Madison Avenue is learning a painful lesson: cutting edge advertising can slice both ways

They tried to be edgy but the strategy clearly backfired. A number of major brands have recently had to apologize and pull ads and content after major backlash and negative publicity. This is causing many to question the long-held belief that “even bad visibility is good publicity” for brands.

Some of the biggest names in marketing have had to apologize after consumers objected to ads that hinged on race, rape and suicide…