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When big business backfires

40 Companies and Corporations That Have a Lot of ‘Splainin’ to Do

January 29, 2025

Well, good on these wily suits for trying, but boy did their deals, mergers and marketing ploys blow up in their faces. We’re not usually the types to revel in someone else’s misfortunes, but when it’s billionaires, CEOs and shady business types, we let out a pleasurable little chuckle. We can’t help it. We grew up on ‘90s movies where the bad guys were predominately rich and snooty.

40

Excel

10 Insert Page Layout Cut FATAL x ERROR $24 MILLION Copy DOLLARS LOST In May 2020, a Canadian power Formal generator power transmission bought many hedging U.S. too contracts at higher prices than they needed to. The CEO said it was literally a cut-and-paste error in an Excel spreadsheet. В A CRACKED — Source

39

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

38

Corporate Basketball

In the Philippines, basketball teams are corporate-owned. Tender Juicy HOTDOO Each team only serves as its corporation's marketing tool. Their names change often, depending on what the company wants to sell: for example, there used to be a team called Kia Sorento that became Kia Carnival. And the Purefoods Star Hotshots were Purefoods Tender Juicy Hotdogs, then Purefoods Corned Beef Cowboys. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

37

Bitcoin

Hundreds of billions of dollars in Bitcoin have been lost to forgotten passwords. About 20% of all Bitcoins are locked in inaccessible digital wallets, in many cases because the owners have forgotten the password. As it turns out, people don't get better at remembering passwords when the stakes get higher. — More: 5 Foolish Flaws That Make Crypto Total Trash

36

JPMorgan

Insert Home Page Cut Ca Copy Using Excel cost JPMorgan billions. You'd think that a huge financial company would use something fancier than Excel. JPMorgan didn't - to assess risky investments, they relied on a complex series of spreadsheets. Predictably, small errors snowballed, eventually costing the company over $6 billion in 2012. В A CRACKED COM — Source

35

HyperSocial CEO

People are ripping into the CEO that posted a crying selfie on LinkedIn. CRACKED.COM Braden Wallake, the CEO of a company specializing in opti- mizing LinkedIn posts, post- ed the blubbering photo on a post discussing layoffs in his company. Here's how to op- timize this particular post: Delete it.

34

Whole Foods

Whole Foods used to sell food made with prison labor. Snowdrop m or adidas NATIONAL Haystack Mountain goat cheese, sold at Whole Foods, was made by inmates and the company sold it for nearly a decade -- they stopped only when a prison reform activist wrote to the CEO. CRACKED.COM

33

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

32

Ulta Beauty

Ulta Beauty apologized for a 'Come hang with Kate Spade' perfume promo CRACKED COM The designer died by suicide when she hanged herself in 2018. Spade's death led to a wave of conversations about mental health. — WFAA

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

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

Dr. Pepper

In 2007, Dr. Pepper held a promotion asking people to search for a coin in Boston's most historic graveyard. 1882 Dozens of people gathered at the Old Granary Burying Ground, where figures like John Hancock are buried, looking to dig around for the coin. Boston officials quickly denounced the promotion and had it shut down. CRACKED.COM — Source

28

Krispy Kreme

In 2015, Krispy Kreme had a promo naMED Frispy KKK Wednesday Krspy hreme Krirpy Kreme. Htull HALF TERM ACTIVITIES Xbany 900 1200 XLny 000 209 YORNGA

27

Racist Restaurant Rant

CRACKED CORPORATE CRASH & BURN BEING RACIST IN A RESTAURANT Michael Lofthouse, the head of a tech business in San Francisco, quit his job after a video showed him making racist comments to an Asian family at a restaurant in Carmel Valley on the Fourth of July. — jordanlizchan/Instagram
ABC 7 News

26

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

25

The 13th Warrior

CRACKED THE 13TH WARRIOR MONEY LOST: $100M+ The movie was a riff on Beowulf, and was based on a novel by Michael Chrichton. Despite big-name inspiration, it's estimated to have lost up to $130 million (in 1999 dollars). — AV Club / Box Office Mojo / Bomb Report

24

Gambled Away $100 Million

CRACKED OVER $100 MILLION GAMBLED AWAY One businessman lost more than $100 million in 2007 at a chain of casinos in Las Vegas. It's said that he was given alcohol and drugs to keep him gambling. — Source

23

Whole Foods

John Mackey made a fake identity to talk himself up. The Whole Foods CEO made a message poster named Rahodeb, who posted hundreds of times praising his company and slamming his competition. Не also took to flattering himself in the third person, praising his cute haircut and declaring, Mackey CRACKEDARKS like a model for Brooks Brothers. — Source

22

McDonald’s

Meanwhile, Their CEO Earns Millions C O E CRACKED.COM In 2017, as the strikes and lawsuits poured in, the CEO of McDonald's earned almost $22 million. That's thanks in part to a 69% pay raise two years earlier, which is not, in fact, nice. — Forbes

21

Clearlink CEO

CRACKED CEO PRAISES EMPLOYEE FOR SACRIFICING THEIR PET FOR THE OFFICE. James Clarke, the CEO of Clearlink, had a meeting with the staff where he praised a worker who had to give away their pet dog because the company was making them come back to the office. God bless America, or something.

