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- masonreloaded, on 10/12/2007, -1/+78That Calvin Klein commercial is seriously creepy...
- saikhan, on 10/12/2007, -4/+35They forgot to include Sony's alliwantforxmasisapsp debacle.
- Evolve, on 10/12/2007, -1/+29You have to admit Bills response "I guess thats why where not shipping windows 98 then isnt it?" was pretty bloody good, for something that happened on the spot.
- fantasticFlan, on 10/12/2007, -6/+28You can't possibly think the PS3 beats the Hindenburg.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16FWIW, The Tylenol scare is now taught in business ethics courses as an example of how a company SHOULD act. That was actually the first instance of a massive product recall. Tylenol shift a huge amount of product, lost a ton of money, and changed their packaging to protect their customers. It was after the cyanide scare that the foil seals over the bottle openings began to appear.
- TheKricket, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15i dunno - that beatles "yesterday and today" butcher cover was a shocker back in the day - but today, that thing is worth some primo buck - if you can find one...
- HarrietTubgirl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15In dozens of blind taste tests, people overwhelmingly preferred the new coke.
- sarazen, on 10/12/2007, -6/+20It was icky, but some of those models were purddier than a new set of snow tires.
And that poor poor elephant. Topsy, you live on in our hearts. - signal15, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15There is a conspiracy theory that the CEO of coke knew that the new formula sucked, and it was all a brilliant marketing ploy. When coke brought "back" Coke Classic a short time later, sales went through the roof. There are several books written on this.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16My guess is he was thinking "I wonder if anyone will be dumb enough to believe an urban legend about this in 50 years. You proved that there will be.
- Reziarfg, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15Tom Cruise switching to Scientology?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Who?
- EmperorAwesome, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13I'd never really considered the Hindenburg explosion as a "marketing gaffe" along the lines of a McDonald's sign.
- diggsIt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13That Edsel seems like a fine car. It has Teletouch steering and rides like you're 'on air'. I want one in red.
- FearlessFreep, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12After all this time, every new marketing for the newest version of windows really sounds like "no, this time we got it right, we really mean it"
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12New Coke is the most successful ad campaign EVER. New Coke was introduced to try to get people drinking it, instead of Pepsi. But, while it was actually very good, Coke's previous ad campaigns associating the original coke with daily american life worked too well, and people rejected change. From what I've heard, New Coke was actually better than pepsi, but people refused to drink it, staying loyal to original Coke. Classic Coke was 'introduced' (without the original REAL sugar, saving Coke tons of money) and it tasted 'almost the same' as original coke.. Saving Coke TONS of cash from switching away from the real sugar, and getting everyone talking about their product.
Coke didn't intend on the results that New Coke had, but they do enjoy them. - fleischner, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12That poor elephant. He didn't deserve it.
Also, the Hindenburg, but no Titanic? - bulius, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8ED-209 couldn't walk up stairs either.
- RocksOFF, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Okay, so maybe it shouldn't have been titled the "Top ten WORST", but it was still an entertaining article nonetheless.
- Future2, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9Top 10 Worst Marketing Gaffes, Flops, and Disasters
The Consumerist's guide to the top 10 worst gaffes, flops, and disasters in the history of American marketing and advertising.
10) McDonald's: "I'd Hit It"
iwouldhitit.jpgIn January 2005, McDonald's launched an ill-conceived banner campaign featuring a young man slavering over a double cheeseburger. "Double cheeseburger? I'd hit it. I'm a dollar menu guy," went the animated ad. Amidst controversy, McDonald's pulled the banners and said their marketing department misunderstood the term. For our part, The Consumerist only copulates with food that's certified organic fair-trade.
9) New Coke
1985's "New Coke" was a failed attempt to compete with Pepsi's larger market share. However, customers found the new formula flat-tasting and overly sugary. After the campaign fizzled, Coca-Cola switched back to the original formula... or did they? Rumors persisted that "New Coke" was a well-designed conspiracy to switch ingredients from cane sugar to high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in their bottling plants. Both Snopes and Wikipedia claim the switch to HFCS was made prior to "New Coke's" introduction, but who can resist a good conspiracy?
8) Honda's Asimo Falls Down Stairs
Any third-grader with a circuitry board can make a dancing robot, but only Honda can make one that walks up stairs and falls on its space skull. Things haven't improved much since ED-209, it seems.
7) Calvin Klein's Amateur Porno Jean Commercial
Calvin Klein has drawn frequent ire for its provocative advertising and use of teenage models. The series of commercials above, however, pushed the envelope right of the cliff. They feature what appear to be "barely (if even) legal" amateur models in a wood-paneled room being interviewed by a creepy older man. For all intents and purposes, they look like prequels to amateur pedophile pornos. Conceptually brilliant but deeply unnerving, the work perhaps deserves a place in the Whitney rather than Kansas TV screens. In August 1995 the commercials were yanked from the airways and Calvin Klein himself issued a public apology.
6) Microsoft Blue Screen Of Death At Press Conference
A classic Microsoft moment. During a press event audience members watch as a pre-release of Windows 98 crashes before their very eyes. Bill Gates was a good sport, chuckling and saying, "That must be why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet."
