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32 Companies and Corporations Who Blew It, Plain and Simple

In today’s meeting we’ll discuss how it all went so horribly wrong

32 Companies and Corporations Who Blew It, Plain and Simple

May 06, 2024

Johnson! Put that cronut down and meet me in the boardroom for an emergency meeting! Oh, and bring some shovels, because we have to dig ourselves out of this massive hole! No, not real shovels! Give those back to the groundskeepers!

See, that’s the problem right there, Johnson. When we’re not on the same page, we end up making massive marketing and/or social media blunders. Worse yet, we lose billions of dollars.

Great! Now we’ve found ourselves on this list of huge corporate blunders!

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CRACKED #RIMjobs BlackBerry maker Research In Motion advertised job vacancies on Twitter with #RIMJobs. No one opposed this in the boardroom? - RIM — Source

31

CRACKED #powergenitalia Powergen (UK's leading gas and electricity company) chose an unfortunate domain name for their Italian subsidiary. Powergen Italia really could've used some capitalisation. POWERGEN — Source

30

CRACKED #pokemonmastersex Pokémon Masters EX did use capitals in their original #PokemonMastersEX, but that didn't stop immature (and hilarious) fans from using it without the caps, or switching up the caps to #PokemonMasterSex. — Source

29

CRACKED #McDStories To improve their image, McDonald's asked people to share McDonald's related stories. Pouncing on the opportunity, the Twittersphere shared thousands of stories involving slaughterhouses, food poisoning, and diabetes. os. M The Saweetie Meal M BBQ Sweetie CREW . — Source

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Public votes that backfired big time PEPSI NUMBER pepd FEVER A Pepsi contest in the Philippines had a grand prize of 1 million pesos, but an error at the bottling plant led to 600,000 winning bottles. Riots and even grenade attacks injured dozens and killed 5 people in the deadliest marketing disaster in history. CRACKED — Source

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Public votes that backfired big time DEW THE Dew DUB Mountain the De DE This very short-lived 2012 promotion had Mountain Dew fans name its new drink. Suggestions like the contest winner, Hitler did nothing wrong had Mountain Dew apologize to consumers, claiming that they lost to the Internet. CRACKED — Source

26

Citibank

CRACKED CITIBANK Citibank made a mistake and accidentally sent $900 million to the wrong people, and the lenders refused to return the money. The lenders were taking advantage of the situation due to a longer running saga between them and Revlon, the company that borrowed the money. — Source

25

CRACKED OFFER NECK СОНТН AX JIL HER #News Corporation body NEWS CORP. News Corp. sold Myspace for $35 million, a huge loss compared to the $580 million they paid for it in 2005. — Source

24

CRACKED BLOCKBUSTER VIDEO BLOCKBUSTER VIDEO BLOCKBUSTER VIDEO Deli BLOCKBUSTER John Antioco's arrogance in September 2000 cost Blockbuster its future when he refused to consider the possibility of buying Netflix for $50 million, which could have saved the company from its eventual bankruptcy in 2014. — Source

23

CRACKED HAPPLE APPLE NL NATURAL UNISTRAWBERRY EACH TEA onapp Mine MON TEA adidas instruction Snapple i NATURAL - NET NATURAL MANGO MADNESS napp ( Snapple & e NATURAL C apple Lee's need ALEXA US Master LAKER E - RED names : - aanes BEE MG I BLE QUAKER Quaker Oats Co. agreed to sell Snapple Beverage Corp. to Triarc Cos. for $300 million, only 27 months after Quaker spent $1.7 billion to buy the maker of trendy drinks, resulting in a loss of $1.4 billion for Quaker. — Source

22

CRACKED NOKIA 3 def g 1 2 abc 4 b ghi mno 5 jkl 7 pqrs wx 8 tuv * ب 0 MICROSOFT Microsoft has wasted at least $8 billion on its failed Nokia experiment, and CEO Satya Nadella's vision for the company has shifted away from a devices and services focus, resulting in the end of Microsoft's mobile subsidiary. — Source

21

CRACKED Search Tumblr - Home t of Fandom Mones - tumblr. OPEN G4 17 No75 ..... SOUTH - What's New verson History 10g situal Thanks for choising Tumblr a place 6 connect North others over shared interests Preview YAHOO! In 2013, Yahoo acquired Tumblr for $1.1 billion, but the platform struggled to become profitable and was eventually sold to Automattic for $3 million in 2019. — Source

20

CRACKED Weinerville -Netscape 5 x File Edit View Go Communicator Help My N Back Forward Reload Home Search Netscape Print Security Stop Bookmarks Location: http://www.geocities. s.com/Heartland/Meadows/7322/ Welcome to Wienerville Where dachshunds will walk all over your heart YAHOO! Yahoo purchased Geocities in 1999 for over $4 billion, but the acquisition was ultimately unsuccessful and the site was shut down in 2009. — Source

19

Paxan Co.

