Before we knew it, half of 2021 has passed. Standing at this special dividing line, we might as well review the performance of the advertising industry in the first half of 2021.

In the post-epidemic era, anti-epidemic efforts have become normalized and the economy has recovered steadily. Although the advertising market is still growing slowly and slightly weak, the advertising industry is still constantly seeking change and reshaping to meet new challenges.

Of course, a rollover may be late, but it will never be absent.

01

All Cotton Times: Suspected of insulting women and advocating the "original sin of appearance" theory

Just as 2021 began, All Cotton Times contributed its first case of failure.

In order to promote the cleansing effect of makeup remover products, Quanmianshidai filmed a short theater advertisement. The content is about a pretty woman who was followed by a man on her way home late at night. The woman then thought quickly and removed her makeup in one second to scare away the gangster and successfully protect herself.

The video also includes the word "vomit" in the subtitles after the criminal saw the woman's bare face, as well as the sound of vomiting...

Quanmianshijie built its advertising creativity on women's fears, glorified stalkers, vilified victims, and advocated the " appearance is the original sin theory", which aroused strong condemnation and boycott from netizens.

Quanmianshidai, which was caught in the whirlpool of public opinion, issued two statements to apologize. In a statement that was 20% apology and 80% self-boasting, Quanmianshidai used crisis public relations as an advertising opportunity, and was jokingly called by netizens as the creator of a new school of apology.

The apology expressed by All Cotton Era not only failed to win back consumers' hearts, but also triggered even more fierce criticism. The brand's reputation plummeted, which was tantamount to self-destruction.

02

Coco Tree Coconut Juice Recruitment Advertisement: Suspected of Violation and Under Investigation

Coco Tree Coconut Juice, which is called the "mudslide" of the advertising industry by the public, has unsurprisingly made it to the failure list again.

Following the "selling oneself indenture" style recruitment, this year the Coconut Tree Group has released another shocking recruitment advertisement. On the poster, Xu Dongdong shows off her S-curve, the colors are colorful, and the style is quite "coconut tree".

What is even more eye-catching is that the advertisement claims that "once you enroll, you will have a car, a house, a high salary, and you will definitely be pursued by beautiful girls and handsome boys ", as well as top treatment conditions such as a 6 million sea view house and a 10 million villa, which has sparked controversy among netizens.

Ultimately, the Coconut Tree Group was investigated by the local regulatory authorities for suspected violations of the Advertising Law in its advertising content.

It’s time for Coco Tree Coconut Juice, which has been madly testing the edge of vulgarity, pornography and illegality, to put on the brakes.

03

Cha Yan Yue Se's copywriting failed: vulgar marketing offends women

No one would have expected that the top brand in the milk tea industry, Cha Yan Yue Se, a frequent visitor to hot searches, would have failed this year.

The cause of the incident was that Cha Yan Yue Se once launched a mug with Changsha dialect as its theme. The words "picking up a basket" were clearly printed on the body of the mug, which was questioned by netizens as disrespectful to women.

Later, some netizens dug out the tea bag packaging of Cha Yan Yue Se, which also played a gender-bending role. The words "My dear, I want you", combined with the lips and tadpole patterns, make people imagine. The tea-brewing guide is even more unabashedly sexually suggestive.

Faced with the overwhelming negative public opinion, Cha Yan Yue Se responded positively, issued multiple apologies, admitted that there were mistakes in its early marketing, and promptly prevented the crisis from escalating.

Fundamentally, these crises actually reflect the development risks of Cha Yan Yue Se. It left Changsha and expanded across the country, deviating from the support of Changsha's local culture. Its regional marketing made it difficult to win consumers' recognition and understanding, which ultimately caused severe damage to its brand image.

04

Li Dan endorses Ubras underwear: lying flat in the workplace copywriting causes discomfort

Ubras, a new consumer brand that is currently in the limelight, accidentally fell into trouble with its spokesperson.

The famous talk show host Li Dan promoted Ubras on the social platform. The copywriting language of "allowing women to easily win in the workplace" was considered discriminatory against women. Linking underwear with the workplace creates ambiguity between sexual innuendo and unspoken workplace rules, smears women's workplace value, and causes huge controversy.

Immediately afterwards, the Ubras brand officially issued an apology statement, removed the relevant content from the shelves as soon as possible, and admitted that the marketing promotion wording was inappropriate. Li Dan also forwarded the statement to apologize and admitted his negligence as a language worker.

However, the incident did not end with the apologies from both parties.

The male artist endorsed women's underwear, which was considered by netizens to be a violation of the Advertising Law by Ubras, sparking a heated discussion about the brand and spokespersons. Some fans were extremely disappointed with Li Dan and stopped being his fans.

This cross-border collaboration between Ubras and Li Dan can be said to be a lose-lose situation.

05

Intel hired Yang Li to promote its product: triggering a gender-based verbal war

Yang Li, who is also a talk show host, has also violated the gender minefield like Li Dan.

In Yang Li's promotional copy for Intel, she quoted a joke from her talk show: "Intel's vision is too high, even higher than my vision for choosing a partner."

