Norman Lear Saved Original ‘Spinal Tap’

20 Dream Jobs That People Hated

40 Random Bits of Trivia We Think the Government Should Spend a Few Billion on to Include in the Crypto Strategic Reserve

Nikki Glaser Is the Better Ricky Gervais

Ben Stiller Listens to ‘Severance’ Fan Podcasts Until They Say Anything Critical

40 Corporate Goofs That Made Those Red Arrows on Boardroom Graphs Cartoonishly Shoot Down Through the Floor

Bankers boxes overflowed with personal items after these gaffes

40 Corporate Goofs That Made Those Red Arrows on Boardroom Graphs Cartoonishly Shoot Down Through the Floor

January 02, 2025

When the big boss gathers the gang in the boardroom and clicks on their PowerPoint presentation, their smug smile tells everyone that they’re expecting the line on an earnings graph to shatter the white drop-tile ceiling above everyone’s heads. Today, though, we predict that their smug smile will magically turn into a dropped jaw as the line on the graph punctures a hole in the thin, dark gray carpet below.

Will the graph drop lower than the jaw? Let’s find out now!

40

Quaker

CRACKED SAPPLE APPLE BY NATURAL CONSTRAWBERRY EACH TEA Snapp - MON TEA WITH Snapple i NATURAL 40% MANGO MADNESS napp IN NATURAL { LUG AM E I NER name Snapple I ALL NATURAL 9 I apple - Lebon S - names ME 316 THEMA - I name are 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.

39

News Corp.

CRACKED ОБЛЕН NECTI SOUTH AX JR HER #News Corporation boliet NEWS CORP. News Corp. sold Myspace for $35 million, a huge loss compared to the $580 million they paid for it in 2005.

38

Twitter

CRACKED.COM Peek Home 10:37 am m Sep 30 twitter 2:45pm | - Con we meet earler? 1:11pm Jennifer - Carls wow Re Family Reunton 12:02pm Sarah Soccer practice time F 1:58am Thomas McN... Car service FREE be 8:38am A TWITTER-ONLY service@auto... Re: Julia's Wedding 7:40am Gillian Re PTA Meeting B/29 Jacqueline St... Coffee tomorrow? 9/29 Jesse Johnst... Club News members@g... PHONE. & Y S % ت f 9 7. A R 5 ? 2 7 e ٥ R 7 E T W O 3 VII 4 H F G D S A 7 M N a X e Z :

37

Macy’s

Macy's decided to sell some plates by fat shaming moms. mam jeans favorite jeans mam jeans Road cama odie favorite jeans skinny jeans The plates featured portion sizes described as jeans sizes, with the biggest portion size being called mom jeans. This didn't go over well, and Macy's removed the plates just hours after a picture of the plates went viral. CRACKED.COM

36

LG

7:00 PM 7:00 PM Fridaportober 11 Sprin) M g Photo Notebook Goodle Camery LG When LG promoted their G2 phone in Seoul by attaching phone vouchers to helium balloons in a park, fans turned out with BB guns (one woman came with a spear) to pop the balloons. 100 As a result of the ensuing to 010 several people were hospitalized. CRACKED.COM

35

Jeff Bezos

CRACKED JEFF BEZOS Pets.com was an ambitious online pet store that was funded by Amazon and had a sock puppet mascot, but it failed miserably due to its high advertising costs and inability to generate revenue.

34

Warren Buffett

CRACKED WARREN BUFFETT Warren Buffett's most gruesome mistake was buying Dexter Shoe in 1993, which eventually collapsed due to cheap foreign imports, costing him 25,203 Class A shares in Berkshire Hathaway, worth about $8.7 billion today.

