History Horrible / Advertising

* '''''Film/SonicTheHedgehog2020''''' started on one ''hell'' of a wrong foot with its [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfEpqmdXhiU first trailer]]. Audiences were repulsed by the terrible design for the iconic hedgehog, which fell into the deepest reaches of the [[UnintentionalUncannyValley Uncanny Valley]]. It looked like, to quote Creator/JohnOliver, "a furry potato with a corpse's face". It became a MemeticMutation from Sonic turning into AccidentalNightmareFuel after the first trailer dropped. [[note]]This design was later revealed to have been the result of ExecutiveMeddling from Paramount, hoping that general audiences would embrace it even if the fans didn't. Not only did this not happen, but general audiences hated it, too. What ended up happening here had [[https://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:Movie_Megatron_olduglyface.jpg previously]] [[https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/films/752880/Monster-Trucks-test-screening-Paramount-Pictures-family-film-box-office-flops happened]] with [[Film/{{Transformers}} Bayformers Megatron]] and [[Film/MonsterTrucks Creech]], so they really [[PointyHairedBoss should've known better]].[[/note]] This was along with other strange thematic choices -- in particular, [[SoundtrackDissonance using Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise" in the trailer, a song one would hardly associate with Sonic]]. The redesign caused such an intense reaction that director Jeff Fowler [[https://twitter.com/fowltown/status/1124056098925944832?s=20 announced]] that the animators would be going back to the drawing board, with the film's release being pushed back three months to February 2020. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szby7ZHLnkA The second trailer]] featured a more stylized and cartoony Sonic which looked much more in line with his video game appearance (designed by Creator/TysonHesse) and a more upbeat soundtrack. This trailer was received much better, with a like-dislike ratio of about 99:1, along with comments saying that the AuthorsSavingThrow in response to the criticism meant that people were now obligated to see the movie. Even so, the very negative reactions to the initial design for Sonic remain a warning of what can happen when ExecutiveMeddling tries to fix what isn't broken. While the new redesign allowed the film to be a solid hit and pave the way for its own franchise, the original Sonic design later showed up as a reoccurring character in, of all places, the live-action ''Film/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'' movie, where he is intentionally portrayed as creepy as a TakeThat, though also as [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap a very sympathetic character]]. The first trailer gained a bevy of reactions to it from both ''Sonic'' fans and non-''Sonic'' fans alike: Creator/JimSterling [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qacb7ZQoeYQ reacts in horror]], as did both [[https://youtu.be/q30Uxr5zp7I Vinny]] and [[https://youtu.be/pOa7_mgPhEQ Joel]] of WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}}, while WebVideo/{{Arlo}} [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiBjGt3Cepg spins a theory on whether its horrors were intentional]], though WebAnimation/TheOdd1sOut [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLzUtMiq1N4&t=291 disputes this]] on the basis that ''Film/{{Cats}}'' made it to release with similarly horrifying character designs intact. WebVideo/AniMat and Jamietud talk about the trailer [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO2M0Hogz74&t=6m2s here]]. Rob Boor of ''WebVideo/CinematicVenom'' reacts to it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyx2PD5D5wI here]]. Korey Coleman, Martin Thomas, and Billy Brooks talk about the trailer on ''WebOriginal/DoubleToasted'' [[https://youtu.be/iqOFSC2wx64 here]].

** In October 2017, [=McDonald's=] announced that for one day only they'd be bringing back Szechuan [=McNugget=] dipping sauce, which was originally a limited-time promotional tie-in for the movie ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'' in 1998, after [[Recap/RickAndMortyS3E1TheRickshankRedemption the Season 3 premiere]] of ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' [[TheRedStapler sparked a huge interest in it]]. However, [[https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mcdonalds-szechuan-rick-morty-fans-pissed_us_59d95604e4b046f5ad98aab3 there was a series of problems]]. Not all the restaurants got it, and some locations advertised as having the sauce didn't have it. The ones that did have some got a mere 20 packets apiece, despite crowds of hundreds. Inevitably, stores ran out, sometimes even ''prior to the restaurants' opening''. The backlash was so severe that police had to be called to numerous locations, and others reported riots as pissed-off fans yelled catchphrases from the show outside. This also damaged the reputation of ''Rick and Morty'' itself, with its fanbase, once notorious for being very loud and outspoken, becoming more reserved about their enjoyment of the show in order to avoid associating themselves with those who participated in the riots. If the [[https://twitter.com/McDonalds/status/916752002268450816 responses to their half-hearted apology on Twitter are any indication]], "Where's Herb?" might have some competition. The WebOriginal/DoubleToasted crew had [[https://youtu.be/FepNoh_Hi1Q a field day when discussing the chaos that transpired]]. WebVideo/RebelTaxi ranked the incident at #5 on his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvXAL6mRACA&t=8m17s "Top 10 WORST CARTOON News of 2017" list.]] WebVideo/AniMat's "[[https://youtu.be/36cT4e-3rrw Pick of the Week]]" on ''The Animation Podcast'' was about the aftermath and called out the fans for taking the meme too seriously and [=McDonald=]'s for being responsible for the whole thing. Even a second rollout (''five years later'') didn't save the reputation of the promotion or ''Rick and Morty'' fans.

* '''Creator/{{Netflix}}[='=]s [[https://www.vulture.com/2020/08/netflix-cuties-twerking-poster-drama-explained.html promotion]] of their release of''' '''''Film/{{Cuties}}''''' [[TaintedByThePreview immediately tainted the movie's name]] in the public eye due to a case of MisaimedMarketing. The film set out to make a statement about child exploitation through sexual and female-objectifying media--the [[http://www.impawards.com/intl/france/tv/mignonnes.html original poster]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0O7lLe4SmA trailer]] [[DontShootTheMessage made it out to be exactly what it decried]]. The titular dance troupe's skimpy uniforms are placed front and center on the poster, and the trailer focused mostly on the girls' sexually suggestively dance moves and surface-level similarities to ''Film/StepUp''. This got Netflix accused of promoting pedophilia (despite only being the distributor) with a petition being made for the service to cancel the release. The director wound up being chased off of Twitter, and some ImageBoards strictly banned the movie as a topic of discussion. Even politicians from both sides of the political spectrum expressed their disgust towards Netflix's promotion of the film, wanting to discuss the film before Congress to see if Netflix had violated any laws regarding the production and distribution of child pornography. Netflix [[https://twitter.com/netflix/status/1296486375211053057?s=20 quickly apologized]] once the backlash started (though they were not quick to say who was to blame) and started making efforts to try and correct it, [[https://twitter.com/theycallmeDSK/status/1296301343066423296?s=20 down to the on-site description]], but by then the film had already been criticized worldwide, with some reviewers accusing the film of [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing indulging in the sexual content it was criticizing,]] and outside of France it either got adults-only ratings or banned outright ''on principle'' across the board.

