Digital Marketing Failures: 5 Costly Brand Mistakes

Digital marketing failures cost brands refunds, daily users and public trust, and each one traces back to a check the brand skipped before launch. Volkswagen repaid more than $9.5 billion to car buyers over its "clean diesel" advertising, the Federal Trade Commission reported in 2020. Pepsi, Gap, Snapchat and Dove paid in other ways, and the table below names the missing check in each case.

What happened when Pepsi used a protest as an ad backdrop?

Pepsi pulled its Kendall Jenner ad on April 5, 2017, one day after it launched. The spot, made by Pepsi's in-house Creators League Studio, according to Reuters, showed Jenner leaving a photo shoot to join a march and handing a police officer a can of Pepsi. Critics said it trivialized social justice protests and echoed a widely shared photo of a Black Lives Matter protester facing police in Baton Rouge.

In its statement, Pepsi said, "Clearly we missed the mark, and we apologize." Reuters noted that the ad never said what the marchers were protesting, which left viewers to read the imagery for themselves. A pre-release review by people with direct experience of the movement the ad borrowed from is the check that would have raised that problem. EPR covers the full sequence in its Pepsi Kendall Jenner case study.

Why did Gap's 2020 election hoodie post draw backlash?

Gap deleted a social media post on November 4, 2020, after it showed a half-red, half-blue hoodie while U.S. presidential votes were still being counted. The caption read, "The one thing we know, is that together, we can move forward." Some users called the post tone deaf, and Campaign reported that Gap told The New York Times the hoodie was not a real product.

Gap acknowledged that the timing was off. A hold rule for any post that touches a live news event, with one named approver, is the check that would have stopped it. EPR's five failure patterns of tone-deaf campaigns shows how often timing is the shared cause.

How did Snapchat's 2018 redesign affect daily users?

Snap Inc. reported 188 million daily active users in the second quarter of 2018, a 2% drop from the first quarter, and said in its quarterly filing with the SEC that the February 2018 redesign negatively affected that number. The filing also states that Snap launched an update to the redesign during the quarter. CNN Business reported it was the first drop in daily users the company had posted, even as revenue rose 44% to $262 million.

The loss was in use, not in revenue, which is why it showed up in a user metric before it showed up in sales. A staged rollout to a small share of daily users, with a stop rule tied to daily opens, would show a drop of that kind before the redesign reached everyone.

Why did Dove apologize for a three-second Facebook clip?

Dove, a Unilever brand, removed a three-second Facebook clip in October 2017 after viewers said it showed a Black woman removing a shirt to reveal a white woman. The clip was part of a body wash campaign, and Dove said it "missed the mark in thoughtfully representing women of color." The Associated Press noted that a 2011 Dove ad had drawn similar criticism, so the review gap was not new.

A short clip carries the same reputational risk as a television spot. Giving every creative asset the same sign-off, including a reviewer who reflects the audience shown on screen, is the check that closes that gap. More examples sit in EPR's analysis of beauty brands that broke the mirror.

What did Volkswagen's clean diesel advertising cost?

Volkswagen and Porsche repaid buyers more than $9.5 billion after the Federal Trade Commission sued over the "clean diesel" campaign, according to the FTC's final report on the program. The FTC filed its complaint in March 2016, alleging that a seven-year ad campaign falsely described the cars as low-emission, environmentally friendly and compliant with emissions standards. The program covered more than 550,000 vehicles.

This case differs from the others because the failure was a false claim, not a creative misread. A substantiation file that ties every environmental or performance claim in an ad to test data, with legal and engineering sign-off, is the check that applies. EPR tracks related cases in its review of failed automotive marketing campaigns.

What do these digital marketing failures have in common?

The five digital marketing failures share one pattern: the brand published before a specific review ran. The table names that review for each case.

What should a marketing team add before the next launch?

A marketing team should add the check that matches the riskiest element of its next launch: a substantiation file for any claim a regulator can test, an audience review for any depiction of a group or movement, and a staged rollout for any change to a product people use daily. Influencer partnerships carry a related risk, covered in EPR's look at influencer campaigns that went wrong, and sports digital marketing fails show the same pattern under live-event pressure.

Brands that outsource launch review can compare providers, including 5W's digital marketing practice, which shares ownership with Everything-PR. More coverage sits in EPR's Marketing section.