Top 20 Controversial Commercials That SOMEHOW Were Not Banned

Peloton

Sometimes an ad misses the mark and costs the company billions. That’s what happened with this Peloton Christmas commercial showing a husband gifting his wife an exercise bike. The ad quickly drew criticism for being “sexist and dystopian.” Many felt the ad was preaching the outdated concept of “staying thin to keep your man,” with some deeming it “offensive” and “dumb”. Others compared the commercial to the British dystopian series “Black Mirror.” Meanwhile, Peloton insisted that the ad was about the emotional and mental changes customers are said to experience after receiving a Peloton. Either way, the advert didn’t have many fans, and Peloton ended up losing around $1.5 billion over it. That’s one expensive ad!

Burger King

This ad shows why it’s best to avoid using stereotypes to sell products. You just might anger an entire country! And this is exactly what Burger King did when they aired this Texican Whopper commercial. It depicts a cowboy moving in with a new roommate, who happens to be a tiny man dressed as a luchador. The roommate also has a cloak fashioned from Mexico’s flag. This stereotype and misuse of the flag offended many in Mexico. And one ambassador campaigned for Burger King to remove the ad, which they eventually did. Don’t even get us started on that tagline.

Desigual

Mother’s Day is typically a time to send your mom flowers and show your appreciation. But, one Spanish fashion brand decided to take a different approach. Desigual debuted their Mother’s Day-themed ad depicting a woman playfully pretending to be pregnant. That perhaps wouldn’t be so atrocious on its own, if not for the fact that she produces a packet of condoms and starts poking holes in them! Biiiiig yikes. As you can imagine, many viewers took offense to this commercial because of its sexist themes. The company responded that it was supposed to be funny. However, the uproar caused Desigual to edit the commercial, removing the condom-poking altogether. Happy Mother’s Day, we guess.

National Airlines

Sometimes creating controversy can lead to success. In the 1970s, National Airlines ran a series of commercials from their “Fly Me” ad campaign. The adverts focused on flight attendants and included enough sexual innuendo to fill a warehouse. Each commercial highlights one attendant who repeatedly uses the expression, “Fly me!” and is shown in suggestive outfits and poses. This did not sit well with the National Organization for Women, which said the sexist ads created an open door for patrons to hit on flight attendants. Since it was the 1970s, the ads were a great success, and National saw a rise in booked flights. But, in 1980, PanAm acquired the company, and the brand and commercials ceased. Good riddance.

Hyundai

Just as a rule of thumb: don’t comment on people’s eating habits. Hyundai could’ve used this advice before airing their Super Bowl LIII ad. In it, Jason Bateman plays an elevator attendant that sends people up for good experiences and down for bad experiences. The negative floors include universally hated activities like getting a root canal, going to jury duty and, apparently, attending a vegan dinner party? Many vegans and even PETA took to Twitter after the ad aired to complain about the company’s treatment of those who eat a plant-based, animal-free diet. Hyundai doubled down and assured viewers they appreciate vegans. What did they offer for reconciliation? A recipe for beetloaf.

General Motors

We shouldn’t have to say this, but joking about death is never a good idea… Especially not if you’re a brand airing to the masses. In this GM spot that aired during Super Bowl XLI, an assembly line robot gets fired. He struggles to find new work and ultimately throws himself off of a bridge. Thankfully, his tragic death turns out to be a daydream but, for many viewers, the ad’s damage had already been done. Because of the outcry, GM eventually decided to edit out the robot taking its life but continue to air the ad. You can’t win them all.

Popchips

This might just be the most cringeworthy thing you’ve ever seen, not to mention deeply offensive. When the Popchips commercial aired featuring Ashton Kutcher in brownface as an Indian man named Raj, many viewers were left to wonder: what was he thinking? In addition to being the face of the brand, Kutcher was also its president of pop culture. This means he not only starred in the ad but also had a hand in its creation and development. The commercial was eventually pulled after an uproar from the Indian-American community. And we can all be thankful for that.

Snickers

Snickers is well known for ads that push limits to get a laugh. But, this Super Bowl display may have taken things a little too far. When their lips accidentally touch while sharing a Snickers, two mechanics decide they must do something manly… to, what, reaffirm their heterosexuality, we guess? So, they rip out a patch of chest hair. But Snickers, didn’t stop there. The company’s website included several alternate endings to the commercial where the “manly” actions increased in stupidity and danger, including drinking motor oil and slamming heads with the car’s hood. The extra footage also included football players’ reactions to the advert, with many expressing disgust at the men kissing. After outrage about the ad’s homophobia, Snickers agreed to pull it.

Skittles

The general consensus: Skittles are delicious. So, why would they want to create an ad that might turn you off from ever eating them again? That's precisely what happened in 2017 around Mother’s Day, when the company released a creepy ad showing a mom and son enjoying a pack of Skittles via an umbilical cord. Yuck! It really grossed out viewers, never mind sending the wrong message about the candy and the holiday. Luckily, Skittles mercifully pulled the ad. And we thought it couldn’t get creepier than the “tube sock” guy.

Qiaobi Detergent

Sometimes, an ad makes you wonder: Who thought this was a good idea? This Chinese ad for Qiaobi laundry detergent shows a Black man being cleaned in a washing machine until he emerges as a pale Asian man. The commercial aired for months in China, but eventually went viral. Protests about the advert’s overt racism spread quickly online until the company was forced to apologize and take the ad down. They said it was not intended to be discriminatory, and they hoped people would not read too much into its content. Well, it was definitely too late for that!

