Don’t miss reading our earlier posts on advertising In March 2013 Ford Motors experienced an unexpected PR disaster when the team from creative agency JWT India released an unapproved ad on internet showing Silvio Berlusconi tying up and gagging scantily clad women in the trunk of his car.Ford isn’t the only company that had to answer the controversial unapproved ads going out in the public.In these post we are showcasing 15 ads for which big brands had to answer and apologize.





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FORD

Ford Figo ad was posted on Ads of the world by JWT India team. Ad wasn’t meant to be distributed.Both WPP Group and Ford apologized.

OREO

Kraft USA stated that Cheil Worldwide, Korea created this ad for one time use at an advertising forum. Titled as “Milk’s Favorite Cookie” was posted on Ads of the World in 2012.

WORLD WILDLIFE FUND

The 2009 ad by DDB Brazil showed planes flying at twin towers and the text 100 times more people died in 2004 tsunami than 9/11 tried to justify the image.

WWF condemned ad saying it has not authorized the production or publication. Here’s the commercial below.

BURGER KING

This controversial ad was produced by a local Singapore agency for a special “super seven incher” promotion promising to “blow your mind away.” The innuendo is pretty obvious.

BKC issued a official statement stating, it values and respects all its guests. The ad is running only in Singapore market and is produced by local ad agency and not by BKC’s AOR, Crispin Porter and Bogusky.”

MENTOS

The 2010 Mentos ad was publicized by Neogama/BBH which shows a skiny girl saying to a fat girl, “I love hanging out with you. All the boys keep looking at me.” The tagline: “Selfishness without the guilt.” Metos rejected the ad for “unacceptable content”.

In 2011, Mentos found itself in a slightly worse situation. The series of ads created by Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai showed men committing suicide in various ways due to an “unbearably sour” kind of Mentos.

PEPSI

Prior to Mentos in 2008 BBDO Dusseldorf had used a similar strategy for Pepsi Max ads. The ads showed a “lonely” calorie committing suicide in a Pepsi Max ad. PepsiCo tweeted “We agree this creative is totally inappropriate; we apologize and please know it won’t run again.”

KIA

The Brazilian agency Moma created an ad campaign for Kia in 2011. It even won an award at Cannes for it.

… the catch? Kia told CNET it had “no business relationship” with the agency Moma. The ads were pulled, and Moma lost its award since the ad was never approved.

The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board