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZSOGZFfSDk announcement trailer]] for '''''WesternAnimation/HighGuardianSpice''''' is the ''worst'' way Website/{{Crunchyroll}} could've handled it. At a runtime of 90 seconds, the trailer features little more than vague details about the show itself, mostly in the form of unfinished concept art. What little art ''was'' shown is done in [[ThinLineAnimation a style similar to Western cartoons at the time]], such as ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', making viewers wonder why the show is being made specifically for Crunchyroll, [[UncertainAudience a site specialized in streaming anime]]. The trailer mostly focused on the staff talking about their feelings on the production and talking about the "diverse" nature of the series and staff [[ShowDontTell while largely showing only white women]]. While the video itself could've worked as a behind-the-scenes featurette or even a Website/{{Kickstarter}} pitch, it certainly ''didn't'' work as a video for an announcement trailer. All it did was [[TaintedByThePreview taint the public's perception of the show]] as being more concerned with appearing progressive than making an entertaining work of fiction. [[https://twitter.com/GuardianSpice/status/1232332564506918912 A trailer featuring actual footage]] dropped more than a year after the announcement and after the show's planned 2019 release date, with nothing but radio silence in between, leaving people to either not care about the show or be so set in the initial bad impression they hated it automatically. The show itself eventually premiered on October 26, 2021 with [[InvisibleAdvertising very minimal fanfare]]; opinions generally range from SoOkayItsAverage at best to a ClicheStorm at worst. And then it came out that the initial interviews with the staff were done without the staff's knowledge that it was going to be used in a trailer, meaning Crunchyroll had to trick the showrunners on top of everything else, which drew even more ire towards the company as a whole. With so much bad blood around the announcement, it's nearly universally agreed that the way in which Crunchyroll handled things around ''High Guardian Spice'' was absolutely terrible, even by people who thought the show itself was decent. WebVideo/TheMysteriousMrEnter goes into more detail on the matter [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aP5pn_QzXA here]]. WebVideo/MothersBasement also briefly discussed the fiasco as part of his [[https://youtu.be/MkgiHGgz64M?t=1371 Crunchyroll Originals retrospective]].

** [[https://laist.com/2016/10/11/mcdonalds_olympics.php During the 1984 Olympics]], [=McDonald=]'s launched the '''U.S. Wins, You Win''' promo. How it worked was that a customer would get a scratcher ticket for an Olympic Sport, and if the U.S. won any medal, a customer would get a free menu item (a Big Mac for Gold, French Fries for Silver, and a Coke for Bronze). The company had earlier used this campaign for the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, to much greater success; [[SpannerInTheWorks however]], [=McDonald's=] was not expecting the [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]], who were athletic powerhouses at the time, to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_Summer_Olympics_boycott boycott the 1984 Olympics]][[note]](officially to protest the commercialization of the games and out of concern for their athletes' safety, among other things; however, a more likely reason was retaliation for the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Summer_Olympics_boycott U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan]] -- [[DidntThinkThisThrough meaning McDonald's should have anticipated the possibility of a Soviet boycott of the next games in Los Angeles]] -- and possibly fear that their doping program would be exposed)[[/note]], leaving the U.S. unopposed in enough events to take home 174 medals, 84 of them being Gold. This led to millions getting free meals (with some even being able to sustain their families with the winning tickets they had) and 6,600 restaurants running out of the items being offered, and the blunder cost [=McDonald=]'s millions. The incident would be parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E10LisasFirstWord Lisa's First Word]]", with Krusty Burger taking the role of [=McDonalds=].

** In October 2017, [=McDonald's=] announced that for one day only they'd be bringing back Szechuan [=McNugget=] dipping sauce, which was originally a limited-time promotional tie-in for the movie ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'' in 1998, after [[Recap/RickAndMortyS3E1TheRickshankRedemption the Season 3 premiere]] of ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' [[TheRedStapler sparked a huge interest in it]]. However, [[https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mcdonalds-szechuan-rick-morty-fans-pissed_us_59d95604e4b046f5ad98aab3 there was a series of problems]]. Not all the restaurants got it, and some locations advertised as having the sauce didn't have it. The ones that did have some got a mere 20 packets apiece, despite crowds of hundreds. Inevitably, stores ran out, sometimes even ''prior to the restaurants' opening''. The backlash was so severe that police had to be called to numerous locations, and others reported riots as pissed-off fans yelled catchphrases from the show outside. This also damaged the reputation of ''Rick and Morty'' itself, with its fanbase, once notorious for being very loud and outspoken, becoming more reserved about their enjoyment of the show in order to avoid associating themselves with those who participated in the riots. If the [[https://twitter.com/McDonalds/status/916752002268450816 responses to their half-hearted apology on Twitter are any indication]], "Where's Herb?" might have some competition. The WebOriginal/DoubleToasted crew had [[https://youtu.be/FepNoh_Hi1Q a field day when discussing the chaos that transpired]]. WebVideo/RebelTaxi ranked the incident at #5 on his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvXAL6mRACA&t=8m17s "Top 10 WORST CARTOON News of 2017" list.]] WebVideo/AniMat's "[[https://youtu.be/36cT4e-3rrw Pick of the Week]]" on ''The Animation Podcast'' was about the aftermath and called out the fans for taking the meme too seriously and [=McDonald=]'s for being responsible for the whole thing. Even a second rollout (''five years later'') didn't save the reputation of promotion... or the fans.
* '''Pepsi Number Fever''' was a 1992 promotion exclusive to the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}} where the bottle caps of various Pepsi products had 3-digit numbers printed on them, with certain numbers being redeemable for cash prizes which were announced nightly, and two grand prize winners of 1 million pesos (equal to roughly 23 years of working at minimum wage). The promotion went swimmingly... until an error led to ''800,000 bottles'' having that night's grand prize number printed on them, as opposed to the mere two bottles that were supposed to have them. Pepsi couldn't afford to give everyone who had the number the grand prize (which would have totaled ''800 billion pesos''), so they stated that only the caps with the proper serial code could be claimed and those without incorrect serial codes could claim a compensation prize of a mere 500 pesos. As you could imagine, many people refused this offer and boycotted Pepsi products with peaceful protests. However, these protests quickly turned into violent riots, with over 30 Pepsi trucks being stoned or pushed over and at least two instances involving a ''grenade'' being thrown. In the end, Pepsi lost around 190 million pesos, 22,000 people took legal action against Pepsi, and at least 5 people were killed in the riots.

