Not all marketing strategies are supposed to be beneficial for the brand. They might seem cheeky, humorous or fun but out of context they are invaluable, insensitive and fruitless. Taking risks is often good but when these risks involve millions of viewers it becomes a stain on your brand. It is more than just controversial, it is an irreversible damage.
In the past, some advertisements have slipped into sexism, colorism, racism, and other forms of bias. This has led people to question the intent behind the messages. What may have seemed harmless in the boardroom often had a different impact on audiences and becomes controversial.
Here are some controversial ads that were eventually pulled for echoing a discriminatory tone
Government Backed Video on Pakistan-Afghan Tensions.
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Amidst Pakistan-Afghan tensions on February 27th, the Information Ministry released a government-backed video that ridiculed Afghans and their hardworking jobs. The video featured people directing satirical questions at the audacity of Afghanis. It mocked the “Tandoor waley” professions. Viewers deemed it cringe, insensitive, racist and controversial.
It received heavy backlash by the social media, including, content creators and actors.
Viewers questioned what information ministry aimed to achieve by this racist video?
Coca Cola- AI Christmas AD
The Ad features a beautiful Christmas scenery, mountains, snow a hand opening a coke bottle and Christmas animals. Viewers are unhappy because AI generates the seemingly appealing ad, making it feel less authentic than in the past.
The brand fails to realize that the unoriginal content is contradicting with their tag line; real magic.
The Ad received an overwhelming backlash features recurring terms like “soulless”, “creepy” and “boycott”.
Pratik Thaker, Head of generative AI coca cola ad said “We need to keep moving forward and pushing the envelope. The genie is out of the bottle and you’re not going to put it back in.”
Why does a multi-billion dollar company; Coca Cola needs to use AI generated Ads?
People are questioning about not hiring talented creatives for their work and privileging cost-cutting at the risk of destroying the value of human labor.
Burger King: Women Belong In The Kitchen.
Burger King is known for its creative and attention grabbing ads, be it appealing to masses through a rotten burger or a stranger things campaign, but this time they missed a mark. It was Attention grabbing for sure but not every attention is good.
Marketing Blunders without context are a Whopper.
Burger King Tweeted, “Women belong in the Kitchen”. Marketers/Brands should not use statements associated with sexism and misogyny as a marketing strategy, even if they intend them for a good use. Burger King tweeted these 5 words on international Women’s day to announce a 20% scholarship for women chefs in UK. It prompted a day of flame-grilled outrage from social media users and became controversial.
It would not be wrong to say that the marketing strategy fell flat. The humorous tease was received as an ignorant comment, and rightly so.
The engagement on your original tweet—which, again, is literally just a sexist trope—is 527% *higher* than the tweet announcing the scholarship program.
— Kendall Brown (@kendallybrown) March 8, 2021
Way more people are seeing you validate sexism on #InternationalWomensDay than are learning about your scholarship program. pic.twitter.com/wMH2Drvomc
DNA’nied: Sydney Sweeny American Eagle
A pun intended to be light-hearted can just as easily spark controversy. American eagle’s campaign, “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,” featured the actress in a series of denim looks. The controversy came from the wordplay on genes and jeans. In the ad, Sweeney says things like, “Parents pass down genes… sometimes determining hair color,” before the scene cuts to jeans
Many people disliked the campaign’s inclusion of a blue-eyed, blonde actress. They felt it promoted standardized beauty ideals and used the ‘genes/jeans’ wordplay to look down on anyone who did not fit those standards.
Being Human
It is essential to keep in mind the socially acceptable things. While the ad might look “funny” or the idea might seem good on paper, millions of people watch it, and they can perceive it in a lot of different ways.
Being empathetic and keeping in mind how it may come across is a critical part of advertising.
