A Thin Line: Pretzel Company Uses Anorexics' Mantra as Ad Slogan
There's no excuse for Pretzel Crisps' outdoor campaign, which uses two mantras used by anorexics as headlines on ads for their chocolate-covered snacks. You're supposed to research your advertising before you publish it, just in case your tagline has an awkward double meaning. (The German coffee company Tchibo found this out the hard way in 2009 when it used the slogan "To each his own," which also happened to be the motto above the gates of Buchenwald.)
Pretzel Crisps is using two headlines, "Tastes as good as skinny feels" and "You can never be too thin" in its ads. A simple Google search would have revealed to the company that those are slogans bandied about a creepy section of the blogosphere inhabited by "pro-ana" anorexic girls who encourage each other to become ever-thinner.
It may be that Pretzel Crisps was trying to make fun of these old maxims -- does anybody really believe that a chocolate covered pretzel could make you thin? -- but your advertising intent is irrelevant. It's consumer perception that counts. Here, associating your brand with a mental/physical disorder that kills a few girls every year was not the smartest move.
Dumber still, Pretzel Crisps apologized for its first pro-ana slogan ... only to put up a different one in its place.
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Images by K. Knipfing and Jezebel.