The date 4/20 is typically known as the unofficial international holiday that celebrates marijuana. In honor of the day, Snapchat added a Bob Marley filter for its users to enjoy — except the blackface Bob Marley filter that basically dubbed him as the official face of weed ended up pissing off more people than giving them that warm and fuzzy feeling that so often is associated with lighting up. People took to Twitter, calling Snapchat’s misguided efforts racist, tone deaf and disrespectful. “Bob Marley did so much more and to be reduced to being known for weed and dreads is very disrespectful,” read one of the many angry tweets.
Unfortunately this isn’t the first time an attempt to use a hot social media trend to brand a product has gone awry. The internet is full of the misguided and seemingly mindless mistakes of advertisers failing majorly at their job. This Snapchat flub and the following examples of branding gone bad have us all wondering: Why do they get paid so much again?
AT&T wants you to never forget… to buy a phone
Sadly there’s a multitude of companies trying to play on the heartstrings of the public by using 9/11 hashtags, photos or symbols to push their products. This ad by AT&T shows someone using one of its phones to take a picture of the symbolic lights at ground zero that represent the fallen Twin Towers.
Bud Light
Bud Light has had a pretty successful year with its #UpForWhatever campaign. However, it seems as though someone may have been drunk when they printed these bottle labels that encourage people to remove the word “no” from their vocabularies for the entire night. If you’re thinking this sounds a little like it’s an open invitation to rape someone, you’re not alone. We got the molest-y vibe too.
BIC
BIC South Africa wanted to celebrate Women’s Day by encouraging women to “think like a man.” Because nothing is more empowering to women than being told that their own thinking will not suffice. Girl power!
IHOP
In today’s sexist world, calling someone a “butter face” is saying that everything about her looks good “but her face.” It’s basically a frat boy slogan used to demean a woman’s appearance, but IHOP thought it would be a clever way to sell more pancakes. The breakfast giant tweeted a picture of a pancake drizzled in butter and called it “the butter face we all know and love.” What was a failed attempt at a clever play on words actually ended up being a majorly misogynistic mistake. No word on whether IHOP’s Twitter account is indeed being run by an actual frat boy.
Tied to the South
Birmingham-based tie company Tied to the South asked for 2,296 retweets of a photo depicting a person holding a picture of one of the smoking Twin Towers on 9/11 as a way to honor the 2,296 people who lost their lives that day. FAIL.
Seattle Seahawks
When the Seattle Seahawks beat the Green Bay Packers in an incredible comeback for the NFC title, they decided to merge their inspiring victory with Martin Luther King Day by tweeting an MLK quote alongside a picture of quarterback Russell Wilson’s teary face. The civil rights movement and the NFC championship are equally important aspects of American history, right?
Ogilvy & Mather
Advertising company Ogilvy & Mather thought depicting the Taliban shooting of Malala Yousafzai and having her “bounce back” up from a Kurl-On mattress to receive her humanitarian award was somehow a brilliant way of displaying the springiness of Kurl-On beds. The agency has since apologized and pulled the ad, though it can still be seen on the Ads of the World’s Facebook page.
Subway
“Whatever you’re staying fit for, start at Subway.” This Subway ad that was at one time on YouTube has since been pulled due to the negative press it garnered. In the ad, a woman is modeling various sexy Halloween costumes for her co-worker on her lunch break at Subway. So basically Subway is asking us to keep our waistlines in check so that we’re more visually appealing in our sexy nurse Halloween costume. You didn’t know that sexism was also an available topping for your footlong, did you? No thanks, Subway.
Victoria’s Secret
So is Victoria’s secret that they’re prejudiced against bodies that don’t fit into their lingerie (that is, the majority of the female population over the age of 14)? This campaign was meant to advertise a collection of bras and underwear that were made for comfort. “Perfect fit. Perfect comfort. Perfectly soft,” reads the ad, though it doesn’t take a Harvard graduate to pick up on the not-so-subtle implication that Victoria’s Secret is saying that the women shown in the ad have the “perfect” body. We all know by now that no body is perfect, and we’re especially aware that not all of us are the size of supermodels (even though we do look damn fabulous). Victoria’s Secret eventually changed the ad to “A Body for Every Body.”
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