that the knuckles Godfatherll are classified as illegal weapons in many states, including California, where EA is based. - LA PLAYSTATION 3 M EA It's against the law to be in possession of them, and it is also illegal to ship them. They had to plead with the recipients to send the knuckles back. The game received abyssmal reviews and prompted EA to let go of the franchise. CRACKED COM

Coors

Coors accidentally marketed beer to their Spanish-speaking customers with the promise that they'd run to the toilet. THE ORIGINA LONGNECKS 12 Cooz FL.OZ. il i I ROCKY MANCHA ORE GOLDEN - - . - - since .... - - منجمة WATER FF NATURAL ESTAIN The brewing company translated their English catchphrase, Turn it loose, without realizing that it means Suffer from diarrhea in Spanish. CRACKED.COM

Research in Motion

CRACKED #RIMjobs BlackBerry maker Research In Motion advertised job vacancies on Twitter with #RIMJobs. No one opposed this in the boardroom? - RIM

Powergen

CRACKED #powergenitalia Powergen (UK's leading gas and electricity company) chose an unfortunate domain name for their Italian subsidiary. Powergen Italia really could've used some capitalisation. POWERGEN

Pokemon

CRACKED #pokemonmastersex Pokémon Masters EX did use capitals in their original #PokemonMastersEX, but that didn't stop immature (and hilarious) fans from using it without the caps, or switching up the caps to #PokemonMasterSex.

Qantas

CRACKED #QantasLuxury Aussie airline Qantas asked customers to share their experiences just one day after the airline grounded their fleet and locked out staff over a union dispute. Disgruntled staff and customers used the hashtag to put them on blast. QANTAS ............ Spirit of Australia

McDonald’s

CRACKED #McDStories To improve their image, McDonald's asked people to share McDonald's related stories. Pouncing on the opportunity, the Twittersphere shared thousands of stories involving slaughterhouses, food poisoning, and diabetes. CO. M The Saweetie Meal GY M BBQ Sweetie CREW .

Trump Steaks

Donald Trump's Exclusive Introduction worst TRUMP business idea STEAKS THE WORLD'S GREATEST STEAK ever (maybe). Trump Steaks were (for some reason) sold at the Sharper Image. Sharper Image CEO Jerry Levin called it a horrible business idea, saying, We literally sold almost no steaks. If we sold $50,000 worth of steaks in total, I'd be surprised. CRACKED

Spielberg’s Subs

Steven Spielberg served subs... in a sub! Get it? The highest-grossing director of all time opened two locations of Dive! (a submarine-themed sub sandwich restaurant). The over-priced, mediocre food saw them close within a few years. CRACKED

Hulk Hogan’s Pastamania

CRACKED No amount of muscle- shaped noodles could save Hulk Hogan's Pastamania. In 1995, Hogan opened one of what he advertised as a chain of food court pasta restaurants in Minnesota's Mall of America. Despite amazing menu options like Hulk-A-Roos, its flagship location didn't ANGEL even last a year. TANNIA!

Flav’s Fried Chicken

Flavor Flav had many failed chicken joints. Не opened Flav's Fried Chicken in lowa in 2011, but it closed in four months due to bounced checks and bad business decisions. Не tried House of Flavor and Flavor Flav's Chicken & Ribs in 2012, and both restaurants were closed by July 2013. 2 CRACKED

Krispy Kreme

Krispy Kreme (accidentally) supports the Klan COLOURING LUESDAY 18th February. 12:00pm - 5.00pm KKK WEDNESDAY CRACKED.COM In 2015, a Krispy Kreme location in the UK planned a week of fun family events, including a Wednesday dedicated to the unfortunately named Krispy Kreme Klub.

