Audi: Chinese wedding commercial
The general rule of thumb when buying a car is to check if it’s working properly, right? Well, Audi thought of taking advantage of this rule and came up with a very controversial ad, to say the least, which compared women to used cars.
In their commercial, a bride is inspected by the groom’s mother before the wedding, by pinching her lip, pulling on her ears, and looking at her teeth and tongue. The punch line was that “An important decision must be made carefully.”
It might have been intended to be humorous but the commercial sparked outrage and riled up consumers in China for promoting sexist ideas and objectifying women.
1 thought on “11 Advertising Campaigns That Backfired Spectacularly”
That McDonalds ad was not at all objectionable. In brief for those who haven’t seen it, a boy (maybe 10 or 11 years old) is asking his mom about his dead father. He is not bereaved, he does not even remember his father who died long ago. His mom points out a number of things in describing him. Each time, the thing about the dad is different than the son. (Sharp dresser, shiny shoes, good at sport, all the girls were attracted to him… while the boy notices his shirt untucked, his sneakers dirty, he kicks a soccer ball and flubs it, and some girls passing by only give him a look of disgust). But when they get to McD and he opens his fish sandwich box, his mom says ‘that was your dad’s favorite too’. For the first time he hears something he has in common with his late dad.
Not a thing in the world wrong with that and the people who spend all their time looking for reasons to be offended should get a life. Nobody was using bereavement to sell sandwiches.