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From offensive ads to data breaches, some brands have gone viral for all the wrong reasons. Join us as we explore the most notorious PR disasters that set social media ablaze! These companies learned the hard way that not all publicity is good publicity when their missteps triggered widespread backlash and damaged public trust.
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most problematic missteps
00:09taken by companies that made them regret their explosive popularity. These are viral brand
00:14controversies that triggered widespread backlash, damaged public trust, and sparked cultural or
00:19ethical debates online. This can never, will never happen again.
00:24Number 10, Papa John's. Remember when the Papa John's logo was a picture of its founder,
00:29John Schnatter? It was officially changed after Schnatter was exposed for using a racial slur
00:33in 2018 during a media training conference call, no less.
00:36Comments John Schnatter made on that call with an advertising firm got him in hot water.
00:41In 2017, at the height of the NFL protests against racism in the U.S., where players took a knee
00:46during the national anthem, Papa John's was going through a slump in sales. John went ahead and
00:51blamed the league for it, citing their sponsorship deal with the pizza chain.
00:54I think it's just making things more divisive. I won't say that because I don't give you guys a heart
00:58attack, but I think the kneeling has made things worse for everybody.
01:02Safe to say people were ticked off and his bigoted language in private was enough to cause furore.
01:07He eventually resigned, both the CEO and chairman of Papa John's.
01:10I've had over 40 pizzas in the last 30 days, and it's not the same pizza. It's not the same product.
01:15It just doesn't taste as good.
01:17Number 9, Mattel.
01:18The Barbie maker found itself in hot water after a mistake so egregious you can't help but wonder how it
01:22happened. There is something wickedly wrong with the packaging for its movie tie-in doll.
01:28In 2024, Mattel released a special line of dolls based on the characters of John M. Chu's movie Wicked,
01:33starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.
01:35I'm just gonna close the door.
01:40Oh, well, could you not? I'm sorry. I just, I so enjoy air.
01:45The toys came in standard packaging, but with a QR code that was wildly inappropriate,
01:49especially considering that the items were marketed toward children. Unsuspecting customers scanned the
01:54code hoping to land on the film's page, but were redirected to an NSFW site instead.
01:58Mattel promptly apologized and halted sales of the dolls, but the damage had been done,
02:03both to customers and to the brand's reputation.
02:05This was a horrible human error. I don't think anyone is, you know, thinking that someone at Mattel did this on purpose.
02:13Number 8, Astronomer.
02:14This software company skyrocketed in notoriety after its CEO, Andy Byron, was spotted on the Kiss Cam
02:20at a Coldplay concert, all cozied up with the brand's human resources executive, Kristen Cabot.
02:26Tell me what Astronomer is.
02:27Astronomer is a seven-year-old company, and it maintains the largest open-source project today in the world.
02:33The two were each married to other people, resulting in a massive, messy scandal.
02:37Grace Springer first posted the video being seen around the world.
02:41And it was the reaction from Andy that kind of sealed the deal. He looked pretty guilty.
02:47But aside from the morality of the situation at hand and the repercussions faced by the involved parties,
02:52the short clip of the couple blew up online instantly.
02:55People are even betting online on whether the marriages survived.
02:59Folks online have spawned countless memes, have used AI to make parodies of the moment,
03:04and even created their own false apologies from Byron and Cabot.
03:07Needless to say, this viral moment put Astronomer on many people's radars, where it may not have been otherwise.
03:197. H&M
03:21Anyone who has ever shopped from this retailer knows about its reputation for designing absurd graphic tops.
03:27However, no one expected that they'd go as far as to make a coolest monkey-in-the-jungle hoodie
03:31and have a black child model it.
03:33It is offensive. It is.
03:36This image was seen on the H&M app in the UK, but also caused an uproar worldwide,
03:41including in America and South Africa.
03:43There's some kind of a chief quality officer who should be signing off on these things.
03:47Celebrities like G-Eazy and The Weeknd, who had partnerships with H&M, were quick to terminate them.
03:52Even NBA legend LeBron James criticized the clothing giant for their lack of oversight.
03:56Now, James posted this picture to his Instagram, which photoshops in two crowns, describing the child as king of the world.
04:05Brand outlets in South Africa had to be closed due to protests by enraged activists.
04:09Ultimately, H&M apologized and got rid of the image.
04:126. Burger King
04:14The fast food chain found out about the evils of clickbait the hard way.
04:17For International Women's Day in 2021, Burger King UK made a shocking post on X to draw attention to a noble initiative.
04:24Women belong in the kitchen, they wrote, to draw engagement to a thread promoting a culinary school scholarship they were offering to female employees.
04:31The faux pas was followed up with an attempt at an explanation when Burger King UK then tweeted,
04:36Only 20% of chefs are women.
04:38The spirit was there, but the distasteful execution got the brand canceled.
04:42One user tweeted,
04:43According to Forbes, when the company published the same ad in the New York Times newspaper in the U.S.,
04:53it wasn't met with much backlash because people didn't have to scroll for an explanation.
04:57Either way, Burger King apologized, deleted the offensive post, and hopefully a lesson was learned.
05:01Hours later, the fast food chain was still trying to clean up the mess, tweeting,
05:06We hear you. We got our initial tweet wrong, and we're sorry.
