Backlash Of Brands – Dodge, Doritos

It is time for another edition of Backlash Of Brands, this is where we take a look at which brands are currently faced with a crisis management issue, or having a “opps” moment that is making headlines.

Women Won’t Bite Doritos

Part of the role of most CEO’s especially of public companies, and Indra Nooyi is no stranger to taking the stage. Unfortunately the Internet went on fire over comments that Indra, CEO of PepsiCo made on a recent edition of the Freakonomics podcast.

She was asked if Pepsico which owns the Doritos brand would ever release a version specifically for women. Now here is the rub, Indra never explicitly said “yes,” but rather suggested the brand is looking at releasing Doritos for women. She also said,  women “don’t like to crunch too loudly in public. And they don’t lick their fingers generously and they don’t like to pour the little broken pieces and the flavor into their mouth.” “don’t like to crunch too loudly in public. And they don’t lick their fingers generously and they don’t like to pour the little broken pieces and the flavor into their mouth.” Consumers quickly turned to Twitter and other social media sites to blast the idea, and #LadyDoritos became the result.

Did Dodge diss Dr. Martin Luther King Jr?

As the 2018 Super Bowl has come and gone, brands across the globe are assessing their involvement with advertising campaigns and determining their ROI from the money invested to reach consumers. Consumers on the other hand are divide over the Dodge campaign which featured scenes of people helping others while Dr. Martin King Jr. conveyed the virtues of service. At the end of the commercial it said, “Built to Serve” was shown on the screen, along with the Ram logo. Then the words, “MLK wanted equal rights and for me to buy a Dodge Ram,” one Twitter user wrote. Another wrote: “Black people cant kneel and play football but MLK should be used to sell trucks during the super bowl. Unbelievable.” Dodge was blindsided by the 60-second ad that the company had spent millions of dollars on.