35 Times That Huge Corporations Took An L in the Boardroom

Business blunders heard ‘round the world
35 Times That Huge Corporations Took An L in the Boardroom
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We wonder if folks in big business know that every idea could be their last. This list made us grateful that conjuring up our silly little list ideas has much lower stakes than a deal or marketing mishap that loses millions of dollars. We’re not 100 percent safe, though. We guess that if we really wanted to, we could start typing some horribly graphic, offensive text that’d surely get us canned. You know, something like…

Our editors probably edited that out, didn’t they? 

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SARS

SARS SOFT DRINK Quality Premium Quality Premima en AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIAN golden AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIAN gol cle OWNED GROWN circle OWNED GROWN ci SARS SA RS CRACKED.COM A few different companies didn't let a thing like a massively deadly disease force them to change the name of their sarsaparilla soda.

The Godfather II

In 2009, EA shipped brass knuckles along with their upcoming game, The Godfather II to press members for promotional purposes. They soon learned The that the knuckles Godfatherll are classified as illegal weapons in many states, including California, where EA is based. NATURE LA PLAYSTATION 3 M EA It's against the law to be in possession of them, and it is also illegal to ship them. They had to plead with the recipients to send the knuckles back. The game received abyssmal reviews and prompted EA to let go of the franchise. CRACKED COM

Chanel’s Boomerang

CC Chanel's 2017 pre-spring collection included a $1,384 boomerang. CRACKED.COM

LifeLock

Eager to promote confidence in his company's identity theft protection services, the CEO of LifeLock Social Security used campaign. his number actual in stock advertising 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

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

Dante’s Inferno

ЕА tried promoting Dante's Inferno by encouraging acts of lust with booth models at Comic-Con. DANTES INFERNO - at COMIC.COM. A NIGHT WITHTHE DINNER, HOTTEST GYRL BOOTY MORE. AND EA HOW TO WIN PROVE IT в: REPEAT COMMIT ACTS OF LUST TWITTER @DANTETEAM #LUST OR TAKE PHOTOS WITH US FIND MORE BABKS FIND OF ON FACESOOK.COM/DANTESINFERNO FOR MORE CHANCES OR ANY BOOTH BABE. EWAIT COUTEST People instantly interpreted the contest as glorifying sexual harassment, and buckets of outrage followed. EA released a Twitter apology soon after, claiming the contest was tongue-in-cheek. CRACKED.COM

Valve

Valve's 2019 Summer Sale event was a doggone disaster. ETTEN GRAND PRIX JUNESUPLES C ! TODAY'S FIO . HAIR COCKATEL P TOYTOINE CORICI I FINISH 122x the YOUR 110s 4,003 131 717 Players rigged Valve's racing promo, which gave winners a chance to win a wishlisted game, by dogpiling into one team. People also assumed deleting wishlisted games would narrow down what they'd win, which cratered sales for indie developers. CRACKED.COM

Bethesda

Bethesda Game Studios advertised a canvas duffle bag as part of the $200 Power Armor Edition of Fallout 76. WEST TEK WARFARE FULLY POWERED Customers were understandably ticked off when instead they recieved a cheap nylon NESTEK AREAU RICE POWERED bag with the game, due to unavailability of materials. As if the blatant bait-and-switch wasn't bad enough, this was the response someone got when they emailed Bethesda about it: Hello, GRACKED.COM We are sorry that you aren't happy with the bag. We aren't planning on doing anything about it. Bethesda Gear Store Support - North America

Hooters

Employees of a Panama City, FL HOOTERS were understandably excited when, in 2001, their manager told them that whoever sold the most beer would win a new Toyota. The winner HOOTERS sued when she was led to the restaurant parking lot and presented with... CRACKED.COM a new toy Yoda.

American Apparel

GRACKED.COM American Apparel wanted to launch an XL clothing line and created a casting call to hire plus-sized models to promote them. THE NEXT BIG THING However, they did so with awkward, offensive puns like calling their potential models 'booty-ful', 'full-sized fannies', and naming the contest The Next Big Thing'. The contest, of course, generated a lot of backlash.

Supreme

Supreme Supreme Supreme Supreme Supreme Supreme Streetwear brand Supreme launched a line of premium red clay bricks as accessories in 2016. It sold out quickly--before word got around that it was just as prone to chipping as a normal brick. It was basically a paperweight designed for separating the gullible from their money. Supreme CRACKED.COM

Hooters Air

Hooters used to operate an airline. GO UTH MYP 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

The Pentagon

The Pentagon wasted $5 billion on a plane that was never made. The A-12 Stealth Bomber was billed as a long-range bomber for the 21st century, but the development program just fizzled out after burning a bunch of money and never produced anything (except lawsuits). NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

McDonald’s

McDONALD'S VEGETABLE OIL NTXX CRACKED.COM In 1990, McDonald's switched from beef fat to vegetable oil to cook their fries. Vegetarians were thrilled until discovering the vegetable oil still contained beef products. A lawsuit awarded $10 mill to Hindu and vegetarian groups.

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

ZARA

The clothing brand ZARA put out children's 'Sheriff' pajamas, saying they were inspired by Old West culture. Jude However, the stripes and the yellow star reminded many CRACKED.COM people of the uniforms worn by the Jews in the extermination camps during the Holocaust.

Yahoo!

CRACKED Tumblr - Home t of Fandom Mones tumblr. Search OPEN 17 0.4 №75 ..... What's New Verson History 10.0 Made Thanks for choising Tumblr a pixce & 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.

Microsoft

CRACKED NOKIA 3 def g 1 2 abc 4 6 ghi mno 5 jkl 7 pqrs 8 tuv wx * o ب 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.

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.

Blockbuster

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.

Electronic Arts

CRACKED.COM To promote Mercenaries 2 in the U.K., ЕА gave away $30,000 worth of gas... LIVE XBOX 360 MERCENARIES2 WINDLY FLAMES OUT LISIPO D a ...and MATRIAS started a traffic jam in the streets of London. The traffic outside the gas station became stalled with angry morning commuters due to the demand, forcing police to intervene and end the event. The local Member of Parliament straight up accused ЕА of instigating a fuel riot.

Myspace

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.

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.

#McDStories

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. CO. m The Saweetie Meal GY M BBQ Sweetie CREW .

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

Research in Motion

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

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

PagerDuty CEO

CRACKED A TECH COMPANY CEO APOLOGIZED FOR QUOTING MLK IN A LAYOFF EMAIL. At the end of the email, the PagerDuty CEO said the situation made her think of a quote from MLK that said a leader is judged by how they act in difficult times, not when everything is going well. Indeed.

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.

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.

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.

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison gave someone a fake job offer as Apple CEO. Jobs and Ellison were on Apple's board in 1997, and they both emailed a rando who had been campaigning for the CEO job with the message that he got it. Sadly, the guy really believed it. CRACKED.COM

Activision

In 1979, programmers working for Atari met with the CEO and demanded the company treat them more like musicians, with access to royalties & c credit on packaging. - - DIG DUG IMUNTED HOUSE The CEO refused, stating that anyone can do a cartridge. The programmers left and started Activision. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Terrible Predictions About the iPhone

35 Times That Huge Corporations Took An L in the Boardroom

NASA

NASA forgot to convert units from English to metric. HOUSTON, TEXAS CRACKED.COM The avoidable mistake meant Mars Climate Orbiter burned up in space, costing NASA $125 million in 1999.

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