“There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” Words to live by for the Burger King advertising folks. The latest entry in a long line of Burger King ads offending consumers takes aim at the Hindu goddess Lakshmi. She is featured sitting atop a ham sandwich in an in-store advertisement captioned, “a snack that is sacred.” Burger King quickly removed the ad after many complaints that it was offensive toward Hindus, many of whom are vegetarians.

But, Burger King is not new to the controversial advertising tactic. Anyone remember the “I like square butts” commercial? If you don’t, it’s probably because it was pulled from the air shortly after its debut, blamed for being sexually overt and targeted toward children. And, how could we overlook the recent BK Super Seven Incher ad?

All this talk of distasteful Burger King ads got us thinking. What’s the most offensive advertisement of all time? We took a quick office poll.

Here are some of our top picks:

• Carl’s Jr. “Paris Hilton Car Wash” commercial
• GM “Robot Suicide Dream” commercial
• GoDaddy.com “Congressional Wardrobe Malfunction” commercial
• Motrin “Mom” commercial
• Pepsi Max “Suicidal Calorie” ad
• Quizno’s “Toasty Torpedo” commercial
• Snickers “Mechanics Kiss” commercial

And, an oldie, but a goodie:

• Marlboro cigarettes baby ad

What’s your pick for most offensive advertisement of all time?

Comments

crackstaff	July 10, 2009 1:42 PM We'll stick with the Just For Feet ad that ran during the Super Bowl about 10 years ago. White researchers tranquilize Kenyan runner, put new shoes on his feet, he freaks out. So wrong, and bonus points for maximizing offensiveness in front of the biggest audience of the year.
Cone	July 13, 2009 1:41 PM Thanks crackstaff! It does seem many companies wait for the Superbowl to "maximize offensiveness."

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