Key facts
- Target apologized and pulled a Halloween costume criticized for resembling racist caricatures.
- Starbucks Korea saw a significant sales decline after a marketing campaign was perceived to reference a brutal military crackdown.
- Anheuser-Busch's Bud Light promotion with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney led to a conservative backlash.
- Gucci and H&M withdrew products and apologized for designs criticized as racist or evoking blackface imagery.
- Pepsi and Dove issued apologies for advertisements that trivialized protests or depicted racial insensitivity.
Global brands have recently faced significant backlash and financial repercussions due to controversial products and advertising campaigns. These incidents, often involving cultural missteps or insensitivity, have drawn widespread criticism on social media and impacted sales and brand reputation.
Target experienced criticism for a Halloween costume that some consumers deemed a racist caricature, leading to its removal and an apology. The retailer also faced customer backlash in 2023 over its Pride Collection, prompting the removal of some LGBTQ-themed merchandise to protect employee safety. The controversies have affected the company's stock.
Starbucks' South Korean unit suffered a "very significant" decline in sales following a marketing campaign in early 2026 that appeared to reference the brutal military crackdown on the Gwangju Uprising of 1980. The company dismissed the head of Starbucks Korea in response.
American Eagle's 2025 'Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans' ad campaign drew backlash on social media for perceived racial undertones, though the company later called it a success. Anheuser-Busch InBev's Bud Light promotion with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in 2023 led to a conservative backlash, causing the brand to lose its long-held position as America's best-selling beer to Constellation Brands' Modelo Especial.
Balenciaga faced apologies from its creative director and CEO in 2022 for two separate advertising campaigns. Gucci withdrew a black balaclava sweater criticized for evoking blackface imagery, and H&M apologized and removed a sweatshirt with the slogan 'Coolest Monkey in the Jungle' after it was criticized as racist.
Pepsi scrapped a 2017 commercial featuring Kendall Jenner within 24 hours after it sparked outrage for trivializing U.S. rights protests and civil unrest. Dove faced a public relations crisis in 2017 for a body wash advertisement showing a black woman removing her top to reveal a white woman, and previously in 2011 for an ad that implied black women had 'before' skin issues while white women had 'after' smooth skin. Zara removed a children's top decorated with a six-pointed star in 2014, which resembled uniforms worn by Jewish concentration camp inmates. Pepsi's 2013 Mountain Dew advertisement, developed by hip-hop artist Tyler the Creator, was criticized for reinforcing racial stereotypes and trivializing violence against women.