--->'''Krusty''': I, personally, am gonna spit in every fiftieth burger!\\
'''Homer''': I like those odds.

# This page is specifically about horrible advertisements, not cases where the advertised product is horrible, which should be taken to its respective subpage. A competent ad can sell a bad product or controversial idea, [[VeryFalseAdvertising even if they must lie]] or [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity generate controversy]] to do so. Also, an ad is not horrible because the product is shown honestly and is not to the [[AudienceAlienatingPremise audience's tastes]][[note]]Exceptions may be made if the product's premise was so bad as to prevent it from [[{{Cancelled}} ever being released]][[/note]]. The ad must be horrible even by the intended goals of an advertisement to qualify.

# This page is specifically about horrible advertisements, not cases where the advertised product is horrible, which should be taken to its respective subpage. A competent ad can sell a bad product or controversial idea, [[VeryFalseAdvertising even if they must lie]] or [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity generate controversy]] to do so. Also, an ad is not horrible because the product is shown honestly and is not to the [[AudienceAlienatingPremise audience's tastes]] [[note]]Exceptions may be made if the product's premise was so bad as to prevent it from [[{{Cancelled}} ever being released]][[/note]]. The ad must be horrible even by the intended goals of an advertisement to qualify.

# An advertisement isn't bad because WebVideo/SaberSpark, WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic, or any other CausticCritic reviewed it. There needs to be independent evidence, such as actual professional pannings or news articles, to list it. Once it is listed, those critics can provide the detailed review(s).

'''''Important Note:''''' Merely being offensive in its subject matter is not enough to justify a work as Horrible. Hard as it is to imagine at times, there is a market for all types of deviancy (no matter how small a niche it is). It has to ''fail to appeal even to that niche'' to qualify as this.

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYc3GoqbzBw notorious 2012 ad]] for Canadian beer '''Uptown Girl''' is one of the most complained-about and ridiculed commercials this side of Grey Power. The commercial is horribly obviously low-budget -- there are two pieces of narration throughout (the sole difference between them being the presence of a cringeworthy {{tagline}}), and extremely boring techno music accompanies rather creepy shots of girls dancing in slow-motion (with emphasis on boobs) and [[{{Squick}} shots of condensation- and handprint-covered beer bottles]]. The ads were pulled after a month and it still is routinely recognized as one of the worst Canadian commercials of all time.

* In 1987, British animal rights charity '''RSPCA''' put out [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mR7aky1AqE an ad]] which simply focuses on a dog just sitting there for an unusually long time, with a creepy instrumental of "How Much is that Doggie in the Window" playing in the background, before a gun comes into frame pointed at its head (and the dog itself seems quite genuinely unnerved by this) and a narrator intones "Please give us a pound, or we'll have to pull the trigger." Even at a time before the Internet was around to make this kind of thing easier to express, there was so much outrage across the country after its initial airing that the ad was pulled ''immediately'', and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOpyFpFZBCI replaced]] by one without the gun and a child singing the song while informing individuals of the average cost of raising a dog, especially if it were to be given as a gift to those who can't afford to care for it. As WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic pointed out in his 2017 commercials review, the ad seems less like it's for any sort of charitable cause and more like they're holding the poor dog hostage until the viewer gives them money. About the only way to explain it is that it ''might'' have been a takeoff on [[https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51KWXxcQBqL.jpg this classic National Lampoon cover]], but even if that's the case the charity seems to have missed that the cover was a ''joke'', from a magazine that was already well known as being all about comedy, and reusing the image for a serious purpose just makes it horribly disturbing. Needless to say, Vinny from WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} was nothing short of ''horrified'' when [[https://youtu.be/Ioj3ZPxQ9uE it showed up on stream]].

