Sometimes it’s so obvious you can’t see what you’re doing wrong.
Every now and then, you need to look at some really bad marketing to know that you’re doing it right. Or just to laugh at the stupidity of advertisers and ad placement people (what are they called?).
So to follow up on our last “bad marketing” post – 13 Epic Marketing Fails – I’m going to expose a few classic faux pas as a warning to be extra careful when you put an ad out to the world.
Today’s categories:
Enjoy, cringe, laugh, cry.
Before you pay through the nose for your ad placement, consider what’s coming next.
Ummmm. I get that it’s probably for people buying on behalf of those without sight, but the irony is somewhat ridiculous. I guess with a screen reader it could work to an extent – but paying for an ad like that? Seems kinda wrong. And really? “Never seen before?” #ouch
Wow. Talk about co-marketing. These guys should go into business together. I’d love to be the dude that pastes these things on the billboards – he must have the funniest job in the world.
Come on now! A Search engine (Yahoo) ad placed right next to section 404 in a sports stadium. Is this meta genius or just something for us to laugh at? I’m laughing FTR. But kudos to Yahoo if they specifically asked to be next to that section to try and generate some kind of viral brand exposure. #doubtful
Health food?… Yeah! Obesity?… No! McDonalds FTW!!! I mean really. Is the goal to confuse people? Or just cause arguments in minivans between parents and children.
I have to give them points for having an electronic banner with a live Twitter stream. And congratulate the photo taker for their epic timing. Doesn’t look so good for those 3 news anchors tho.
Surely you could rearrange this and it would still make sense, right? Must be a generation gap thing.
Okay, so you accidentally have a bad acronym for your business. Don’t make it worse! Although it’s probably a very effective interruption marketing technique, whether intended or not.
How could you not catch this one? I’m starting to think there’s a movement of inappropriate interruption ad companies that rely on creating controversy. #conspiracytheory
Really? You are so old you don’t know what this means? My version: Memories I‘d Like to Forget.
Looking to buy a car? Keep your eyes peeled for the women’s prison, we set up shop right beside it to enhance our trust value.
I heard someone say recently that branding and the name of your product doesn’t matter, just get it out there and see how it goes. I disagree, and this demonstrates it perfectly. How much education do you need to know that these are BANANAS!
Words #fail me…
I’m guessing the banner designer for this promotion got fired.
There’s only so much real estate on your packaging or landing page. Make the most of it without pointless references to things people already know. For cats? No sh*t Sherlock.
The world is broken…
Bad marketing? Really? I would buy some of those long, yellow things. And I would facebook, tweet and tell everyone I saw that day that I had just gone to that shop and bought a long yellow thing. That could quite possibly keep me amused, intermittently for most of the day :D
Haha, yeah I totally would too. Would be fun to have a whole store full of descriptions like that – I’d love the job of coming up with the names. :)
Agreed. Not only did it get posted on this site, but we all saw and discussed it. So, seems they are doing something right. “bad press is good press”.
These are funny though.
Just FYI, that “404″ on the outfield wall is referring to the distance from home plate, not a seating section.
There’s always a FAIL by me in these posts lol.
We recently had side by side billboards in our town. On the left: ad for McDonald’s extra thick fries. On the right: ad for the local hospital’s heart and vascular center with the headline “It wasn’t indigestion”.
Hysterical post, Oli. Great examples of what not to do – I especially like the product placement catastrophes. So more people learn from your examples of what NOT to do, I have included your post in ‘Best of the Web’ http://bit.ly/j3bestweb, Facebook http://buff.ly/TVwkOC and Google+ http://buff.ly/TVwjdx. Thank you.
There’s a union with a “Lower Mainland Area Office” in Vancouver. I once spent the evening in their LMAO Auditorium! In fact, once I saw the sign, that’s exactly what I did.
These are classic Oli. My favourite still has to be No. 5. ‘Obesity for a dollar fail’.
I’ve seen it many times before but it never gets old. I think it is so classic a marketing fail because of the opposing messages including the cause and effect ;-)
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I like long yellow things dipped in chocolate.
Great pictures! I’m still laughing….
[...] 15 Epic Marketing Fails [...]
Generally I don’t learn post on blogs, however I would like to say that this write-up very forced me to check out and do it! Your writing style has been amazed me. Thanks, quite nice article.
The fact of the matter is, as horrible as these marketers are at their jobs, the inadequacy of these campaigns have made them famous to an certain extent. We have collected them, posted them and enjoyed them… Because of that, we remember the brands and we share it with our friends. Now isn’t that the ultimate goal of us marketers?
Thanks Oli I had a few good laughs. My favorite was the first one.