Preventing ads from going on the offensive; sportswear manufacturer Diadora is embarking on a damage-limitation campaign after using images from the Bradford fire in an ad. It is not alone in making such blunders.

Marketing Week, July, 2004 by David Benady

As unfortunate mistakes go, Italian sportswear company Diadora topped the league last week. It was forced to pull its pan-European television ad campaign called "The World Needs to Play More" after inadvertently using images from the 1985 Bradford City fire disaster which killed 56 people, as it attempted to show how sport can overcome violence,

The ad--aired in the UK on Eurosport--starts with images from war zones then cuts to scenes from the blazing stadium as a voiceover says: "Better 90 minutes of play than a minute of silence." Diadora--which is a sponsor of Bradford City Football Club--pulled the ad after angry Bradford City fans complained. It immediately posted an apology on the football club's website which read: "Due to an error in production of this...