39 Weirdest Ad & Branding Campaigns You’ll Find Funny

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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."