!!!Victims of their success
Sometimes, what's wrong with the promotional campaign or event is that it [[GoneHorriblyRight brings in much more customers]] than anticipated... which means, more customers than the company was prepared to handle.
* In 2018, '''Build-A-Bear Workshop''' announced an event called "Pay Your Age" to be held on July 12 where patrons could "build-a-bear" and pay a price equal to their age instead of normal prices (for example, an eight-year-old child would only have to pay $8 for their new fuzzy pal). It sounded like a novel concept on paper, but when July 12 came [[https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jul/12/build-bear-workshop-bargain-teddy-offer-sparks-chaotic-scenes-across-britain the event ended up a complete and utter disaster]]. Lines of thousands of people and families wanting to take advantage of the deal at Build-A-Bears across the US, Canada, and the UK either filled indoor malls entirely or stretched for blocks on end outside as the hot Summer temperatures (and tempers) began to heat up. Fights broke out among parents and children in lines around stores. Making matters worse was when stores were forced to close up shop due to either running out of materials for the stuffed animals or overcrowding, resulting in distraught customers, having been waiting for up to hours on end to take advantage of the promotion only to be turned away, getting angrier and, in some places, causing riots (with the police being called to mediate the situation around a UK location in Leeds). Build-A-Bear attempted to save face by apologizing and giving out vouchers for free stuffed animals, but the damage had been done, and disgruntled parents and upset children took to the internet in droves to express their disappointment in the beloved toy company. Michael Hann for UK news site The Guardian [[https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jul/23/fluffed-it-the-truth-about-build-a-bears-day-of-mayhem gives a post-mortem to the heavily botched promotion here]] and gives out insight for why the promotion failed as spectacularly as it did, criticizing Build-A-Bear for not adequately preparing their stores for the massive crowds the promotion brought. WebVideo/{{Chadtronic}} [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blZPab7OV30 has also given his two cents]] on the debacle, accusing the promotion of being a scam.
* A sales promotion that caused a national scandal and killed a company was the British '''Hoover "Free Flights" promotion''' in the 1990s. The company offered free air tickets to anybody who spent over £100 on a Hoover appliance, [[TemptingFate gambling that the complex redemption procedure would lead to only a minority of the claims being redeemed]]. This worked until they got over-confident and extended the offer to free air tickets to the USA, a much more generous offer (customers worked out that you could buy a £100 vacuum cleaner and get air tickets worth six times that). The £30 million in extra sales did not measure up to the £50 million worth of air tickets the company had promised to give away, and predictably they tried to weasel out of the offer leading to years of litigation and massive media hostility to the company and its US parent Maytag. In 1995, the much-diminished Hoover brand was sold off to European competitor Candy.
* '''Major League UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}}''' isn't always immune to promotions going awry:
** "This is absolute tragedy", said sports commentator Joseph Tait of the '''Ten Cent Beer Night''', the name of a promotion for a 1974 baseball game between the Cleveland Indians[[note]]later renamed Cleveland Guardians in 2022[[/note]] and the Texas Rangers at UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}} Stadium. The promotion promised cups of beer for only ten cents, something that drew massive crowds to the stadium (more than even anticipated, one of the first red flags). Previous beer discount promotions had gone without incident, but a combination of security and personnel being unprepared for the massive crowds, no limit on how many beer purchases could be made during the game, and tension between Indians and Rangers fans created the perfect storm of events that eventually resulted in [[AlcoholInducedIdiocy alcohol-induced chaos]]. There were already incidents occurring before the final innings of the game (mostly from drunk people flashing or mooning the spectators, fans throwing food or firecrackers onto the field at players, in one instance throwing a gallon jug of Thunderbird wine, and one man streaking to second base). When the game was tied up in the bottom of the ninth inning, the straw that broke the camel's back was the Rangers' teammates thinking that their outfielder had been attacked by a drunk fan who ran out onto the field and running out to intervene. This didn't sit well with the drunk crowd, who either stormed the field en masse wielding blunt objects or flung everything from food to broken chairs from the stands onto the field. Several players, umpires, referees, and other fans were injured before both the Rangers and Indians teams could flee the field and the Cleveland police arrived to diffuse the mess. The game ended on a forfeit with the score stuck at a 5-5 tie. Future events of this sort would put a ''hard'' limit on how much beer fans were allowed to purchase. [=YouTuber=] Qxir gives a humorous summary of the whole debacle [[https://youtube.com/watch?v=tKrBY5WlCxs here]].
** 1979's '''{{Disco}} Demolition Night''' would go down in history as not only one of the most infamous ball game promotions in history and being credited for [[GenreKiller killing disco]] [[CondemnedByHistory stone dead]] for decades afterward, but as a mismanaged promotion GoneHorriblyWrong to boot. In the late 70s, [[DiscoSucks anti-disco sentiment]] was reaching a fever pitch. In response to this, UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} ShockJock Steve Dahl and the Chicago White Sox arranged for this event, wherein a ton of disco records donated by his listeners would be blown up, to happen between games at a double-header between the White Sox and the UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} Tigers in Chicago's Comiskey Park as a publicity stunt. Things were already shaping up to go wrong from the start when nearly 50,000 people who wanted to see disco get what they thought was coming to it loaded up the stadium when the personnel were only prepared for only just over half that many. Security was overwhelmed; if they didn't watch the stadium entrance, people would hop the fences or start record disc bonfires outside the stadium, and if they didn't watch the playfield, fans would throw their records into the field like razor sharp frisbees. Because most of security was instructed to watch the stadium entrances, nobody was still at the field to prevent what happened after the end of the game when an army-fatigue-clad Dahl rode out into the baseball field on a jeep and blew up the donated disco records (leaving a massive crater in the middle of the field in the process). The worked-up and by now severely inebriated anti-disco fans stormed past security onto the field and either danced around the area of the explosion and burning debris or began destroying the parts of the field and stadium that hadn't already been destroyed by the explosion. While Dahl, his companions in the jeep, and the White Sox and Tiger players escaped the chaos unharmed, the fans who didn't want any part in the mayhem going on in the stadium and field weren't as lucky, as all but one of the gates were padlocked due to the people jumping the gates and sneaking in. It took the Chicago police arriving in riot gear to get the crowd to knock it off, but by this point the baseball field was such a mess between the initial explosion and subsequent riot that the White Sox could not play on it and had to forfeit the next game to the Tigers. The event has been examined in the years since for its impact on disco and American music culture as a whole and what it might have said about music fans at the time, but due to the immediate repercussions of the promotion, events of this sort have pointedly never been held at sporting events again.
%%Not sure I should move the McDonald's events here too...

* In 2018, '''Build-A-Bear Workshop''' announced an event called "Pay Your Age" to be held on July 12 where patrons could "build-a-bear" and pay a price equal to their age instead of normal prices (for example, an eight-year-old child would only have to pay $8 for their new fuzzy pal). It sounded like a novel concept on paper, but when July 12 came [[https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jul/12/build-bear-workshop-bargain-teddy-offer-sparks-chaotic-scenes-across-britain the event ended up a complete and utter disaster]]. Lines of thousands of people and families wanting to take advantage of the deal at Build-A-Bears across the US, Canada, and the UK either filled indoor malls entirely or stretched for blocks on end outside as the hot Summer temperatures (and tempers) began to heat up. Fights broke out among parents and children in lines around stores. Making matters worse was when stores were forced to close up shop due to either running out of materials for the stuffed animals or overcrowding, resulting in distraught customers, having been waiting for up to hours on end to take advantage of the promotion only to be turned away, getting angrier and, in some places, causing riots (with the police being called to mediate the situation around a UK location in Leeds). Build-A-Bear attempted to save face by apologizing and giving out vouchers for free stuffed animals, but the damage had been done, and disgruntled parents and upset children took to the internet in droves to express their disappointment in the beloved toy company. Michael Hann for UK news site The Guardian [[https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jul/23/fluffed-it-the-truth-about-build-a-bears-day-of-mayhem gives a post-mortem to the heavily botched promotion here]] and gives out insight for why the promotion failed as spectacularly as it did, criticizing Build-A-Bear for not adequately preparing their stores for the massive crowds the promotion brought. WebVideo/{{Chadtronic}} [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blZPab7OV30 has also given his two cents]] on the debacle, accusing the promotion of being a scam.

* A sales promotion that caused a national scandal and killed a company was the British '''Hoover "Free Flights" promotion''' in the 1990s. The company offered free air tickets to anybody who spent over £100 on a Hoover appliance, [[TemptingFate gambling that the complex redemption procedure would lead to only a minority of the claims being redeemed]]. This worked until they got over-confident and extended the offer to free air tickets to the USA, a much more generous offer (customers worked out that you could buy a £100 vacuum cleaner and get air tickets worth six times that). The £30 million in extra sales did not measure up to the £50 million worth of air tickets the company had promised to give away, and predictably they tried to weasel out of the offer leading to years of litigation and massive media hostility to the company and its US parent Maytag. In 1995, the much-diminished Hoover brand was sold off to European competitor Candy.

