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40 Embarrassing, Infuriating Mistakes and Scandals From the Corporate World

Just a few massive white-collared whoopsies!

40 Embarrassing, Infuriating Mistakes and Scandals From the Corporate World

March 03, 2025

Who doesn’t love a good old fashioned comeuppance? Any time a Goliath character is taken down a peg or two by a David type, we’re cheering our little arms off. Emphasis on little, because typing doesn’t get one “jacked,” “yoked” or whatever the Gen Z gym rats are saying these days.

Anywho, these corporate Goliaths didn’t even need a David to slingshot a rock at their big business mugs. They tried slinging a big rock of their own and ended up knocking themselves out.

40

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.

39

Actionable Insights

CRACKED CORPORATE CRASH & BURN BEING RACIST IN A BAR Jason Wood, the CEO of Actionable Insights, stepped down from his job in July 2020 after a video of him making a racist comment in a Fresno bar spread around the internet.

38

Pay by Touch

Turbine 14 PAY BY 167 To Hondensator TOUCH 2013 PAY BY TOUCH place center OF finger flat S sensor CU press and hold wait E for green 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.

37

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

36

Warren Buffett

CRACKED GO RTUNY ORT RTU WARREN BUFFETT Warren Buffett's rise to success with Berkshire Hathaway was not without its mistakes; he regrets not tendering his shares when Seabury Stanton tried to buy them back at a lower price, and he also regrets buying Berkshire's stock at a high price and combining National Indemnity Company with Berkshire Hathaway, which cost him an estimated $100 billion. — NY Times / Investopedia

35

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

34

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

33

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. — Source

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

Dinobabies

WEIRD WORLD An IBM executive is in hot water for calling older workers dinobabies. The dinobabies, who the high-level executive said should go extinct, were called out over an internal message. The dinobabies were accused of not understanding social or engagement, and for not being digital natives. CRACKED.COM — Source: ARS Technica

30

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. — Reuters / The Investor

29

Herman Miller CEO

CRACKED BEING ASKED BY EMPLOYEES ABOUT WHETHER THEY'LL GET A BONUS Andi Owen, the CEO of a high-end office furniture company, totally lost it when some of her employees asked about staying motivated if they don't get annual bonuses. Even though she makes a $4.9 million salary, she told them to leave Pity City.

28

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.

27

McDonald’s

CRACKED M MCDONALD'S BEEFED UP THEIR VEGETABLE OIL. When McDonald's switched from beef fat to vegetable oil to cook their fries, they forgot to mention that the vegetable oil still contained beef products. A lawsuit awarded $10 million to Hindu and vegetarian groups. — CBS / How Stuff Works

26

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

25

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

24

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.

23

DiGiorno

DiGiorno jumped on a domestic abuse hashtag DIGIORNO DiGiorno Pizza @DiGiornoPizza #WhyIStayed You had pizza. 9/8/14, 11:11 PM GRAGKED.COM The social media person or DiGiorno clearly didn't do their research before tweeting out a joke on a trending hashtag. The hashtag was in defense of domestic abuse victims.

22

Herbalife

An Herbalife insider once admitted on camera that the company was a scam. Lose Weight Now HERBALIFE. Ask Me How! Independent Distributor Investor Bill Ackman claimed Herbalife's nutrition clubs, private settings where Herbalife distributors sell the company's products and recruit new members, amount to a pyramid scheme. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — CNBC

21

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

20

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 — Overstock,
jgolby/Shutterstock
news.com.au

19

Kodak

Kodak is now involved in shady Bitcoin schemes. KODAK KashMiner When their photo business went down, Kodak was reduced to sketchy schemes. Like the Ka — From The 5 Dumbest Ways Big Companies Tried To Stay In Business.

