When Marketing Backfires

A blog following incidents where marketing has failed in hilarious, spectacular ways. And maybe some times when a weird idea was unexpectedly successful.

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HAVE Z AND ALPHA NOT BEEN MADE AWARE? HAVE WE FAILED AT CONTINUING TO MEME THE HELL OUT OF IT? ARE WE, IN FACT, THE GRANDMAS BECAUSE WE ARE THE ANCIENT KEEPERS OF THE INCEST COFFEE KNOWLEDGE???

[fatsexybitch]

[lizardbeths]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

A fandom since 2011 guys

[quarra]

[marzipanandminutiae]

(If anybody is wondering “how could they write that and not anticipate the reaction?“ It’s because the sister was supposed to be much younger in the original draft. Like. An actual child. But they aged her up and never bothered changing the dialogue, so…)

[wemblingfool]

It’s honestly not the writing or the age, or even the acting that screams “incest.”

It’s the directing and camera work. It’s specifically the long lingering gazes.

[adulthoodisokay]

“You’re My Present This Year”: An Oral History of the Folgers Incest Ad

The best part of waking up is getting to read this incest oral history.

I’m begging you to read the oral history of this commercial. It features some banger quotes and also Timothy Simons, aka Jonah from Veep, who worked the camera for the auditions and callbacks.

[unbfacts]

[the-brand-reaper]

Legacy of the Folgers Incest Commercial

The other day I saw an ad for Folgers coffee that used the song "bad reputation" by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, and I thought, do they know? Did they pick this song because they wanted to appeal to a younger audience, or were they poking fun at what the true reputation of Folgers coffee has become? Because when I think of Folgers, as I'm sure that many other people on this hellsite can agree, I only think of one thing. That's right, I'm talking about the incest commercial.

For those of you that don't know, in 2009, Folgers wanted to reimagine their classic Christmas ad with a new version, titled, "Coming Home." The ad was intended to be homey and nostalgic, focusing on a family coming together for the holiday season. But what we got was a commercial that had some... other implications about family.

The siblings portrayed in the commercial came across to some as uncomfortably flirty. And the internet agreed. Soon there were memes everywhere, fanart, parody videos— even fanfiction.

 So what happened?

Folgers is a big brand, after all. This commercial would have likely had to go through multiple higher-ups and marketing executives who all watched it and said, “yeah, looks good. Let’s air it.”

The idea behind the commercial was that it featured an older brother coming home from his work in the Peace Corps overseas, only to discover that his younger sister had grown up quite a bit while he was away. This was intended to be addressed in a playful manner since he hardly recognized her, and everyone loved the idea.

On the surface, this idea could have worked. I think the main issue is that A: the two actors portrayed had way too much chemistry with each other, and B: in their attempts to make this ad feel cozy like a Hallmark Christmas movie, they...shot it like a Hallmark Christmas movie, romance and all.

I think the lesson to be learned here is that next time, maybe show your ad to a test group first before airing it nationally.

[the-brand-reaper]

McFailure

Anyone else remember that time that McDonald's tried to get people to talk about their restaurant using the Twitter hashtag #McDStories? Since this was a marketing campaign, they were expecting people to write about the great customer service or that time they got an extra chicken nugget, right? But of course when you’re a fast food restaurant, we all know that people only have positive things to say.

I'm not sure what they were expecting with that, but it probably wasn't a great idea to give the Twitter public free reign on a marketing campaign and NOT expect them to be brutally honest or just make up wild stories.

I mean, just look at some of these.

In the end, McDonald's pulled the hashtag within 2 hours.

I think the lesson to be learned from this is: never give the public an unmoderated platform to say anything about your restaurant. And also, sometimes it’s really, really funny when companies forget that.

[nbsilvally]

If I could describe A24 films in one TikTok, it would be this.

This is cinema.

[the-brand-reaper]

Mountain Dew: We want to make a new flavor of Mountain Dew! Let's have the internet decide what to call it!

The Internet:

Mountain Dew:

[meetmeintheflowers]

the funniest thing to me about the folgers incest commercial is that those two characters absolutely did not have to be siblings. the ad would have worked just as well if they were in a long distance relationship and he came home. instead, folgers corporate saw two actors dripping with the most insane carnal sexual heat chemistry in the history of visual media and said yep looks like an average brother and sister duo to me. and that’s what christmas is about, charlie brown

[the-brand-reaper]

Hey all,

Are you ready to hear about some colossal failures? Cause you've got these to look forward to in the near future.

#McDStories

In 2012, McDonald's launched a Twitter campaign with the hashtag #McDStories. The goal was to have customers share cute stories about their experiences at the restaurant. Instead, they were met with McHorror Stories. Terrible customers, staff secrets, health code violations-- Twitter shared it all. In the end, McDonald's pulled the hashtag within 2 hours.

Folgers Incest Commercial

You know it, you love it, it's that time tried to reimagine their classic Christmas ad with... unintended results. The commercial involved a man coming home for Christmas to be greeted lovingly by his sister, with dialogue and staging that ended up being uncomfortably flirtatious. The sparked everyone to start referring to it as the "Folgers Incest Commercial," and the brand hasn't quite been able to shake that reputation with Millennial and Gen Z customers since.

Dub The Dew

Dub The Dew was a campaign that allowed customers to propose names for a new green apple flavor of Mountain Dew. However, many people on social media thought it would be funny to submit offensive or inappropriate names for the drink. It was very funny. But Mountain Dew didn’t think so, and pulled the promotion, dubbing their new flavour “green apple mountain dew.”

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[the-brand-reaper]

Introduction

Do you like it when marketing fails spectacularly? Do you experience immense joy when a company misinterprets their target audience so badly that it becomes a meme? If so, then this is the blog for you!

In the vast landscape of social media marketing, brands are always looking for new ways to connect to their customers, especially the famously difficult-to-market-to members of gen Z. But making a few posts on social media or starting a new ad campaign is basically useless if you don't know your market or have a plan— and sometimes mistakes can backfire in unexpected ways. In this blog, I plan to discuss various incidents when brands grievously misinterpreted what it means to build a brand relationship with their desired audience, how these attempts blew up in their face, and where they went wrong.

I'd also like to explore what failure really means and determine at what point does negative attention actually become good attention. Is it possible that a brand can become so hated that the public's perception of them loops back around into the territory of ironic enjoyment? And is going viral in the wrong way really worth it?

I also plan to occasionally discuss times when strange or perhaps risky campaigns actually manage to turn things around and win an ironic sort of appreciation, sometimes even changing their brand image completely.

If all of this interests you, stay tuned!