Cracked lists nine attempts at “edgy” marketing that went horribly wrong:

“OK, so the product is Pepsi Max. Think, people. It’s a diet cola, it’s only got one calorie. One. One lonely calorie. Wait! That’s it! The calorie is single, and alone, and so it’s depressed! Because it’s lonely! So lonely, that it’s suicidal! So we do an ad campaign with the Pepsi logo right next to a guy blowing his [effing] brains out! Brilliant!”

Callously omitted: the inexplicably long-running campaign for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines featuring Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life,” and a young Jeremy Davies comparing the 1993 Subaru Imprezza wagon – the base model, apparently, not the WRX – to punk rock:

Amazingly, Davies was allowed to have a career after that.
Damian P.