The gender controversy had DICE and EA respond by stating "buzz off, we don't want you to buy it" if they were being sexist. As for the marketing, it varied in a few ways. For example, when you compare the reveal trailer for
BF1 and
BFV, we find several lacking aspects that probably influenced the reaction to the games.
First off, notice the use of cinematics in the BF1 trailer, the notable slices of campaign scenes that make up the majority of the trailer, in fact the only remotely gameplay-looking footage was a few seconds out of the entire trailer. The BFV trailer shows itself as multiplayer gameplay footage. The BFV trailer also declines to include any music, making it notably less "powerful?". Combine that low energy with SJW-ism and DICE started off to a bad start.
In my opinion, showcasing new mechanics is not the best idea for a reveal trailer, cause your hardcore audience will be more likely to keep up to date with blog posts, and followup developer diaries, instead the focus should be on hype. By focusing on mechanics DICE did not hype it up.
If I were DICE, I would have just created a trailer like BF1, which would have gone over better, and then detail things like cosmetics in followup blog posts and dev diaries.
If anything, the focus on cosmetics in the reveal trailer could be seen as a overt attempt by DICE to push microtransactions, and to say the least, brings a firestorm of negativity. People dont want to feel pressured into buying stuff for a game, and DICE waving a bright "Isn't this cool? Buy this" did not help perception.