5) Beatles Yesterday and Today Butcher Cover
beatlesyesterday.jpgOn June 14th, 1966, The Fab Four shocked their American record-label with the the infamous "Butcher Cover" of their album Yesterday and Today. After slipping through the cracks during pre-production, 750,000 copies were distributed across America. At first Capitol Records ordered the albums recalled and destroyed, but then it sent out replacement covers to be glued onto the remaining copies.Though Lennon and McCartney were in on the joke, George Harrison later expressed his disapproval, "I thought it was gross, and I also thought it was stupid. Sometimes we all did stupid things thinking it was cool and hip when it was naive and dumb; and that was one of them."
Yesterday and Today went on to become one of the only Beatle's albums to actually lose money, thought this probably had less to do with its cover art than that it was a compilation album with no new material.
Bonus: The lame cover it was replaced with.
4) The Tylenol Cyanide Scare of 1982
tylenol.jpgSome product disasters illustrate how a swift company response can mitigate the damaging effects of bad publicity. When Chicago residents suddenly started to die from unknown causes, inspectors drew a link to the Tylenol Extra Strength capsules the citizens took. After ruling out sabotage from the manufacturing facilities, investigators determined someone tampered with the bottles and placed them back on store shelves.
Although many predicted the doom of the Tylenol brand, the pain reliever bounced back within a number of years. Thanks to a swift PR response which included media outreach, discontinued advertising, and putting the safety of the consumer before profit, headache-sufferers eventually forgave Tylenol.
Bonus: Thanks in part to the Tylenol scare, urban legends of cyanide poisoners linger in the public consciousness, casting a looming specter over Halloween
3) Ford Edsel
Named after Henry Ford's so, the Edsel automobile launched on "E Day", September 4th, 1957 with much fanfare and hype. Featuring "Teletouch" steering wheel electric gear-shifting, self-adjusting brakes, and a nifty speedometer redesign, the Edsel failed to resonate with consumers. People still debate the exact reasons for the failing but the general consensus is that Ford didn't have its finger on the pulse of what Americans wanted. Maybe consumers were put off by statements like, "There's even the luxury of Edsel air suspension. It's just like riding on air, because you are." Whatever the cause, $400,000,000 worth of development was blown in two years when the Edsel was discontinued on November 19th, 1959.
2) AC vs DC: Thomas Edison Electrocutes Topsy The Elephant
Starting in the 1880's, George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison became fierce rivals over what the best way to deliver energy into American houses. Edison favored the Direct Current (DC) approach, touting its safety. Westinghouse favored Nikola Tesla's Alternating Current (AC) method as it solved a number of prohibitive cost factors and allowed for more efficient delivery.
Edison launched a a bitter publicity campaign, designed to frighten the public into using Direct Current. Under his command, Edison filmed and publicized a number of Alternating Current executions of animals including that of Topsy the Elephant (shown). The executions were designed to show how unsafe Alternating Current could be, as it "Westinghoused" his victims. Despite Edison's fervent desire to bring Direct Current into every home in America, he ultimately lost the War of Currents due to the impracticality of wide scale deployment.
Bonus: Harold Brown, an Edison employee, developed the first electric chair to further underscore AC's danger. After the first botched use of the chair in 1890, Westinghouse commented, "They would have done better using an axe."
1) The LZ 129 Hindenburg
One might consider the 1937 Hindenburg disaster clips one of the world's first "viral videos". The footage and pictures of the event were so damaging that they decimated the public trust in the possibility of a "Zeppelin Era" - a world where travel was dominated by flying air balloons.
If the Nazis had their druthers, the Hindenburg would have carried a swastika as prominently as we might have seen a Goodyear logo, but zeppelin designer Hugo Eckener was uneasy with the use of his airships for propaganda. He was much more comfortable with envisioning a future of mass passenger transport across the Atlantic carried upon the decks of his flying ships.
Due to a US embargo on helium, Eckener was forced to use flammable hydrogen in order to keep his beloved dirigible aloft for its transatlantic journey to Lakehurst, NJ. Amid an audience of thousands of spectators and radio personality Herbert Morrison's eyewitness report, the Hindenburg suddenly burst into a fiery ball of flames. The images would find themselves ingrained on the collective consciousness of popular art and Morrison's words, "Oh, the humanity!", would outlive the disaster for years to come. Many note that other political factors played a role in the long-term demise of the zeppelin, but nothing captured the moment more perfectly than the image of the Hindenburg's flaming metal skeleton as silhouetted people scattered in terror.
Hot on the tailfins of the disaster was an-up-and coming airline named Pan America. Their stable of flying "Clippers" filled the Hidenburg's void. - jockser, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6and the winner is....
THE MUSIC INDUSTRY for suing their clients.
what kind of worst marketing is there ? - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+10Tin foil hat time. Classic Coke is EXACTLY the same formula as Coke was before New Coke was introduced.
AS for the blind taste tests, the reason they don't DO those anymore is because it became appparent that people were choosing what they thought the testers WANTED them to choose. Hence, peopel chose Pepsi in the Pepsi Challenge. And peopel chose New Coke over Classic Coke because they thought that Coke wanted htem too.
