posted on Oct. 16, 2025 at 7:30 amOct 16, 2025

The Spin: When ‘out of home’ goes ‘out of context’

posted on Oct. 16, 2025 at 7:30 amOct 16, 2025

Every month, The Spin maintains an account of mishaps in the world of communications. Here are some we noticed in September 2025.

Through the month of September, The Spin was sent several interesting submissions of slip-ups within the media and advertising industry from across the globe.

1. A KitKat ad on a digital-out-of-home (DOOH) billboard did the rounds on WhatsApp in the UAE for all the wrong reasons. Turns out, the creative copy for the Vanilla Waffle limited edition flavour in English was ‘waffly good’ but, unfortunately, the Arabic translation was woefully bad. To reiterate the thoughts of many industry experts: Perhaps, it’s time to invest in a local copywriter rather than a global translating tool.

2. When Everlane became ‘ever-lame’. Context: American Eagle Outfitters saw its sales soar and

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Tags:The Spin

the authorAnup Oommen

Anup Oommen is the Editor of Campaign Middle East at Motivate Media Group, a well-reputed moderator, and a multiple award-winning journalist with more than 15 years of experience at some of the most reputable and credible global news organisations, including Reuters, CNN, and Motivate Media Group. As the Editor of Campaign Middle East, Anup heads market-leading coverage of advertising, media, marketing, PR, events and experiential, digital, the wider creative industries, and more, through the brand’s digital, print, events, directories, podcast and video verticals. As such he’s a key stakeholder in the Campaign Global brand, the world’s leading authority for the advertising, marketing and media industries, which was first published in the UK in 1968.