A little controversy never seems to hurt, isn’t it? The advertising industry is well known for delivering controversial ads from time to time. From walking on thin ice about religious sentiments to sexual innuendoes, advertising had gone out of its way to sell products and services. Advertising is like throwing dark in the dark and if it hits the bull’s eye, voila, you are hit. However, in several instances, the dart land so far from the bull’s eye, that even if ads turn out to be brilliant, they are banned or made home in the country of isolated ads. However, if we look at the ads that stirred controversies, we will find that they have impacted the audience a lot more.
Without further delay, here are the top five advertisements from around the world that pumped up the adrenaline of companies and customers alike. Well, not in a good way!
Bloomingdale’s (2015)
“Spike Your Best Friend’s Eggnog”
If you are a F.R.I.E.N.D.S. fan, Bloomingdale is not new to you. Your mind will immediately bring back Chandler Bing’s words and Rachel Green’s expressions. Well, barring that, in reality, Bloomingdale in their Christmas edition, launched the most nightmarish campaign of all time. “Spike your best friend’s eggnog” massively hints at date rape. Promoting such notorious social events in advertising soon turned into the worst nightmare for the company. The PR team literally had to waste blood and sweat to bring back the company’s target and loyal audience on board. Of course, a lot of apologies were emailed and drafted at every stage.
Flora (2013)
“Uhh, Dad I’m Gay”
The multinational food company, Flora which is best known for its margarine, took the audience by storm with its very offensive ad. It triggered the LGBTQIA+ community. The ad implied that fathers need to have a strong heart to deal with their sons or daughters coming out. Unilever, the mother company, immediately withdrew the ad and said that the company had no intention of going forward with the advertisement and it was Flors’s individual decision.
Dove (2017)
“Real Beauty” (Facebook Campaign)
Dove has won our hearts by defying beauty standards. But did you know, Dove put itself in the controversy with their Facebook campaign? Apparently, the campaign was termed “whitewashing”. It was portraying how a dark-skinned woman would automatically turn fair-skinned by using a Dove product. Dove was vehemently backlashed. The #DoneWithDove hashtag went viral and soo the company apologized for the misdemeanor.
Oh, this obviously reminds us of our very popular Indian brand “Fair and Lovely” and their advertisements. For demeaning dark-skinned people, setting unethical beauty standards, and racism, the brand had to change its name to “Glow and Lovely”. But, there are other controversial Indian ads that dominate Fair and Lovely’s case.
Tuff Shoes (1995)
The most controversial ad of the 1990s. The ad portrayed Milind Soman and Madhu Sapre wearing Tuff shoes. They were nude during the shoot except for a python wrapped around their bodies. Indian audience did not perceive the nudity and also the animal rights activists filed a lawsuit for unlawful use of python. Although, the ad had nothing controversial, however, Indian moral police very strongly opposed the ad.
Zomato (2017)
(BC MC)
Zomato wanted to say “Mac and Cheese” and “Butter Chicken”, unfortunately, they said something very derogatory. India has their own flavors of abusive language and MC and BC are the initials of the slogans widely used in Northern India. Thus, the audience was not happy to be welcomed by Zomato with those initials.
We may have reasons to believe these ads were not apt. But, what they did was capture the mass attention in a very short span of time. Advertising and PR are two very strong cards in marketing. And, as many had rightly pointed out about film stars that “negative publicity is also publicity” – the same stands for Advertisements as well.
These are our list of controversial ads which both triggered and impacted us. let us know which ad infuriated you and the one contrary to popular belief you thought was incredible.
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