When talking about unethical marketing, the first thing popped into my head was a Pepsi commercial, and I bet lots of people had seen it before. Although it was never published, to some extend, it was a “successful” commercial since the producer successfully passed the “idea” to many people’s mind.
The whole commercial is about 30 seconds, and the story happens around one vending machine. In order to buy a can of Pepsi, a young boy has to buy two cans of coca cola to put them under his feet so that he will be able to touch the higher placed Pepsi. The unethical “idea” is very clear to audiences; Coca Cola is “lower” and Pepsi is “higher”, and the boy will waste two cans of coke just for a can of Pepsi.
Almost everybody knows Coca Cola and Pepsi, and except the brand, they have no other ways to compete with each other regarding of supply chain, flavors, price and etc. What Pepsi had done was to lower Coca Cola’s brand and made fun of it. However, I don’t think this kind of unethical commercial will make any difference to the consumers. It is so obvious that this commercial is made to stain Coca Cola, and people won’t give Pepsi more credibility according to it. Use unethical marketing to against your opponent will also lower your brand value when people know it.