- [Narrator] It seems, these days, companies will do anything
for a bit of exposure. But in that desperate
search for attention, marketing strategies occasionally go beyond just being ignored, and explode into fantastical
spectacles of utter failure. Let's get down to business, with 10 marketing strategies
that failed spectacularly. (playful music) - Amazing! - [Narrator] Number 10, Bride Inspection. In 2017, Audi's Chinese marketing team learned that comparing women to used cars is a seriously wrong turn, after they released an ad
promoting their used cars. In the ad, we see two
people about to get married. And in the middle of
the ceremony, however, the groom's mother begins
physically inspecting the bride with no care for her comfort or consent. You know, like you might to livestock, or, in this case, a used car. In case that comparison
wasn't clear enough, as the scene concludes, the caption, "an important
decision must be made carefully" appears on the screen. Obviously, comparing women to property, used property, at that, has a slightly troubled past, and unsurprisingly, this
upset a few viewers. People around the world,
especially in China, called for a full boycott of the brand, and social media sites blew up with detailed criticism of the ad. The company tried to duck controversy by having a spokesperson
claim it was developed by a joint-venture partner, but people weren't satisfied by this, and the outrage burned on for weeks. Number nine, Pizza Problems. Participating in a popular
hashtag can be a clever way for a brand to gain some
attention on social media. Sometimes, though, brands fail to check
other uses of the hashtag to see whether their
brand fits the narrative. This was precisely the case with DiGiorno Pizza's
Twitter account in 2014. Around that time,
#WhyIStayed and #WhyILeft were trending across social
media in a collective effort to raise awareness about domestic violence and the nuances of each
victim's situation. DiGiorno assumed the hashtag related to relationships in general, not necessarily abusive ones. Driven by this misunderstanding, they tweeted, "#WhyIStayed...
You had pizza." Funnily enough, people
didn't take too kindly to their deeply personal discussions being hijacked by a
brand to advertise pizza. The tweet was deleted almost instantly after backlash poured in. DiGiorno apologized and
insisted they didn't know the hashtag's context beforehand. They even sent out personalized apologies to anyone who tweeted
at them for some time. But no apology could cover
that pepperoni-shaped scar left on the brand's public image. Number eight, Renault's Pear-Mobile. For some reason, the people
working at Renault in 1977 decided the perfect shape for
your car was that of a pear. They really doubled down on
this utterly bizarre idea in their ad campaign. Translated into English, the ad boasted, "The Renault 14 is like a pear. "At the front, a minimum of
space for the transverse engine. "At the back, maximum space for comfort." While these are fairly
good selling points, basing a vehicle around a
common, non-exotic fruit doesn't tend to get people overly excited. More than that, though,
is the fact that la poire, French for pear, is also
French slang meaning gullible. Obviously, this isn't the
label most potential buyers seek out when buying a car. Whatever reason you
wanna point to, though, Renault's pear rotted in the lukewarm air, as public interest never
rose while it was around. Now, it's only remembered
as a cornerstone example of what not to do when advertising a car. Number seven, Laundry Problems. While the aforementioned
DiGiorno's scandal was likely a matter of good intentions and a lack of research, this commercial for the
Chinese detergent Qiaobi is something else entirely. To advertise their product, they show a black man
in paint-stained clothes joining a Chinese woman doing laundry. As he gets closer, she grabs him and throws him into the washing machine. After some time, a Chinese man pokes his head
out of the machine's door and joins his newly satisfied partner. It all rounds off with the claim that "Change begins with a Qiaobi pod." Well, Qiaobi, I'm not sure
race is the kind of change most people are looking for
in their laundry products. Of course, an advert associating
black skin with dirtiness rightfully received widespread
international anger, with some of the most vocal responses coming from the United States. As voices arose, though, many pointed out that the
precedent for ads like this were pioneered by U.S. advertisers throughout the 20th century. That being said, racial issues aren't unique to China or the USA. So, you'd think that virtually
anyone could've foreseen that this laundry ad was heading the way of a washing machine full of bricks. Number six, Don't Drink Me. Dasani, Coca-Cola's
brand of bottled water, is a commonplace, billion-dollar product in the United States. In the UK, however, Dasani
is a rare sight in stores, thanks to a disastrous
promotional campaign. Back in 2003, they launched
a massive UK campaign, hoping to dominate the
bottled water industry across the pond. Their marketing needed
to be clever, though. After all, UK customers
expected their bottled water to be naturally-sourced and Dasani was being bottled
at a tap water plant in Kent. To get the public on board, they told them Dasani had spunk! While spunk describes a quirky and energetic attitude in the States, it means something else
in the United Kingdom. All I'll say is this, it comes
from men's nether-regions, and for most people, it's the last thing you'd
want in your bottled water. Besides the PR nightmare that caused, the reality of what
actually was in Dasani water would become a much bigger issue. When people discovered that Dasani was essentially tap water, Coca-Cola doubled down on the idea that their additional filtration measures made it taste better. Unfortunately, it transpired, the use of ozone in
the additional measures reacted with compounds
in the regular water and inadvertently added illegally
high amounts of bromate. And unfortunately for Dasani, bromate has been linked to cancer growth. Regular tap water contained
none of this substance at all. Coke recalled half a million bottles, and advised those who had
purchased Dasani not to drink it. Juggling these rather viscous messes, and receiving no positive reception for their overpriced product, Dasani had no choice but
