When Marketing Goes Wrong – Typical Blunders and Image Crises

[nusaiba128]

Sometimes our brilliant ideas turn out to be… well, not as brilliant as we thought. Here are a few examples:

Pepsi and Kendall Jenner Save the World with a Bottle of Coke – Did Anyone Really Think That Was a Good Idea? In 2017, Pepsi released an ad in which model and celebrity Kendall Jenner participated in a street protest and then handed a can of Pepsi to a police officer as a gesture of peace.
The campaign was met with a huge wave of criticism as it was perceived as an attempt to trivialize and commercialize serious social issues such as police brutality and protest movements including Black Lives Matter. Viewers and commentators felt that the ad trivialized real issues by suggesting that a soda can solve social conflicts.
Pepsi ad

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/business/kendall self employed database -jenner-pepsi-ad.html

Dove and the “Racist” Soap Ad: How Diversity Has Turned into a PR Disaster. Dove, a brand known for promoting diversity and natural beauty, found itself in the middle of controversy after releasing an ad that was deemed racist. The ad was a short video clip posted to Facebook showing a dark-skinned woman who, after using Dove soap, takes off her brown T-shirt to reveal a light-skinned woman in a beige T-shirt. That woman then takes off her T-shirt to reveal another woman, this time with a different skin tone.
The ad drew heavy criticism for suggesting that Dove soap "cleanses" the skin by turning dark skin into light skin, which was seen as a reference to racist stereotypes. Internet users accused Dove of promoting the idea that light skin is better than dark skin, which is not only offensive but also contradicts the brand's previous campaigns that celebrated diversity.