Everything from tone deaf marketing to blatant racism to poor shaming, sex trafficking and virus spreading. There were some very inappropriate ads that ran in 2020. Now some brands fessed up and others are sticking to their guns. But one thing is for sure, they were all huge marketing fails last year. Now let's talk about a little thing called trust. A brand without it won't get far these days. And I have said it time and time again, it is not good enough to just have a good product anymore. People want to buy good products from good people who share the same morals, beliefs and values. They want to buy from brands they trust. And once a brand loses the trust of its customers, they're unlikely to ever win that customer back again because there's just too much competition out there. So if one brand doesn't align with its customers values, they'll just take their business and their money to one that does. And because of that one little marketing whoopsies can really make or break a brand or business these days. Just ask these 10 brands that faced some serious heat in 2020 thanks to their major marketing fail. Hey posse, what's up? It's Alex. And in this week's video I'll be talking about 10 marketing strategies that were totally facepalm worthy in 2020. And yes, I'll just tell you right now, one of them does involve a Karen. Now whether your name is Karen, Bob, Billy, Sue, Sally or anything in between, be sure to give me a thumbs up below to let me know you're here. And if you're new to the crew, welcome. I put out a new single week. So if you want to learn more about the hottest copywriting, marketing and branding techniques that are working today, be sure to hit subscribe below. And don't forget to hit that bell to be notified when my next video goes live. All right, now let's get started with my list of major marketing fails in 2020. And heads up. These are seriously cringeworthy and you will definitely feel uncomfortable at times. I know I sure did. Which is exactly why we should be talking about it. All right, number one on my list is Kraft. So what started as a well meaning marketing attempt to promote their beloved Mac and cheese product on National Noodle Day. Yes, it is a thing quick spiraled out of control when Kraft launched this marketing campaign urging people to send nudes to their loved one during the pandemic to provide comfort and make them smile. Now while it might seem funny at first glance, the campaign quickly received tons of negative feedback and backlash from the public Many people calling Kraft's attempt at a funny marketing campaign wildly inappropriate, considering the fact that their main target audience is children. So some critics even accused the company of promoting child sex trafficking and exposing children to sexual suggestions and innuendos. Yeah, definitely not the type of PR that Kraft was looking for. They promptly removed the content from all of their channels. Number two on the list is l' Oreal Paris. The Black Lives Matter movement blew up to epic proportions in 2020, and rightfully so. After countless unjust murders of black citizens and literally centuries of systemic racism in the US and places all over the world, thousands of protesters took to the streets to fight for equality and justice. And naturally, many businesses and brands shifted their marketing to show their support and stand in solidarity with the movement and all that it entails. Which is really great, except when marketing is not a genuine reflection of the brand's values or viewpoints. So l' Oreal Paris was one of the many brands that received public backlash for its seemingly inauthentic statement regarding the movement. And that's because back in 2017, L' Oreal Paris ended its contract with its first ever transgender ambassador after she spoke out about racism and white supremacy, claiming that her statements were at odds with the brand's values. So naturally, the black community was quick to call out the makeup company on their blatant gaslighting and fake attempts to to stay relevant. Now, I feel like I shouldn't have to say this, but jumping on the bandwagon is not a marketing strategy. If your brand doesn't genuinely support the values and ideals of a particular movement or cause, then it should not claim that it does without taking some serious action to back it up. You guys, performative marketing is not cool. All right, number three on the list, Giant Foods. So now here's an example of what happens when you don't consider current events in your marketing strategy. This US Based supermarket chain ran a full page ad encouraging people to host gatherings over the holidays and even share food. Their advertisement, which featured a platter of classic finger foods like shrimp and fruit and cheese, also read, hosting plan a super spread. Super spread. That is your marketing message in 2020. Yeah, probably not the best message to send out in the middle of a global freaking pandemic. Giant Foods later apologized for the insensitivity of their advertisement, stating that in hindsight, they realized it probably wasn't the best choice of words. No kidding. Number four, Darlie toothpaste. After the murder of George Floyd sparked outrage all over the world, many brands began the long overdue process of rebranding their racist logos or marketing campaigns. Finally, companies like Quaker Oats with Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben's Mrs. Butterworths. But one of the most appalling rebrands that the public demanded was Colgate's black person Toothpaste Darlie, one of Asia's best selling toothpaste brands. Founded in 1933, the brand was initially named Darkie. Its original logo was a man in black face wearing a top hat and a tuxedo while showing off his big shiny white smile. Now, this brand has been criticized for its racist logo for decades and has only made minor tweaks over the years, such as changing the name from Darkie to Darlie and changing the face of the man in the logo to be more racially ambiguous. Now Colgate's being criticized for dragging its feet after it claimed that it would be reviewing and evolving the brand back in June. Now it is brands like this that make me wonder, how do you even exist? I mean, Colgate, you have a million different toothpastes. You should just eliminate this brand completely. And next on the list is the Safety Warehouse. So what happens when your advertisement builds up people's hopes and dreams, but is extremely misleading? Well, just ask the