The ad campaign that I believe crossed a line, big time, was the 2015 Bloomingdale holiday ad.
The image shows a sharply dressed man and a woman who is laughing with her head turned away from the man. The text reads: “Spike your best friend’s eggnog when they’re not looking.” The department store, which is owned by Macy’s, issued an apology, but for many consumers, it was too late. The ad was suggestive that the digital campaign encouraged date rape. I believe playful humor can be useful in marketing, however, you must ensure that what you are portraying is not a controversial or sensitive topic. Since Bloomingdale’s put this in their Holiday Ad, it was in a printed format and could not just be deleted simply like on social media. Even though it was not posted online by the brand, it did not take long for consumers to take to the internet to show their disappointment in the brand’s choice of advertisement.
Bloomingdales did issue a sentence and a half-apology on Twitter, but it was not well received by their following. An example of the tweets the ad had received on Twitter was not positive.
There were many consequences to this advertisement, the major being the fallout of the brand’s following on social media and the number of customers who had canceled their credit cards with the company. This leads to a decline in customers coming into the store and shopping online as well as those who had dropped the company’s credit card and chose to not engage with the brand in the future.
Reference:
Paquette, D. (2021, November 25). What a creepy Bloomingdale’s ad tells us about America’s understanding of rape. The Washington Post. Retrieved September 21, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/11/12/what-a-creepy-bloomingdales-ad-tells-us-about-americas-understanding-of-rape/
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