18 REALLY BAD ADVERTISING EXAMPLES

 Looking for some bad advertising examples?

Global digitalization is transforming the advertising industry in both positive and negative ways. 

The good thing is that marketers have become much better at running their ads. 

The number of platforms where companies can find leads is increasing, the opportunities these platforms offer are getting more diverse, and the data received thanks to these platforms is becoming more accurate and useful.

The bad thing is that the relationship between marketers and consumers has gotten tense. It often happens that companies show the wrong ads to the wrong people. However, failed marketing campaigns aren't just about showing your ads to the wrong people.

According to one survey published on eMarketer, more than 70% of US respondents said that ads had gotten more intrusive, and nearly 80% agreed that ads appeared in more places than several years ago.

In 2019, the number of Americans using ad blockers increased to almost 26%, and it’s slowly going up day by day.

Bad advertising examples — ad blocking reasons

Another survey from 2018 published on eMarketer revealed that 51% of respondents used ad blockers because they saw too many ads that were annoying or irrelevant, and 50% of respondents said there were too many ads on the internet.

18 Bad Advertising Examples to Draw Good Inferences From

Interestingly, some people hate advertising so much they want to buy freedom from it. According to Statista, 33% of US consumers surveyed in September 2017 were ready to pay more for services if they didn’t have ads.

No matter what, bad marketing examples always give food for thought. 

Our article consists of three parts. In the first part, we’re going to highlight some of the most notorious ad campaigns the advertising world has ever known. The second part includes controversial YouTube and TV commercials. And in the third part, you’ll see some of the weirdest ads you can imagine.

4 Notorious Ad Campaigns That Generated a Lot of Noise

Let’s start with failed ad campaigns that gained notoriety for being offensive and wrong.

Coca-Cola — New Coke

Coca-Cola may be one of the best examples of a company that had a good product and bad marketing. Losing the Cola war against Pepsi in the mid-80s, Coca-Cola released “New Coke” in response to the sweeter taste of its closest competitor.

On April 23, 1985, Roberto Goizueta, the CEO of Coca-Cola, introduced a new formula in an attempt to disrupt the market. 

In this TV commercial, Coca-Cola marketers told about a taste test conducted by an independent research firm which showed that “more people all around the country” chose New Coke over Pepsi in a taste test:

Surprisingly, consumers changed their opinion soon after New Coke was released. And the best part? People didn’t want Pepsi. They wanted the classic taste of Coca-Cola back.

In June 1985, Coca-Cola was forced to launch a mea culpa commercial where Ron Keough, the president of Coca-Cola, told about thousands of phone calls and letters from customers who wanted to go back to the classic taste.

We might assume this wasn’t a failure but actually a cunning plan to succeed — after turning back, Classic Coca-Cola not only outsold New Coke within several months but even strengthened its position in the market and went ahead of Pepsi.

Nevertheless, the fact is that you should always think twice before changing your product instead of changing your marketing strategy.