Candle Controversy: What Went Wrong?
A version of this post was originally published in my weekly email for marketers.
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Nothing says holiday cheer like accidentally releasing a candle that sparks a racial controversy, right?
Bath & Body Works’ latest festive fail, the “Snowed In” candle, has been dubbed the "Ku Klux Klandle" by the internet.
Perfect for those warm, fuzzy holiday vibes… definitely not.
Whenever I see a major product fail like this, especially from a big, well-established brand with an actual marketing budget, I can't help but wonder—what happened behind the scenes? Did no one at any point say…
“Hey, this snowflake design looks a bit... questionable?”
It’s almost as if the team had a meeting, lit a few candles, and skipped the most critical part of the process: testing. Maybe they were too "snowed in" themselves to notice.
Today's Marketing Lesson:
Design matters. Testing matters more.
With over 1,850 stores across North America, Bath & Body Works is pulling this candle from every shelf. Throw in refunds, and my back-of-napkin estimate puts the damage at nearly $1 million down the drain. And that’s before factoring in the long-term loss of trust—as we have no way of telling what percentage of offended customers won't return because of this “oversight."
All of this… because they failed to do a simple round of concept testing on their product design. Ouch.
And it's not just them—last week alone, Heinz had two racially insensitive ad fails back-to-back, despite apologizing the first time for this London billboard ad and promising to "listen, learn, and improve." (seriously, that's what Heinz said).
Just three days later—another blunder, this time for this “Smiles” ad. It makes you wonder... why didn’t they actually “listen” or “learn”?
This time, Heinz says: “We always appreciate members of the public’s perspective on our campaigns…"
Well… that's kind of the definition of a focus group. A representative silver of the public's perception.
If you know anyone at Heinz, let me know. I think we could help.
Before Heinz, we saw another very public fail by Apple, whose ad that hit the wrong note as they seemed to celebrate how technology is crushing the nostalgic tech we grew up loving. Why are these big brands not testing their products, packaging or ads?
Until next time, remember: Test first, avoid public apology later!
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