2025 has been an absolute cracker for marketing disasters. The kind that make you simultaneously wince and lean in closer, like watching someone walk confidently towards a glass door they haven’t spotted yet.
Here’s the thing: these aren’t just entertaining cautionary tales to share over a pint. They’re masterclasses in what happens when brands forget that behind every click, view and purchase sits an actual human being with a functioning brain and an opinion they’re dying to share on social media.
Let’s dig into the wreckage, shall we?
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The American Eagle “Good Genes” Debacle: When a Pun Becomes a PR Nightmare
Sydney Sweeney. Great jeans. Sounds innocent enough, right? Wrong.
American Eagle’s campaign featuring the tagline “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” was meant to be cheeky wordplay. Instead, it sparked 97,000 public comments and became a full-blown culture war. Critics argued the genes/jeans pun had uncomfortably eugenic undertones, whilst others saw it as body-coded and exclusionary. The backlash was so fierce that even President Trump weighed in.
The plot twist? Despite 60% negative sentiment, American Eagle’s stock rose 10%, jeans sold out online, and they generated millions in free earned media. They’d stumbled into that rare marketing unicorn: profitable controversy.
The lesson: Context is everything, and in 2025, your clever wordplay will be dissected by a thousand different perspectives before breakfast. Pre-testing with diverse groups isn’t just nice-to-have anymore—it’s essential. And sometimes, negative attention can still shift product, though banking on that is playing Russian roulette with your brand reputation.
Sunday Riley’s Ghost of Marketing Past: When Fake Reviews Haunt You Forever
Whilst Sunday Riley’s fake review scandal actually broke back in 2019 (when employees were instructed to create fake Sephora accounts, use VPNs to mask their location, and enthusiastically praise products like Good Genes), the brand is still living with the consequences in 2025.
The FTC complaint revealed laughably specific instructions: “Always leave 5 stars,” “Review a few other products as well—no skincare. Only review makeup,” and the kicker: “if you see a negative review—DISLIKE it. After enough dislikes, it is removed. This directly translates to sales!!”
The lingering damage: Six years later, the beauty community still references this scandal. TikTok videos with millions of views dissect Sunday Riley products through the lens of that betrayal. It’s become shorthand for inauthentic marketing practices.
The lesson: On the internet, nothing ever really goes away. That “quick win” you’re considering? It might cost you trust that takes a decade to rebuild. People forgive mistakes, but calculated deception? That stain doesn’t wash out. Also, when you’re caught, don’t just settle—genuinely apologise and change. Half-measures keep the wound fresh.
Liquid Death: The Marketing Darling with a Product Problem
Liquid Death has become the poster child for edgy marketing done right. Death metal aesthetics. Viral stunts. A $1.4 billion valuation. Marketers can’t shut up about them on LinkedIn.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: the brand made $263 million in revenue whilst Coca-Cola does that every 72 hours. Their UK exit in February 2025 revealed something crucial—when the marketing smoke clears, you still need substance.
In the UK, the brand had no meaning. It was just an expensive can of water with some heavy metal writing on it. All that viral content, all those shares, all that hype couldn’t overcome a fundamental disconnect: British consumers looked at the price tag, looked at their perfectly good tap water, and said “nah, you’re alright.”
The lesson: Brilliant marketing can get people through the door once. But if the product, price, or positioning doesn’t make sense for your market, they won’t come back. Marketing isn’t a substitute for a compelling value proposition—it’s the megaphone that amplifies it. Also, what works in one culture doesn’t automatically translate. Context matters as much as content.
AI-Generated Disasters: When Robots Make Rubbish Ads
2025 has been the year brands discovered that just because you can use AI doesn’t mean you should.
Coca-Cola’s AI-recreated Christmas campaign fell flat, criticised for its uncanny, artificial sheen that contradicted the nostalgic warmth the brand is known for. Toys “R” Us used AI to generate images of founder Charles Lazarus that felt eerie rather than heartfelt. And then there were the AI influencers like “Synthia” that sparked backlash over authenticity concerns and ethical AI training methods.