33

Daimler

32

Sears

CRACKED COM SEARS Sears was ruined by Ayn Rand's ideas. In 2008, Sears' CEO (and Rand fan) Eddie Lampert split the company into divisions ordered to selfishly compete against each other. The result was a steady death spiral that eventually led the century-old company to bankruptcy. — Source

31

Pay by Touch

Turtine A 03 PAY BY 167 Co Mondensator TOUCH SOLA PAY BY TOUCH place center OF finger flat 8 sensor CV press and hold wait E green 3 light GRACKED.COM This company used biometrics for payments back in 2002. But the CEO was caught in a bunch of scandals (embezzling, drugs, domestic abuse), and the company went bust before smartphones were even invented. — Source

30

Elon Musk’s Financial Losses

CRACKED $182 BILLION IN A LITTLE MORE THAN A YEAR In January 2023, Elon Musk had lost a huge amount of money - around $182 billion - since November 2021, which was the biggest loss of personal fortune ever recorded. — Source

29

Burger King

Burger King's Where's Herb? ad campaign led to a 40% drop in sales. URGER RING The $40 million campaign rewarded customers who spotted a character n — Source: Pixaura

28

MAC

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

27

Kenneth Cole

Kenneth Cole hijacked the #Cairo hashtag to promote the new collection. During the 2011 riots in Egypt, he tweeted: Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online. CRACKED.COM — Source

26

Molson

25

Taco Bell

TACO BELL'S MYSTERY MEAT YOU ? CRACKED COM In 2011, a lawsuit claimed that Taco Bell's beef was only 35% meat, and according to the USDA, it can't really call itselfbeef. Taco Bell spent millions trying to debunk the claim, stating that it's 88% beef, leaving us wondering what's in anywhere from 12-65% of that meat. — Source: npr

24

Dolce & Gabbana

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: 29 Companies That Ran Unbelievably Dumb Promotions

23

Trump Steaks

Donald Trump's Exclusive Introduction worst TRUMP business idea STEAKS THE WORLD'S GREATEST STEAK ever (maybe). Trump Steaks were (for some reason) sold at the Sharper Image. Sharper Image CEO Jerry Levin called it a horrible business idea, saying, We literally sold almost no steaks. If we sold $50,000 worth of steaks in total, I'd be surprised. CRACKED — Source

22

LifeLock

Eager to promote confidence in his company's identity theft protection services, the CEO of LifeLock his Social advertising Security used number actual in an mock campaign. Perhaps fell victim to identity theft. Thirteen times. My Social Security # is: As a result, 457-55-5462 LifeLock was LifeLock. accused of Guarantee Your Good Name deceptive advertising and fined $12 million. Guarantee Your Good Name Then again, five years later. This time for $100 million. GRAGKED.COM — Source: 29 Companies That Ran Unbelievably Dumb Promotions

21

Mountain Dew

Public votes that backfired big time THE DEW Dew DUB Mounta the De DE 7 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

20

McDonald’s Pizza

McDonald's tried to go into the pizza business in the mid-nineties. The idea didn't work out and was discontinued. Pa McDonald's E CRACKEDCON

19

Samsung

CRACKED SAMSUNG Samsung Securities Co CEO Koo Sung-hoon resigned after the company was punished by South Korea's financial regulator for an employee's error that sparked a $105 billion ghost stock blunder. The company was handed a six month partial suspension of its operations and its chief was suspended for three months. — Source

18

Powergen

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

17

Camel Cigarettes

CRACKED Doctors' carcinogen of choice. From the 1946 ad campaign claiming More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette, to ads in medical journals in the '40s and '50s, tobacco companies have long relied on doctor's endorsements to sell their products. This marketing strategy gave way to decades of health concerns. Three nationally known independent research CAMEL organizations did the asking. The answers come in by the thousands Actual state- ments from doctors themselves Figures were checked and re-checked! The results? Comels ...convincingly! — Saturday Evening Post

16

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. — NPR / FT

15

Sam Bankman-Fried

FTX GAVE MILLIONS TO CHARITIES (THEN DEMANDED IT BACK). Sam Bankman-Fried's company donated millions, but now the new bosses are trying to get it back. Some charities already spent it, others are waiting to see if they have to give it back. CRACKED — MichaelWuensch/Pixabay
CryptoSlate

