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30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy Nestle convincing thousands of women in low income countries that they should wean off their babies and substitute breast milk for extremely expensive formula because breast milk wasn't fully nutritious, but also forcing new mothers to spend 30% of their income JUST on baby formula, which made them try save it to last way longer than it should and ended up killing their kids from malnutrition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Nestl%C3%A9_boycott

parangolecomuna , [deleted] Report

Final score:

411points

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KJ 1 year ago

Nestle really is a crappy company, they keep doing awful things just for a cash grab.

375points

GrumpiestOldDude , Jiri Brozovsky Report

To hear more about how this conversation started, we reached out to the Reddit user who posed the question, "What are some of the worst corporate blunders or PR disasters in history?", and lucky for us, they were kind enough to share some insight. Apparently, their question was inspired by the fact that it was recently the 10 year anniversary of Microsoft's "disastrous" XBox One reveal event.

According to Business Insider, some of the glaring issues with the XBox One at that time were the fact that it required a constant internet connection, it was not compatible with used games, every Xbox One would come with a Kinect motion sensor, and the Xbox One was priced at $500 when it launched (which was $100 more than the PlayStation 4).

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy Not the worst certainly but the one that makes me smile whenever I think of it.

I work for a pretty big company with offices in pretty much every country. Billions in profit every year and one of the leaders in our field. About 15 years ago there was an internal announcement that we were going to rebrand in a couple months.

A guy who I vaguely knew was already on his way out the door but before he left he grabbed the domain name that the company would definitely want to have as part of their rebranding but had not yet reserved. So a week later when they finally got around to trying to reserve it they found it occupied with a tiny website that only had a gif of a character dancing with the caption, "I got your domain!"

I have no idea what they had to pay him to get it.

Final score:

384points

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Take me to dinner first 1 year ago

This is the kind of priceless thing that he must have felt SO HAPPY to experience

175points

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy Here’s one happening right now: HBO is rebranding as “Max”.

HBO is a premium brand with decades of quality programming behind it.

Max is generic, vague, and makes me think of soft core p**n.

watchingsongsDL , Nicole Lee Report

Final score:

368points

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James016 1 year ago

A lot of times rebranding makes no sense. Here in the UK, the well known coach/bus company National Express is changing its name to Mobico.

95points

"I wanted to see what other similarly disastrous corporate/PR blunders happened in history, their impact, and how the company recovered (if at all)," the OP told Bored Panda.

And as far as what causes these disasters, they noted, "I think most blunders are a result of poor planning - from logistics to being ignorant of specific cultures where a promotion happens, or just general lack of awareness to understand when certain ideas or innovations are ready to be received by the public."

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy In Canada, when the Conservative Party merged with the Reform party they called themselves the Canadian Reform Alliance Party or as all Canadian comedians realized “C**P”. It was hilarious for 48 hours before the changed it. Never forget C**P

Mahovolich13 , Larry Syverson Report

Final score:

338points

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David Wambold 1 year ago

Nixon- Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP ending up being called CREEP)

100points

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy Supposedly years ago, there was a Pepsi slogan "Come Alive with Pepsi" that was mistranslated in Chinese as "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back from the Dead."

xain_the_idiot , www.youtube.com Report

Final score:

319points

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David Wambold 1 year ago

What is this sweet snake oil??

82points

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy Blockbuster refusing to buy Netflix

hate_mail , Mr Stan Zemanek Report

Final score:

310points

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Lisa Westerfield 1 year ago

According to a book I read, they also turned down buying Red Box.

80points

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy Blackberry thinking that they are the top in the mobile market so they didn't need to innovate to compete with those new iPhone things from Apple.

TechyDad , Cheon Fong Liew Report

Final score:

299points

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TotallyNOTaFox 1 year ago (edited)

The funeral of the iPhone held by Microsoft didn't really turn out good either

134points

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy Sears dominated the mail order industry for over a century with their catalog. In 1993, they decided that mail order was on the decline and discontinued the catalog. Less than a year later, Jeff Bezos would found Amazon.

BlueRFR3100 , Mike Mozart Report

Final score:

282points

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David Wambold 1 year ago

Used to circle stuff we wanted for Christmas in Sears catalog. Saved mom and dad time trying to figure it out.

