Buzz
Marketing is a tricky business. Many brands don’t exactly offer something people truly need. A lot of promotions focus more on crafting an image for the company than selling the product itself. In order to stay relevant, these brands often resort to outlandish stunts to grab our attention.
Generally, these major brands invest a lot of money in hiring professionals who ensure everything goes off without a hitch. However, there are times when they hire the wrong people, and that’s when everything can go terribly wrong.
10. The Jagermeister Pool Party Disaster
Picture a Venn diagram with Jagermeister’s event team on one side and experienced chemists on the other. The overlap? Probably nonexistent. In other words, it’s not a great idea to leave the Jagermeister team in charge of handling dangerous chemicals. During a promotional event in Leon, Mexico, they proved they were ill-equipped to deal with liquid nitrogen.
In 2013, a pool party took place with around 200 young attendees. To heighten the atmosphere, the event organizers thought it would be a great idea to pour liquid nitrogen into the swimming pool, creating a smoky visual effect. Unfortunately, they did not consider the dangerous reaction that occurs when liquid nitrogen mixes with chlorine producing a toxic gas.
Soon after, people began collapsing. While such incidents are always alarming, they are especially dangerous when they occur with swimmers in the pool. Thankfully, no one lost their life at the event, though a 21-year-old man ended up in a coma, and eight others had to be hospitalized.
9. Dr. Pepper’s Treasure Hunt
Some marketing ideas are truly hard to comprehend. This was the case when Cadbury Schweppes, the parent company of Dr. Pepper at the time, decided to organize a treasure hunt centered around their soda. In 2007, they hid coins of different values throughout the city, and participants were given clues to track them down in order to win cash prizes.
One of the clues led participants to a historic 347-year-old cemetery in Boston, which was the final resting place for famous figures such as John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Robert Treat Paine. By now, it's clear where the issue arose. The city halted the hunt when contestants began flocking to the cemetery, worried they might start digging up graves. Dr. Pepper issued an apology, acknowledging that the coin should never have been hidden in such a revered location. This was something that should have been obvious before people showed up with shovels.
8. LG’s Accidental Riot
In 2013, LG launched a promotional event where they released 100 helium balloons, each containing a voucher for a free smartphone. It seemed like a simple idea, but not much thought was given to what would happen next (probably not many experienced chess players were involved in the planning).
These weren’t just any smartphones—each one was valued at over $850US. As soon as the balloons were let loose, the crowd below erupted into chaos, with people pulling out BB guns and firing them. The aftermath was a messy scramble, leaving twenty people injured in the resulting chaos. LG quickly realized the mistake and wisely decided to cancel any remaining similar events.
7. Domino’s Tattooed Giveaway
In 2018, Domino’s launched an unusual marketing campaign in Russia that they might not have fully thought through. They offered fans the chance to win a lifetime supply of pizza if they got a tattoo of the company’s logo on a visible part of their body. The catch? To claim the prize, participants had to upload a photo of their tattoo to social media. What Domino’s failed to anticipate was how many people would actually take them up on this offer.
6. Paramount’s Bomb Scares
In another example of poor planning, the Paramount marketing team took their promotion for the new Mission Impossible III to the streets of L.A. They placed electronic devices in newspaper racks across the city that would play the film’s iconic theme music when the doors were opened.
However, these devices had a striking resemblance to homemade bombs, which understandably caused panic among many citizens. Police were quickly called, and in one case, the bomb squad blew up a news rack after a suspicious device was reported. To put this into perspective, the device was a simple plastic box with wires sticking out, attached haphazardly to the inside of the newspaper racks. the bomb squad
These devices were placed in 4,500 different vending machines, which meant emergency services were flooded with calls, even after authorities realized it was just a music box. Needless to say, the stunt sparked outrage, and Paramount Pictures found themselves facing a lawsuit. After a lengthy legal battle, the company was ordered to pay $75,000 to settle claims of negligence.
5. Snapple’s Downtown Flood
In 2005, Snapple decided to promote their new line of frozen treats with an ambitious stunt aimed at breaking a world record. They planned to create the world’s largest popsicle and display it in downtown New York. However, the event planners overlooked one crucial detail: ice melts in the heat. As a result, they attempted to remove a 25-foot-tall, 17.5-ton ice sculpture on a stick from a freezer truck on a hot summer day in Manhattan.
Before the giant Snap-icle could even be stood upright, it started to melt. A flood of strawberry-kiwi pink goo began to spill down the streets. The police had to shut down the road as onlookers scrambled for higher ground. The Snapple team later confirmed that they would not attempt to break this particular record again.
4. Fiat’s Love Letters
In a misguided stunt in Spain, Fiat decided to send out mysterious letters to 50,000 women, claiming to be from a secret admirer. The letters were unsigned, and there was no indication of who was behind them. The message implied that the writer had seen the woman on the street and added, "I only need to be with you for a couple of minutes, and even if it doesn’t work out, I promise you won’t forget our little experience together.".
The letters were unsettling and many women feared they were being stalked. As a result, they stayed home, feeling anxious until a second letter arrived two weeks later. This letter revealed that the first one was a marketing stunt and invited the women to visit their local Fiat dealer. The women, upset and offended, chose to sue Fiat instead of accepting the offer.
The recipients of the letters won their case against Fiat. However, the compensation they received was relatively minor. Fortunately for Fiat, this campaign took place in 1994, before the rise of the internet, so news of their creepy marketing blunder did not spread widely.
3. Cartoon Network’s Shady Boxes
In 2007, Cartoon Network sparked chaos and fear across Boston with a marketing stunt. (The same year as the Dr. Pepper cemetery debacle.)
The marketing company hired by Cartoon Network placed boxes with LED lights depicting the character Mooninite from their show Aqua Teen Hunger Force throughout the city. The boxes were meant as advertisements for the show.
The sight of these boxes caused widespread panic among residents, many of whom contacted emergency services. In fact, at least one of these devices was deemed so suspicious that it was detonated by the authorities. Some residents, however, ridiculed the hysteria and began a counter-campaign, placing stickers on public objects like ATMs and parking meters that read, 'this is not a bomb.' But others took the threat very seriously.
The artist responsible for the controversial artwork was arrested. As a result, Turner Broadcasting, the parent company of Cartoon Network, was required to pay over $2 million to various security and law enforcement agencies who had responded to the incident.
2. Amazon’s Nazi Trains
In a promotional stunt for their 2015 TV series The Man in the High Castle, Amazon decided to decorate New York subway cars with themed visuals. However, the show portrays an alternate reality where Germany and Japan won WWII and the United States is under Axis control. The decorations included symbols from Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
The subway cars were completely covered in these symbols, including an American flag redesigned with the German Eagle and Iron Cross replacing the stars. Thankfully, they avoided using the swastika.
A spokesperson for Amazon explained that marketing a show with such a sensitive topic would always be challenging. However, many critics saw this particular promotion as insensitive and inappropriate, especially with Nazi imagery plastered across the daily commutes of New Yorkers.
1. Lay’s Rainy Days
Lay’s (known as Walkers in the UK) launched a campaign inviting people to bet on the time and place where it would rain. However, the company, a subsidiary of PepsiCo, didn't anticipate how simple this challenge would be in the UK, a country where rain is almost constant.
As a result, many participants won quickly. Although the payout for a correct guess was only £10, the winnings soon skyrocketed to over $600,000, which the company couldn’t sustain. In an attempt to curb the losses, Walkers revised the rules, capping the maximum bet. This move sparked backlash, leading to a stern warning from the UK Watchdog regarding advertising standards. The campaign was ultimately banned from future use.
