POM is know for promoting a healthy lifestyle and the health benefits of it’s products. An active social media presence as well as recipes, POM fit Challenge, and sponsorship of Garmin-Transitions’ pro cycling have all been positive strategies for bolstering the brand.
However an ad from the latest campaign has consumers seeing red and asking themselves “really?!?!” The copy alone is enough to cause some skepticism and question the brand’s judgment on making such a bold claim. Even more unfortunate was the choice of imagery.
POM's controversial "Cheat Death" ad featuring a bottle with a noose
With legal departments, ad testing, and just plain good judgment it’s surprising that an ad with the potential to be so offensive and even insensitive to some would even make it to print. In Chicago, the CTA asked POM to remove the ads due to customer complaints and POM declined. However, after enough outcry from consumers POM finally decided to pull the ad nationwide and posted the following message on it’s Facebook page:
Based on the strong response to our “Cheat Death” ad, we have decided to remove it from our ad rotation and replace it with other POM ads. The process to replace all the ads in circulation will take seven to 14 days. We offer our sincere apologies to those offended by the ad’s imagery, as this was never our intent (4/8/10)
Marina is a Digital Strategist at Arc Worldwide. She has an M.S. in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern's Medill School and a B.S. in Marketing from Indiana University's Kelley School of Business. She is passionate about branding, social media, and digital marketing and loves to stay on top of trends and experiment with new tools. Connect with her on Twitter @marina81 or at
www.marinamolenda.com. 