The best players in baseball history make an out 7 out of ten times. No one wants to fail, but it happens. A marketing campaign often flops because the product was awful. Madison Avenue doesn’t always get it right. Just ask New Coke.
At the time it almost made sense. It was the mid-80s and Pepsi was providing strong competition while Coke’s market share was slipping. Consumers really didn’t care about New Coke; they were simply mad the old version wasn’t available. It may sound quaint but there were protests. Coke lost $30 million and spent more than $4 million on taste testing. Adjusted for inflation that would be even more ridiculous. So, they brought back the original as Classic Coke; and New Coke vanished. Ironically, some say the bad publicity may have paid off.  The flap over the flop increased brand awareness. Today, Coke maintains the highest market share.
A favorite flop was from Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of Coke competitor Pepsi. “Wow!” potato chips used olestra, a fat substitute, so they had less fat and calories. Sales were great at first; it was the best-selling chip in 1998. Unfortunately, the olestra in the chips caused diarrhea, incontinence and cramping. Diarrhea, incontinence, cramping is not a good three-word slogan.
This one gets zero sympathy. The point was to showcase that Burger King didn’t use artificial preservatives in Whoppers. So, in 2020, they ran a campaign with a Whopper getting moldy. Amazing what a lack of preservatives does after 30 plus days. Sorry. You don’t, can’t, shouldn’t market food with disgusting images.
In 2017, Dove posted an ad on Facebook. In the ad, a young African American woman takes off her shirt across three panels. The fourth panel shows a young white woman.
As far as we can tell, no agency has claimed ownership. The parent company, Unilever said the ad was intended to show the diversity of real beauty. They didn’t succeed.
Mistakes can happen. New Coke was a bust, but it wasn’t racist. The other three should have been prevented by common sense, and good taste. This isn’t brain surgery or rocket science. Be nice, be funny, be cute. Avoid mean, cruel or nauseating.