History HarsherInHindsight / Advertising

* A 1996 [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPRscxQZs8E Snickers commercial]] shows a football player taking a big hit and subsequently thinks he is Franchise/{{Batman}}. Pretty funny at the time, but since then there have been a ton of studies and examples of the damage that can be done to football players (''all'' football players, regardless of type) by repeated head injuries.

* Domino's Pizza had a hit advertising campaign on its hands with The Noid, a claymation character created by Will Vinton Studios, the same company that created the Franchise/CaliforniaRaisins. The Noid, a manic character in a red suit with a rabbit-ear hood, was a personification of all of the possible things that could befall a pizza during delivery, such as cold pizza or the pizza getting crushed, while Domino's promised that their delivery drivers would help you "avoid the Noid!" by delivering a hot, fresh pizza to your door in 30 minutes or less. It even got its own video game from Capcom. Unfortunately, in 1989, Kenneth Lamar Noid, a man suffering with a number of mental illnesses, entered a Georgia Domino's with a gun and took several staff members hostage, claiming that Domino's had stolen his name for the Noid. He later surrendered to police and was found not guilty of kidnapping by reason of insanity, but went on to commit suicide in 1995. At that time, Domino's quietly discontinued the Noid character, though they insisted that the discontinuation had nothing to do with Mr. Noid's suicide when they were asked about it. However, in the 2010s, Domino began phasing the Noid back in through brief appearances before bringing him back in 2021.

* There was a funny [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrkUMjoXWdY&feature=share commercial]] in 2008 where [[TeensAreMonsters Chavs]] are destroying Britain and a family takes shelter to watch TV without any worries. Fast forward to 6 August 2011, and the ULondon tragedy, and this isn't a laughing matter anymore.

%%* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6E9s-KZlOo This Iran Air spot from 1978]] (third spot in compilation) fits taking into account [[UsefulNotes/{{Iran}} considering the Iranian Revolution the following year]] and especially the Iran Hostage Crisis that began in November 1979.
%%* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVVFiuksLc4 Verizon FiOS]] began airing a series of ads in which a fictional network had to choose whether to send former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback and real-life {{Creator/FOX}} sportscaster Terry Bradshaw and a little girl. The girl gets the information in real time (using [=FiOS=], of course) and gets the call; forcing Terry to watch at home. The spot took a swerve when Bradshaw was unable to go to UsefulNotes/SuperBowl XLVIII because his father had died.
%%* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU5N2SrEaZI This]] eerily ironic Driving PSA with Creator/JamesDean from TheFifties.

%%* There was a funny [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrkUMjoXWdY&feature=share commercial]] in 2008 where [[TeensAreMonsters Chavs]] are destroying Britain and a family takes shelter to watch TV without any worries. Fast forward to 6 August 2011, and the ULondon tragedy, and this isn't a laughing matter anymore.

%%* There was a funny [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrkUMjoXWdY&feature=share commercial]] in 2008 where [[TeensAreMonsters Chavs]] are destroying Britain and a family takes shelter to watch TV without any worries. Fast forward to 6 August 2011, and the London tragedy, and this isn't a laughing matter anymore.

* A 2010 Creator/{{ESPN}} "This is Sportscenter" ad featured mild-mannered Dwight Howard getting the story on how Superman saved Hannah Storm from a coffee machine that caught on fire (the joke, of course, being that Superman is Dwight Howard's alter ego). In December 2012, Storm received severe facial and upper body burns after a gas grill's propane tank exploded in her face.

* In 1968, London Weekend Television was due to start broadcasting. During the final weekend of their predecessor ATV London's broadcast, they ran a [[http://www.transdiffusion.org/tools/playmedia.php?file=/smallscreen-audio/233.mp3 short trailer]] with a letter giving a positive review of the programming for the upcoming first weekend. The announcer noted that the letter "seem(ed) a bit premature", and indeed it was — the first weekend (and several more afterward) ended up being wiped out by [[UsefulNotes/TVStrikes strike action]].

* Ads for Schlitterbahn water park Kansas City. One had singing about making memories with family and having fun. The park’s record setting Verruckt water slide was prominent in one shot in the ad. [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verrückt_(water_slide) Then, in 2016, a 10 year old boy died when the raft he was in on the slide went airborne and he was decapitated.]] The park operators were found to have been negligent in designing the ride.

