In 2015 Sobe beverages in the US apologised for a joke that backfired. Some customers started voicing their concern after finding “Help me, Trapped in SoBe factory” under the lids of some of their bottles. Turns out the cry for help was intentionally put there by the company as a marketing ploy.
marketing
In 2013, Coca-Cola cancelled…
In 2013, Coca-Cola cancelled a promotion that paired randomly generated English and French words inside their caps until a lady received one that said “You Retard”.
The refreshing and minty…
The refreshing and minty taste of toothpaste was originally constructed as a marketing technique, in which our subconscious minds learned to anticipate the tingling sensations of citric acid, mint oil, and other chemicals as a sign that our mouths were ‘clean’, thus creating a habit loop.
“Breakfast is the Most Important Meal of….
“Breakfast is the Most Important Meal of the Day” idea came from a company trying to sell more cereal during its 1944 marketing campaign.
To get women to smoke cigarettes in the 1920s…
To get women to smoke cigarettes in the 1920s, tobacco companies devised a campaign of equating cigarettes as “torches of freedom.” The campaign helped women smoking jump from 5% in 1923 to 18.1% in 1935.
Planned obsolescence is a manufacturing decision by a company…
Planned obsolescence is a manufacturing decision by a company to make consumer products in such a way that they become out-of-date or useless within a known time period so that consumers are forced to buy a product multiple times rather than just once.
The T-shirt was invented in 1904 and marketed…
The T-shirt was invented in 1904 and marketed to bachelors who couldn’t sew or replace buttons.
A New York ad agency tried marketing laundry detergent to Arab consumers through the use…
A New York ad agency tried marketing laundry detergent to Arab consumers through the use of sequential pictures showing laundry being cleaned. However, the advertisers didn’t realize Arabic was read from right to left and their ad actually depicted the detergent soiling the clothing after wash.
According to the New York Business Journal, the Campbell Soup Co. has recently…
According to the New York Business Journal, the Campbell Soup Co. has recently dramatically increased its marketing budget with the launch of a multimedia ad campaign centered around a boy with a long beard (“The Wisest Kid in the Whole World”) who advises people to have soup.
EA hired people to portray Christians to accuse of EA being…
EA hired people to portray Christians to accuse of EA being the Anti-Christ for the video game Dante’s Inferno as a marketing scheme.