Advertising Age on Politically Correct Marketing

“In 1960 Doyle Dane Bernbach launched a campaign for a Brooklyn rye-bread baker with a series of subway posters that read, “You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s.” The posters depicted people of various ethnic groups enjoying the bread and…drew plenty of complaints from people who didn’t like the ethnic approach. 

As part of the campaign, Bernbach also told the company to change its name from Levy’s Real Rye to Levy’s Real Jewish Rye. When the marketer expressed fear that this might invite controversy or pigeonhole the brand, Bernbach brooked no argument: “For God’s sake, your name is Levy’s. They are not going to mistake you for high Episcopalian.” The campaign spurred a decade of sales growth for the baker and passed into popular culture. 

Today those ads probably wouldn’t make it to a subway wall…”
Advertising Age, Marketers Need to Stand Up to Hysteria From the Outrage Nuts

Or more succinctly, how avoiding offending everyone tends to miss reaching anyone, and typically kills creativity before it gets out of bed in the morning. Related sidenote: I adore those old Levy’s ads.