In: Operations Management
identify a marketing communication failure in the U.S tell why it failed
Marketing communication is any form in which a message is conveyed to the public informing them about the product and persuading them to buy the product. It can be a visual advertisement, printed advertisement, social media broadcasting etc. Many times these marketing communications go wrong and give a message that was originally not intended to convey. One example of such marketing communication failure in the US is the Dove advertisement which became more popular as 'Dove racist ad'. It showed a black woman removing her shirt and turning to a white woman (most probably with the use of Dove product which was seen kept before the woman in both the visuals.
Though the company did not intend to show any racial discrimination in the advertisement and their message was to show the 'diversity of real beauty', but the social commentators did not take the message as so simple and claimed it to be an ad showing racial discrimination where the black woman turns white by using their product. The company withdrew the ad and apologized for the same in public.
The communication failed because racial discrimination is a very delicate issue which cannot be promoted by any means. Anyone who follows racial discrimination at work or in public can be held offensive and here a well-known company did the same in their advertisement. Their advertisement conveyed a wrong message in the public which was unlawful and not acceptable by the general public also. Creating an ad that was offensive and unlawful made it a failure as a marketing communication.