Boat Building

Whether it was an honest mistake or a calculated attempt to build buzz about their brand, retailers over the years have certainly had their fair share of blunders. The latest occurred this week with a slogan on bottles saying Bud Light removes the word "no" from drinkers' vocabulary. Anheuser-Busch is apologizing.

Despite the multiple levels of approval required at some of these culprits -- many of which are large, publicly traded companies -- items that shoppers perceived as sexist, racist or otherwise distasteful still managed to find their way through the pipeline and onto shelves.

The mistakes are not easily forgotten. Thanks to the widespread adoption of social media, experts said missteps that used to put a temporary tarnish on a retailer's reputation can now have long-lasting effects that hurt its brand equity for years to come. "That expression that [there's] no bad publicity, it's not true," said Jennifer Vickery, president and CEO of National Strategies Public Relations. "It takes millions of dollars and a lot of time to fix those things."

This is particularly true among repeat offenders, many of whom intentionally put out distasteful items to define their brand as cheeky, suggestive or shocking, said Michael Fineman, president of Fineman PR. He said that controversial products put out by Abercrombie & Fitch over the years, which isolated particular groups of customers, are likely part of the reason it's struggling to rebuild its brand today. "What we understand is that those kinds of branding efforts can backfire in the long term if the brand violently alienates markets to which they may want to expand in later years," Fineman said.

For its part, the teen retailer has been working to improve its image by adding larger sizes to its assortments, and launching its second annual anti-bullying campaign in October. The company also parted ways with controversial CEO Mike Jeffries after steep sales declines. Let's look at some items in the hall of shame.