- Taco Bell– It’s here, guys. The Taco Bell Emoji Engine. Late last year, following IOS’s release of the taco emoji, Taco Bell created a platform in which users could tweet at the company with the taco emoji followed by any other emoji and the result was a mention by Taco Bell with a graphic combining the two. Taco Bell wanted to celebrate the creation of the taco emoji and thank its customers at the same time. What they came up with was an interactive way for consumers to engage with the brand through a popular social media channel. As an avid taco enthusiast, I gave the emoji engine a whirl and was surprised to see that Taco Bell tweeted at me right away with a cool taco gif. Even though the tweets are generated by a bot, a personal mention from a huge company like Taco Bell is pretty neat. Good job T-Bell. Lucky.
- Bud Light– In early 2015, Bud Light launched its “Up For Whatever” campaign that highlighted a carefree, let-loose brand position. The campaign was doing very well until April when the phrase “The perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night” was printed on the label of Bud Light bottles. The tagline sparked controversy for promoting rape culture and especially struck a nerve with several feminist groups. The phrase reads as a blatant attack on rape victims and survivors, and how it was given the ‘OK’ by several review boards is beyond me. Yikes, Bud Light. Lame, indeed.
- Wal-Mart– It seems like an unwritten rule that as the largest company in the world, you should keep your marketing mistakes to a very small minimum. Wal-Mart must have forgotten that rule in the fall season of 2014 when they listed women’s plus-size Halloween costumes under “Fat Girl Costumes” on its online catalog. I don’t think I need to explain why this was offensive to online shoppers, so we’ll mark it as Lame and move on.
Alright, folks. That wraps up this year’s edition of “Lame or Lucky?” Don’t forget that the marketing experts at Transformation are far from lame and eager to craft your business a very lucky campaign!