When Marketing Campaigns Go Wrong -The Worst Ad Placements Ever!

A stop smoking ad on a school bus suggest the best action to take is to QUIT SCHOOL?? A power shake advertised on a magazine seems to be made from… diarrhea coming out a sexy woman´s behind with a cold problem???

These are only some of the worst ad placements ever that failed to pass editors controls and became the scrutiny of social talk for days.

Ad placement in alternative mediums other than TV commercials, radio and newspaper create an opportunity to catch target audiences attention from their daily routine. However, when taking a brand ´s message into the street it is exposed to the surrounding visual contamination and different perspectives of the message can be contemplated and wrongly interpreted.

An airline featuring its iconic airplane should never ever, place an Ad facing down the side of an escalator in the mall. This unfortunate ad agency mistake caught the eye of many bystanders, which shared the image without mercy.

Turkish Airlines got plenty of viral views from their ad, and many would think this misstep actually generated free publicity but most people talking about it weren´t planning their next trip on their planes.

Sometimes is not the direction of the ad that goes wrong. The piece can be perfect but the angle in which the viewer visualizes it turns the story into something very different. It can create funny juxtapositions with other ads or elements that build up unwanted endings that twist the brand´s message making it a satire, usually of dark humor.

Passing cars watch a social awareness street ad about broken homes that reads, “Where´s Dad?”, only to continue with the next street ad about “Rhino Gentlemen Club”, which connected implies Dad is having some fun with the ladies. Read from the right distance, both Ads fill the viewer’s scope presenting the complete story line that turned an emotional message into an obvious negative conclusion.

When placing a product´s Ad in a magazine, be sure the ad on the neighboring page doesn´t create a negative connection with yours.

In a chick magazine, an afflicted woman narrates the story of her sister´s death. The side ad about Oops hair color remover presents a half page image of a blond woman simply saying OOPS. Once again, the emotional story on the left seems to be considered funny to the blond on the next page.

So what´s to learn from these terrible ad placements? Is not just about the right headlines, image, or copy. Probably the most important aspect of Ad Placement is the surrounding environment itself and how the audience will interact with it.

If advertising executives can learn from the viral aspects of these failed ad placements and make their ads interact in a positive way with their surroundings surprising people (just like these do), they would generate a killer win in respect with brand awareness and social buzz.

Know the story behind the Guinness Record Baby Evian viral videos.