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14 Controversial Ads From 2016 That Got Serious Internet Backlash

NewsPublished Nov 18, 2016
By Caroline Olney
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Considering that we're living in an age of social media, and considering that this gives people a place to speak up when they see things that offend them, we'd love to think we're past the point of corporations and companies getting away with okaying offensive (or at least questionable) advertisements. But obviously, we're not -- and the number of questionable ads that were released in 2016 should be plenty of proof. 

All that said, we're not totally without hope for the future -- here are 14 controversial ads from this year that got a ton of backlash, which means that, ideally, companies will pay attention and be a little less sucky in 2017.

Cheers to the future, guys.

1/14
Equinox's "Commit to Something" Ad-placeholder
Equinox's "Commit to Something" Ad
Equinox

Equinox's "Commit to Something" Ad

In January, the luxury gym line Equinox released this ad via press release, which shows model-slash-heiress Lydia Hearst breastfeeding two babies in a fancy dining room. The photographer, Steven Klein, argued that the ad was helping women in their fight to normalize breastfeeding, but many moms felt the ad was just sexualizing something that they're actively trying to desexualize, and that presenting breastfeeding moms in this light is doing a disservice to women everywhere.

2/14

Suitsupply's "Toy Boys" Campaign

Amsterdam-based menswear brand Suitsupply released an ad campaign in February that it called "Toy Boys." It featured men literally playing on women's bodies, turning the women into what Digiday aptly called a "perverted playground." The idea, Suitsupply's CEO Fokke de Jong told Buzzfeed News, was that it's a woman's world and men are just playing in it, but clearly, there's something wrong here. Despite the negative attention, Suitsupply refused to apologize for the ads.

3/14
Wish Plus-Size Shorts Ad-placeholder
Wish Plus-Size Shorts Ad
Wish

Wish Plus-Size Shorts Ad

Shopping website/app Wish had a listing for a pair of plus-size shorts on its site and the accompanying image was jaw-dropplingly insensitive: It showed a petite woman wearing one leg of the shorts as a mini skirt. But the good news here is that one plus-size fashion designer gave the best possible "eff you" to the company by posting a picture of her wearing a petite skirt around one leg on Facebook.

"If plus size ladies buy shorts based on how one leg looks on a whole petite woman, then maybe smaller ladies will buy skirts based on how the whole thing looks on one pretty thunderous thigh," she wrote.

More from CafeMom: 11 Rad Plus-Size Clothing Stores You May Not Know About Yet

4/14

Two of Calvin Klein's "I ____ In My Calvins" Ads

The objection to this particular campaign was more in the juxtaposition of these two ads rather than the whole thing, but still: People were calling on Calvin Klein to remove a billboard in New York City since they said the ads reduced women to sex objects and men to breadwinners. There was some debate about whether or not these ads were actually sexist, but regardless, enough people found them offensive that a Change.org petition was created to demand that they be taken down.

5/14
Gap Kids' "Racist" Clothing Ad-placeholder
Gap Kids' "Racist" Clothing Ad
Gap Kids

Gap Kids' "Racist" Clothing Ad

Again, there's some debate here about whether or not this is actually offensive: This Gap Kids ad immediately came across as racist to people who looked at the staging and saw a white girl using a black girl as a prop. But soon after the ad started getting attention, the mom of the girls tweeted that the two were sisters. Contextualizing them as family changed the tone of the ad for a lot of people, but still -- this placement could have been better thought through.

6/14
Ad With "Unhealthily Thin" Gucci Model-placeholder
Ad With "Unhealthily Thin" Gucci Model
Gucci

Ad With "Unhealthily Thin" Gucci Model

Back in April, the Advertising Standards Authority of Britain made the controversial decision to pull a Gucci ad with a model it called "unhealthily thin." The decision hit on a whole bunch of moral questions -- not only about the kinds of bodies we want our daughters to idolize, but also who we are as a society to tell individuals their bodies are or are not healthy. The decision ended up being as controversial as the ad itself, but both raised some important questions we need to prepare to answer as a society.

More from CafeMom: 15 Female Celebrities Accused of Being Too Thin

7/14

Match Ad That Called Freckles "Imperfections"

There are plenty of ads that subtly tell women they're not desirable or that they're full of imperfections, but few so blunt as this Match.com ad seen in the London Underground in April. Women didn't respond well to being told that their freckles were blemishes (just like we won't respond well to anyone telling us to be self-conscious about anything) and, thankfully, Match UK apologized not long after the backlash started.

8/14

Bud Light Cans With Native American Tribe's Logo

Maybe this is a stretch of the term "ad," but whatever: Anheuser-Busch used the logo of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina on its cans of Bud Light without asking their permission. The reason this struck such a deep chord was, as Lumbee Tribal Chairman Harvey Godwin explained, because of the stereotypical association between Native American culture and drug and alcohol abuse. Luckily, Anheuser-Busch apologized and removed the can. Hopefully, it learned its lesson.

9/14

Walmart's 9/11 Tribute

A 9/11 tribute is one thing, but a 9/11 tribute built out of boxes of soda is entirely different. One Walmart in Florida clearly missed the distinction and its gigantic, brand-heavy Twin Towers sculpture got a lot of negative attention on Twitter. The store apologized and took it down, but ... still.

More from CafeMom: Watch Kids Who Lost Parents on 9/11 Prove to Terrorists That Hate Will Never Win

10/14

Mattress Store's Insensitive 9/11 Sale

Clearly, there was something about 9/11 this year: A mattress store in San Antonio, Texas, decided it'd be a good idea to have a "Twin Towers sale" and to release an ad for it with mattresses stacked to resemble the World Trade Center towers. The mattresses were on sale for a "twin price" and in the ad, two men knock them over while the woman says "we'll never forget." It was sad and distrubing, and, for better or for worse, the backlash ultimately caused the store to go out of business.

11/14

Gap Ad Enforcing Outdated Gender Tropes

This UK Gap ad calling little boys "scholars" and little girls "social butterflies" is sexist, yes, but it's also exhausting -- how many times do we have to ask companies to stop playing into damaging stereotypes before they listen? Boys and girls shouldn't be pigeonholed into such outdated roles -- especially not when they're so young. We need brands to be more careful going forward.

12/14

Sprite's "#BrutallyRefreshing" Campaign

Sprite's #BrutallyRefreshing campaign hit sites and billboards in the beginning of August and almost immediately people were calling it out for being #BrutallyOffensive. Most of the language seemed to be targeted to men and hurting women in the process  -- it was, you could say, "locker room talk" ... and everyone should know how much we all dislike that by now.

More from CafeMom: 10 Vintage Ads No Baby Would Be Featured in Today

13/14

Gold's Gym's "No Shape for a Girl" Ads

If this one makes your jaw drop, we're with ya. A Gold's Gym in Egypt posted these ads on its Facebook (it has since been taken down, thank God), because apparently body-shaming women is how to get them to work out at your gym. Or something. At any rate, the response was immediate and almost entirely negative -- no, women said, this is not okay.

14/14

PETA's Ad Comparing Rape Survivors to Cows

PETA is pretty famous for releasing insensitive ads, so we guess this list wouldn't really be complete if it hadn't rounded out the year with its video comparing women's experiences with sexual assault to cows and other meat industry animals. Even knowing the kind of stuff PETA gets up to, this ad was shocking, and many rape survivors responded saying they had already been dehumanized enough from their assaulters and didn't really need PETA chiming in.

More from CafeMom: 9 Ad Campaigns That Aimed to Break Barriers -- While Making a Buck

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