AI Marketing Strategies | NYC

Register by Jan 13 to save on passes and connect with marketers from Uber, Bose and more

SECURE SEAT

Tone-deaf campaigns and stolen art: The year in fashion brand fails

Try as they may, fashion brands are not impervious to tone-deaf campaigns and marketing gaffes.

Even the most storied luxury fashion houses find themselves in the occasional PR nightmare and are left to precariously pick up the pieces. Occasionally, they are successful in digging themselves out of their self-created hole relatively unscathed, but seeing as it’s the age of social media, outcry from the general public can be constant and unrelenting. Here are some of the biggest brand fails of 2016:

Zara steals art, again
Fast-fashion retailers ripping off high-end designs and selling them at a fraction of the cost isn’t anything new. In May, Zara began selling a line of clothing called the “Streetwise Collection” that appeared to be modeled almost directly off of Kanye West’s Yeezy Season 2 line. Forever 21 was embroiled in similar controversy, thanks to a selection of garments that looked a bit too similar to Yeezy’s. To read the rest of this article, please visit Glossy.

More in Marketing

What does media spend look like for 2026? It could be worse — and it might be

Forecasts for 2026 media spend range from 6.6% on the lower end to over 10% but the primary beneficiaries will be commerce, social and search.

Pitch deck: How Amazon is emerging as the proof layer for TV spend

Amazon is positioning itself to advertisers as the “first-stop shop” for planning, buying, optimizing and measuring TV.

Here are the 2025 brand winners and losers of tariffs

Tariffs completely upended the retail industry in 2025 — and no company was left unscathed.