05:10Number 5. Facebook
05:12FB has always been controversial, but one of its lowest moments was the Cambridge Analytica data harvesting scandal.
05:18It's clear that Facebook is using my information in ways that I didn't sign up for.
05:25In 2018, a whistleblower alleged that CA had wrongfully collected the personal data of countless Facebook users.
05:31This was seemingly done through a survey on the app, This Is Your Digital Life.
05:35Facebook reportedly allowed the consulting firm to gather the data of survey takers and their Facebook friends.
05:40On Facebook, hundreds of adverts were posted every day, targeted at specific personality types.
05:47The information was apparently used to spread targeted political ads and boost the 2016 presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.
05:54Facebook was heavily fined, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared before Congress, where he was grilled about the privacy breach.
06:00I started Facebook. I run it. And at the end of the day, I'm responsible for what happens here.
06:05Disillusioned Facebook users took to X to express their anger, and the hashtag DeleteFacebook went viral.
06:11Number 4. United Airlines
06:13It was the horrifying viral moment seen around the world.
06:16In 2017, a fully booked United Express flight had to bump four customers to accommodate crew members.
06:22When no one volunteered to leave, they seemingly picked random people, forcing them to deplane.
06:26Things got out of hand when Vietnamese-American doctor David Dao refused to be removed as he was flying to attend to patients.
06:33Security officers got involved, and Dao was violently ejected from his seat.
06:36He reportedly sustained injuries to his head, nose, and teeth and was bleeding before being carried out.
06:41Were you expecting it to get physical at any point?
06:44No. No. Not at all.
06:47The ordeal was filmed by fellow passengers, and the brutal footage went viral.
06:50Oscar Munoz, who was the CEO of United Airlines at the time, praised his staff for how they handled the matter,
06:56but later backtracked and apologized, promising policy changes.
07:00The first thing I think is important to say is to apologize to Dr. Dao, his family, the passengers on that flight,
07:09our customers, our employees.
07:12That is not who our family at United is.
07:16Number 3. Balenciaga
07:17Designer Demna's stint as the creative director of this luxury brand was marked by controversy.
07:22In 2020, he faced plagiarism allegations, which he denied.
07:26However, when Balenciaga was accused of running ad campaigns with inappropriate imagery involving minors in 2022,
07:32he couldn't avoid the heat.
07:33And the popular luxury brand, Balenciaga, is under fire.
07:37One of these ads seemingly featured children posing with teddy bear-shaped bags that were styled in provocative gear.
07:42Another, fronted by Nicole Kidman and Isabel Huppert, reportedly had disturbing props in the background that intensified the backlash.
07:49People with responsibility should be eyeing these campaigns.
07:53Demna apologized for his, quote, wrong artistic choice, and Balenciaga withdrew the campaigns.
07:58However, customers were already outraged, damaging their Balenciaga goods in protest.
08:02Even Kim Kardashian spoke out against the campaigns.
08:05Thus, the Spanish fashion house's reputation was ruined beyond repair.
08:08Number two, Dove.
08:10This brand's entire identity revolves around changing beauty.
08:14You've evolved.
08:17So have we.
08:18So it's particularly ironic that it has courted one too many controversies for discriminatory content.
08:24A 2017 Dove body wash ad shows a black woman with a brown t-shirt removing it to reveal a white woman with a lighter top.
08:30She, in turn, transforms into another woman of color in the same way.
08:34People immediately took offense at the first transition, claiming it was thoughtless.
08:37One user writing, this is what happens when there's not enough diversity in leadership positions.
08:42Somebody should have caught this and let them know that it was a bad idea.
08:45That same year, Nivea also came under fire for a deodorant ad with the tagline, white is purity.
08:50Dove previously made another failed attempt at diversity with their real beauty shower gel bottles that were supposed to represent different body types,
08:57but ended up making people feel uncomfortable.
08:59Who's greenlighting these?
09:00Part, the visual was intended to convey that Dove body wash is for every woman and a celebration of diversity.
09:06But we got it wrong and as a result offended many people.
09:09We are deeply sorry.
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09:261. Pepsi
09:27The soda brand's infamous Live For Now campaign starring Kendall Jenner is definitely going down in history,
09:32but is one of the worst commercials of all time.
09:34Tonight, that ad has now been pulled after unleashing outrage across this country,
09:38including Martin Luther King Jr.'s own daughter.
09:41The ad shows the supermodel promoting world peace by offering a police officer a can of Pepsi
09:45while protesters look on in awe.
09:47Critics immediately denounced it for using protest culture as an aesthetic.
09:51It was also regarded as an attempt to co-opt activist movements like Black Lives Matter.
09:55Pepsi does have regrets, saying it was trying to project a global message of unity, peace, and understanding,
10:01adding, clearly, we missed the mark.
10:04To make things worse, the ad used imagery that was noticeably similar to the iconic moment
10:08of Isaiah Evans' arrest during a protest in Baton Rouge, Louisiana,
10:12which further fueled public outcry.
10:14Although both Pepsi and Kendall apologized for the ad,
10:16the brand never really recovered from the fallout.
10:22Have you ever boycotted a brand because of its controversies?
10:25Tell us in the comments.
10:26Guys, that ad has since been deleted.
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