20

Sam Bankman-Fried

CRACKED $14.6 BILLION IN A DAY In November 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried, the head of FTX, lost a lot of money - about $14.6 billion - in a single day, after he made a deal with Binance to get some help. — Fortune

19

Ross Perot

CRACKED ALMOST HALF A BILLION DOLLARS IN ONE DAY On April 22, 1986, Ross Perot lost a huge amount of money - the most ever in one day, at that point - when the stock of his company, E.D.S., dropped from $150 to $85. It was a loss of $450 million. — NY Times / CNN

18

Ratners Group

CRACKED People say: 'How can you sell this for such a low price?' I say: 'Because it's total crap.'''' GERALD RATNER, former CEO of jewelry company Ratners Group, during a corporate speech. — Gerald.ratner/Wiki Commons
This is Money

17

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

16

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

15

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

14

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.

13

Red Lobster

A Red Lobster president lost her job after creating an endless crab promotion. Red Lobster Edna Morris tried to boost profits with a $22.99 din- ner promotion, but instead lost millions by bungling her calculations on how many times patrons would refill their plates with pric- ey crab. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

12

Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett bought a company to fire the CEO In 1964, Buffett was so angry that textile company Berkshire Hathaway had tried to get away with overcharging him on its own stock that he bought it, took control of the company, and got rid of the CEO. CRACKED — mark reinstein/Shutterstock
CNBC

11

Nike Swoosh Designer

The Nike Swoosh designer got 35 bucks nike GRACKED.COM Graphic designer Carolyn Davidson came up with the now-iconic Swoosh in 1971. She was paid a paltry $35 by the CEO at the time, who also made it clear he didn't even really like the design. (Thankfully, a decade later, a new CEO gifted her Nike stock worth hundreds of thousands of dollars).

10

McDonald’s Japan

M WAGON 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 stole data when connected to a computer. McDonald's had to provide the winners with an antivirus program and replace the players. GRAGKED.COM — Source: 29 Companies That Ran Unbelievably Dumb Promotions

9

Son of the Mask

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM Son Of The Mask Son of the Mask cost 5 times as much to make as the original with a budget of 100 million. All that money put the nail in Jamie Kennedy's career coffin and lost 40.1 million dollars at the box office. — Source: The Numbers

8

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

7

LifeLock

A CEO went out of his way to prove his company was crap. Todd Davis was so confident in the services provided by LifeLock, his identity theft protection company, that he published his own social security number in the ads. In just the next couple years, thieves stole his identity 13 times. LifeLock was heavily fined for deceptive business practices. — More: 6 Catastrophic Punishments The Universe Unleashed On Arrogant People

6

British Airways

BRITISH BIG OOPS! LOSING TENS OF MILLIONS ON A PROMOTION In 1992, Hoover offered British customers two free flights to the U.S. if they bought something worth more than £100. Unfortunately, this promotion ended up costing the company £48 million, and three senior executives were let go. CRACKED — Fasttailwind/Shutterstock
Marketing Week

5

Forever 21

Forever 21 upset its customers by including Atkins diet bars in as F DENINI their plus-size orders. PROTEIN-RICH MEAL BAR 16G 3G 2G 12G 8 NET CARBS SUGAR FIBER PROTEIN CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER BAR ATKINS NATURALLY FLAVORED BAR NO ARTIFICIAL COLORS VALUE FLAVORS PRESERVATIVES PACK SAME GREAT TASTE - DIR MELCOMEN DA 8 2.12 OZ 160g BARS NET WT 16.9 OZ (480g) The popular clothing company claimed that they sent the product to everyone, across all sizes and categories. Forever 21 apologized for their tone-deafness and pulled the promotion. CRACKED COM — Source

4

Molson

3

Boss Demands

One year, my company had an outing on a small cruise ship. During the event, my boss-and CEO of the company-n -made me ask the captain to change the d

2

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

1

Bankruptcy

Donald Trump has filed for bankruptcy with four of his companies, not having to pay millions of dollars in debt. Ses ES 6 But U.S. law does not allow

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