Here are a few mistakes that brands can make on YouTube, including three with actual details of the companies that made the mistakes rather famously. Take the advice below and hopefully you will avoid making such blunders yourself. Here are six of the biggest mistakes that brands can make on YouTube.


1 – Do not try to strong-arm your customer

Samsung tried to strong arm a customer whose Samsung Galaxy S4 had caught fire when he left it on charge overnight, which at the time was not unheard of. The user was called GhostlyRich and he made a YouTube video explaining his shock at how this happened. Samsung contacted him and said they will send him another model if he takes down the video and signs an agreement saying he will not mention it again.

So, classically GhostlyRich made another video that went viral as he read out the letter for all the world to hear. He ended his YouTube video by saying he would be switching carriers and ended the video with a parting expletive to Samsung.

2 – Lacking family values will anger the Americans and Indians

There are two places in the world that are joint top for family values, and that is North America and India. Both are places where a lack of family values is offensive to most people.


This blunder was made by Doritos who had a YouTube video showing a young girl asking her dad to play with her. He was too busy saying that he, “is going to spend time with the guys instead.” The girl then shows him her bag of Doritos, he comes back in, and you see them playing together and dancing around eating Doritos.

So why was there a fuss? Doritos were saying that their brand is more important than both family values and time out with the guys. Plus, since when do fathers give the “I’m going out with the guys” excuse to a daughter, when it is classically something a guy says to his wife? And, why tie your product with such a horrible man that disregards his daughter unless she has Doritos?

3 – Sound quality is more important than any other aspect

The biggest video killer is not the picture quality and it is not even the script or musical score; it is poor audio and people will switch off a video faster because of poor audio than for any other reason.

4 – Do not make an advert to appeal to each demographic

You cannot be all things to all people, especially when limited to one medium. Do not make a video for your young audience, a video for your older audience, etc. The demographics are going to mix on YouTube, and the old people will see the younger person adverts, and vice versa, which will simply alienate both potential customer demographics.

5 – Be careful of sexualistaion of anyone under 20

The Calvin Klein YouTube adverts were not the first to overtly sexualize young people, but their videos did cause a lot of fuss (as did their print campaign). Teens in very little clothing were shown cavorting during the late night hours. The fact that some of the models were so young looking was probably the reason there were so many complaints about just how sexualized these people were.

6 – If you are posting just to get something out there then you are making a mistake

The people that post because they want to keep putting up content and think it gives them more exposure are making a mistake. If you do not have a clear goal and a way of achieving that goal then you are wasting your time.

As a side note, there is also a trick you can use with a dummy profile where you make a claim that makes a point, which sounds plausible but is so false that people delight in telling you that you are wrong, thereby showing people how dumb an opinion is. For example, if you were all for a national health service you would go on YouTube and oppose it with an argument such as “If Stephen Hawkins had had to rely on the UK national health system then he would have been dead in his twenties.”

This sounds like a dramatic statement that may convince a lot of people not to support a national health system. That is until you realize Stephen Hawkins is from the UK and persistently praises their national health system for keeping him alive. If you were to make a video such as that, you could comment on the video with another profile and make the point about Stephen Hawkins thanking the national health service and you have just made your point. Obviously, there are still going to be people dumb enough to believe your video, but do you really want those types of people on your side anyway?

7 – Don’t be racist–even by accident

There is lots of this all over, including in newspapers, videos, adverts, posters. It happens on YouTube even when people do not mean to be racist. There was the cracker advert with the slogan, “Crackers love cheese”, and the gym mats for the televised wrestling tournament that had a “K” in the middle of each matt (and there were three mats in a line on the hall floor).

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Author’s bio:
My name is Sonia Jackson and I write for royal-essay.com that provides quality academic papers for college and university students.

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