27 Companies That Ran Unbelievably Dumb Promotions

Any publicity is good publicity, right? Er, not necessarily
27 Companies That Ran Unbelievably Dumb Promotions

Companies are constantly pulling weird stunts to engage customers and sell them stuff they don’t need. Because of that, they’re also constantly bumbling around and making bad decisions. And when that happens, they crash and burn in spectacular fashion.

Skeptical? Just check out these promos, ads and gimmicks that somebody at corporate thought were a good idea.

Panic ensued when a Missouri movie theater hired fake agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., complete with fake weapons, to storm a screening of IRON MAN 3... less t
27 Companies That Ran Unbelievably Dumb Promotions
CRACKED COM To promote their upcoming runway show in Shanghai, Dolce & Gabbana released a series of videos which depicted a Chinese model struggling t

American Apparel

GRAGKEDON American Apparel wanted to launch an XL clothing line and created a casting call to hire plus-sized models to promote them. THE NEXT BIG THI
MAC celebrated National Lipstick Day by giving away a free lipstick to those who came to the stores selected during the event. Thousands of customers
Canadian brewing company Molson had college kids post party pictures on Facebook to promote their brand... CANADIA MOLSON Coors Jite LAGER BEER LIGH
Bethesda Game. Studios advertised a canvas duffle bag as part of the $200 Power Armor Edition of Fallout 76. WEST TEK POWERED EULLY WARFARE Customer
Valve's 2019 Summer Sale event was a doggone disaster. TEM GRAND PRIX Pnups C TOOR STANONA FNG O0wAn TOrOSE 1PPx 11 4.003M 131 147 Players rigged Valv

Timothy’s World Coffee

In 2011, Timothy's World Coffee ran a campaign asking people to Like their Facebook page and receive four boxes of their single-serve coffee (which
Snapchat lost around $800 million in stock after running an ad on their platform for the mobile game Would You Rather? which mocked Rihanna's abuse.
CRACKEDC COM To promote Mercenaries 2 in the U.K., EA gave away $30,000 worth of gas... LVE XBOX 360 MERCENARIES2 WUEDTZRANES EXIFO1 A ...and started

Great Idea, Man

An Indonesian marketing expert thought it would be a good idea to throw money out of a plane. Instead of a traditional campaign for his book, Tung Des
In 2009, EA shipped brass knuckles along with their upcoming game, The Godfather to press members for promotional purposes. They soon learned that the

LifeLock CEO Todd Davis

Eager to promote confidence in his company's identity theft protection services, the CEO of LifeLock used his actual Social Security number in an adve
Macy's decided to sell some plates by fat shaming moms. jeans mom favarite jeand jeans lood comd mom adie favarite jeans jeans skinny The plates featu

McDonald’s Japan

M a In 2006, McDonald's Japan ran a promotion in whicH 10,000 mp3 players would be awarded to lucky customers. The players contained a virus which sto

LG Promotion

0392 T00PM :00. PM Fndlyyoctober T1 Sprint g LG When LG promoted their G2 phone in Seoul by attaching phone vouchers to helium balloons in a park, fan
GRAOE IN 2006. FIJI TRIED TO ADVERTISE THE PURITY OF THEIR WATER WITH THE SLOGAN BECAUSE IT'S NOT BOTTLED IN CLEVELAND. FIJT FIJI ESANWATER SARTESIE
Forever 21 upset its customers by including Atkins diet bars in their plus-size orders. --43220:44-0 PROTEIN-RICH MEAL BAR 8 16G 3G 2G 12G HET CANNS'

The Los Angeles Dodgers

In 1995, the LOS Angeles Dodgers gave their fans promotional baseballs on their way into the Dodger Stadium for their game against the St. Louis Cardi
A czech bus that offered Auschwitz tours was decorated with designs that made Auschwitz look like Disneyland. ARBEIT OSVETIMI POJEDTE DO omdie meT ZA
Ford LFAVE RWORRIES BEHN Go Furthe An ad agency hired by Ford thought the best way to boost sales was this picture of Paris Hilton kidnapping the Kard
In 2009, the Department Of Defense caused a city-wide scare by flying airplanes around skyscrapers in New York. The stunt was an attempt by the depart
In 2007, Dr. Pepper held a promotion asking people to search for a coin in Boston's most historic graveyard. 1882 Dozens of people gathered at the Old
CRACKED.OON SKittles. wanted to celebrate Pride Month, sO they took out the rainbow from their candies. Some people were SaaS Ul confused, 8 Skittles
Domino's Pizza Russia had to cut short a campaign offering 100 pizzas for 100 years in exchange for customers getting a tattoo of their logo. #AOMHOCH
CRACKED COM In 2010, Tropitana advertised its sunless bronzers by spray-painting park benches with its logo and the words Nie-Blankes' (Non-Whites
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