to pull out of the UK in March of 2004. Water disaster! Number five, An Unfortunate Prophecy. This cringe-worthy case from the mid-2010s wasn't an instant failure, but when it did fail, it failed hard, thanks to a very unfortunate coincidence. Early in 2013, Nike unveiled a campaign with Oscar Pistorius, who at the time was a widely-loved double-amputee Olympian runner. One of the images that came out of it included a sequence of
him starting a race. Decorated with the caption, "I am the bullet in the chamber," it referenced his speed
and power as an athlete. The ad aged worse than
sun-dried milk, though, as Oscar was arrested for
gunning down his girlfriend not long after the ad debuted. Nike shelved the campaign
almost immediately, but it stayed up on Oscar's official site for a while longer, keeping
the controversy alive, despite Nike's efforts. When asked for comment, Nike
officials repeatedly declined to discuss their previous
endorsement of Pistorius, along with their sponsorship deal. They did, however, confirm
their separation from him after further details of the case emerged. Though Nike would like the world
to forget about the ordeal, thanks to Pistorius' actions, the campaign would be remembered as one of the most tragically
disastrous in history. Number four, An Unexpected Destination. Back in 2015, a German
woman scanned the QR code on the back of her ketchup bottle, expecting to be taken to the Heinz site for a design-your-own-bottle contest. But the URL the QR code
led to featured images that don't pair particularly
well with dinner. When it unexpectedly took her
to a pornographic website, she decided it was worth
sharing on Facebook, and the discovery went viral overnight. Upon inspection, Heinz
discovered that the QR code had expired after the
end of the promotion, and had been snagged by a porn site looking for some extra marketing. That's some creative brand exposure from the naughty website, but, without sounding like Ned Flanders, risking exposing children
to that kind of content seems a little immoral. It's certainly a funny story, but not many condiment
companies wanna be associated with the carnal arts. But, if anyone's into that, it
seems Heinz is the way to go. Number three, Toothpaste For Dinner. If I were to tell you that, at one point, toothpaste powerhouse Colgate tried to expand their
market into frozen dinners, your initial reaction probably
tells you why it didn't work. It's just wrong. I mean, what next? Toothpaste and fresh orange ice cream? Without stopping to think
whether they should, in the early 80s, Colgate launched their
Kitchen Entrees range. The total left-turn from the purely-toothpaste-focused company made people wonder, why? And how? Would they be putting
toothpaste in the food? Was the food meant to clean
your teeth like dog treats? These types of questions made the debut of Colgate Kitchen Entrees in 1982, the height of the frozen dinner craze, an extremely weird one. The products, in reality,
were surprisingly normal, offering relatively-healthy,
bland selections of microwaveable dinners. But despite the fact that
they were essentially just standard microwave meals, the attachment of the Colgate name ensured a certain level of
weirdness stuck to them. The weirdness, unfortunately, didn't lead to purchases out of curiosity, and the product brushed itself off the shelves soon afterwards. Number two, The Ultimate Trade. In 2018, a Domino's branch in Russia was looking for a way
to promote their brand more aggressively than ever before. Someone in the promotions department must have had a few too
many slices of extra spicy, because they came up
with a pretty crazy way to gain some publicity. Their idea was something
along the lines of, "Why not have people
tattoo our logo on them "in exchange for 100 free
pizzas a year for life?" This plan, crazy as it sounds, might have been both
eye-grabbing and lucrative if they had just accounted for one thing, people really like pizza. And the only thing they like
more is getting it for free. One thing led to another,
and after just five days, more than 350 people got
prominently-displayed tattoos to secure their lifetime cheesy fix. Unable to keep up with this massive non-paying customer base, the branch had to shut down the promotion after begrudgingly handing out
381 free pizza certificates to loyal participants. As for those participants,
I'm sure you'll agree, a tattoo was a small price
to pay for free pizza every three days or so for life. Although, following that kind of diet may turn a lifetime
supply into about a year, if your arteries have
anything to say about it. But at least that would slightly lighten Domino's' profitless pizza commitments. Number one, Bouncing Back. The story of Malala Yousafzai
is an extremely powerful one, so it's understandable it
might be used by a charity or humanitarian group for their purposes. Advertisements for a mattress
company, on the other hand, are the last place you'd
expect to see reference to Yousafzai's story. Her story, for those of
you who don't already know, made her the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
in 2014, at age 17. Malala had been an active
advocate of education rights for women in Pakistan, which resulted in an assassination attempt by Taliban activists who
opposed female education. They shot Malala and left her for dead, but she survived and
told the world her story. So, if you were the head of a PR company, how would you use the
story of Malala Yousafzai to advertise your client's mattresses? If your answer to that question
is, "What's wrong with you? "I would never consider doing "such an insensitive and calloused thing," then, you're already doing
better than the India arm of PR firm Ogilvy & Mather in 2014. In the poster they designed,
Malala is shown being shot, falling down onto a Kurl-On mattress, and bouncing off it to
accept a humanitarian prize. Everything's tied off with
the caption, "Bounce Back." After understandable backlash,
the PR company apologized, claiming they would investigate "how their standards were
compromised in this case." The attempt to make it appear
like a momentary oversight, rather than a decision that was greenlit by several members of
the company's leadership, didn't fool anyone. Consumers and publications
around the world made it clear that, unsurprisingly, using a child's attempted
murder to sell mattresses isn't something you can
bounce back from easily. Which one of these spectacular failures got you shaking your head? Did you think any of them
were secretly wins, instead? Let me know in the comments section below. Thanks for watching! (perky music)
