Promotional campaigns often turn out terrible. If you’re unaware of the recent failed campaign launched by Coca Cola, check out this article. Basically Coca Cola was hoping to have a cute Twitter campaign that turned into them tweeting passages from Adolf Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf.
So to celebrate that royal fuck up by Coca Cola, I’ve searched the web to find some of the better promotional campaigns out there. Any company, especially one trying to launch a viral marketing campaign, should check out just how some of the better promotional campaigns turned out.
1) Save The Boobs
In order to raise awareness and more importantly money for breast cancer, Pornhub, a website which I’m sure you all know very well, agreed to donate one cent for every 30 videos viewed in October from the site’s breast categories: “big tit videos” and “small tit videos.” As you might imagine, the campaign was a huge success, as both video categories received a total of 75 million views from boob-loving supporters from all around the world. Thanks to Pornhub, people felt like a humanitarian while rubbing one out.
The campaign raised $25,000, and Pornhub’s plan was to donate to well known breast cancer charity, the Susan G. Komen Foundation. However, the charity publicly stated that they would not be accepting Pornhub’s money. Their exact words were “Susan G. Komen for the Cure is not a partner of pornhub.com. We will not accept donations from this organization and have asked them to stop using our name.”
Instead of feeling sorry for themselves that their activism failed, Pornhub asked all breast cancer foundations to come forward in order to be a recipient of a cash donation. Many charities came forward, and in total, Pornhub donated three times of what was initially by their campaign, bringing their contribution to a whopping $75,000.
2) The Whopper Sacrifice Challenge
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could trade your unwanted friends for a free hamburger? Back in 2009, that was actually possible thanks to a bizarre campaign put forward by Burger King.
The challenge was called the Whopper Sacrifice, and it was an app that people could download onto their smartphones. The challenge was to delete 10 people from your friends list on Facebook, and you would be rewarded with a free coupon for a Whopper at Burger King. The catch was that once you chose to delete someone, they were sent a humorous notification informing them that their friendship was worth less than 37 cents.
The campaign was shut down after Facebook officials asked Burger King to make a few changes to their app, as many Facebook users felt that their privacy was being violated. Burger King chose not to change anything, and ended the campaign.
Almost 234,000 people were unfriended by their ‘friends’ who were seeking a free Whopper. More than 23,000 coupons were mailed to participants. The campaign had become such a success that Facebook groups were made so that people could add each other, and then delete each other in order to receive another coupon.
After the project was shut down, Burger King vice president for marketing said that the company intended to shut down the promotion once 25,000 Whopper coupons had been handed out anyway.
3) Operation Christmas
In 2010, the Colombian government tried to take a unique approach to fighting FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The guerilla warfare rebel unit had started recruiting younger members, many of which didn’t realize that they would be taken away from their families in order to fight against the government. As a result, the Colombian government launched a mission to push the guerilla fighters to lay down their arms and stop fighting.
The mission, titled Operation Christmas involved military soldiers heading onto a path that the guerrillas were known to use and picked an 82-foot tree to decorate with sparkling blue lights. The lights were set up to a motion sensor, so that they would only light up when someone walked near it. Near the tree, there was a banner that said “If Christmas can come to the jungle, you too can come home. Demobilize. At Christmas, everything is possible.”
The gesture was aimed at the younger members of the rebel group with the hopes that they would see the message, during the Christmas season when many of them were already missing home, and decide to head home and see their families.
Although a little tacky, the operation was a success, and 10 other jungle trees were decorated throughout the country as part of Operation Christmas. That year, over 2,400 guerillas decided to demobilize and head home, many of which left during the holiday season.
4) Pussy – Cunningly Delicious
An energy drink company from the United Kingdom known as Pussy Drinks Ltd, decided that they were going to boost sales by being more sexually explicit than they are already were, even though they had a drink literally called Pussy.
