Tedium Highlight in Marketing: Sometimes, companies do things that go against our expectations of their brand. Often, the result can be awful. Check out these examples of brand weirdness. 

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Tag results: Marketing

Corporate Casserole

Pondering Thanksgiving through an exceedingly corporate lens. Some of the holiday’s most important elements were brought to you by marketing and lobbying.

The Art Of Annoyance

When it comes down to it, it’s best to think of advertising as a coordinated, decades-long campaign to annoy the heck out of you. And it works pretty well.

Give ’Em Less Data

What if the problems with the news ecosystem could be solved by shutting off the data pipeline to the advertisers? After all, they’ve spent the last 30 years aggressively exploiting it—and us.

Hallmark Card Sharks

How an early embrace of national advertising put Hallmark in the pole position of holiday memories.

No Hiding These Logos

How Intel turned the PC industry into its collective co-op marketing partner through a strong sticker game, an idea Microsoft used to push Windows sales.

Cut-Up Culture

Pondering how coupons became the lingua franca of the grocery store, and why they might be important to the survival of the newspaper.

The Cold Cocktail

How NyQuil, the over-the-counter cold medicine of choice for millions of sniffling people, innovated by combining a bunch of drugs together in a novel way.

This Old Scandal

Why Bob Vila, perhaps the most famous handyman in history, may have set the stage for a digital era in which stars aren’t afraid to cash in on their names.

Billboard Empire

The evolution of the billboard, an object that very much tends to keep pace with the times. Who doesn’t love outdoor advertising?

Marketing That Sticks

From Big Red to Juicy Fruit to brands not made by Wrigley, chewing gum has surprisingly catchy and effective marketing with a lasting impact on pop culture.

Plastic Pail Perfection

Why McDonald’s is missing a major marketing opportunity by not handing out its ’80s era plastic pumpkin buckets to modern kids. (I feel strongly about this.)

The Backlink Economy

Businesses want to show up on the front page of a specific search term, and they’re willing to annoy you to get a backlink from you. Please never do this.

OK Branding

A quarter-century ago, a really big soda company attempted to subvert itself to reach Gen X. The problem? Coca-Cola’s OK Soda was a couple of decades too early.

Hydrogenated Marketing

How Crisco, which avoided naming its primary ingredient in ads, toppled lard more than a century ago—and made Americans believers in industrial food.

Taking Stock

My longtime fascination with T-Mobile CEO John Legere’s odd slow cooker social media promotion, now that he’s slow-cooked his way through a merger with Sprint.

Feelin’ 7UP

The marketing history of America’s favorite lemon-lime soda, 7UP, proves that sometimes reality is stranger than fiction.

Impeachment Growth Hacking

The reason we might all be using Netflix today could have a lot to do with a marketing stunt involving the grand jury testimony that got Bill Clinton impeached.

When a Brand Ruins Your Faves

For the last couple of months, Facebook has leaned on The Muppets to help salvage its damaged reputation on privacy issues. Hey Facebook, could you please not?

Marketing in Ernest

For two decades, Ernest P. Worrell was basically the perfect regionally franchised TV advertising mascot—and showed Jim Varney’s sheer brilliance. Knowhutimean?

The Golden Comedo

Why acne medication, from Clearasil to Oxy Pads to Proactiv, is pure marketing gold, and has been for generations of blemished faces. Just ask Dick Clark.
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