10 Super Bowl Ads That Backfired in Spectacular Fashion
Super Bowl commercials cost millions of dollars and reach over 100 million viewers. This kind of exposure can turn a brand into a household name when executed correctly. The pressure to stand out has led some companies to take wild risks that backfired. Here are 10 companies that learned how Super Bowl advertising can sometimes be a one-way ticket to ruined reputations and worse consequences.
Pets.com: The Sock Puppet Sings Chicago
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Dot-com companies threw $2.2 million each at Super Bowl ads in 2000, hoping to strike gold. Pets.com went with its sock-puppet mascot singing a terrible, off-key version of If You Leave Me Now because its owner had left the house. The guilt-trip angle landed like a brick. People found the puppet incredibly annoying. Less than two years later, Pets.com went belly-up and became the go-to punchline for dot-com bubble silliness.
Just for Feet: The Kenyan Runner Disaster
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White guys in a Humvee track down a barefoot Kenyan runner in the middle of Africa, drug him unconscious, and force sneakers onto his feet while he’s passed out. What could go wrong? Critics savaged “Just for Feet” as racist and imperialist when that ad aired during the Super Bowl. The company sued the advertising agency responsible for $10 million. By the end of 1999, they were bankrupt, and every store had closed by 2004.
Nationwide: The Dead Kid That Killed the Mood
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This adorable kid spends a minute talking about all the stuff he’ll never do. Won’t ride a bike, won’t learn to fly, won’t get cooties. And why? “Because I died from an accident.” Nationwide really thought America wanted to hear a dead child sell insurance during football. Twitter lost its mind. Matt Jauchius, the chief marketing officer, raised eyebrows by leaving the company a few months later. Maybe exploiting parental nightmares wasn’t a good sales strategy.
eToys’ Dot-Com Splash
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eToys aimed to look like the future of toy shopping, and the Super Bowl was the loudest megaphone available. Their ad helped boost name recognition quickly, but the company was wasting cash in a brutal online retail battle. When markets tightened, eToys couldn’t withstand the pressure. It filed for bankruptcy in 2001, joining the dot-com graveyard of brands that marketed like giants before earning that title.
Burger King: Finding Herb the Nerd
Credit: X
Burger King dumped millions into a campaign about Herb, allegedly the only American who’d never tried a Whopper burger. Customers could win cash by spotting him at restaurants. The problem was that most people despised the guy, and they refused to hunt down the character for prize money. Decades later, some marketing professors still use “Where’s Herb?” to teach students what not to do.
Holiday Inn: Bob Johnson’s Big Reveal
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Holiday Inn wanted to show off its billion-dollar renovation. So, they made a commercial about a gorgeous woman at her high school reunion who’d undergone several cosmetic operations. A dude checks her out and discovers she used to be Bob Johnson. His face scrunches up in horror. LGBTQ groups went ballistic, and “Holiday Inn” took down the ad. Comparing your hotel makeover to gender transition surgery is a terrible choice, apparently.
Salesgenie.com: Pandas With Accents
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Cartoon pandas running a furniture store and speaking in the most stereotypical Chinese accents imaginable–that’s what “Salesgenie” thought would help sell their business services. The Asian-Pacific American advocacy group OCA called it “really racist.” CEO Vinod Gupta actually wrote the script and defended it by saying pandas are Chinese, so obviously they wouldn’t speak German. The defense somehow made the entire situation worse. “InfoUSA” apologized and yanked the commercial.
FTX Larry David Credibility Trap
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Larry David played a skeptic dismissing major inventions throughout history, like the wheel, toilets, and democracy. Modern-day Larry scoffs at crypto. FTX’s message? “Don’t be like Larry.” Ten months later, founder Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested for allegedly defrauding customers of billions of dollars. FTX collapsed into bankruptcy, and Larry faced lawsuits alongside other celebrity endorsers. Turns out the perpetual skeptic was right, and everyone should have believed him.
GoDaddy “Journey Home” Puppy Fury
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Puppies are internet gold, which is why GoDaddy thought using them in an ad was a safe bet. The “Journey Home” ad featured a lost puppy finding its way back home before it got sold online. Animal lovers erupted, saying it normalized puppy mills and treated pets like merchandise. “GoDaddy” pulled the ad before the game and replaced it. While the company survived, the episode remains a textbook case of terrible ad ideas.
Groupon: Tibet and Fish Curry
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American Actor Timothy Hutton discussed Tibet in this serious documentary voice. All that talk about how the culture’s in jeopardy and everything’s falling apart under Chinese control. Then BAM, he’s at a Tibetan restaurant raving about their “amazing fish curry.” Groupon really thought that trivializing human rights violations would make people want discount coupons. After major backlash, the brand pulled the commercial and apologized.