* Ronald [=McDonald=], the longtime clown mascot of [=McDonald's=], was much less prominent after the 2016 clown sightings, which led to many places banning clown costumes and masks out of fears of violence. However, Ronald had attracted some controversy well before that for marketing unhealthy fast food to children as concerns about childhood obesity have grown. Most of the other [=McDonaldland=] characters had already been phased out. His name still adorns [=McDonald's=] children's charity, Ronald [=McDonald=] House.

* In late 2011, one of the ads in the long-running Ashton Kutcher Nikon Coolpix campaign featured the man using his camera to seduce a bunch of women and lead them up to his hotel room. Around that same time, his marriage to Demi Moore was dissolving thanks to a very public affair.
* Mattel Electronics' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rnRRph4bcE commercial]] for ''VideoGame/BurgerTime'', which ends with Mr. Hot Dog saying "We are ''closed'' now!" as he slams the window shut on the drive-thru, came out months before Mattel Electronics closed down. For that reason, the programmers quoted the line extensively that day.

* A 1996 [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPRscxQZs8E Snickers commercial]] shows a football player taking a big hit and subsequently thinks he is Batman. Pretty funny at the time, but since then there have been a ton of studies and examples of the damage that can be done to football players (''all'' football players, regardless of type) by repeated head injuries.

* A [[https://youtu.be/_-FQqo46CJQ 2022 Super Bowl ad]] for the FTX crypto exchange featured Creator/LarryDavid naysaying famous inventions throughout history before declining to invest in FTX. At the end of that same year, FTX collapsed, and the real Larry David, who ''had'' actually endorsed it, was one of several celebrities sued by irate investors. Needless to say, the ad's tagline, "Don't Be Larry", has a ''very'' different meaning now.

* In the 1960s, Humble Oil produced an [[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/humble-pie/ advertisement]] boasting that the oil they output each day could melt 7 million tons of glacier. In the 2010s, melting glaciers is something oil companies really don't want to be associated with.

* A series of 2009-2010 Target commercials starred Creator/MariaBamford as a crazy woman who was so obsessed with Target's Christmas sale that she was unable to sleep and dedicated all her time to planning for the sale. The next year, Bamford suffered several nervous breakdowns related to her bipolar disorder, so it's quite awkward to see her play a character who's comically depicted as manic. Bamford would represent this experience in ''Series/LadyDynamite'' when her character does a similar campaign for Checklist, a fictionalized Target, with the fictional Bamford's mental health issues more obviously affecting the commercials.

* A [[https://youtu.be/_-FQqo46CJQ 2022 Super Bowl ad]] for the FTX crypto exchange featured Creator/LarryCharles naysaying famous inventions throughout history before declining to invest in FTX. At the end of that same year, FTX collapsed, and the real Larry Charles, who ''had'' actually endorsed it, was one of several celebrities sued by irate investors. Needless to say, the ad's tagline, "Don't Be Larry", has a ''very'' different meaning now.

* For years Codral has effectively encouraged Australian people to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KT6lVzMsto "soldier on"]], which meant "doping yourself up on over-the-counter codeine and marching straight to work no matter how sick you are". Amazingly, [[https://twitter.com/GruenHQ/status/1339143376940101633 some]] [[https://mumbrella.com.au/brands-need-to-be-brave-enough-to-produce-messages-like-staythefuckhome-624634 eyebrows]] [[https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/dont-soldier-on-take-a-sickie-and-spare-the-city-your-germs-20070819-gdqwap.html were raised]] even then about that terrible message, but the naysayers were mostly ignored (Codral was the market leader)... until COVID-19, when Codral was finally forced to retire their famous jingle, sideline "Soldier on" in favor of "Own Your Cold" (seemingly unwilling to let the familiar slogan disappear completely, they still use it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiHWO7MwXJ8 in ads]], but in the context of staying at home, treating your flu, and only then soldiering on), and make some adjustments to the formula.

* The 1993 Jack in the Box "Monster Burger" promotion ran with the tagline "So Good, it's Scary!" The high demand for the burger became ''legitimately'' scary when [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Jack_in_the_Box_E._coli_outbreak it led to a massive outbreak of E. coli, killing four children and leaving over a hundred others with permanent damage]].