14

Domino’s

CRACKED The Noid caused a paranoia-fuelled hostage situation. In 1986, Domino's Pizza introduced an advertising campaign featuring The Noid, an anthropomorphic ...creature of some sort. The ads ran for 3 years, until a guy named Kenneth Noid took two employees hostage at gunpoint in protest of what he believed was harassment from the company. Domino's Pizza N S.O — LA Times / Slate

13

Crypto

Matt Damon's crypto firm sent someone $10.5 million instead of $100, and they can't get it back. GRAGKED.COM Crypto.com didn't discover that millions of dollars had gone to an Australian woman until seven months later, at which point the money was either spent or transferred.

12

Ferrero

In Germany, chocolate company Ferrero ran a white-nationalist-like ad. YES WEISS BAN E V Their ad for a new white chocolate spoofed an Obama rally, with the slogan Yes weiss can! (Yes white can!) And the slogan the ad wrapped up with was Germany votes white. Germany having the history it does, this didn't go over too well. CRACKED.COM — Source

11

Red Lobster

RED LOBSTER ANDICATEO 1-15 ARTIST PARKING CRAB FISH SHRIMP BIG OOPS! LOSING MILLIONS ON A PROMOTION The President of Red Lobster made a mistake when predicting how often people would get more crab and sides during an all-you-can-eat crab dinner deal. This caused the company to lose $3.3 million in their first quarter profits. CRACKED — Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock,
Pixfiction/Shutterstock
New York Post

10

Supreme

9

McDonald’s Japan

M a In 2006, McDonald's Japan ran a promotion in whicH 10,000 mp3 players would be awarded to lucky customers. The players contained a virus which sto

8

Snapchat

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? Imposibie Chokes WOULD YOU RATHER! Slap Rihanna Punch Chris Brown Many users deleted the app following PLAY her response. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

CEO Tantrums

CRACKED CORPORATE CRASH & BURN DEMANDING RESPECT, DISRESPÉCTFULLY In 2020, all the people on the volunteer committee for a DV shelter quit after Kirk Ray Smith, the CEO of the organization that runs it, went on a 20- minute rant during a Zoom call, demanding to be treated like the president of a billion dollar company. — Monica Herndon/Tampa Bay Times
Tampa Bay Times

6

Ford

Ford held a promotional campaign in Belgium with the bold promise that each car would come with a free zombie. Ford The ad was meant to say, Every ca

5

Overstock.com

CORPORATE CRASH & BURN CATCHING THE IRE OF THE DEEP STATE Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Overstock, stepped down in 2019 after he said weird stuff about the Deep State, which caused the company's stock to fall by 36%. Coincidence? CRACKED

4

Indonesian Marketing Stunt

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 Des

3

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

2

Monster

DOMONSTER Monster, an audio equipment company, has sued multiple companies (despite being completely unrelated to their business) for their use of the

1

Pepsi

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

Tags:

Visual

Scroll down for the next article

Must Read

Movies & TV

‘King of the Hill’s Luanne Platter Is Named After A Beloved Texas Value Meal

Movies & TV

The Voice of Bart Simpson Says She Basically ‘Burps and Farts’ for a Living

Movies & TV

9 Non-Toxic Trivia Tidbits About Troma’s Toxic Avenger

Movies & TV

Joan Baez Delightfully Derails First Night of ‘Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney’

Science & History

14 Brazen Lies That Got Brands Sued into Oblivion

Movies & TV

29 of the Best Times a Character Said the Title of the Movie

VIRAL ON CRACKED

1

15 Dead Movie Characters Everybody Forgot To Mourn

2

40 Buried TV Shows and Movie Scenes We Rescued From the Land of Forgotten Media

3

Kaitlin Olson Flattered By ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Fans Who Say Her Only Comedy Peer Is Bugs Bunny

4

32 Jokes That Are Both Funny and Technically True

5

13 Historical Pranks That Put Modern Corporate Goofs to Shame