In terms of commercials whose
lifespan was determined by their efficiency, there's always the possibly
anomalous stories about
Pepsi's slogan "come alive with Pepsi" being rendered into
Japanese as "Pepsi
brings your ancestors back from the grave", and
Coca-Cola's similar
Mandarin reading as "
bite the wax tadpole". One might also consider the
Chevrolet Nova's famed Latin American campaign significant.
However, for understandably short lifespans, these campaigns surely
take the biscuit:
- The washing machine manufacturer who chose to demonstrate how quiet its latest model was by depicting it in action while a family of five slept in a giant bed in a same room. The advert was quickly pulled after it was found consumers associated the machine with living in slum conditions.
- The luggage manufacturer (possibly Samsonite although i cannot confirm this] who decided to show the strength of its latest range of suitcases by showing them intact after falling from a plane. Sadly, the target market stayed away from the cases because it subconsciously linked them with air crashes.
- The soup manufacturer who decided, in a bizarre cross-marketing opportunity, to give away free pairs of stockings with its soup. Once again, customers declined the offer, owing to their association of the soup with stinking feet.
- Not an ad campaign as such, but another neat example of marketing gone way over the top: in the 1950s, two rival fridge manufacturers decided to ensnare the kids and thus persuade their parents to go for their particular refrigerator. A common practice, one might think. But what was uncommon was that one company eventually ended up giving away a 60 piece toy circus, a magic ray gun and a space helmet with each purchase, while the other threw a complete space kit with a helmet, a disintegrator, space telephones and a flying saucer into the bargain.
The mind, essentially,
boggles.
FYI: mine was the fridge with the
disintegrator. What? I mean, come on: a
toy circus over
that? Puh-lease.