TLDR:In today’s hyper-connected world, one wrong word can tank a brand. This post explores the high cost of careless language and how smart communicators protect their brand by choosing words that reflect values and avoid backlash.
Words are never just words. They’re signals. One word can spark outrage, tank sales, and destroy trust in an instant. In today’s hyper-connected world, careless messaging isn’t just sloppy, it’s expensive. And I mean millions of dollars expensive.
What happens when a brand gets it wrong? How can you avoid turning your own campaigns into case studies in failure?
Why Every Word You Use Signals What You Stand For
Every word your brand puts into the world, whether it’s a campaign, product, or tweet, communicates what you stand for. The right words inspire connection, loyalty, and trust. The wrong words? They expose blind spots, hypocrisy, or cultural ignorance. And in the era of instant cancelation, the backlash is swift, global, and brutal.
Today, words are your brand’s frontline. They can’t be an afterthought.
Costly Mistakes: When Brand Messaging Goes Wrong
The evidence is everywhere. Here are just a few costly examples of brands failing the word-choice test:
- Abercrombie & Fitch’s “Great Jeans” campaign – Leaning into the wordplay between “jeans” and “genes,” Abercrombie & Fitch’s ad drew outrage around the links to genetics and White supremacy.
- Nike’s “Never Again” campaign – Intended to inspire perseverance during the London Marathon, Nike’s campaign collided with the global association of “Never Again” with the Holocaust. The outrage was immediate – and very justified.
- H&M’s “Coolest monkey in the Jungle” hoodie – A Black child modeling a hoodie with those words threw H&M into the fire. Whether or not it was ignorance or oversight, it doesn’t matter. The racial implications were obvious, the backlash was global, and celebrity associations with the brand were severed overnight.
- Dolce & Gabbana’s chopsticks ad – Short videos of a model fumbling to eat Italian food with chopsticks drew instant criticism in China and the fallout was swift. Chinese celebrities boycotted the brand around the world, retailers dropped them, and they lost one of the largest markets in the world.
How Communication Blind Spots Lead to Cultural Missteps
No matter what the critics say, most mistakes aren’t the result of malicious intent. More often, it’s:
- Homogenous decision-making rooms If everyone at the table looks and thinks the same, blind spots will multiply.
- A lack of cultural awareness Not knowing (or ignoring) how phrases resonate in the market(s) you’re bringing them to is culturally unaware and irresponsible.
- Forgetting context Words never exist in isolation. They carry history, weight, and meaning, and often meanings that we may not know without careful consideration.
Smart Checks to Prevent Word-Choice Disasters
Here’s the good news: most of the above crises are avoidable. But only if you slow down and careful examine the context in which things are being decided.
Before you kick off a campaign, ask yourself these questions:
- Does this closely align with our values? If your wall says “inclusion” but your campaign says “Coolest Monkey,” you’ve already failed.
- Could this be misunderstood outside this room? If no one in the room questions an ad’s meaning, it will likely be misinterpreted in the field. ASK the question.
- Whose voices are missing? If your decision-making group looks and/or thinks the same, expand it. Diverse perspectives spot risks that you won’t.
And finally: gut check it. Just like you’d proof artwork before printing 10,000 T-shirts, proof your words for cultural weight and resonance. A five-minute pause can save five million in crisis costs.
From Safe to Smart: Choosing Bold, Responsible Language
Let’s be clear: playing it safe isn’t the answer. In communications, safe often means bland, boring, and forgettable. But smart? Smart means thoughtful, edge without being reckless, and knowing when your clever phrase carries baggage you can’t afford to check.
Brands that win today are bold! But they’re also culturally literate and self-aware.
Words Signal Your Brand’s Integrity—Choose Carefully
Words aren’t just words. They’re signals. They tell the word what you stand for – whether you mean them to or not.
The right words connect, and the wrong tones cost. In a world where backlash can go global in seconds, leaders don’t get to shrug it off. Choose wisely – or pay the price.
Listen to my podcast on the subject here!