Brand blunder

Error in advertising that could be potentially offensive or vulgar

A brand blunder is an error associated with the branding of a product, especially a new product in a new market. Reasons for such slips include the lack of understanding of the language, culture and consumer attitudes in the new market. There are numerous examples of brand blunders in marketing history; there are also numerous urban legends surrounding brand blunders, where there is little evidence of an actual blunder.

Problems with international product branding are often associated with the process of language localisation, in which the product brand name or advertising slogan carries a different meaning in the language of the target market. In addition to linguistic aspects, issues of cultural sensitivity can affect the success of a brand. This is a risk faced by companies entering a new market. In international marketing, a brand name must be distinctive and easy to pronounce across multiple markets, but it must not have unintended negative or obscene connotations. This risk is usually mitigated by factoring cultural research into a branding strategy.

The rise of the internet has provided new ways for marketers to interact with the public. The resultant seemingly trial and error attempts to capitalize on new technologies have resulted in some of the most public brand blunders in recent memory. A 2012 internet promotion for Mountain Dew titled "Dub the Dew" was cancelled after the website dubthedew. com was compromised by trolls. Participants were supposed to submit and vote on potential names for an apple flavored variant of Mountain Dew. Instead, the contest, upon discovery by 4chan, was bombarded with unusable and offensive names. The site was taken down quickly and the promotion cancelled, but not before the name "Hitler did nothing wrong" reached the No. 1 position and the top of the page was hacked to show a satirical message falsely claiming that the Mossad were responsible for the September 11 attacks. Nestlé committing blunders twice: In 2012, Nestlé announced the Kit Kat's official Instagram account by posting their first picture on Instagram, a KitKat bear mascot. However, Nestlé took the picture down after backlash due to the Kit Kat bear's resemblance to Pedobear. And in 2014, a DiGiorno tweet using a trending hashtag accidentally injected pizza marketing into an otherwise serious conversation about domestic violence. The reply "You had pizza" to the hashtag #WhyIStayed was not well received by the online public and the marketing account made dozens of apology tweets following the incident. In February 2020, the official Peanuts account on Twitter posted a graphic featuring Charlie Brown and African American character Franklin with text reading "You’re one of the good ones". The tweet was quickly pulled and an apology was issued after users pointed out the graphic's accidental racism, where "one of the good ones" is often used as a backhanded compliment towards minorities which implies most are bad people.

Urban legends about brand blunders are popular, because they use familiar urban legend motifs such as the incompetent corporation or the ignorant foreigner. Often the reality is far less dramatic, and the stories, which are even retold in marketing textbooks as cautionary tales, are rarely backed up by researched data about sales. Gerber: It was once believed that Africans were horrified over Gerber baby food. Since food containers in Africa often contain what is pictured on their label, popular lore maintained that Africans thought that jars of Gerber baby food contained ground up infants. Electrolux: Swedish vacuum manufacturer Electrolux sold products successfully in the United Kingdom using a slogan produced by the English agency Cogent Elliot: "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux". Although many Americans think this is an example of a blunder, in fact the slang disparagement "sucks", originating in American English, was not current in British English at that time. Pepsi: Pepsi allegedly introduced their slogan "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" into the Chinese market. Translated into Chinese, it read "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave". A similar claim has been made for the "Coke adds life" slogan, with the target market listed as anything from Taiwan to Thailand to Japan. Coca Cola: The name Coca Cola rendered phonetically in Chinese can sound like the words for "bite the wax tadpole" or "mare stuffed with wax" (骒马口蠟). Before marketing in China, the company found a close phonetic equivalent, kěkǒukělè (可口可乐), which roughly means "let your mouth rejoice" or "tasty and enjoyable". It was never marketed by the company using the other phrases, though individual merchants may have made such signs. An urban legend holds that the Chevrolet Nova automobile sold poorly in Latin America, as "no va" means "doesn't go" in Spanish. In truth, the car sold well. The same has been said of the Vauxhall Nova, which had to be sold as an Opel Corsa in Spain. This too is a myth, as the car was built in Spain and known there as a Corsa from the outset. The stress of "Nova" is quite different from "no va", and Spanish speakers would be familiar with Nova as the Latin word for "new." The legend is the equivalent of claiming a furniture set called Notable didn't sell well in America because of the name's similarity to "no table". Claims that the Buick LaCrosse name in translation becomes the equivalent of "to cross oneself", a Quebec French slang term for masturbation, are overstated. Buick initially used the nameplate Allure in Canada in an overabundance of caution when introducing the model in 2005, but abandoned this dual branding early in the 2010 model year. The vehicle now uses the LaCrosse branding in all countries. Fake ads, often with sexually explicit content such as one for Puma and an even less plausible pedophilia themed one for Breyers, have attracted attention and even official responses from the company denying affiliation.