175points

#10

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy One funny one that always springs to mind is the Britain’s Got Talent winner Susan Boyle releasing her first album and her management coming up with a twitter hashtag to promote it: #susanalbumparty

Sus (Su’s)
A**l
Bum
Party

It trended number one but not because of the actual album lol

Insanegirl_throwaway , Wasforgas Report

Final score:

270points

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Isabella 1 year ago

She didn't win, she was on 2nd place, but she won the public nevertheless.

95points

#11

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy * Coke making New Coke
* Kodak refusing to go digital believing people would stay true to film
* Toys R Us neglecting their online sales experience

largemouthbase , Tiia Monto Report

Final score:

253points

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BannedFromABoatShow 1 year ago

I miss Toys R Us so much.

99points

#12

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy Have you heard of the [Osborne Effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_effect)?

TLDR: Company in 1981 has one of the first home computers on the market, it sounds fantastic and everything. At the launch, CEO says the next version will be so much better.... So everyone decided why buy this version if the next version will be better? We'll wait for V2.

So V1 sold terribly, company folded, there is no V2.

BIllyBrooks , Casey Fleser Report

Final score:

251points

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Asher Tye 1 year ago

This might be why Nintendo today is so hesitant to talk about their next system while the old one is still doing hot.

20points

#13

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy Digiorno trying to make the hashtag "Why I Stayed" be about making pizza at home.

scottfpaul Report

Final score:

236points

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KJ 1 year ago

How clueless can you be!

95points

#14

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy JC Penney tried to eliminate the tons of sales and never-ending discounts on their products by just pricing them at what they would normally be, aiming for a “fair and square” price model. Instead of marking a shirt up to $10 and then having it basically always 40% off, they just priced it at $6, for example. They also ended their prices in solid dollars instead of $0.99 intervals to make it easier to calculate.

No coupons, no sales, but the same price. People always complain about how stuff gets marked up just to get put on sale and how cheap of a gimmick it is, right?

Well turns out people actually love feeling like they’re getting a deal even if they objectively know it’s just set dressing, and JCP lost millions from the strategy and their sales dropped by around a third.

soulreaverdan , BY-SA 3.0 Report

Final score:

231points

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Warrior Mama 1 year ago

Interesting! I used to work at JCPenney in college in the 90's and remember the line being out the door on certain sale days. Our registers always had the highest totals on those days - I can't believe the higher ups didn't notice this!

69points

#15

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy The Ford Pinto's propensity to explode when rear-ended.

And Ford making the business decision not to recall because their "cost benefit analysis" showed that lawsuits for injury would be cheaper.

Also, thalidomide.

Hemenucha , Alden Jewell Report

Final score:

226points

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Alexia 1 year ago

It was Frances Oldham Kelsey, a young pharmacologist who had just joined the FDA at the time, who rejected the application for marketing of thalidomide in US due to lack of safety data. She was backed by her boss at FDA and stood her ground despite all pressures. Thank you, Mrs. Kelsey.

12points

#16

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy EMI Music executive telling the Beatles after their audition that EMI wasn't interested because guitar bands were on the way out?

bristoltim , Bernard Gotfryd Report

Final score:

225points

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Asher Tye 1 year ago

Funnily enough, the executive found himself "on the way out" shortly thereafter. /jk

69points

#17

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy When Game of Thrones botched the most anticipated episode in the series history of one of (the?) biggest shows in history by making it in borderline pitch black. Then explaining themselves by saying people need better TVs….[https://nypost.com/2019/05/01/game-of-thrones-cinematographer-blames-dark-episode-on-bad-tv-settings/amp/](https://nypost.com/2019/05/01/game-of-thrones-cinematographer-blames-dark-episode-on-bad-tv-settings/amp/)

teflonjon321 Report

Final score:

219points

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General Anaesthesia 1 year ago

"You're holding it wrong" - Apple©™® about signal problems with the iPhone 4.

95points

#18

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy Can't believe the Hoover flights to America promotion from the early 90's hasn't come up yet. They offered a pair of return flights to America worth £600 if you spent £100 or more on their stuff. Turned out people thought £100 for a return flight with a free vacuum cleaner was a hell of a deal and it was a disaster that cost the company millions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_free_flights_promotion

Tim6181 , www.youtube.com Report

Final score:

217points

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Tee Rat 1 year ago

Perfect example of corporate greed and shadiness. Hoover tried to make the application process for the tickets difficult and found out their customers were smarter than they thought. Cost them millions and they never fully recovered. In the end the company was sold.

85points

#19

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy When U2 made us all have their album on our ipods.

samit2heck , Brett Jordan Report

Final score:

210points

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James016 1 year ago

Because Bono's sanctimony was not enough.

