2025 has begun with its fair share of mishaps within the realm of media and marketing. While some brands claimed that the rather obvious typos in their campaigns were part of their ‘attention grabbing’ tactics, others bore the ire of global audiences for more serious creative infractions.
We begin with a Coors Light advertisement, which was splashed across New York’s Times Square. It took only a few hours for content creators across the globe to jump on the hype cycle of a ‘chilling mistake’, branded the ‘most glaring typo of 2025’.
While the jury’s still out on whether this was intentional or not, Molson Coors Beverage Company spun this to their advantage, calling it a “case of the Mondays”.
“So refreshing, we tripped over ‘r’ words. Always hits the spot. Even when we don’t,” the ad copy on a subsequent social media creative read.
Another such ‘misspelt’ advertisement did the rounds on the other side of the globe. PUMA seemingly printed a typo on numerous outdoor billboards in India. While purists, pedants and peevers in the sub-continent were quick to pounce on the PVMA ‘error’, it soon became clear that this was an intentional campaign.
The brand – to its credit – took its time to clarify its reasoning, building the hysteria around it. Within days it landed plenty of media coverage, including a Vogue headline that read: “No, that PVMA ad isn’t a typo. It’s to announce PV Sindhu as Puma’s new brand ambassador.”
While some of these ‘typos’ could be salvaged, other recent creative output, such as an advertisement by Pakistan International Airlines, could not. The thoughtless placement of a PIA flight on the creative – heading straight for the Eiffel Tower – was made much worse by the copy on the creative.
While some folks online had a laugh about the unfortunate ad, the airline and the nation’s foreign diplomats didn’t let it slide. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar condemned the advertisement, calling it an example of ‘stupidity’. The Spin is inclined to agree. What were they thinking? How many layers of approvals did this go through before it was approved and launched?
While other mishaps across media weren’t quite so preposterous, they sure got The Spin chuckling.
Take, for instance, when we noticed that “fomething if wrong” in an article published by a newspaper that we were told recently let go of some of its copy editors.
The Spin was also sent a photograph of a boo-boo in a PayPal ad sprawled across the London Underground. It takes a second to spot, but if you caught it on the first read, good for you. The Spin had to read that twice to spot the mistake.
Inside the subway, another ad caught our attention. While there was no obvious typo on the ad, the creative turned out to be a bit too creative – so much so that it still has us scratching our heads wondering what it’s supposed to mean.
The world of communications also gifted us with gold, especially for those marketers attempting to convince their customers of a ‘40% sale’. We didn’t buy the ad for a minute because the maths didn’t math; nor did we buy the shoes.
Before we conclude, here’s one dedicated to all of you with quick fingers who’ve hastily hit send on your emails a bit too speedily. Clearly, you’re not the only ones. A certain Spotify employee can attest to that.