As soon as the video was released, it caused boycott from male users. Some netizens said that Yang Li is an instigator of gender confrontation, and that Intel's choice of such an artist to endorse its products is an offense and disregard for male users.

After being criticized by the entire network, Intel immediately deleted the advertising video and removed the promotional posters related to Yang Li, and the endorsement information disappeared.

In a screenshot circulated online, Intel customer service spoke rudely to Yang Li, and Intel's cold treatment approach ignited the anger of female netizens and triggered a fierce gender war of words.

Behind Intel's failure, it not only reflects the importance of the temperament match between the brand and the spokesperson, but also reflects the shortcomings of the brand's crisis public relations work.

Intel, which used its feet to do public relations, completely offended users on both sides.

06

Huabei advocates taking out loans to fulfill filial piety: consumerism kidnaps emotions

This year, Huabei released a comic strip advertisement that made me want to leave after watching it. The ad mainly tells the story of a new employee who used Huabei to pay for a massage chair for his grandfather. After his grandfather passed away, the grandson also bought a new mobile phone for his grandfather to use, and "hoped that this bill would never be paid off."

The story seems touching, but it does not stand up to scrutiny. Huabei abuses family marketing, advocates using loans to fulfill filial piety, takes advantage of the emotional pain point of "a child wants to support his parents but they are no longer there", morally blackmails users, and promotes consumerism.

As a financial lending brand, Huabei urgently needs to export correct values ​​and actively assume social responsibilities in order to avoid being spurned by users.  

07

Pantene changes its name for Women's Day: removing the "woman" character causes controversy

On the eve of Women's Day, Pantene released a reverse advertisement that satirized workplace prejudice against women and was well received by fans. But the promotional copy on its Weibo was a terrible failure.

On the one hand, Pantene removed the "she" from its brand name, and on the other hand, it called for people not to discard her. This contradictory logic triggered complaints and dissatisfaction among netizens.

Netizens believe that Pantene’s female marketing this time uses prejudice to define another prejudice. It is just an advertisement that caters to the current trend and cannot win the favor of users.

Pantene's brief name change was intended to break down workplace discrimination, but ultimately backfired due to inconsistent copywriting.

08

KOLs with bad records of internal and external cooperation: PR style of covering mouth angers the public

In recent years, internal and external marketing has performed well. However, Neiwai, which has always focused on topics related to women’s growth, fell from its pedestal this year because of its collaboration with a controversial KOL.

@你好_竹子 was exposed by netizens for having made remarks supporting surrogacy, insulting China, and being pro-Japanese, and other incorrect views, and netizens asked him to terminate the cooperation.

Faced with overwhelming negative public opinion, people both inside and outside the party chose to keep silent, delete comments and pretend that everything was fine.

Such practices will undoubtedly add fuel to the fire and seriously erode the brand's goodwill.

09

Yuanqi Forest apologizes for zero sugar: false advertising defrauds consumers

Yuanqi Forest has been able to break through the siege in the beverage market and become a popular online beverage brand by relying on the healthy selling point of "sugar-free, non-carbonated beverages".

However, with Yuanqi Forest’s “self-exposure”, a sugar-free scam was revealed.

Yuanqi Forest apologized and said that in the promotion of its milk tea products, it did not explain the difference between "0 sucrose" and "0 sugar", which may easily cause misunderstanding, and the company will make corrections and upgrades.

Subsequently, Xinhua News Agency and People's Daily commented in succession: Yuanqi Forest's playing word games will only bring "resentment."

Yuanqi Forest, which became popular for its sugar-free concept, has fallen into a crisis of trust precisely because of its alleged false advertising of sugar-free products.

10

Changan Ford lifts up girls' skirts: using the cleverness as an advertising idea

In order to demonstrate the speed advantage of its new cars, Ford Motor Company launched a speed test video advertisement, which was considered by netizens to be a vulgar marketing to attract attention.

The cover of the video is captioned "Can a girl's skirt be lifted up when running at high speed?", and the hashtag "Sharp PLUS brings you a feast for the eyes" is added, as well as vulgar pictures of girls' skirts.

Changan Ford violated women's privacy by lifting up girls' skirts to measure vehicle speed. It also stigmatized male users and violated public order and good morals. While increasing brand awareness, it seriously damaged the brand image, which was not worth the cost.

11 Conclusion

Looking at the failure cases in the first half of the year, it can be seen that gender-related marketing is popular this year, but the marketing risks that come with it cannot be ignored.

Faced with today’s highly sensitive online environment, when planning their marketing, brands must not use gender conflicts to attract attention. If they fail to strike a balance between the two, public opinion will get out of control, ultimately leading to self-destruction.

When brands try to attract new consumer groups, they must also balance their relationship with existing user groups and think deeply about marketing strategies to avoid the risk of failure.

In any case, the story of the first half of the year has come to an end. I hope that brands can learn lessons from it and better prepare for the arrival of the second half of the year.

Author: Yang Yang

Source: Top Advertising (idea1408)