QR Code as Moving Target

QR codes have it tough. There’s a whole bunch of talk about whether consumers are willing to interact with the technology, and the fact that a lot of marketers are still slapping QR in the most random places isn’t helping either.

Here’s one we took a shot of. It’s on the back of a New York City bus. It’s so small, you can’t even see it and there isn’t a call to action asking people to scan it. It’s a real fail. Visit Digiday’s WTF Digital Marketing Tumblr for more examples of bad QR codes.

More in Marketing

‘Worried about getting caught out’: Sir Martin Sorrell on why CMOs are not ready to pay for outcome-based agencies

A steady economy is emerging as the quiet counterweight to AI’s much-hyped reinvention of the agency holdco model.

‘More focused on advertising than ever before’: Nearly all of X’s top 100 advertisers returned, ads boss claims

Claim comes as X is embroiled in latest scandal that involves it’s AI chatbot Grok creating sexualized images of women and minors.

CES 2026: Agentic AI hype vs. media buyers’ pragmatism

CES 2026 was all about agentic AI, but Digiday’s Seb Joseph shares why media buyers are approaching the hype around autonomous media buying with pragmatism over urgency.