The lesson: AI is a tool, not a strategy. It’s brilliant for certain tasks but terrible at understanding human emotion and cultural nuance. If your brand’s strength is nostalgia, warmth, or authenticity, handing creative control to an algorithm is like asking a calculator to write poetry. It might produce something technically correct, but it’ll have all the soul of a terms and conditions page.
Meta’s Moderation Rollback: When “Free Speech” Becomes a Reputation Crisis
In January 2025, Meta rolled back content moderation policies, weakening protections against hate speech. GLAAD reported that 75-78% of marginalised users saw significant increases in harmful content. A whistleblower filed an SEC complaint. The backlash was immediate and severe.
The lesson: Your values aren’t just marketing fluff—they’re promises your audience holds you to. When you backtrack on protections or principles, especially ones that affect vulnerable communities, you’re not just changing policy. You’re telling people who they can trust you to be. And in 2025, people have long memories and loud voices.
The Unilever Sustainability Stumble: Greenwashing Gets Called Out
Unilever’s 2025 sustainability campaign touted eco-friendly practices but lacked transparency about what “sustainable” actually meant. Critics pointed out vague promises without measurable results or concrete evidence.
The lesson: Modern consumers are savvy. They’ve got Google, they’ve got time, and they’ve got a finely tuned BS detector. If you’re going to make claims about sustainability, ethics, or social responsibility, you’d better have the receipts. Vague corporate-speak won’t cut it anymore. Show your working, admit what you’re still working on, and whatever you do, don’t treat your audience like they’re thick.
What 2025’s Marketing Disasters Are Really Telling Us
Looking at this year’s cavalcade of cock-ups, some clear patterns emerge:
1. The internet is not your mate. Every campaign now faces immediate, global scrutiny from millions of perspectives you didn’t consider. What seems clever in the boardroom might read very differently to someone with lived experience you lack.
2. Authenticity isn’t optional anymore. Fake reviews, hollow sustainability claims, and AI-generated emotion all get spotted and called out faster than you can say “engagement metrics.”
3. Cultural context is king. What works in one market or moment might bomb catastrophically in another. Your American irreverence might just be expensive water in Britain. Your wordplay might accidentally reference eugenics.
4. Values are promises, not marketing copy. When you say you stand for something, people expect you to actually stand for it—even when it’s commercially inconvenient.
5. Product still matters. All the viral stunts in the world can’t save a product that’s overpriced, underdelivering, or solving a problem nobody has.
So, What Should You Actually Do?
Here’s the thing: not every brand needs to play it safe. Some of the most successful campaigns of 2025 took risks and won big. But there’s a difference between bold and reckless.
Before you launch anything, ask yourself:
- Have we tested this with people who aren’t like us?
- Could this be interpreted in ways we haven’t considered?
- If this goes sideways, can we stand behind it?
- Are we being genuinely helpful, entertaining, or valuable—or just noisy?
- Does this align with who we actually are, or just who we want people to think we are?
And here’s the crucial bit: when you do mess up (and you will, because we’re all human), apologise sincerely, learn publicly, and do better. The internet forgives authentic mistakes. It never forgets calculated deception.
The Bottom Line
Marketing in 2025 is like juggling chainsaws whilst riding a unicycle on a tightrope. Over a pit of social media users armed with smartphones and opinions. In a windstorm.
But here’s the good news: if you treat your audience like intelligent humans, if you’re honest about what you’re offering and why it matters, and if you’re willing to listen when they tell you you’ve got it wrong—you’ll be fine.
The brands that crashed this year didn’t fail because they tried something bold. They failed because they forgot that marketing isn’t about tricks and clever wordplay and viral moments. It’s about building trust with real people who have real lives and real problems you’re hoping to solve.
Get that right, and the rest is just noise.
Need help navigating the chaos of modern marketing without ending up on a “what not to do” list? That’s literally what we do. Get in touch and let’s make sure your campaigns are remembered for the right reasons.