60points

#20

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy Gerald Ratner calling his own company’s (jeweller) products “c**p” and saying that “a prawn sandwich would last longer” than their earrings at a conference. The company’s value fell by £500m and he had to resign.

Onion_Heart , EG Focus Report

Final score:

188points

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Tee Rat 1 year ago

"No, it's not water under the bridge. It's like a scar on the face." His interview many years later.

66points

toocleverbyhalf , Bhopal Medical Appeal Report

#21

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy Trying to decide which was worse: Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal India that killed 4-8k people and injured maybe 100k, or Chiquita (under a former name) overthrowing the legitimate government of Guatemala with help from the CIA.

Final score:

185points

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Sapna Sarfare 1 year ago (edited)

Bhopal Gas Tragedy was huge. If you want to know the impact, see the photo of a dead kid clicked by Raghu Rai.. it will haunt you forever

50points

#22

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy In the art field there are a lot of bad predatory software that people use (ahem adobe ahem) but one of the most well respected softwares was something called clip studio paint. It was single purchase and had amazing features and is something I personally still use. In the last year the company proceeded to go back on it's word and force you to get a subscription or pay several hundreds for a license, add ai art support (which if you don't know, ai art takes art from real artists for their samples which is a huge no no in the field), and most recently they are restricting offline access to paying customers and locking them out if they don't have a credit card on their account. Company went from having a huge loyal fanbase and one of the best reputations in the entire art field to losing everyone who supported them and now are having a piracy crisis which is encouraged by most artists

Segendo_Panda11 , @iannnnn Report

Final score:

178points

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Pheebs 1 year ago

I miss the days when Adobe was a one-time purchase. Yeah, it was expensive, but last time I bought it I used the one install for the next 10 years.

65points

#23

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy The Victorian Taxi Association (Australian) had a 2015 social media marketing based around people sharing their good news stories of using taxis. It took a matter of days for it to be overwhelmed by the not-so-good stories. Turns out rather a lot of people had stories that ranged from hiked up fares and smelly taxies, to out-and-out sexual assaults by cabbies. All now being shared under the campaigns hashtag.

pico42 , Rob Nguyen Report

Final score:

178points

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Robert T 1 year ago

I'm not surprised. Victorian taxis were horse-drawn! ;-)

20points

#24

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy Celebrities singing “imagine” at the beginning of the pandemic.

KickiMinaj , www.youtube.com Report

Final score:

169points

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Lisa Westerfield 1 year ago

Of all the dumb things humanity does every hour, this wasn't it. I thought it was nice gesture.

74points

The Original Bruno 1 year ago

Read the words to "Imagine." Basically boil down to "Imagine magically getting rid of everyone who doesn't think and act exactly like I dooooo" Billionaires singing about how wonderful it would be to get rid of all possessions when hundreds of millions of working-class people were thrown out of their jobs didn't exactly ring the genius bell, either.

72points

Pink Princess 1 year ago

This was honestly so dumb but I don't think the celebrities involved deserved so much hate. They had good intentions

35points

Me 1 year ago

Agreed. Reminds me of when my grandmother was lying on the couch with a headache and needed a glass of water. I got a glass and filled it with water from the toilet bowl. Fortunately she heard me. ...3 years old with good intentions.

28points

Ben 1 year ago

Getting rich celebrities' signing from their beautiful mansions while everyone else was struggling in the middle of a pandemic was in my opinion moronic.

17points

Petra Schaap 1 year ago

just because they're rich doesnt say they didnt suffer. A golden cage is still a cage. They too saw all their plans and project fall into pieces and feared for what was coming.

2points

RedMarbles 1 year ago

Hey, just to add something positive to this comment section, I just remembered the existence of the recreation of The Princess Bride by multiple actors during the lockdown. Filmed in bits in the actors' backyards, with costumes made from household items. It's hilarious if you're a fan of the movie. A much better idea than the Imagine video and I don't think it pissed anyone off. It reminded me of what my friends and I might have done as kids. Seriously delightful. Some of the Inigos were truly fantastic too.

10points

similarly 1 year ago

The BBC did a couple songs that had a bunch of celebrities. One was the "Live Lounge AllStars" covering The Foo Fighters' "Times Like These". The other, my favorite, by the BBC Radio 2 AllStars" for the Children in Need charity covered Oasis' "Stop Crying Your Heart Out". I thought both of these were great. But I think one big difference is that these were musicians who, even when singing at home had great sound setups, many of them played instruments, and the editing was phenomenal.