Perdue

Frank Perdue often appeared in his Perdue ads with the tag line, It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken. PERDUE. Unfortunately, his love for chicken was terribly misconstrued when a Spanish ad read It takes a sexually stimulated man to make a chicken affectionate. CRACKED.COM

Nike

During 2016's Chinese New Year, Nike offended its Chinese customers with special-edition Air Force 1 shoes. 02 NIKEiD They had printed Fa on one shoe and Fu on the other (in Chinese). These two words are blessings when separated but they mean Get fat when used together. CRACKED.COM

Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz entered the Chinese market with a brand name that portrayed their cars as effective deathtraps. The luxury car company wasn't paying enough attention to detail when they picked the name Bensi-which translates to Chinese as Rush to die. CRACKED.COM

Ford

Ford took its Pinto model over to Brazil without knowing it announced a trait that many would rather keep hidden. Ford You see, the word Pinto might have sounded just fine to English- speaking buyers, but when translated to Brazilian-Portuguese, it means Small penis. CRACKED.COM

Clairol

Clairol introduced their curling iron to the German market by describing it, literally, as a hot pile of cow dung. 9 LIGHT BLONDE BLOND CLAIR CLAIROL NEW YORK NO AMMONIA, ce ADDED PARABENS HEALTHY LOOKING The product was sold under its English name Mist Stick but the company didn't do enough research to realize that mist in German means manure. CRACKED.COM

Paxan Co.

The soaps produced by Iranian company Paxan Co. ironically carry a name that labels them as packaged filth. New Automatic Color - - I I Boar New - - Bar B - - - Detergent Powe HI / Vergent - по Barf Automatic Barf Powder Automatic - Detergent 5kg Santing colors Ultimate Clea Brigh il 900 g F 1001 a Enghi Station 450g In an effort to translate a Farsi word that should mean Snow into English, the company somehow messed up, resulting in the sale of Barf soap. CRACKED.COM

UNICEF

UNICEF used kids in blackface to raise money UNICEF N AFRIKA WÜRDEN SICH VIELE KINDER FREUEN, - - WENN SIE FATE SICH ÜBER DIE - SCHULE ÄRGERN KÖNNTEN. CRACKED.COM This 2007 German ad campaign was to raise money to build schools in Africa. UNICEF had even focus-tested the ads without realizing how terribly racist it was.

DiGiorno

DiGiorno jumped on a domestic abuse hashtag DIGIORNO DiGiorno Pizza @DiGiornoPizza #WhyIStayed You had pizza. 9/8/14, 11:11 PM GRAGKED.COM The social media person or DiGiorno clearly didn't do their research before tweeting out a joke on a trending hashtag. The hashtag was in defense of domestic abuse victims.

Groupon

Groupon cashes out on Free Tibet GROUPON CRACKED.COM In Groupon's confusing 2011 Super Bowl ad, they begin to address the plight of the Tibetan people but instead end on a quip about how you can get Tibetan curry for a deal.

Nivea

Nivea made a white supremacy ad. NIVEA WHITE IS PURITY KIVEA CRACKED.COM The Facebook ad ran with the caption, Keep it clean, keep it bright. Don't let anything ruin it and was targeted to customers in the Middle East.

Pepsi (Again)

Pepsi commercializes Black Lives Matter PEPSI CRACKED.COM In the 2017 commercial, millionaire Kendall Jenner walks through a crowd of protestors to give a can of soda to a cop, and everyone cheers as systemic inequality is solved!

The Toronto Argonauts

Accidental domestic abuse endorsement HOME OPENER-JULY 23 1% Winnipog A 4pm TORONTO ARGONAUTS HOME IS WHERE ALL H RONA A THE HEART IS. NISSAN IT'S ALSO WHERE WE ON DE 95 Hurt people. ALL НА CRACKED.COM Football has a long-running continued issue with family violence, which makes this poorly-worded ad for the Toronto Argonauts even worse.

BIC

The Bictator pokes fun at Kim Jong-il BIC PENS CRACKED.COM There's a time and place for humorous social commentary about the death penalty and dictatorships, but a BIC back-to-school advertisement is far from it.

Demeter Fragrance

Demeter bottled the smell of tragedy DEMETER FRAGRANCE DEMETER® FRAGRANCE LIBRARY First Response •BOSTON DO GOOD-SMELL GOOD GRACKED.COM To honor first responders after the Boston Marathon Bombing, Demeter released a perfume where 75% of proceeds go to the heroes. Unfortunately, it smells of smoke and burning rubber.

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