The soaps produced by Iranian company Paxan Co. ironically carry a name that labels them as packaged filth. New Automatic Color - - - I Barf adidas - 4 / - i Detergent Powe Justin - I - Barf New Automatic Barf Powder Automatic Detergéni DE Casting colors Ultimate Clee a Brigh بنات 900 g e THE was - Coca . English Address 450g In an effort to translate a Farsi word that should mean Snow into English, the company somehow messed up, resulting in the sale of Barf soap. CRACKED.COM — Source

18

Coors

Coors accidentally marketed beer to their Spanish-speaking customers with the promise that they'd run to the toilet. THE ORIGINA LONGNECKS 12 FL.OZ. bois I ROCK i GOLDEN The brewing company translated SINCE .... - - . - جامعة cheese - - INTRODUCTO their English catchphrase, Turn it NATURAL FF WATER loose, without realizing that it means Suffer from diarrhea in Spanish. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

When KFC first moved to China, it must have curbed appetites by accidentally promoting self-cannibalism. KFC REAL In an attempt to translate their signature catchphrase Finger- lickin' good, some misused Chinese characters had them saying, Eat your fingers off. CRACKED.COM — Source

16

In 1987, Braniff international released an ad that was easily confused for an open invitation into the mile-high club. BI BRADIFF INTERNATIONAL BRANIFF 0000000000 The airline company was trying to entice travelers with its leather seats when a mixup of Spanish homophones turned its Fly in leather tag line into Fly naked. CRACKED.COM — Source

15

Schweppes

Schweppes sold their Tonic Water in Italy without realizing that no self-respecting person would dare to drink it. INDIAN I THE Schweppes TONIC WATER The problem wasn't with the drink itself, but with the name Schweppes Tonic Water, which translated to Italian as Schweppes Toilet Water. CRACKED.COM — Source

14

Pepsi

While expanding into China, Pepsi unknowingly made a creepy promise to consumers in the form of biblical miracles. TRADE MARK PEPSI The company's popular tag line, Come alive with the Pepsi Generation was interpreted as Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead. CRACKED.COM — Source

13

Hooters used to operate an airline. SOUTH MYF Hooters Air got started in 2003, and every flight had two Hooters girls (who would come in from local restaurants). It folded after three years, and lost Hooters $40 million. CRACKED.COM — Source

12

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In 2002, McDonald's Norway released the M MCAFRIKA. It was a McAfrika DISASTER. It came at Fra kr. 32,- a time when many African countries were facing MASS FAMINE. Following a backlash, McDonald's allowed some locations to have donation boxes for humanitarian efforts. GRAGKED.COM — Source

10

An Indonesian marketing expert thought it would be a good idea to throw money out of a plane. Instead of a traditional campaign for his book, Tung Desem Waringin circled the soccer stadium in Serang, tossing roughly $10,000 on people who, on average, make $40/ month. The stunt ended up with a 13-year-old girl being hospitalized after collapsing in the crowd. CRACKED COM — Source

9

Snapchat lost around $800 million in stock after running an ad on their platform for the mobile game Would You Rather? which mocked Rihanna's abuse. Would You Rather? Imposable Chocolat WOULD YOU RATHER! Slap Rihanna Punch Chris Brown Many users deleted the app following PLAY her response. CRACKED.COM — Source

8

Timothy’s World Coffee

In 2011, Timothy's World Coffee ran a campaign asking people to Like their Facebook page and receive four boxes of their single-serve coffee (which contains 24 packs in each box). WORLD Timothy's COFFEE Their stock of said boxes was depleted in just three days, and it took them more than two weeks to amend the terms that it would be on a first-come, first-served basis. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

6

MAC celebrated National Lipstick Day by giving away a free lipstick to those who came to the stores selected during the event. Thousands of customers left angrily because those stores ran out of stock minutes after opening for business. Turns out, they only had 40 lipsticks to give away per store. GRACKED.COM — Source

5

CRACKED.COM To promote their upcoming runway show in Shanghai, Dolce& Gabbana released a series of videos which depicted a Chinese model struggling to eat Italian food with chopsticks. Many Chinese people interpreted the campaign as a mockery of their culture. The campaign cost D&G the Shanghai show and an undisclosed amount of money after their products were boycotted by multiple Chinese retailers. — Source

4

32 Companies and Corporations Who Blew It, Plain and Simple — Source

3

Panic ensued when a Missouri movie theater hired fake agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., complete with fake weapons, to storm a screening of IRON MAN 3... CRACKED COM less than a year after the theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado. — Source

2

IN 1994, COCA-COLA TRIED TO APPEAL TO GEN XERS WITH OK SODA, DISTINGUISHED MORE BY ITS DRAB, GRIM CAN DESIGNS THAN BY ITS ODD, CITRUSY TASTE - OK. WHICH REALLY 12 FL OZ (355 mL) WAS JUST (355 A CARBONATED BEVERAGE OF OK- CONCEPT 12 HAR MA DON'T BE FOOLED INTO THINK E OK. OK® III. WHAT'S THE POINT OK AMEPHING DBE NYTHING THAT IS NOT HNG THAT IS. TINK OF OTHER PEOPLE i A I I I | I 1 PAR MARKABLE ABILITIES ESCOMATED BEVERAGE 12 FL OZ (355 mL) CARBONATED BEVERAGE 12 FL OZ RAPPENED 2 MARKET TESTS WERE A BUST, — Source

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