The marketing plan was to put up huge billboards of the word Pussy, and beneath it have the words “The drink’s pure, it’s your mind that’s the problem.” As you can imagine, there were a few uptight people that were outraged by the billboard. The Advertising Standards Authority, received 156 complaints about the posters and launched an investigation.
Pussy Drinks Ltd tried to defend their posters, stating that the name of the drink they were advertising was defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as the name for a white pet cat. The company pretended to be innocent, but the energy drink company lost the battle and the ads were banned over ‘sexually explicit references’ and the fact that many children would be able to see the billboards posted around towns and cities.
But it wasn’t long before the company quickly came up with a new slogan to advertise their product. Pussy: Cunningly delicious.
5) The Engagement Ring Conspiracy
Believe it or not, diamond rings are a recent fashion trend. Diamond engagement rings weren’t even sold until the diamond mining company De Beers rolled into town.
To put it bluntly, De Beers is the largest diamond company in the world, and De Beers purchased almost all diamonds at one point or another. To say that the company has a monopoly is putting it lightly.
Furthermore, the company has been able to change the way that we as a society view engagement and marriage through a handful of ad campaigns. In fact, their campaigns were so successful that majority of the population hasn’t realized that the idea a guy should spend 2-3 months salary on an engagement ring is an ad campaign.
In the late 1930’s, N.W. Ayer of De Beers ran an advertising campaign in the late 1930’s that suggested a man should spend one month’s salary on an engagement ring. In the 1980’s, De Beers ran another campaign saying a man should spend two month’s instead of one. Sometimes, advertisements said “Isn’t two months’ salary a small price to pay for something that lasts forever?”
That’s right. That “age old” tradition of spending two months pay on an engagement ring was started less than 40 years ago. It isn’t much of a tradition.
Other business should take notes from what De Beer did. Essentially, the company turned a commonly found shiny rock in Africa into a multibillion dollar business, to which the company practically has a monopoly on. They’ve single handedly changed the way the world, more specifically, North Americans, view marriage, and the engagement process in general.
6) Don’t Mess With Texas
It sounds like a threat, but it isn’t supposed to be. The phrase “don’t mess with Texas” is the slogan of an anti-litter campaign started in 1986. The campaign was launched by the Texas Department of Transportation with the goal to keep trash off of Texas’ highways. In fact, the campaign encouraged people to report anyone they noticed excessively littering on the highway.
The campaign’s legacy doesn’t end with a catchy phrase, though. Between 1986 and 1990, the campaign was credited with reducing 72% of litter on Texas highways. How did they come up with that number? Who cares.
Since nobody really cares about garbage on the highway anymore, the phrase warped into being a phrase used by proud Texans. In fact, George W. Bush even used the phrase in his acceptance speech at the 2000 Republican National Convention. It’s been used countless times in pop culture and in everyday conversation. I guarantee you’ve told at least one person to not mess with Texas.
7) Killing In The Name – #1 Christmas Song Of 2009
He didn’t know it at the time, but 35-year-old Jon Morter was going to do something absolutely legendary. It all started when Jon Morter had become bored that for the past few years, the most recent winner from X Factor would have a #1 Christmas single during the following season. A part-time rock DJ, Morter decided it would be funny to launch a campaign with the sole objective of getting people to buy a song with the opposite vibe of the song of the latest X Factor winner.
In 2008 Morter tried to get people to buy Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up, but failed to get it to the number one spot on the charts. It was near the bottom, but he decided that he would give it another shot in 2009. So, in 2009, Morter tried to get people to buy Rage Against The Machine’s Killing In The Name. And you know what? It worked. In a single week, the song sold 500,000 copies, around 50,000 more than The Climb by 18-year-old X Factor winner Joe McElderry.
Was it a beautiful campaign aimed at dismantling the hold that X Factor had over the Christmas charts, or was it a mean spirited attempt to ruin the holiday season?
Who cares. It’s just ironic that so many people bought a song famous for the words “Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me” just because some guy on the Internet told them to.
[Header image via Shutterstock, Sources]