The confectionary brand Malaco did not get the response it hoped for with its latest Danish marketing campaign, Metroxpress reports.
Consumers were invited to visit the website Malacomemes.dk to make memes, featuring its products with personalised picture and text combinations, for the chance to win free products. But the creations were so offensive that the site had to be closed down.
Some of the entries included racist jokes, violent threats against refugees, claims that the Jews orchestrated 9/11, and apparent messages of support for the Ku Klux Klan.
Marketing boss: badly shaken
Metroxpress contacted Marie Lykke Jensen, the head of marketing at Malaco, alerting the company to the turn its campaign had taken.
“I am badly shaken, to put it nicely. We did not in our wildest dreams think that anyone could be so sick and could come up with something like this,” she said.
“We are working on closing the site down, getting it cleaned up and putting a new strategy up to ensure that things like this don’t come through again. If you hadn’t called, then we wouldn’t have registered it,” she told Metroxpress.
