Why Cultural Due Diligence is The Critical Foundation for Global Growth
When global giants get culture wrong, the fallout is swift and severe. In 2017 Pepsi aired an ad featuring Kendall Jenner “solving” a protest by offering a can of soda. Viewers accused the brand of commodifying the Black Lives Matter movement. Within 24 hours the ad was pulled, and brand buzz scores plunged to a near 10‑year low as millennials abandoned the brand. Analysts estimated that the controversy erased around $2 billion in brand value.
A year later, Dolce & Gabbana’s videos showing a Chinese model fumbling with chopsticks provoked nationwide outrage. Within days, Chinese celebrities terminated their contracts, e‑commerce sites took down the brand’s products and D&G’s fashion show in Shanghai was cancelled. Asia‑Pacific, which delivered about 30 % of their sales, cratered; the brand still hasn’t fully recovered.
Even Nike stumbled: a short film intended to celebrate youth resilience turned into a PR disaster in Japan because it seemed to glorify ijime (school bullying), a deeply sensitive issue. The ad was pulled and Nike was forced to reassess its local approval processes. More recently, BMW’s Mini brand faced accusations of discrimination in China after a viral video showed Western visitors being given ice cream while a Chinese attendee was refused. The hashtag #BMWmini trended with over 440 million views, and public trust plummeted.
What unites these missteps? A failure to respect local context. Brands overlooked deep cultural symbols (chopsticks), misread social movements (BLM), or mishandled local sensitivities (bullying, discrimination).