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieNrOee4bL8 This]] advert for the failed [[WebAnimation/YouTubePoop [=YouChew=] forums]] reboot, particularly when it says "You might think [[FlameWar this community will become a warzone]]. Because of that, [[StillbornFranchise the rebrand will be dead in a few days]]." Which is precisely what happened. Far from [[CameBackStrong coming back stronger]] as the advert asserts, the failure of the reboot would not only [[FranchiseKiller kill any chance of the [=YouChew=] brand name making a return]], but also wipe [[LongRunner its entire 13-year legacy]] [[MissingEpisode off the internet]].

* For years Codral effectively encouraged Australian people to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KT6lVzMsto "soldier on"]], which meant "doping yourself up on over-the-counter codeine and march straight to work no matter how sick you are". Amazingly, [[https://twitter.com/GruenHQ/status/1339143376940101633 some]] [[https://mumbrella.com.au/brands-need-to-be-brave-enough-to-produce-messages-like-staythefuckhome-624634 eyebrows]] [[https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/dont-soldier-on-take-a-sickie-and-spare-the-city-your-germs-20070819-gdqwap.html were raised]] even then about this terrible message, but mostly ignored until COVID-19, when Codral was finally forced to retire their famous jingle, sideline "Soldier on" in favor of "Own Your Cold" (seemingly unwilling to let the familiar slogan disappear completely, they still use it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiHWO7MwXJ8 in ads]], but in the context of staying at home, treating your flu, and only then soldiering on), and making some adjustments to the formula.

* Kelloggs Yogos Bits candy was once advertised with the slogan “A taste you’ll love so much, you’ll hate when it’s gone” (as in, when you’ve eaten it all). Since it’s been discontinued, many 2000s kids can attest to that.

* Kelloggs Yogos Bits candy was once advertised with the slogan “A taste you’ll love so much, you’ll hate when it’s gone.” Since it’s been discontinued, many 2000s kids can attest to that.

* [=FedEx=] did a commercial where [[https://youtu.be/Qj36nwn0JcE Steve Irwin]] (of Series/CrocodileHunter fame) was bitten by a snake, and croaked because the antivenom wasn't shipped by [=FedEx=] and didn't get there. Of course, it wasn't a snake that ultimately killed him[[note]]Instead it was a stingray[[/note]], but still...

* Mattel Electronics' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rnRRph4bcE commercial]] for ''VideoGame/BurgerTime'', which ends with Mr. Hot Dog saying "We are ''closed'' now!" as he slams the window shut on the drive-thru, came out months before Mattel Electronics closed down.

* During the 2004 U.S. Presidential campaign, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9YCNqtQLSo this Bush ad]] ran during the Olympics, celebrating the fact that Afghanistan and Iraq were now free and democratic nations. Needless to say, this didn't age well.

* During the 2004 U.S. Presidential campaign, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrE0eeQJEns this Bush ad]] ran during the Olympics, celebrating the fact that Afghanistan and Iraq were now free and democratic nations. Needless to say, this didn't age well.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_nJDD2xaEs There was a TV commercial for Flexon]] that showed a building ducking out of the way of an oncoming plane. Due to VERY bad timing, this was actually shown on TV a few days ''AFTER 9/11!''

* An [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX-xOiZDmwI ad for Flexon bendable eyeglass frames]] showed a metal skyscraper ducking out of the way of an oncoming airplane. The campaign debuted in August 2001. It wouldn't air much more after [[UsefulNotes.TheWarOnTerror the events of September 11.]]

* For the 2020 Usefulnotes/OlympicGames, a Brazilian bank made [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgRn06yKyEU an ad]] where local surfer Gabriel Medina goes after Poseidon so the sea would get waves good enough to surf. Once the Olympic surfing competition came, people were thinking that it was not good to see in every commercial break a reminder of a medal favorite who couldn't go right - along with the judges not giving Medina good enough grades while rating similar tricks by opponents much higher, the lost bronze medal match had Medina struggling to get waves (leading to jokes about false advertising and how inappropriate the ad's first line "When there's no waves, there's no way" became).

* Toyota's slogan "Moving Forward" has become a lot more uncomfortable ever since the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009–2010_Toyota_vehicle_recalls 2010 recalls]], since people have reported that their Toyota vehicles accelerate suddenly and uncontrollably, and don't respond to the driver pressing the brake pedal.

* Dutch airline KLM ran print ads prominently featuring one of their pilots, Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten. Shortly afterwards, Veldhuyzen van Zanten was killed in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster Tenerife airport disaster]], and the main cause of the accident was his attempting to take off with official clearance.