NathanKia’s Pedophilia-Tinged Advertisement
The Brazilian print advertisement for Kia Sportage back in 2011 meant to promote the vehicle’s dual zone air conditioning that also offered “a different temperature on each side.” This ad showed a man teaching a female about this whole new feature. The student gives the teacher an apple. He bites it and responds, “Mmmmm. It’s delicious. So juicy.” Kia released a statement saying it never ever approved of this ad.
Dove’s Before-And-After Ad
In 2011, Dove had a print ad for its Visible Care Body Wash which was deemed racist by many. The ad was basically about the before and after effects of using the products. However, in the print ad, there was a line of women who were kept at the back as ‘before’ models who were all predominantly black. The ‘after’ models were placed in the front and were lighter skinned. Is this not racist?
Sony’s White Campaign
For Sony’s all white PlayStation Portable, the company decided to replace its black model. Their delivery, however, was a little too extreme. It showed the white model grabbing the black model by the chin in a forceful manner. This was seen as a racist advertisement by so many people. It is clearly an insensitive ad that left a bad mark on the public.
Starbucks’ Racy Ad
Even though it was a very short lived, Starbucks encouraged its customers to talk about race with their baristas. So Starbucks baristas had to write the word “#Racetogether” on the coffee cups. This campaign had to be pulled out because of too many social media ridiculing that suggested that the franchise should not involve themselves in racial politics. There was a swift SBUX slump of 0.12 per cent.
Bic’s Think Like A Man Advertisement
Bic had to not only remove but also apologize for their #HappyWomensDay ad that they posted on Facebook in South Africa back in 201. The ad’s tagline ‘act like a lady, think like a man’ resulted in many people to feel that it was a sexist ad. The pink colored ‘for her’ pens released in 2012, “designed to fit comfortably in a woman’s hand”, was also disapproved of by popular tv host Ellen Degeneres.
Amazon’s Nazi-themed Subway Cars
To promote the 2015, Man in the High Castle, Amazon made use of the New York subways that were coated with the Nazi Coat of arms and the Rising Sun flag of Imperial Japan. This ad made use of the flags of the Axis Powers who won World War II because it obviously promoted the two most notorious regimes in the history of the world. This was not okay.