18

Fox News

Fox News used the fact that food stamp fraud cost the government $70 million to argue that it may be time to stop the program. NEWS insider LATEST TRENDING PEOPLE SHOWS TRUMP TRANSITION Food Stamp Fraud at All-Time High: Is It Time to End the Program? f share this email With a budget of around $67 billion, the money lost to fraud actually made up less than 1% 99.9% of the of total food budget. stamp In other words, about N-T HIDITI reached the people who money nT successfully were meant to have it. CRACKED.COM — Source: 23 Stats That Are Misleading B.S. (But Technically Correct)

17

Gerald Ratner

CRACKED CORPORATE CRASH & BURN SAYING THE QUIET PART OUT LOUD Gerald Ratner, the CEO of a jewelry group, made a speech in 1991 that included the musing: People say, 'how can you sell this for such a low price?' I say 'because it's total crap. His careless words are now known as doing a Ratner, and cost his company a whooping £500 million.

16

DaimlerChrysler

CNN / Auto News

15

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

14

Dangerous Giveaway

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: 29 Companies That Ran Unbelievably Dumb Promotions

13

Prince

Celebrity Colognes and Perfumes 3121 by Prince The perfume contains bergamot, jasmine, gardenia, orange blossom and lily-of-the- valley, but is mostly known for Prince refusing to endorse it. His lack of promotion got him sued for $3.95 million dollars by the fragrance company. PUPU eau de parfum PNPU A. oz. 7.5 ml GRACKED.COM — Sources: Perfume.com, TheTalko

12

Beanie Babies

The creator of Beanie Babies was charged with tax fraud. The billionaire creator Ty Warner had to pay a $100,000 fine but no jail time (?!) for hiding millions of dollars. CRACKED.COM — Source: 17 (Forgotten) 90's Things

11

Google

Google had to pay a combined $522.5 million for their shady business Your 197 practices. Google GRAGKED.COM Google paid fines for illegal data collection, knowingly allowing fraudulent pharmacies to advertise on their site, and were accused of profiting from women sex trafficking. — Huffington Post

10

McDonald’s Monopoly Scandal

CRACKED EXHIBIT A SHOP BIG MAC neo BASTS TO AMIST BUILDA PRIZE BELL . BIPSAC FURD EXPLORER A LA THE MCDONALD'S MONOPOLY SCANDAL. In the '90s, McDonalds' Monopoly marketing executive Jerry Jacobson made $24 million by stealing and selling the game's most valuable pieces. — Source

9

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

8

Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was a rice-gouging businessman. When he wasn't revolutionizing English literature, the Bard liked to keep himself busy by buying huge stocks of grain, which he'd then sell at inflated prices. He was eventually prosecuted for tax evasion and hoarding food during a time of shortage. — More: 4 Scams That Are Older Than You Think

7

Stan Lee’s Business Manager

Stan Lee's business manager stole not just millions of dollars, but also his blood. Besides swindling him out of money, he also allegedly had a nurse take blood from Lee, which he then sold in Las Vegas as a collectible for thousands of dollars. CRACKED.COM — Source: Vulture

6

False Advertising

CRACKED ON-BALANCE LELAND ИГР . ON BALANCE'S - AD LUNCH TODAY M Pepper M M A CLASS ACTION SUIT FOR FALSE ADVERTISING. A Wendy's commercial food stylist said that she uses undercooked beef to make burgers look plumper, and layers toppings with pins. We all know the visual discrepancy, but in 2022, Wendy's and McDonald's got slapped with a false-advertising suit. — News Nation Now

5

Curt Schilling

CURT SCHILLING 38 STUDIOS TOP LOCAL STORY Schilling Addresses 38 Studios Failure Leave Schilling's politics out of this and just call him a dopey business man. The World Series hero blew $50 million on a fledgling video game company, along with $75 million in Rhode lsland taxpayer money. By — Sportscasting.com

4

Atari

40 Embarrassing, Infuriating Mistakes and Scandals From the Corporate World — Source: InfoWorld

3

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

2

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

1

Donald Trump

From 2006 to 2015, Donald Trump promoted video phones made by ACN, a multi-level marketing company. AON Trump distanced himself from ACN when he began

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