* '''Major League UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}}''' isn't always immune to promotions going awry:
** "This is absolute tragedy", said sports commentator Joseph Tait of the '''Ten Cent Beer Night''', the name of a promotion for a 1974 baseball game between the Cleveland Indians[[note]]later renamed Cleveland Guardians in 2022[[/note]] and the Texas Rangers at UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}} Stadium. The promotion promised cups of beer for only ten cents, something that drew massive crowds to the stadium (more than even anticipated, one of the first red flags). Previous beer discount promotions had gone without incident, but a combination of security and personnel being unprepared for the massive crowds, no limit on how many beer purchases could be made during the game, and tension between Indians and Rangers fans created the perfect storm of events that eventually resulted in [[AlcoholInducedIdiocy alcohol-induced chaos]]. There were already incidents occurring before the final innings of the game (mostly from drunk people flashing or mooning the spectators, fans throwing food or firecrackers onto the field at players, in one instance throwing a gallon jug of Thunderbird wine, and one man streaking to second base). When the game was tied up in the bottom of the ninth inning, the straw that broke the camel's back was the Rangers' teammates thinking that their outfielder had been attacked by a drunk fan who ran out onto the field and running out to intervene. This didn't sit well with the drunk crowd, who either stormed the field en masse wielding blunt objects or flung everything from food to broken chairs from the stands onto the field. Several players, umpires, referees, and other fans were injured before both the Rangers and Indians teams could flee the field and the Cleveland police arrived to diffuse the mess. The game ended on a forfeit with the score stuck at a 5-5 tie. Future events of this sort would put a ''hard'' limit on how much beer fans were allowed to purchase. [=YouTuber=] Qxir gives a humorous summary of the whole debacle [[https://youtube.com/watch?v=tKrBY5WlCxs here]].
** 1979's '''{{Disco}} Demolition Night''' would go down in history as not only one of the most infamous ball game promotions in history and being credited for [[GenreKiller killing disco]] [[CondemnedByHistory stone dead]] for decades afterward, but as a mismanaged promotion GoneHorriblyWrong to boot. In the late 70s, [[DiscoSucks anti-disco sentiment]] was reaching a fever pitch. In response to this, UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} ShockJock Steve Dahl and the Chicago White Sox arranged for this event, wherein a ton of disco records donated by his listeners would be blown up, to happen between games at a double-header between the White Sox and the UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} Tigers in Chicago's Comiskey Park as a publicity stunt. Things were already shaping up to go wrong from the start when nearly 50,000 people who wanted to see disco get what they thought was coming to it loaded up the stadium when the personnel were only prepared for only just over half that many. Security was overwhelmed; if they didn't watch the stadium entrance, people would hop the fences or start record disc bonfires outside the stadium, and if they didn't watch the playfield, fans would throw their records into the field like razor sharp frisbees. Because most of security was instructed to watch the stadium entrances, nobody was still at the field to prevent what happened after the end of the game when an army-fatigue-clad Dahl rode out into the baseball field on a jeep and blew up the donated disco records (leaving a massive crater in the middle of the field in the process). The worked-up and by now severely inebriated anti-disco fans stormed past security onto the field and either danced around the area of the explosion and burning debris or began destroying the parts of the field and stadium that hadn't already been destroyed by the explosion. While Dahl, his companions in the jeep, and the White Sox and Tiger players escaped the chaos unharmed, the fans who didn't want any part in the mayhem going on in the stadium and field weren't as lucky, as all but one of the gates were padlocked due to the people jumping the gates and sneaking in. It took the Chicago police arriving in riot gear to get the crowd to knock it off, but by this point the baseball field was such a mess between the initial explosion and subsequent riot that the White Sox could not play on it and had to forfeit the next game to the Tigers. The event has been examined in the years since for its impact on disco and American music culture as a whole and what it might have said about music fans at the time, but due to the immediate repercussions of the promotion, events of this sort have pointedly never been held at sporting events again.

* In 1993, the '''Progressive Conservative Party of UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}''' [[note]](henceforth the Tories)[[/note]] ran an ad perceived to be [[BullyingTheDisabled mocking Liberal leader Jean Chrétien's facial deformity, caused by Bell's palsy,]] by asking audiences if he is a prime minister and if he is even smart enough to answer questions the ad poses; asking this sort of question on the basis that the subject made a slightly odd facial expression is ''incredibly'' ableist, whether that was the intention or not. The backlash was immediate, with the ad being pulled in 24 hours and then-Prime Minister Kim Campbell apologizing for it. Chrétien used the ad to his benefit, referencing his facial deformity and the bullying he had suffered in childhood because of it in speeches that moved the voting audience and caused support to swing to the Liberal party. Chrétien won the election in a landslide, and the Tories were decimated, losing all but two seats and, with it, official party status and all the benefits that come with it. Campbell, who lost her Vancouver riding, resigned soon after the election, to be replaced by future UsefulNotes/{{Quebec}} prime minister Jean Charest, who was in one of the two aforementioned seats. The Tories trundled on for 10 years, utterly unelectable because of the "face ad" among other things, before merging with the Canadian Alliance to form the modern Conservative Party. Chrétien was able to crack a famous joke about it, saying "It is true that I can only talk out of one side of my face. However, unlike a conservative I don't talk out of both sides of my face." [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D000Amn9CIA Here]] is the ad in question, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PikszBkfTHM here]] is a news report regarding the controversy.

** [[https://laist.com/2016/10/11/mcdonalds_olympics.php During the 1984 Olympics]], [=McDonald=]'s launched the '''U.S. Wins, You Win''' promo. How it worked was that a customer would get a scratcher ticket for an Olympic Sport, and if the U.S. won any medal, a customer would get a free menu item (a Big Mac for Gold, French Fries for Silver, and a Coke for Bronze). What the company [[SpannerInTheWorks wasn't expecting]] was the [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]], who were athletic powerhouses at the time, to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_Summer_Olympics_boycott boycott the games that year]][[note]](officially to protest the commercialization of the games and out of concern for their athletes' safety, among other things; however, a more likely reason was retaliation for the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Summer_Olympics_boycott U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan]] -- [[DidntThinkThisThrough meaning McDonald's should have anticipated the possibility of a Soviet boycott of the next games in Los Angeles]] -- and possibly fear that their doping program would be exposed)[[/note]], leaving the U.S. unopposed in enough events to take home 174 medals, 84 of them being Gold. This led to millions getting free meals (with some even being able to sustain their families with the winning tickets they had) and 6,600 restaurants running out of the items being offered, and the blunder cost [=McDonald=]'s millions. The incident would be parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E10LisasFirstWord Lisa's First Word]]", with Krusty Burger taking the role of [=McDonalds=].

