9 of the worst advertising fails ever

Pepsi’s ad starring Kendall Jenner caused outrage this week, and the company was forced to apologise. But it’s far from the only advertising fail in recent years.

There have been some absolute corkers.

Here are some of the biggest fails:

1. Nivea

Just this week, Nivea released a deodorant ad with the tagline “White is purity”. Of course, this didn’t go down well at all.

2. Nestle

And how about this ad from Nestle, which caused new levels of outrage?

3. Ford

Ford India got an advert shockingly wrong in 2013, when they featured Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in a car with a group of bound women in the boot.

The ad wasn’t used commercially, but posted online by an India-based advertising agency hired by Ford.

4. Bud Light

Bud Light had a campaign encouraging people to remove “no” from their vocabulary. What were they thinking?!

5. Airbnb

Airbnb gave in to criticism and started paying tax in San Francisco. Then it decided it was a great idea to passive-aggressively tell the city how to spend the money they were now paying in taxes, begging the question: if they were that bothered about public services, why didn’t they pay taxes to begin with?

6. IHOP

IHOP decided it was a good idea to take the opportunity to make boob jokes with their pancakes.

7. Bic

Bic South Africa put out an ad on national women’s day, ironically, telling women to “act like a lady” and “think like a man”. No, really.

8. Anonymous

Just a reminder that it isn't just multi-national companies that screw up.

Case in point, this amazing menu:

9. Pepsi

And the ultimate ad fail award goes to: Pepsi, for their latest ad starring Kendall Jenner.

It features Jenner joining in a protest, and handing a policeman a Pepsi. If only those protesting for the women’s marches or Black Lives Matter protests had known they just needed to bring along a cold, caffeinated drink.

The company really misread these politically charged times.

It's important to mention that the majority of these companies have apologised for the ads.

More: People are cringing at this man's creepy advert for a young 'companion'