Some Ads and commercial are so good that the videos go viral, example: most of the Superbowl ads , but other Video Ads are failed attempts to create buzz and never really become viral videos, so here we’ll try to compile a list of some of the video ads by big corporations that simply failed to go viral.

By failed, i do not mean it in the sense that there was a blooper or accident, like what you would watch on a live commercial / QVC style:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmPJceyvjs8

Nor do i mean the infomercial was bad or for a weird product:

No, i mean there is a concept failure for a legitimate brand. The video concept were wrong or not well thought through, which led to failed viral video ads. Meaning the ads might have reached a lot of people but they had no effect or even worse they were of very bad taste.

Failed Viral Video Ads

Facebook commercial from 2012, the social network’s first, which declared that “chairs are like Facebook.”
Watch the ad below and decide whether it makes any sense to you, and now imagine if it will to the global public!!

Burger King’s “Wake up with a King” aired in 2004, the ad created a lot of word of mouth due to it’s creepy “King”, furthermore questions were raised, who eats a hamburger for breakfast! This ad was followed by a series of ads portraying the King, but the campaign did not improve sales and was eventually ended in 2011.

Skittles “Touch the rainbow” aired in 2008 or before. The Ad is sad, dark and depressing when you think about it,
the guy basically kills anyone he touches, his family, kids, etc … and he’s probably on a Skittles only diet! So yeah what were they thinking!

Microsoft’s attempt to get people to have launch parties for Windows 7. First we have no idea what do we have here, a family with the brother and the mother? work colleagues? neighbors? nobody knows …
What exactly are they expecting ? The message is unclear, too long and confusing, furthermore there’s no way you get people to become your brand ambassadors with a simple video.
Furthermore a black male / white female interracial couple does not make a good fit for commercials, as it create strong negative feelings from both the white males and black females (see link).

PopChips had a weird idea, yep i’m warning you it’s pretty weird, makes no sense and most definitely has nothing to do with “chips”!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLdobzj_9_I

And in this one we see Groupon trying to take advantage of a political issue/struggle and failing miserably at doing so. The Ad was aired during the 2011 Superbowl.

This list is open for further addition as we stumble on more bad or failed viral Ads or commercials.