* In 2006, Sony launched a series of billboards in the Netherlands advertising the '''[[UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable PSP White]]''' that ended up sparking worldwide controversy. In it, the words "[=PlayStation=] Portable White is coming" are overlaid [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_4467_7.jpeg atop an image]] of a white woman [[VillainousFaceHold aggressively grabbing]] a black woman by the chin. While the intent of the ad was to show that the PSP White is superior to the older, black PSP models, people were instead quick to point out the [[UnfortunateImplications racist undertones]] surrounding the ad, noting that it looked as if it was advocating violence towards black people. The backlash was so severe, that it prompted global news coverage from outlets such as [[https://money.cnn.com/blogs/browser/2006/07/sony-psp-ads-spark-cries-of-racism.html CNN]] and [[https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2006/jul/05/sonyadcasues The Guardian]], and ultimately did nothing to help the PSP's already-dwindling sales numbers. Sony would eventually [[https://www.eurogamer.net/news050706whitepspad respond to the racism allegations]] by pointing out the intent of showing the contrast between the PSP and PSP White, but they did nothing to address how the ad not only could easily be taken as racist without that knowledge, but also did so in [[WhatWereTheySellingAgain such an abstract fashion]] that it's hard to tell what the purpose of the ad is.[[invoked]]

* In 2006, Sony launched a series of billboards in the Netherlands advertising the '''[[UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable PSP White]]''' that ended up sparking worldwide controversy. In it, the words "[=PlayStation=] Portable White is coming" are overlaid atop an image of a white woman [[VillainousFaceHold aggressively grabbing]] a black woman by the chin. While the intent of the ad was to show that the PSP White is superior to the older, black PSP models, people were instead quick to point out the [[UnfortunateImplications racist undertones]] surrounding the ad, noting that it looked as if it was advocating violence towards black people. The backlash was so severe, that it prompted global news coverage from outlets such as [[https://money.cnn.com/blogs/browser/2006/07/sony-psp-ads-spark-cries-of-racism.html CNN]] and [[https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2006/jul/05/sonyadcasues The Guardian]], and ultimately did nothing to help the PSP's already-dwindling sales numbers. Sony would eventually [[https://www.eurogamer.net/news050706whitepspad respond to the racism allegations]] by pointing out the intent of showing the contrast between the PSP and PSP White, but they did nothing to address how the ad not only could easily be taken as racist without that knowledge, but also did so in [[WhatWereTheySellingAgain such an abstract fashion]] that it's hard to tell what the purpose of the ad is.[[invoked]]

* In 2006, Sony launched a series of billboards in the Netherlands advertising the '''[[UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable PSP White]]''' that ended up sparking worldwide controversy. In it, the words "[=PlayStation=] Portable White is coming" are overlaid atop an image of a white woman [[VillainousFaceHold aggressively grabbing]] a black woman by the chin. While the intent of the ad was to show that the PSP White is superior to the older, black PSP models, people were instead quick to point out the [[UnfortunateImplications racist undertones]] surrounding the ad, noting that it looked as if it was advocating violence towards black people. The backlash was so severe, that it prompted global news coverage from outlets such as [[https://money.cnn.com/blogs/browser/2006/07/sony-psp-ads-spark-cries-of-racism.html CNN]] and [[https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2006/jul/05/sonyadcasues The Guardian]], and ultimately did nothing to help the PSP's already-dwindling sales numbers. Sony would eventually [[https://www.eurogamer.net/news050706whitepspad respond to the racism allegations]] by pointing out the intent of showing the contrast between the PSP and PSP White, but they did nothing to address how the ad not only could easily be taken as racist without that knowledge, but also did so in [[WhatWereTheySellingAgain such an abstract fashion]] that it's hard to tell what the purpose of the ad is.

* [[https://youtu.be/NlMyk60Mtys The commercial]] for '''''Waialae Country Club: True Golf Classics''''' on the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 takes the [[GrossOutShow gross-out]] fad of TheNineties to new extremes that are downright unsavory. In it, a man named Gary is playing the game on his N64, while his pregnant wife tries to tell him she's going into labor. Gary [[{{Jerkass}} callously disregards her]], being more invested in the game than he is with her situation, and it eventually results in a GrossUpCloseUp of the woman's water breaking, and TheStinger implies that she gave birth in the process. The fact that the game is [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids rated E]] and the commercial aired on daytime television makes it a heavy case of [[WhatWereTheySellingAgain confused advertising]], but it also goes the extra step to [[TakeThatAudience insult the audience]] by having a jerkass like Gary be an AudienceSurrogate, with the game's {{tagline}} in the commercial being, "[[ThisLoserIsYou for people who put golf above all else]]." When LetsPlay/YoVideogames [[https://youtu.be/o6xg1B50AXE reacted]] to the commercial live on stream, everybody involved was [[NauseaFuel visibly disgusted]], with [[LetsPlay/TheOnlineWarrior Maximilian Dood]] decreeing it as the "most insensitive and disgusting commercial ever".

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut2KqClJBrs This]] ad for a bathroom service named '''Walk-in-Tubs''' is of a very low quality. The music is just a looping generic theme from a stock music site, the audio quality (especially when S. Ward gives her opinions, it's very hard to tell what she's saying even at maximum volume) is laughably horrible, and the stock effects and sound are extremely cheap and low-budget. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking And the number at the bottom changes every time the ad is shown.]] [[note]](It was probably done so they could measure the response to the ad depending on where and when it aired, which invites comparison to [[http://www.cockeyed.com/citizen/crazyfox/crazyfox.php those "work at home" pyramid scheme ads where the address changes every time]].)[[/note]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCjNQCS0dVc A 30-second version]] was also made, with bad acting and all of the problems of the full version.

