Biggest brand fails of 2023

Like every year, 2023 saw its share of marketer fails. However, some stood out above the rest—and one even paved the way for other brands to make similar mistakes. Social media certainly amplifies the outcry, but by now, marketers should really know better. Below, we track some of the biggest stories of brands stepping in it this year. (To see others, check out our weekly Marketing Winners and Losers column.) See our Year in Review stories here Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney bungle This brand fail wasn’t so much about Anheuser-Busch InBev-owned Bud Light’s campaign with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, but its response to the outcry against it that created a textbook marketing example of what not to do. Amid complaints from conservatives, including musician Kid Rock, Bud Light changed its marketing leadership by putting the brand’s VP of Marketing Alissa Heinerscheid on leave. (In November, AB InBev announced that U.S. Chief Marketing Officer Benoit Garbe would soon leave the company.) By distancing itself from the campaign and spokesperson, the marketer faced criticism from LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, including the Human Rights Campaign. Angering essentially everyone, Bud Light’s sales unsurprisingly took a massive dip, paving the way for competitor Molson Coors to profit. Overall, the flub revealed that Bud Light is still a brand not ready to fully commit to inclusivity. Read more: 5 ways Bud Light changed beer marketing Target’s Pride Month reversal Target must not have been paying attention to Bud Light, as it similarly backtracked amid consumer complaints. Despite hosting an in-store collection for Pride Month for more than a decade, Target removed several LGBTQ+-related products in late May after some customers made threats against staffers and filmed the destruction of merchandise on social media. The removal of products from the Pride collection damaged Target’s reputation along with sales. In August, the Minneapolis-based retailer admitted the “backlash” led to losses. ‘We❤️NYC’—not quite Few campaigns have inspired the vitriol brought about by New York City’s “We❤️NYC” campaign last March. Designed to pay homage to the original “I❤️NY” work from decades ago, the new logo, created as a collaboration with agencies MaryamB, Founders, Grain Group and Graham Clifford along with a few independent creators, was meant to inspire a renewed sense of brand love for the Big Apple. Instead, it instigated a flood of hatred. New Yorkers, not known for sugarcoating, preferred the original campaign and weren’t shy about making their feelings known. See our 2023 Marketers of the Year here Twitter’s rebrand woes In what appeared to be a whim from billionaire owner Elon Musk, Twitter renamed itself X, ditched its blue bird mascot and all associated brand language around tweets in July. The move cost the company several billions dollars of brand equity, according to estimates from agencies and analysts. Moreover, most users don’t even like the change, because they are still calling the platform Twitter and using the term “tweets.” New CEO Linda Yaccarino’s fumbling September appearance at the Code Conference to defend X and its changes only worsened the situation, with news outlets calling it a “car-crash interview.” Read more of this year’s news about Twitter X Shein’s influencer cover-up Shein, the Chinese fast-fashion brand known for its uber-cheap clothing, invited American influencers to tour its factories overseas, following criticisms of unfavorable labor conditions for workers. When the influencers, including Kenya Freeman and Dani Carbonari, posted glowing reviews on social media about Shein’s treatment of employees, many cried foul. The disconnect resulted in more bad press for Shein—though not enough to deter shoppers. The brand is looking to go public with a $90 billion valuation. Delta’s loyalty program tweaks—and retweaks When Delta Air Lines announced changes to its SkyMiles loyalty program that made it harder to reach certain benefits and perks such as airport lounge entry, it faced swift backlash. A headline from The Points Guy, a travel website, read “Delta’s loyalty changes are even worse than originally announced” as customers lamented harder-to-reach status levels and new limitations. Days after the controversial changes, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said the company went “too far” and dialed back some modifications. Southwest Airlines’ continuing operational troubles Following a Southwest Airlines holiday-season meltdown in late 2022 that prompted the cancelation of scores of flights, stranded thousands of travelers and lost the company millions of dollars, the carrier faced further operational woes in 2023. Such brand damage made the airline the ridiculed subject of a “Saturday Night Live” skit in late January. Then in April, Southwest canceled flights again after a technology breakdown. Executives say operations are under control, but we’ll see how Christmas goes. More: How Southwest is trying to restore consumer confidence L.A. Times’ ‘Succession’ spoil The Los Angeles Times forgot about a crucial aspect of pop-culture reporting when it gave away an important plot twist in HBO’s hit series “Succession” (the unexpected early-in-the-season demise of—spoiler alert—patriarch Logan Roy) without a “spoiler alert” warning. The paper did so by publishing a faux obituary for Roy, a fictional media mogul, online before many on the West Coast had viewed the April 9 episode. Microsoft’s AI poll Microsoft paired an article about a young woman’s death on The Guardian’s website with an AI-generated poll asking readers to choose the cause of the 21-year-old’s death. The paper said Microsoft’s news aggregation service was to blame for the automated poll, which was removed following reader complaints. But Microsoft wasn’t the only brand to step into an AI-related disaster, and is unlikely to be the last. In February, Vanderbilt University irked students when it used OpenAI’s ChatGPT to write a statement about inclusivity in the wake of the Michigan State University shooting. The backlash to the tone-deaf missive, called “disgusting” by some students, prompted an apology from Vanderbilt. See our Year in Review stories here

Biggest brand fails of 2023

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