1Casual Friday
“Casual Friday” is the product of a guerrilla marketing campaign by Levis' new khakis brand, Dockers during the early 90s recession.
2. The Pledge of Allegiance was created as part of a youth magazine’s marketing campaign to sell flags to public schools and magazines to students.
3. Following “Dunk-a-roos” being discontinued in the United States in 2012, General Mills in 2016 encouraged Canadians traveling to the United States to bring the snack to Americans who wanted it in a campaign called "Smugglaroos", as the product still remains in production in Canada.
4. “Corinthian leather” has no relationship to Corinth, and doesn't really have any meaning it all. It is a marketing term created by the Bozell (Advertising) Agency for a 1974 Chrysler ad campaign.
5. To get women to smoke cigarettes in the 1920s, tobacco companies devised a campaign of equating cigarettes as "torches of freedom." The campaign helped women smoking jump from 5% in 1923 to 18.1% in 1935.
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6I 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.
7. 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.
8. 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."
9. 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."
10. 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.
11Energizer 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.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. 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.
16Live Better Electrically
The “Live Better Electrically” Gold Medallion program was one of the most effective marketing campaigns of all time. As the cost of electricity decreased in the 1950s, General Electric and Westinghouse sponsored a marketing campaign to promote electric appliances. Medallions were awarded to electrified homes.
17. MTV would have folded in 1983 if Mick Jagger hadn't agreed to say, "I Want My MTV" in front of a camera and allowed it to be used in MTV's iconic "I Want My MTV" ad campaign. That ad campaign saved the network from ruin.
18. Breakfast wasn’t regarded as the most important meal of the day until an aggressive marketing campaign by General Mills in 1944. They would hand out leaflets to grocery store shoppers urging them to eat breakfast, while similar ads would play on the radio.
19. In 2009, Burger King launched a campaign that if you unfriended 10 friends on Facebook you were entitled to a free whopper. The ex-friend would receive a message explaining that their friendship was less valuable than a whopper.
20. In 2006, M&Ms created an ad campaign offering 2 million dark chocolate M&Ms for the one who returns "The Scream" (a famous painting that was stolen just two years prior in Norway). Just days after the campaign, the painting was found by the Norwegian Police.
21Engagement Ring
The diamond engagement ring fever was invented by an ad campaign in the 1930s. Before that few Americans proposed with the precious stone, and the price of diamond was falling.
22. In 2012, Dunkin’ Donuts launched an ad campaign in Seoul, Korea where scent spray devices installed on buses would release a fragrant coffee aroma when triggered by the sound of the DD radio jingle. The campaign reached more than 350,000 people, and sales near the bus stop increased by 29%.
23. In the 1980s, Dominos Pizza had a campaign centered around "The Noid". It was discontinued in 1989 after a mentally ill man named Kenneth Noid took Dominos Pizza workers hostage after he thought the ads were a personal attack on him.
24. We pair orange juice with breakfast due to a marketing campaign by Albert Lasker (known for Lucky Strike) to save the struggling citrus industry. He convinced American housewives not only to buy oranges, but to make juice with them by hand, and to buy the juicers needed to make it.
25. Fiji Water once ran an ad campaign stating "The label says Fiji because it's not bottled in Cleveland". The city of Cleaveland responded by testing both Fiji water and their own tap water. They found 6.3 micrograms of arsenic in Fiji water, and none on their own.