There is no soda drinker on the planet who can't tell the difference between the two. So people knew which was which, and chose the one that would make the testers happy. - MScrip, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4This list was about marketing disasters... not disasters in general.
The Hindenburg video and audio spread rapidly and showed the negative aspects of hydrogen filled airships. So, the video's marketing effects were disastrous.
I'm sure everyone heard about the Titanic sinking... but it wasn't a marketing failure. People still traveled by ships. - Bishoco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"How can you equate the Hindenburg disaster with the launch of New Coke and with a robot falling down some stairs?"
But, they didn't equate them. They put them in a list and numbered them. The Hindenburg was a worse disaster than the others. It's pretty simple, really. - I_Soar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"How about Michael Jackson converting to Islam? If that's not a PR disaster I don't know what it"
For Islam, or for Michael Jackson? - Ovenall, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3The real success of New Coke was having people suddenly fiercely rally around 'old' Coke. There was a huge (media fueled, and free for Coke) uproar that Coke didn't have to pay for, that was started by the introduction of New Coke.
The Coke/New Coke 'story' was everywhere, on the news, on late night monologues, water cooler conversations, etc. Free publicity. - AimlessAbyss, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yeah, robots right now suck ass. They spend millions of dollars on these crappy things to make them do the very simplest of tasks. Could anybody be impressed with a stupid little robot who can who can climb 2 steps and fall on its head? We still have a loooooong way to go before robots are actually doing useful things, let alone taking over our jobs (and maybe the world, oh no!).
- weister42, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I liked the Win 98 one, because Bill Gates had a sense of humor like he knows it was going to happen.
- Joel32, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2What about the infamous Chevy Nova?!
Not such a good idea for sales in Mexico...No Va
aye de mi! - kingrat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Someone hasn't seen the Mythbusters show on this...
- BarryMcCawqiner, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1yet another reason to never live in texas..........
- Brian10, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I gotta add one to the list. It may clearly not be top 10, but it's recent. A couple of years ago the Chevy Colorado truck was introduced with a huge wave of advertising. A huge campaign went underway in Texas, which I'm guessing is the largest market for trucks. Banners, billboards, tv spots, radio, you name it. The catchy slogan designed to sell their trucks? "Everything's bigger in Colorado".
This was the stupidest campaign ever. Like or hate Texans it doesn't matter, if you want to sell them a truck try not to insult them. Everyone in Texas knows the phrase "Everything's bigger in Texas". Everything's bigger in Colorado is just an insult. Guess what? Sales plunged. The entire marketing team should have been fired. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+711. A website that claims to stand for good business practice saying they steal Flikr photos becuase itis "easier than obtaining permission"
12. A website that claims to be about good business practice who runs a cooridanated effort to digg all their stories to the front page in an effort to use Digg to make advertising money. - benitojuarez, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2can anyone post a link? the article has no link and/or titile for me.
- FearlessFreep, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6How about Michael Jackson converting to Islam? If that's not a PR disaster I don't know what it
- master_of_fm, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5in the Calvin Klein clips, the "girl" at 2:53 looks like a tranny to me
- everfalling, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Due to a US embargo on helium, Eckener was forced to use flammable hydrogen in order to keep his beloved dirigible aloft for its transatlantic journey to Lakehurst, NJ."
Yeah, but we know now that the hydrogen had little to do with the combustion of the dirigible, but the paint they used on the balloons skin, which was made from components we now use as solid rocket fuel - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Where is the "Wow starts NOW!" entry?!
- heynow21, on 10/12/2007, -6/+7What about when Albert Gillette demonstrated the sharpness of his razors by cutting a dogs head off on live TV back in the 50s? What the hell was he thinking?
- Gatesophile, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1for those who never took Spanish:
No va means "no go" or "doesn't go". - inactive, on 10/15/2007, -0/+1honda robot - better
- trev0006, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1Here is the video of the Honda Asimo falling. http://www.dpccars.com/rcvideos/12-15-06page-Honda ...
- VermiciousKnid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"That poor elephant. He didn't deserve it."
actually that elephant was to be put down anyway cause it killed some ppl.
so don't feel so bad. although clearly Edison didn't do it right judging from the smoke. - trev0006, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1Here is the video of the Honda Asimo falling. http://www.dpccars.com/rcvideos/12-15-06page-Honda ...
- dilkry, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If the Hindenburg is on there, what about the Titanic and it being iceberg proof?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1some of these are not marketing gaffes, but product difficulties. ms surely did not intend to 'market' their blue screen of death.... did they?
- fauxXenophanes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1MARKETING GAFFES you ***** ***** !!
- Gatesophile, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1One of the many reasons I love and respect Bill Gates is for his sense of humor and his overall demeanor.
- Gatesophile, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1they intended to market win98. it didn't work like how they wanted it to.
- ichbinladen, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1How about the Gore/Lieberman campaign? If Gore had dropped that dead weight Kermit the Frog impersonator maybe people wouldn't have voted for Pepsi... err Bush/Cheney.
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