* Voodoo, a mobile game maker, is infamous for their SoBadItsGood ads that primarily use VeryFalseAdvertising, which usually consists of gameplay footage and a caption promising a prize that can't actually be obtained such as [[https://i.redd.it/y4zki8a0amm11.jpg a trip to Disneyland]] or [[https://i.redd.it/iy2edlaic7v21.jpg legal permission to skip class]] if the player can accomplish some goal in the game. However, '''[[https://i.imgur.com/VeokWNq.jpg their ad]]''' for the game ''Ball Shoot'', which features the line "If you beat this level WebVideo/{{Etika}} [[note]](who had committed suicide in June 2019 after numerous mental breakdowns)[[/note]] will come back to life" (complete with an image of the game being played on top of a grave), took this too far in the eyes of many. In other words, ''they exploited the death of a revered Internet celebrity for their own profit''. It's telling that the [[https://www.reddit.com/r/shittymobilegameads/comments/ce4wpu/i_hope_these_actual_people_die/ comment section of a Reddit post featuring the ad]] is chock full of outrage towards and damnation of the company for organizing such a despicable marketing stunt.

* Creator/HudsonSoft, in a last-ditch effort to advertise the [[Horrible/VideoGameGenerationsSeventhOnwards critically savaged]] ''VideoGame/BombermanActZero'', created an advertising campaign called '''[[https://web.archive.org/web/20101130114501/http://hudsonentertainment.com/features/detail/5-Reasons-Why-Bomberman-Act:-Zero-Rocks 5 Reasons Why Bomberman Act:Zero Rocks!]]''' that was 50% advertising ''Act:Zero'' and 50% [[DearNegativeReader attacking fans]]. The article is supposed to read like a hip teen trying to convince people to play ''Act:Zero'' but instead reads like a middle-aged man trying to "get down with the kids", with TotallyRadical wording and mild swearing. It also reeks of BlatantLies, such as calling ''Act:Zero'' the first [[UsefulNotes/HighDefinition HD]] ''VideoGame/{{Bomberman}}'' game (that honor actually goes to ''Hi-Ten Bomberman'', the first-ever released HD video game -- all the way back in 1993!). The most infamous part, however, is the attacks on fans -- it undermines the fan-favorite 10-player mode in ''VideoGame/SaturnBomberman'' by claiming that few played it[[note]](which was said in response to criticism leveled at the ''Act:Zero'' battle mode)[[/note]], attempts to invoke the AnimationAgeGhetto on the classic ''Bomberman'' design by comparing it to ''Franchise/HelloKitty'' toys, implying that people who play the Normal Game are [[TakeThatAudience losers]][[note]](this was a response to criticism leveled at the single-player mode. This enraged fans {especially ''64'' fans} because they often play the single-player modes. Ironically, since Hudson wrote this, it means that they're attacking themselves for making the single-player modes in the first place!)[[/note]] by saying that even people with no friends can grab random people to play with, and resorts to AdHominem by calling fans names instead of addressing their criticisms. Calling out misbehaving fans is one thing, but responding to civil criticism with insults is just low. The immediacy and intensity of the resulting backlash surprised nobody except Hudson. While they did make a toned-down version of the campaign before pulling it entirely and apologizing, the damage was already done -- fans felt so betrayed by this campaign that they stopped supporting the franchise, temporarily [[FranchiseKiller killing]] it and ultimately [[CreatorKiller dragging Hudson Soft down with the ship]].

* Creator/HudsonSoft, in a last-ditch effort to advertise the [[Horrible/VideoGameGenerationsSeventhOnwards critically savaged]] ''VideoGame/BombermanActZero'', created an advertising campaign called '''[[https://web.archive.org/web/20101130114501/http://hudsonentertainment.com/features/detail/5-Reasons-Why-Bomberman-Act:-Zero-Rocks 5 Reasons Why Bomberman Act:Zero Rocks!]]''' that was 50% advertising ''Act:Zero'' and 50% [[DearNegativeReader attacking fans]]. The article is supposed to read like a hip teen trying to convince people to play ''Act:Zero'' but instead reads like a middle-aged man trying to "get down with the kids", with TotallyRadical wording and mild swearing. It also reeks of BlatantLies, such as calling ''Act:Zero'' the first [[UsefulNotes/HighDefinition HD]] ''VideoGame/{{Bomberman}}'' game (that honor actually goes to ''Hi-Ten Bomberman'', the first-ever released HD video game -- all the way back in 1993!). The most infamous part, however, is the attacks on fans -- it undermines the fan-favorite 10-player mode in ''VideoGame/SaturnBomberman'' by claiming that few played it [[note]](which was said in response to criticism leveled at the ''Act:Zero'' battle mode)[[/note]], attempts to invoke the AnimationAgeGhetto on the classic ''Bomberman'' design by comparing it to ''Franchise/HelloKitty'' toys, implying that people who play the Normal Game are [[TakeThatAudience losers]][[note]](this was a response to criticism leveled at the single-player mode. This enraged fans {especially ''64'' fans} because they often play the single-player modes. Ironically, since Hudson wrote this, it means that they're attacking themselves for making the single-player modes in the first place!)[[/note]] by saying that even people with no friends can grab random people to play with, and resorts to AdHominem by calling fans names instead of addressing their criticisms. Calling out misbehaving fans is one thing, but responding to civil criticism with insults is just low. The immediacy and intensity of the resulting backlash surprised nobody except Hudson. While they did make a toned-down version of the campaign before pulling it entirely and apologizing, the damage was already done -- fans felt so betrayed by this campaign that they stopped supporting the franchise, temporarily [[FranchiseKiller killing]] it and ultimately [[CreatorKiller dragging Hudson Soft down with the ship]].

* Creator/HudsonSoft, in a last-ditch effort to advertise the [[Horrible/VideoGameGenerationsSeventhOnwards critically savaged]] ''VideoGame/BombermanActZero'', created an advertising campaign called '''[[https://web.archive.org/web/20101130114501/http://hudsonentertainment.com/features/detail/5-Reasons-Why-Bomberman-Act:-Zero-Rocks 5 Reasons Why Bomberman Act Zero Rocks]]''' that was 50% advertising ''Act Zero'' and 50% [[DearNegativeReader attacking fans]]. The article is supposed to read like a hip teen trying to convince people to play ''Act Zero'' but instead reads like a middle-aged man trying to "get down with the kids", with TotallyRadical wording and mild swearing. It also reeks of BlatantLies, such as calling ''Act Zero'' the first [[UsefulNotes/HighDefinition HD]] ''VideoGame/{{Bomberman}}'' game (that honor actually goes to ''Hi-Ten Bomberman'', the first-ever released HD video game -- all the way back in 1993!). The most infamous part, however, is the attacks on fans -- it undermines the fan-favorite 10-player mode in ''VideoGame/SaturnBomberman'' by claiming that few played it [[note]](which was said in response to criticism leveled at the ''Act Zero'' battle mode)[[/note]], attempts to invoke the AnimationAgeGhetto on the classic ''Bomberman'' design by comparing it to ''Franchise/HelloKitty'' toys, implying that people who play the Normal Game are [[TakeThatAudience losers]][[note]](this was a response to criticism leveled at the single-player mode. This enraged fans {especially ''64'' fans} because they often play the single-player modes. Ironically, since Hudson wrote this, it means that they're attacking themselves for making the single-player modes in the first place!)[[/note]] by saying that even people with no friends can grab random people to play with, and resorts to AdHominem by calling fans names instead of addressing their criticisms. Calling out misbehaving fans is one thing, but responding to civil criticism with insults is just low. The immediacy and intensity of the resulting backlash surprised nobody except Hudson. While they did make a toned-down version of the campaign before pulling it entirely and apologizing, the damage was already done -- fans felt so betrayed by this campaign that they stopped supporting the franchise, temporarily [[FranchiseKiller killing]] it and ultimately [[CreatorKiller dragging Hudson Soft down with the ship]].

