How To Avoid Offensive Branding And Marketing Errors

The issue of giving and taking offence has been a prominent topic in recent years. Some of that has been a matter of ‘culture war’ debate, with epithets like ‘snowflake’ and ‘gammon’ being thrown around to criticise those who take exception to various words, ideas, arguments, lifestyles or concepts of identity.

Much of this has also been tied in with the idea of free speech, but for any company seeking to establish a brand, it is important to take good advice from a branding agency before going anywhere near areas of controversy. It may create legal issues and also alienate potential customers.

When looking at your branding and marketing, the first thing to consider is where the limits of free expression lie. The Advertising Standards Association (ASA) has clear guidelines. It states that “Marketing communications must not contain anything that is likely to cause widespread or serious offence”.

In particular, it notes, it should not cause offence areas like “age, disability, gender, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.” Needless to say, these are the ‘protected characteristics’ listed in the 2010 Equalities Act, so crossing a line here could have legal implications too.

This doesn’t, of course, mean you cannot refer to these areas in marketing and branding. After all, you can hardly not mention marriage if you sell items for weddings, or pregnancy if you provide baby clothing. But the key is not to do things that would upset these groups, which should be a prime concern if they are your target market.

Where there is some wiggle room in the ASA guidance is that there is no prohibition on things that might offend just some people, although advertisers are “urged to consider public sensitivities”.

It also notes that the fact a product is “offensive to some people” cannot breach the code, Again, this is reasonable; it means, for example, if you sell religious books an ‘offended’ atheist or follower of a different faith cannot stop you.

Some might imagine that large and well-established firms are experienced enough to avoid offensive mistakes in their marketing, but this is often not the case.

For example, your products may include new contain logos and symbols as part of a product ‘reboot’ that could go down like a lead balloon – and there were two instances of this before the Euro 2024 football tournament this year.

Nike changed the St George’s Cross colours of red on a white background on England shirts to red, blue and purple on a navy background, a “playful update” it said would “unite and inspire”. It did; people were united and inspired to criticise it, even up to the level of senior politicians.

If that was bad, in Germany it was worse; Adidas produced a new numbering font for the national team shirts that meant if anyone ordered one with the number 44, it would look like the SS symbol from the Nazi era. This led to a ban on sales of shirts with that number.

However, large established firms have diverse customer bases: Adidas and Nike produce kits for loads of football teams and other sports gear too, so any boycott by the offended, while bad news, wouldn’t be ruinous. For a new, small firm in Buckinghamshire with a narrower customer base, such an error may have a far more damaging impact.

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