Political passions quickly complicate international marketing campaigns

In honor of the 40th National Day in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), PUMA launched a new shoe design featuring the country’s flag colors. However, shortly after the shoes were released last week, Emirati citizens expressed serious anger over this marketing attempt to place a respected symbol on an item that is considered very dirty in Arab culture.

“Puma should have borne in mind the cultural sensitivities of the people of the UAE,” said one Emirati professional to Emirates247.com. “The flag is a very sacred symbol for the UAE. It cannot be trivialised, especially not as footwear.”

Puma recalled all the offending shoes from stores earlier this week and issued an apology. Interestingly enough, this uncomfortable incident was not entirely a case of a large, multinational company ignorantly failing to consider the input of local markets. In fact, a marketing manager for PUMA Middle East noted that the design was the winner of a local design competition through the company’s Creative Factory campaign.

“The shoe was never intended to upset or offend our customers here in the Middle East, but to give the people of the UAE a piece of locally created design as a symbol of recognition of this great occasion,” said PUMA’s statement.

PUMA had great intentions of appealing to UAE patriotism and no intention of being controversial; in fact, the company was not tackling what it thought to be a controversial issue, and it even solicited local input. However, the shoe manufacturer learned the hard way that marketing campaigns tied to political ideas can be very precarious. Politics can stir up very strong passions, and no brand wants to fall on the wrong side of those passions.

In 2002, UK candy maker Cadbury sparked similar fury when it ran an ad in India to promote its Temptations chocolate bar with the slogan: "I'm good. I'm tempting. I'm too good to share. What am I? Cadbury's Temptations or Kashmir?"

Considering that tens of thousands of people have died in disputes between India and Pakistan over the Himalayan territory known as Kashmir, many Indians were understandably outraged by any marketing that seemingly trivialized the conflict. You may recall the sensitivity of this topic from a previous column about when Microsoft’s Windows 95 operating system clashed with India’s government when a small map made Kashmir appear to be separate from India.