11Reebok
Reebok’s first major ad campaign featured two obscure decathletes. They were featured in several Super Bowl ads in 1991. The ads pitted them to see who was the world’s greatest athlete and who would win the Olympic title. After being made superstars, one failed to qualify and the other got bronze.
1210,000 steps
The idea that walking 10,000 steps a day is best for your health has no basis in science but instead started as a marketing campaign for a Japanese pedometer (Manpo-kei, "10,000 step meter"), released after the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. The 10,000 number was selected because it sounded good.
13Halitosis
About hundred years ago Listerine was marketed and used as a floor cleaner and a cure for gonorrhea. It wasn't until the 1920s, when it was pitched as a solution for “chronic halitosis”—an obscure medical term for bad breath, which wasn't considered an issue until then—that it became a huge success.
14Subaru
In the 1990s, Subaru realized that it was surprisingly popular with lesbians, and decided to develop a campaign subtly, but specifically, targeting that core group, helping to push gay and lesbian advertising from the fringes to the mainstream.
15Energizer Bunny
The Energizer Bunny ad campaign did not lead to increased sales. In fact, Energizer's sales fell. It is speculated consumers associated the bunny with Duracell batteries and purchased them instead.
16Hate us on Yelp
Botto Bistro, an Italian restaurant in San Francisco, started a campaign "Hate us on Yelp" to become the worst-rated restaurant in Yelp. It also offered a 25% discount to customers who gave it a 1-star review on Yelp.
17Don't Mess with Texas
The slogan "Don't Mess with Texas" began as an anti-littering campaign in 1985 targeted at "bubbas in pickup trucks" who littered beer cans out of their vehicles and ordinary Texans who believed that littering was a "God-given right."
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18Nestle Ad
As part of a marketing campaign in 2012, Nestle posted a photo on Instagram of a person in a bear costume playing drums, using Kit Kats as drum sticks. Nestle removed the photo shortly afterward amid controversy that it looked like "Pedobear."
19KFC Christmas
Japanese people traditionally eat at KFC restaurants for Christmas dinner. This tradition is so popular that customers must place their Christmas orders 2 months in advance. This all started with the Japanese marketing campaign in 1974 called “Kurisumasu ni wa kentakkii!” or Kentucky for Christmas! Now over 3.6 million Japanese families eat KFC chicken on Christmas every year.
20I Love Bees
In 2004, American video game developer company Bungie started a viral marketing campaign called I Love Bees which had participants from all over the world answering pay phones found by decoding GPS coordinates and times from the website. Hundreds participated, and not a single phone call was missed.
