Fashion faux-pas: from Dolce & Gabbana to Lululemon, 10 of fashion's most cringe-worthy marketing fails

File under: "What were they thinking?"

In their effort to get a better foothold in the multi-billion-dollar Chinese fashion market, the legendary Italian fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana arranged a star-studded Shanghai fashion show, and to promote it, they released an ad. Only problem was, the ad was extremely offensive to the very people they were targeting.

In it, a young Asian woman is seen giggling as she tries to eat pizza and pasta with chopsticks — an image that is rife with Asian stereotypes, and makes her look inept.

To make matters worse, the outspoken designers made racist comments on their Instagram profile, later claiming the account had been hacked. 

In a strange video, the pair apologized, but the damage was already done, big time. The reaction was immediate and overwhelming, with Chinese celebrities pulling out of the fashion show, and customers posting videos of themselves destroying their Dolce & Gabbana goods, vowing never to buy the brand again. Soon after, the pricey fashion show was cancelled.

Some economists estimate that the ad might have cost the brand hundreds of millions in net worth.

Of course, it's not the first time a fashion brand has committed a major faux-pas; in fact, it's not even the first time that Dolce & Gabbana have found themselves in serious hot water.

So what have been some of the other most egregious errors that brands have made? Check out their wince-worthy stories below.

Topman Tailors

"Don't insult your customers" seems like it would be a key point in any brand's marketing strategy, but British menswear giant Topman didn't seem to get that memo. In 2001, brand director David Shepherd was forced to apologize after calling the company's customers "football hooligans" and "beer-swilling lads" who only wore suits when they had to appear in court. "Very few of our customers have to wear suits to work," he told the trade publication Menswear. "They'll be for his first interview or first court appearance."

When the backlash came, and it was swift, Shepherd argued that his comments were taken out of context, but still he apologized.

"Topman is a brand that has a very strong laddish element and David is the embodiment of that. He still loves to go pubbing and clubbing and uses that to monitor who the customer is," said a spokesman for the parent company. "In this case, he was exaggerating to make a point. Topman is about young men today and the sort of lives young men lead."

Lululemon

Did we mention that when you run a fashion company, you probably don't want to insult your customers? Canadian yogawear giant Lululemon also learned the lesson in a hurry when female customers complained that the quality of the product had gone downhill, that the company wasn't offering enough sizes, and that the fabric used on some of the tight-fitting yoga pants was too thin.

"Quite frankly, some women's bodies just actually don't work for it," said high-profile company founder Chip Wilson. "It's really about the rubbing through the thighs, how much pressure is there." Soon after, the company found itself getting a swift kick in the pants, social media style, and before long magazines and newspapers were running articles with headlines like "You can keep your overpriced, overhyped Lululemon yoga pants" and "A letter to Lululemon, on behalf of women whose thighs touch."

Then a Lululemon store in Bethesda, Md. rubbed salt in the wound with a store display that read, "Love: Cups of Chai / Apple Pies / Rubbing Thighs?" The display was quickly taken down and Lululemon offered a Twitter apology that read, "We're deeply sorry, the display is being taken down. We celebrate that thighs rub together – ours do too."

That same year, Wilson stepped down from the company's board of directors.

Pepsi

Of course Pepsi isn't a fashion brand, but Kendall Jenner is a top-earning fashion model, and in 2017, the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star ended up at the centre of a cola-soaked firestorm. Context is everything: at the time, there were high-profile Black Lives Matters protests happening across North America decrying police brutality; there were also marches by other social justice and women's groups in protest against Trump-era policies.

In a Pepsi ad that is no doubt used as a cautionary tale at business schools and ad agencies around the globe, Jenner is seen in a modelling photo shoot, which she then leaves, and randomly joins a bypassing protest. Jenner calmly walks up to a line of police officers blocking the protesters, and hands one of them a Pepsi.

The backlash was swift and near-universal, with viewers complaining that the ad trivialized serious causes, and tried to co-opt their messages for profit.

"Clearly, we missed the mark, and we apologise. We did not intend to make light of any serious issue," said the company in a statement after hurriedly removing the ad. "We are pulling the content and halting any further rollout. We also apologise for putting Kendall Jenner in this position."

There were thousands of mocking responses online, but the top prize goes to Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., who tweeted a photo of her father being confronted by police at a protest. "If only Daddy would have known about the power of #Pepsi," she wrote.

In 2013, Pepsi was forced to pull a different ad for Mountain Dew, which critics said promoted racist stereotypes and trivialized violence against women.

Cosmopolitan Magazine

For decades, Cosmo has been known for its eye-grabbing headlines — but one headline and tweet garnered exactly the wrong kind of attention. It read, "How This Woman Lost 44 Pounds Without Any Exercise," which seems like standard Cosmo fare. The thing was, the woman at the centre of the article lost all that weight because she was suffering from a rare form of cancer.