Dove

Poor editing is all that is needed to transform a well-meaning project into a fiercely detested advert lambasted for being racially insensitive. As part of Dove's "Real Beauty" campaign, a decade long movement promoting a positive body image and diversity, 2017's ad's good intentions are completely undermined by a staggering lack of foresight, especially since the company had been involved in a similar controversy in 2014. Unsurprisingly, Dove received a great deal of flak and the ad was quickly labeled as racist, prompting the company to withdraw the commercial and issue an apology.

Nationwide

For 2015's Super Bowl, Nationwide took a page from M. Night Shymalan's book and aired a commercial with a twist ending. According to a statement released as a response to the backlash garnered by the advert, the Insurance company only sought to raise awareness about children deaths caused by preventable home accidents. Even if Nationwide's intentions were honorable, the advert itself is still emotionally manipulative and way too depressing for a spot during the Super Bowl. While there is a time and a place for everything; dead children and a Patriots versus Seahawks match do not mesh all that well.

Holiday Inn

Despite the substantial monetary investment required to purchase a Super Bowl ad slot, the appeal of broadcasting to at least 70 million viewers is understandably tempting. Off all possible brands, Holiday Inn is responsible for producing one of the sporting event's most confusing commercials. In order to promote its renovation project, Holiday Inn compares its prospective transformation to that of a transgender woman. Gender awareness has come a long way since 1997, but "Bob Johnson" did not need social media to attract a sea of complaints that promptly convinced Holiday Inn to pull the ad.

Homeaway.com

With the Super Bowl containing dozens upon dozens of commercials, companies must find a way to stand out from the crowd. For better or worse, HomeAway's "Test Baby" campaign was definitely among the least forgettable ads to air during 2011's event. Even if the baby is obviously a doll, there is just something off-putting about watching a toddler – fake or otherwise – slam into a glass panel. HomeAway's campaign sought to highlight the safety benefits of living in a more spacial rental, but the chosen imagery kind of overshadows any point the advert tries to make. When it comes to babies and animals, commercials should always tread carefully.

Love’s Baby Soft

Society has changed considerably since the mid-'70s, so much so, it almost feels unfair to target a commercial from such a different era. Even if not viewed through modern lenses, Love's Baby Soft trying to sell its perfume by correlating innocence with sex appears designed solely to trigger a shudder of disgust. If this amounted to only a slogan, it would be one thing; however, Love's Baby Soft's commercials went the extra mile by babyfying their models. Are these commercials meant to be cutesy or seductive? Regardless of the intent, these ads are mostly creepy.

Pepsi

Once in a while, an ad comes along that misses the mark so spectacularly, the fact anyone ever thought it was a good idea seems almost unbelievable. Appearing to take inspiration from the Black Lives Matter movement, Pepsi's commercial stars Kendall Jenner as a model who cultivates peace through the power of sugar-filled carbonated drinks. Closing on a message of solidarity, Pepsi's "Live for Now" was heavily criticized for seemingly attempting to profit off an important social movement. While the company presumably had less scummy intentions, Pepsi did succeed in uniting people over a mutual hatred for this ad.

Salesgenie

With only 30 seconds to sell a product, story-driven commercials frequently turn to stereotypes as a way to quickly establish their characters. Around 47 years after Mickey Rooney's infamous turn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's," Salesgenie somehow failed to foresee that pairing animated pandas with over-the-top Chinese accents may cause a bit of a stir. Along with pissing off plenty of people, the advert does a pretty terrible job of selling a company that specializes in helping other businesses grow. The "Pandas" advert was eventually taken out of rotation because, of course, it was.

Groupon

In 2011, a record-breaking 110 million people tuned in to watch the Green Bay Packers defeat the Pittsburg Steelers. That same audience also bore witness to a Groupon commercial that missed the mark so thoroughly, the advert might as well have been issued by a competitor. As part of a series of videos poking fun at celebrity-endorsed adverts, the "Tibet" entry took things about a hundred steps too far, resulting in an unfunny commercial that appears to trivialize a tragic situation. The ad was such a spectacular disaster, Groupon declined to air another Super Bowl commercial until 2018.

Mountain Dew

Even if Mountain Dew and Tyler, the Creator's trilogy about a talking goat with a propensity for violence is almost too absurd to take seriously, that did not stop the series' final advert from being identified as racist. After assaulting a waitress in the first commercial, Felicia the Goat is arrested and placed into a line-up consisting of solely black suspects. The line-up consists of members of hip-hop collective Odd Future and a couple of Tyler’s friends, so this advert about a misbehaving goat was probably not trying to spark a conversation about racial profiling.

Apple

Nowadays, Apple has pretty much perfected the art of advertising; however, the company was still attempting to find its voice during the mid-'80s. Following the previous year's iconic advert inspired by George Orwell's "1984," Apple tried to recapture lightning in a bottle with another incredibly grim piece called "Lemmings." Along with advertising a product that would never hit shelves, "Lemmings" basically presents Apple's potential consumers as mindless drones who blindly cause their own demise. Shockingly, insulting your customers is not a great marketing strategy and Apple is lucky this advert did not inadvertently lead the entire brand off a cliff.