Safety Warehouse who publicly advertised New Zealand's first ever mass cash drop with the vague promise of dropping $100,000 from the sky. So people showed up in mass numbers to this event. But when the cash drop began and people realized the money falling from the sky wasn't actually real, but instead fake money and $500 vouchers, a riot quickly began. The Safety Warehouse stands behind its marketing, saying that was given out at the event. However, many people think that the marketing strategy was dishonest and distasteful, playing on the hopes and dreams of people who really needed the money the most. Definitely not a very good marketing strategy, especially during a global economic crisis when literally hundreds of thousands of people are struggling to find jobs and make ends meet. Next up is Unilever's Fair and Lovely. Okay, so another epic rebranding fail attempt. The Asian whitening skin care product Fair and Lovely, which renamed itself to Glow and Lovely in response to the global outcry to end racism. However, the brand failed to address how its product, a whitening cream, contributes to the issue of racism in the first place. And it continues to push the same product just under a new name. So someone really should have told them that changing the name of their product doesn't mean sht if the product is still rooted in racism. Okay, number seven, on the list is Aldi. Now here's another example of a completely well meaning marketing attempt that just read the room very, very badly and as a result ended up offending a lot of people and coming off as insane, sensitive and unaware. So Aldi Grocery store teamed up with a popular social media influencer and created the Aldi Poorest Day Challenge with The idea that January 24th is referred to as the poorest day of the year because of all of that holiday spending. So the influencer was challenged to feed her family a 4 on a budget of only $32 a week, shopping exclusively at Aldi, and showing her grocery hauls and meals to her following. Now, although Aldi had good intentions of demonstrating how far a dollar could be stretched in its stores, the challenge left a bad taste in the mouths of many. Coming off as insensitive to the families that were barely scraping by, and on budgets much smaller than $32 a week, many people felt that the store was making a game out of people's real life struggles and hardships. Number eight on the list is Volkswagen. Now this might be the most facepalm worthy marketing fail of the year. And coming from a massive company like Volkswagen, it really makes you wonder who in the hell is approving these ad campaigns. So this German Volkswagen video ad was promoting their new car, the Golf 8. It showed a giant white hand pushing a black bystander away from a parked Golf before flicking him into a restaurant called Petit Colon, which translates from French to little colonists. After the ad caused a massive uprise on social media, the ad was removed and Volkswagen did issue an apology saying no one from the team realized that flicking away a person is inappropriate on its own and racist in the context shown. We should have never made a mistake like that. Neither the agencies nor we. We must apologize for that and no ifs and buts and ensure that something like it can never happen again. Volkswagen, which was founded in 1937 under the Nazi regime by the way, and also used slave labor from concentration camps to build vehicles, is now the largest car manufacturer in the world. So it really goes without saying that a company that big and with that sort of past should really be going out of their way to not make such obviously offensive and racist ads. Alright, next on the list is Domino's. This ad fail single handedly proves that you can't run blanket ads for different markets. Domino's calling all nice. Karen's ad was ran simultaneously in New Zealand and Australia stating that it's a tough time to be a Karen and that if you were a nice law abiding mask wearing Karen. They wanted to give you a free pizza. So obviously the ad was meant to be light hearted, funny and bring people together with pizza. And in Australia, that's exactly what it did. The Aussies took absolutely no offense to the ad and Domino's saw no backlash in that market. However, go on over to New Zealand, which is literally right next door, and you would think would respond the same to the ad had a very different reaction. People massively criticized Domino's for their tone deaf marketing because Karen is typically associated with an overprivileged white woman. So the idea of giving that person more free stuff while ignoring the minorities and the oppressed was not an idea that New Zealand thought was very funny. So it really goes to show the importance of market research and knowing who you're speaking to. The New Zealand Dominoes apologized for the ad and removed it from their marketing. And number 10 on the list is Khloe Kardashian. Khloe received a lot of backlash lately after promoting the prescription migraine medication Nurtech ODT in a sponsored post to her 26 million followers. Now, Khloe isn't the first high profile celebrity that big Pharma has paid to endorse their products. We've seen the same thing from numerous other influencers and celebrities in the U.S. however, that doesn't make it right. And people continue to raise concerns about the ethics of allowing high profile stars to market medications directly to consumers. In fact, this practice is so questionable that the US Is actually one of the only countries in the world that allow this type of advertising. The American Medical association has previously called for a ban on that practice, claiming that it contributes to an inflated healthcare cost and interferes with doctor patient relationships. And while you can't say that every celebrity who has endorsed a drug has ill intentions, you can't deny the fact that they are not medical professionals and definitely should not be educating or influencing the public on what drugs they should be taking. I mean, come on, you guys, this is Ethics 101. So which marketing fail was most cringy for you? Comment below and let me know. Until next time. I'm Alex. Ciao for now. All right, guys, if you enjoyed that video, make sure to check out the next one from me right here. And you can click right here to get a free gift. Your sales page is the page that gets you paid. Keep watching to make sure you're not making one of these 10 common but deadly copywriting mistakes.
