Advertising Epic Fails

We have been reviewing some marketing and advertising concepts, statistics, and some of the best advertising campaigns of all times, but without a doubt, there is also value in studying campaign failures.

Regardless of the time and money invested, not every advertising campaign has been a success. Many have not been successful and others have even caused million dollar losses.

After some of these fiascos, some companies have had to apologize and redo their ads to recover.

These stories teach us an important lesson: spending lots of money or investing a lot of time in advertising does not necessarily mean more business and it doesn’t matter if you are the most recognized brand in the world.

It does not matter if you spend thousands on your ad campaign or if you are one of the most famous brands in the world, you are not exempt from making mistakes. Of course, advertising is only one aspect of a Marketing Campaign, but it is the one we will explore in this blog. As we will learn, effective advertising requires the delivery of the right message to the right people at the right time in the right way. The importance of planning and an understanding of the market cannot be overstated.

Skittles Kill People: Touch the Rainbow Campaign

In 2008, Skittles launched a Campaign that likened an individual to King Midas, where a man turned anything he touched into Skittles. He was plagued with the same burden as King Midas, but putting this character on a Brand of Candy resulted in an insensitive commercial. The character seems to be in a depressive spiral and states that he can’t hold his newborn grandson in his arms and that he accidentally killed a man on a bus, who he says “will never see his family again.” These are not typically the cheerful themes you would expect from a candy commercial. The commercial was clearly looking to be humorous, but it seemed to have missed the mark when it focused on the darker and more sinister aspect of the “Skittles Gift” which turned out to be more of a “Deadly Curse.”

Farewell to the King…Burger King That Is

The Burger King franchise launched an advertisement campaign that brought the Character of “Burger King” to life. The ads ran from 2003 to 2011. Feedback from these commercials was usually that it was creepy. It isn’t hard to see why some people felt uneasy about the Campaign of “Wake Up with the King.” The intention of the campaign was clearly to bring humor to the idea of waking up to eating breakfast at Burger King, but it probably brought the audience some anxiety at the thought of sharing their bed with a stranger who feeds them. The commercial was partially responsible for a decline in sales in 2011, the year when the campaign was officially terminated. 

The Beatles Yesterday and Today “Butcher” Album

The “Yesterday and Today” Beatles Album was originally shot with an eccentric theme of gore. It featured dismembered baby dolls with meat cuts around the area. It turned out to be the worst-selling album, even after the cover was reissued. This was a significant deviation from the band’s general theme, and they found out that introducing such a radical change did not sit well with fans who weren’t used to this type of themes.

Casa Sanchez Tattoos

Casa Sanchez Eatery launched a campaign where if a customer got a tattoo of the “Casa Sanchez Logo,” they could eat there for free for the rest of their lives. The owners did not expect there to be a huge response, but in a Wall Street Journal, Martha Sanchez, the co-owner, revealed that they had to implement several conditions otherwise they would have lost millions of dollars if they would have had to honor their offer.

The YouTube channel Good Mythical Morning has a nice compilation and review of the worst ad campaigns ever. You should take a look...