-->'''Krusty''': I, personally, am gonna spit in every fiftieth burger!\\

* In 2018, '''Build-A-Bear''' announced an event called "Pay Your Age" to be held on July 12 where patrons could "build-a-bear" and pay a price equal to their age instead of normal prices (for example, an eight-year-old child would only have to pay $8 for their new fuzzy pal). It sounded like a novel concept on paper, but when July 12 came [[https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jul/12/build-bear-workshop-bargain-teddy-offer-sparks-chaotic-scenes-across-britain the event ended up a complete and utter disaster]]. Lines of thousands of people and families wanting to take advantage of the deal at Build-A-Bears across the US, Canada, and the UK either filled indoor malls entirely or stretched for blocks on end outside as the hot Summer temperatures (and tempers) began to heat up. Fights broke out among parents and children in lines around stores. Making matters worse was when stores were forced to close up shop due to either running out of materials for the stuffed animals or overcrowding, resulting in distraught customers, having been waiting for up to hours on end to take advantage of the promotion only to be turned away, getting angrier and, in some places, causing riots (with the police being called to mediate the situation around a UK location in Leeds). Build-A-Bear attempted to save face by apologizing and giving out vouchers for free stuffed animals, but the damage had been done, and disgruntled parents and upset children took to the internet in droves to express their disappointment in the beloved toy company. Michael Hann for UK news site The Guardian [[https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jul/23/fluffed-it-the-truth-about-build-a-bears-day-of-mayhem gives a post-mortem to the heavily botched promotion here]] and gives out insight for why the promotion failed as spectacularly as it did, criticizing Build-A-Bear for not adequately preparing their stores for the massive crowds the promotion brought. WebVideo/{{Chadtronic}} [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blZPab7OV30 has also given his two cents]] on the debacle, accusing the promotion of being a scam.

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkPvATin4AQ 2017 trailer]] for the ''VideoGame/{{Timesplitters}}'' FanGame '''''Timesplitters Rewind''''' is probably the most lazy, barebones, zero-effort preview to have ever existed. Even ignoring how its claimed release date [[ScheduleSlip turned out to be a lie]], it consists entirely of time crystals with images of past characters in them. The images are blurry and nearly impossible to make out and there's no indication you're even supposed to be looking for anything, meaning most viewers saw nothing but two minutes of featureless green rocks. Given the game had been announced five years prior with absolutely no footage being shown since, the fans were understandably pissed. The developers apologized for the shitty trailer mere days afterwards, but wouldn't release a ''real'' preview until March 2019. Creator/TheQuarterGuy went on to declare this to be the [[https://youtu.be/dUaYrVKDp1c 5th worst video game trailer]] he's even seen, due to it [[WhatWereTheySellingAgain doing nothing to demonstrate]] what the premise or tone of ''Timesplitters'' is like, on top of not showing any in-game footage. Tellingly, when WebVideo/ScottTheWoz attempted to fix the trailer in one of his early episodes[[note]]which also featured a re-edit of the above mentioned ''Mighty No. 9'' trailer[[/note]], his re-edit got an ApprovalOfGod from the game’s project lead.

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkPvATin4AQ 2017 trailer]] for the ''VideoGame/{{Timesplitters}}'' FanGame '''''Timesplitters Rewind''''' is probably the most lazy, barebones, zero-effort preview to have ever existed. Even ignoring how its claimed release date [[ScheduleSlip turned out to be a lie]], it consists entirely of time crystals with images of past characters in them. The images are blurry and nearly impossible to make out and there's no indication you're even supposed to be looking for anything, meaning most viewers saw nothing but two minutes of featureless green rocks. Given the game had been announced five years prior with absolutely no footage being shown since, the fans were understandably pissed. The developers apologized for the shitty trailer mere days afterwards, but wouldn't release a ''real'' preview until March 2019. Creator/TheQuarterGuy went on to declare this to be the [[https://youtu.be/dUaYrVKDp1c 5th worst video game trailer]] he's even seen, due to it [[WhatWereTheySellingAgain doing nothing to demonstrate]] what the premise or tone of ''Timesplitters'' is like, on top of not showing any in-game footage. Tellingly, when WebVideo/ScottTheWoz attempted to fix the trailer in one of his early episodes[[note]] Which also featured a re-edit of the above mentioned ''Mighty No. 9'' trailer [[/note]], his re-edit got an ApprovalOfGod from the game’s project lead.

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkPvATin4AQ 2017 trailer]] for the ''VideoGame/{{Timesplitters}}'' FanGame '''''Timesplitters Rewind''''' is probably the most lazy, barebones, zero-effort preview to have ever existed. Even ignoring how its claimed release date [[ScheduleSlip turned out to be a lie]], it consists entirely of time crystals with images of past characters in them. The images are blurry and nearly impossible to make out and there's no indication you're even supposed to be looking for anything, meaning most viewers saw nothing but two minutes of featureless green rocks. Given the game had been announced five years prior with absolutely no footage being shown since, the fans were understandably pissed. The developers apologized for the shitty trailer mere days afterwards, but wouldn't release a ''real'' preview until March 2019. Tellingly, when WebVideo/ScottTheWoz attempted to fix the trailer in one of his early episodes[[note]] Which also featured a re-edit of the above mentioned ''Mighty No. 9'' trailer [[/note]], his re-edit got an ApprovalOfGod from the game’s project lead.