People for the Ethical Treatment of Humans

(photo: Deceiver.com - click for link)

Thanks, Montel, for saying it so well. "Most of your provocative ad campaigns don't isolate and stigmatize one group." (Really, you don't need to listen to the whole thing. The rest of the audio is the PeTA person rationalizing and a caller touting Atkins' Diet.)

PeTA has always had provocative ad campaigns. They're against fur, meat-eating, and animal testing, primarily. And their campaigns use irony to promote their cause - people in humiliating situations and conditions to illustrate the plight of animals. Okay.

But the key difference with most of PeTA's ads and this one is simple - spokespeople and models who advertise with PeTA are either volunteers or paid. Fat people didn't go and endorse PeTA putting up this ad. What if Dairy Farmers of America put up an ad with a very short person with some tag-line like, "Don't wind up a midget. Drink milk for strong bones."? It'd be the same type of thing and just as offensive.

But what's even more Fail about this ad occurs to me when I consider who the target audience is. If PeTA is targeting fat people, then whatever ad person thought of this campaign has no concept that insulting people is not the best way to market to them. If PeTA's target audience is people who are marginally overweight or in a healthy weight range, then it the billboard is both (a) At the expense of fat people (b) Appeals to fear-mongering. Both of which are ethically dubious.

So, here's to you, PeTA, for a crappy billboard. Congratulations on being the first entry on Marketing Fail.

Welcome To Marketing Fail

Welcome to Marketing Fail!

In 2005 I got professionally into virtual world and emerging media design. I quickly realized how much marketing was tied to the industry. During my years learning marketing, I have become far more aware of the absurdities of the marketing industry, especially in projects that are clearly failures.

This blog is to share some of those failures, and to discuss in a lighthearted fashion. I will be posting some of my observations, and I am also taking user submissions for any Marketing Fail you see.

If you wish to submit a Marketing Failure for consideration in posting on this blog:
Email me at marketingfail [at] gmail (dot) com. You *MUST* include in the email the following:
1. The subject will be your suggested title. Make it succinct, please.
2. There must be a visual. Either attach an image (keep it to 1mb, if possible), or include a URL to an image / video / article.
3. If there's an interesting back-story, feel free to include it, but keep it as short as possible.
4. I will assume you wish to be anonymous unless you sign your name at the bottom of the email. If you sign your name, I will include it exactly as you state it. If you include a URL to your homepage / blog / etc, I will add it as the link to your name. I will only do ONE url. If you include multiple, (like, your blog, business website, facebook id, etc) any beyond the first will be ignored.

Legalese:
- I reserve the right not to publish your submissions, publish in full, or publish just parts of it. I also reserve the right to edit it for content, grammar, and format, as well as add to it.
- By emailing me you give me irrevocable publishing and licensing rights, as well as any associated copyright and trademark rights, forever. This applies to all content of the email.
- I take no responsibility for any Intellectual Property submitting to me that is not authorized for distribution and/or publication.
- Any content that shows trademarked and/or copyrighted content falls under Fair Use, as contents of this blog falls under satire and/or freedom of the press under United States law. (Translation: If this blog shows your advertisement and we make fun of it, and you have the gumption to send me a DMCA, I will then post your DMCA to this blog, submit it to Digg, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, to illustrate how your organization is completely ignorant of Fair Use. That said... if there is some odd exception I have not considered, and you ask me nicely, I will take it under consideration.)