Advertising campaigns and advertisements usually aim to attract more customers and convince them of the product or company that the advertisement is promoting, but for advertisements to produce opposite results and cause customers to become alienated and angered, this is the last thing that advertisers are waiting for.

Advertising campaigns may fail to attract the attention of customers sometimes, and may misrepresent the culture or beliefs of the recipient, or make fatal errors in translation at other times.

Below, we review a group of the most prominent advertisements and advertising campaigns that caused more losses than the targeted gains.

1- The woman's place is the kitchen

On International Women's Day in 2021, the account "Burger King" in the United Kingdom published a tweet in which he wrote, "Women belong in the kitchen," and then followed it with two more tweets saying, the first saying, "If we want to, of course," and in the second Burger King announced its program New Scholarships to help women obtain a degree in culinary arts and reduce the gender gap in the restaurant sector.

Burger King baiting people with a "women belong in the kitchen" tweet so they would angry-click through a thread - on International Women's Day - gets even nuttier when you realize a TEAM of people had to approve this pic.twitter.com/vVz0JZGsUi

— jacksfilms (@jacksfilms) March 8, 2021

Although the first tweet was intended to draw attention to the next two tweets, a campaign against the first tweet described the fast food restaurant as sexist.

With so many deplorable comments, the UK chain was forced to delete the tweet and apologize for it.

2- Dove ad turns a black woman into a white one

In 2017, the Dove personal care company ran an ad that featured an African American woman removing her shirt in 3 panels, and in the fourth panel of the Facebook ad, a young white woman appears.

#Dove apologises for ad showing black woman turning into white one https://t.co/Fkhbk3oUlC pic.twitter.com/uAYscY1PIN

— South China Morning Post (@SCMPNews) October 10, 2017

The ad was known as "Dov's racist advertisement", and it faced criticism, so the company was forced to respond and consider it an advertisement showing "the diversity of true beauty", before writing through its Twitter account, "We deeply regret the offense caused by (the advertisement)", and then removed the advertisement from its platforms. .

3- McDonald's and "Exploitation of Sorrow" to Sell Food

The year 2017 also saw McDonald's restaurants in the United Kingdom come under criticism and accusations of "exploiting sadness to sell sandwiches", following an advertisement in which a young child talks to his mother about his deceased father, as he and his father share a love for one of the McDonald's meals.

But human rights groups defending children and a number of activists considered the advertisement confusing for children who are dealing with a loss dear to them, and saw it reduce grief in exchange for promoting a product, forcing the company to apologize.

The company said - in an official statement - "We apologize for any inconvenience this announcement caused. This was not intended in any way," and McDonald's confirmed that the announcement - which was to be launched across the United Kingdom - was supposed to "highlight The presence of McDonald's in the daily lives of its customers, whether in good or difficult times."

4- Dunkin' Donuts apologizes for racism in Thailand

In 2013, Dunkin Donuts was forced to apologize to the Thai people after publishing an ad showing a woman wearing black make-up, after calling the ad 'racist'.

In the ad, a woman appeared in dark makeup and pink lipstick, with a hairdo from the fifties of the last century resembling a beehive, and the lady carried a "charcoal donut" and took a bite of it, and appeared next to her the slogan "Break every rule of pleasure."

#Thailand News: Dunkin' Donuts apologises for 'bizarre and racist' Thai advert (Guardian) http://t.co/FRZhcWxG3M pic.twitter.com/BbK4HZZhJj

— Richard Barrow in Thailand (@RichardBarrow) August 30, 2013

But the advertisement caused a wave of anger and an electronic campaign rejecting it, as Human Rights Watch (HRW) commented on it, saying, “It is strange and racist for Dunkin’ Donuts to think that a woman should be painted black and her lips should be highlighted with pink lipstick to sell chocolate cake. Immediately withdraw this ad, apologize publicly and make sure it doesn't happen again."

Afterwards, the company's chief communications officer in Thailand, Karen Raskopf, said, "Dunkin' Donuts is aware of the sensitivity of advertising in Thailand, and we are extending an apology on behalf of our company, and we will withdraw the advertisement from Thai TV," according to the British newspaper, The Guardian.

5- A white woman pulls a black one in a Sony ad.

In the Netherlands, an advertisement for Sony was shown promoting the white Sony Playstation Portable in 2006, with a pale white-haired woman pulling another black woman by the face, the white woman looking annoyed and determined, while the white woman black subject.

Sony wanted to say "white is coming" but in a way that put it in the position of accusation of racism, as Engadget tech blog pointed out.

6- Translation: "Fly naked" with Spanish airlines

In 1987, a Spanish airline made a fatal translation error, as Braniff Airlines advertised luxury flights with leather chairs under the slogan "Fly in Leather". His Spanish translation meant "travel naked", as the Spanish word for "flogging" was (En Cuero), which also means "naked," according to the Associated Press.