--- title: Ad Agency Apologizes for Bloody Malala Yousafzai Mattress Advertisment description: Ad agency Ogilvy & Mather has apologized for the incident canonical: https://time.com/101035/mattress-ad-malala-yousafzai/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-15T16:35:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:09:41.909Z og:title: Advertisement Uses Bloody Images of Malala Yousafzai to Sell Mattresses og:description: The agency responsible for the ad has apologized og:url: https://time.com/101035/mattress-ad-malala-yousafzai/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb7da39499915323c/69868f783bc999da611a379b/477105835.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Free The Children Hosts Debut UK Global Youth Empowerment Event, We Day At Wembley Arena og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Advertisement Uses Bloody Images of Malala Yousafzai to Sell Mattresses twitter:description: The agency responsible for the ad has apologized twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb7da39499915323c/69868f783bc999da611a379b/477105835.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Offensive Advertisement Uses Bloody Images of Malala Yousafzai to Sell Mattresses by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman May 15, 2014 4:35 PM UTC  Malala Yousafzai attends as Free The Children hosts their debut UK global youth empowerment event, We Day at Wembley Arena on March 7, 2014 in London, England. Malala Yousafzai attends as Free The Children hosts their debut UK global youth empowerment event, We Day at Wembley Arena on March 7, 2014 in London, England.Anthony Harvey / Getty Images by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman May 15, 2014 4:35 PM UTC Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani activist who rose to prominence after the Taliban shot her in the head in 2012, has become an international symbol. Previously, though, the teen’s name and visage had been used to represent education, women’s rights and bravery. Now, she has been used in an attempt to sell mattresses. Ad agency Ogilvy & Mather created an illustration for Indian mattress company Kurl-On, featuring a sequence of cartoon images depicting Malala getting shot in the face point-blank then tumbling downward onto a mattress. “Bounce Back,” the advertisement’s text says. > [](https://twitter.com/AlexCKaufman/status/466956972508860416) The ad, which has not run in any paid media, understandably sparked ire as it began to spread across the web. In the meantime, Ogilvy & Mather has apologized for it. “We deeply regret this incident and want to apologize to Malala Yousafzai and her family,” Rachel Ufer, a senior partner and spokeswoman for Ogilvy, [said in a statement ](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/15/mattress-shooting-ad%5Fn%5F5330731.html?1400165627&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067)to The _Huffington Post_. “We are investigating how our standards were compromised in this case and will take whatever corrective action is necessary.” The poster was part of a series of related advertisements which also featured Mahatma Gandhi and Steve Jobs, but the one depicting Yousafzai attracted the most attention. 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