Oops! “The 13 Biggest Brand Fails of 2014”

They say we learn the most from failure. If that is the case, then this list “The 13 Biggest Brand Fails of 2014” (Adweek, December 16, 2014) should give these companies a lot to think about. Maybe our students can learn from these mistakes without having to suffer the consequences. These mistakes are mostly made by big brands. Many of the failures involve social media and raise important questions about monitoring and control of social media channels.

On the other hand, we cannot be so concerned about failure that we forget to take chances. We may want to remind our students that brands seeking breakthroughs are forced to take chances so failures are inevitable. These examples might be useful when you cover promotion, social media, and creativity — or when you simply want to inject some humor or reality to class.