15 Insanely Terrible Advertising Campaigns You Won't Believe Are Real
2. Renault's 'N-word' Promotion
It is so difficult to believe that Renault didn't know what they were doing here. This campaign for the automobile manufacturer was tied with a promotion where for 10 days, Renault dealers were apparently not allowed to say "no" to customers. That's a fine idea, but the way they phrase that is, "For ten days, we can't use the 'n' word." Only in very tiny print at the bottom do they clarify that the word they're talking about is "no."
A whole lot of people were understandably offended, and Renault pulled the ad and claimed it was a misunderstanding. Really? When has "no" ever been referred to as "the n-word" in human history? They must have known what the reaction would be, aiming to catch people's attention by saying something wild and then getting them to read the full text. The problem isn't that it's an unintentional gaffe, but that it's simply an offensive and insensitive joke, using our negative association with an extremely hurtful word as a way to sell cars. Was this thing designed by Nathan Fielder or something?