After readers expressed their outrage, Cosmo changed its headline to "A Serious Health Scare Helped Me Love My Body More than Ever" and removed a line at the end that read, "Simone's weight loss success is proof that anyone can lose weight without breaking a sweat simply by eating more mindfully — no gym required."

The company never issued an apology.

Adidas

Adidas is one of the leading makers of sports gear, and millions of athletes don their clothing and shoes to max out their workouts. But while Adidas might be tuned in when it comes to attire, they were clearly tone-deaf when it came to messaging after the 2017 Boston Marathon.

In 2013, three people were killed and dozens more injured after a bomb was planted at the finish line, and that memory still haunts the race and the people who participate. So, needless to say, there was more than a little anger when Adidas emailed participants to congratulate them post-race and the subject line read, "Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon!"

The same day the company quickly issued an apology stating, "We are incredibly sorry. There was no thought given to the insensitive email subject line we sent Tuesday. We deeply apologize for our mistake." 

Levis

Fashion and beauty brands like Dove have found incredible success by targeting customers with more typical body types — the average clothing size for American women is between 14 and 16 — rather than creating ad campaigns using only rake-thin models.

Denim giant Levis tried to jump on the bandwagon but missed the mark with its "All Shapes and Sizes" campaign. The sentiment is all well and good, but the models all seemed to be one size: small. 

Dolce & Gabbana

Dolce & Gabbana is at the centre of the current fashion firestorm, but it's certainly not their first. In 2015, moguls Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, who are gay, said they weren't in favour of same-sex couples having kids.

"We oppose gay adoptions. The only family is the traditional one," they said, adding that they all opposed in vitro fertilisation and surrogacy. "No chemical offspring and rented uterus: life has a natural flow, there are things that should not be changed."

#BoycottDolceGabbana trended on Twitter, and celebrities including Elton John (himself a father in a same-sex relationship), Madonna, Victoria Beckham, Ricky Martin, Martina Navratilova and Courtney Love all expressed outrage.

"How dare you refer to my beautiful children as 'synthetic,'" said John. "And shame on you for wagging your judgmental little fingers at IVF – a miracle that has allowed legions of loving people, both straight and gay, to fulfil their dream of having children."

Bloomingdale's

Owned by Macy's, Bloomingdale's is a luxury department store that is worth more than a billion dollars. You would think that kind of money would buy you some savvy marketing, but that's not exactly what they got in a holiday ad that many saw as encouraging date rape.

In the ad, a man looks toward a woman who is laughing and turning her head away, and the caption reads, "Spike Your Best Friend's Egg Nog When They're Not Looking." 

"Rape culture at its finest. Well done, #Bloomingdales. You are garbage," tweeted one woman. "#Bloomingdales comin thru with the rapey ads for christmas, nice," tweeted another.

The retailer later apologized. "We heard your feedback about our catalog copy, which was inappropriate and in poor taste," wrote the company in a tweet. "Bloomingdale's sincerely apologizes."

Urban Outfitters

Apparel company Urban Outfitters has found itself apologizing on many occasions, for things like its "Suicidal Shampoo for Peach Hair" and its holocaust-evoking yellow star t-shirt and grey and white striped blanket.

But one of the most graphic gaffes was their "Vintage Kent State Sweatshirt" which was pink with what looked like spatters of blood. Immediately the Twittersphere reacted, claiming the shirt was an affront to the students who were shot by authorities at the university in 1970.

The company released a lengthy apology, claiming the reference was not at all intentional. "Urban Outfitters sincerely apologizes for any offense our Vintage Kent State Sweatshirt may have caused. It was never our intention to allude to the tragic events that took place at Kent State in 1970 and we are extremely saddened that this item was perceived as such," wrote the company on Twitter.

"The one-of-a-kind item was purchased as part of our sun-faded vintage collection. There is no blood on this shirt nor has this item been altered in any way. The red stains are discoloration from the original shade of the shirt and the holes are from natural wear and fray," continued the statement. "Again, we deeply regret that this item was perceived negatively and we have removed it immediately from our website to avoid further upset."

The Gap

As far as gaffes so, this one is relatively tame — but still went viral online.

The Gap decided to update their classic blue and white logo, and paid more than a million dollars to have a new one designed. The result was a basic sans serif font with a blue gradient box behind it, something that got the design world giggling, because, as someone put it, it looked like something a child could have made using clip art.

Soon the Gap logo had its own parody twitter account, where the account holder tweeted messages such as "marketing team is huddled in a corner eating Ben & Jerry's and drinking scotch" and the "creative director just quit."

"Thanks for everyone's input on the new logo! We've had the same logo for 20+ years, and this is just one of the things we're changing," replied the company cheerfully. "We know this logo created a lot of buzz and we're thrilled to see passionate debates unfolding! So much so we're asking you to share your designs. We love our version, but we'd like to ... see other ideas. Stay tuned for details in the next few days on this crowd sourcing project."

The chirpy statement, which seemed to be asking for help with the logo, garnered even more derision; eventually the company reverted back to the original logo.

So what are the fashion brand faux-pas that stand out in your memory? Share them in the comments below.