Naughty is in. Naughty is what sells, naughty is what people want. Even those intrepid souls who speak out against naughty become naughty when the mic is cut off and the crowds fade away.
Naughty works its way into everyday conversation during this festive season more than any other. While it truly is nice to be naughty, there remain a few rotten apples who deserve to be Naughty Listed.
When true naughtiness is mentioned, the big names come out: BP, Madoff, televangelists, eggs and the like. Yet, in 2010, there was much more naughty going down away from the headlines.
Brands of all shapes and sizes set out to market themselves in unique ways every year. Perhaps they are a new brand, perhaps they are a brand bent on reinvention. Either way, the results are the same. Every year there are some successes so huge we wonder if they could ever be topped (Pepsi’s Refresh Project- they’ve decided that they don’t need to worry about advertising during the upcoming Superbowl because of the wild success of this campaign) and then, there are the attempts at marketing, rebranding or new product introduction that make each and every member of the marketing field shake their heads in a collective moment of embarrassment for some poor company.
What follows is a small list of poor companies that deserve Santa’s Naughty List for even considering their individual 2010 marketing sin, let alone enacting it. Enjoy!
1) Primark
The UK “Family Value” discount chain has long been viewed by its customers as a sure thing when considering clothing for the children of the British Isles and beyond. Their reputation was strong and their brand unsullied. Then came padded bikinis for seven year-olds.
Yes, someone within Primark’s buyer’s office thought it a good idea to buy a line of child sized bikinis complete with padded bras. While this move negated most of the brand’s positive public image for 2010, it ensured them prime placement on Santa’s Naughty List.
2) GAP
Brilliant marketing or brain dead creative director? That was the question on every marketer’s mind when GAP announced that they were changing their logo. Was this a marketing ploy to create massive buzz around the brand just as the holiday shopping season came into view? We may never know.
3) Advertising “Pulls a Train”
We can all remember a song that seemed to be everywhere we went. And we can all remember how much we hated that song. Usually, the fact that we remember that song and hear it everywhere means that some record label marketing guru has done his/her job.
However, it appears as though one band went a little bit too far. Train’s rendition of “Hey Soul Sister” has earned the hatred of pretty much the entire world. While the band has been raking in some massive bank over this song (it really seems to be in every other commercial and on every “popular” music station at least 5 times per hour), Train has also earned the ubiquitous title of “most despised song” in the online world. There’s even a website dedicated to stopping any advertisers from using “Hey Soul Sister” ever again.
4) Taco Bell
The Taco Bell diet. This statement should be making the world laugh uproariously. It is instead making many cry, especially within the healthcare community.
Taco Bell launched a Subway copycat campaign that many thought to be a joke. As it turns out, it is not a joke. In the ads, Taco Bell states that if you eat certain products on their menu exclusively for three weeks you will lose weight. Taco Bell itself admits that this weight loss program is not a weight loss program, just read the fine print of the ad.
According to most doctors, losing weight in a healthy way and filling your body full of junk (basically committing drive-thru suicide), thus starving your body of much needed nutrients resulting in weight loss, are two very different things indeed.
5) And all the rest
2010 saw massive recalls from a plethora of brands. I’ve heard of children’s toys that end up being recalled for tiny pieces, that I can understand. Recall it and fix it. But when I can get Listeria from the smoked fish I just bought, I begin to wonder just what exactly is going on out there? Metal and wood fragments in my Rolaids? Salmonella in my Nutmeg? Glass particles in injections? “Undeclared drug ingredient”? The list is endless. Seriously, it has to be pretty horrid out there for a regulator if you’re recalling “Swine Feed.”