10points

Tyke 1 year ago (edited)

and they weren't singing in lockdown from their mansions in a patronising manner to the "poor public", some in dire situations

33points

Fabian Bernard 1 year ago

People clapping medics and nurse in France at 8 am, then voting for people who cuts health and hospital costs. And these elected complain now that ''no one wants to work at the hospital anymore '' after broken promises done when sending them a SOS during the pandemic

8points

Kathryn Baylis 1 year ago (edited)

When the real world spills over your community’s gates, and you don’t know how to react like a person who lives in the real world would. Trying to make it seem like we’re all in this pandemic together, by singing a song on the Internet from your mansion while you don’t have to work because you have enough money in the bank to live off of for several decades, is not only out of touch, it’s low key cruel to those of us who lost or had to leave jobs and wonder how in the flying f**k we were going to pay our bills because of the pandemic.

7points

Mary Kelly 1 year ago

i see natalie portman and her holier-than-thou and i cringe

7points

Omima mimi miki 1 year ago

agreed

0points

Sapna Sarfare 1 year ago

there was a funny thing in India where a few celebs (aka movie stars) were posting their home exercise video. finally it took a member of their circle to call them out funnily...

4points

Riley Quinn 1 year ago

Give it a rest. They weren't be hateful or malicious. Just a bit overenthusiastic and bad timing.

2points

Jude Corrigan 1 year ago

Posting a video from your mansion whilst being out of work, is a little different to not knowing where your next meal is coming from because your workplace is closed.

0points

Gypsy Lee 1 year ago

Not sure why anyone cared.

1point

La Heramana Babweena Rodriguez 1 year ago

"They arrre the Wooorld"...

1point

Omima mimi miki 1 year ago

When they sang this all I imagined was they get to be stuck at home in a mansion for a year

1point

Justin Thyme 1 year ago

Fortunately, I was too busy working to have to see or hear this

1point

Sam Lin 1 year ago (edited)

Reminds me of I Want It That Way at home edition by BSB.😆

1point

Sergio Bicerra 1 year ago

I prefer the Brooklyn 99 version.

2points

ZuriLovesYou 7 months ago

What's the big deal?

0points

Grace Smith 1 year ago

Yeah I had neutral feeling about this

0points

Sam Cook 1 year ago

I feel it could have been far worse. I did love The Boys' parody of it, though.

0points

Roxanne D'souza 1 year ago

Honestly I didn't find this as bad as most people did. Sure I rolled my eyes but didn't think celebs needed to be cancelled for it. In the past, celebs have gotten together to sing songs for Live Aid and Live 8 as well. This was just done with phone cameras and in everyone's houses and not in studios like the Live Aid one.

0points

dev mehta 1 year ago

The guy to the right should have imagined himself in mirror before lecturing the public

0points

Zelda Sterling 1 year ago

dude...that's Will Ferrell...that's on purpose.

0points

Iva Kazalova 1 year ago

Let’s profess to open our hearts to the peasants, only on video, mind you

0points

Monica Sargent 1 year ago

Another reason I believe in Jesus: because I He spared me from this

0points

Jennifer 1 year ago

He spared me from having 747 fuselage dropped on my head from 30,000 ft. 🤣

-1point

Sven Grammersdorf 1 year ago

"Imagine" sounds like it was written by a Kindergartener

-1point

Sandra Gleeson 1 year ago

Idiots

-1point

KAM KAM 1 year ago

“Imagine” having a drug-free view of the world.

-1point

DragonflyGreen 1 year ago

Yeah, this isn't blame on the celebrities. It moved me to tears, and caused me to feel a oneness. I just don't look at rich people and celebrities as special.

-1point

#25

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy There was a diet product called "Ayds" before the sound-alike disease. Not at all a blunder, but an unforeseeable, unrecoverable disaster.

artwells , Sweeney_Todd_is_best Report

Final score:

166points

POST

Fat Harry 1 year ago

Want to lose weight fast? Get AYDS!

75points

Donteventrytomakeme , Sergiy Galyonkin Report

#26

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy I still remember when Dr. Pepper thought they could a) market a specifically 10 calorie soda and b) do so with the slogan "It's Not For Women"

I mean this was 2011, the idea of feminism and antisexism was by no means obscure or fringe. The whole marketing campaign was so bizarre I wonder how on earth a large marketing team looked at blatant, unapologetic sexism and went "yeah sounds great this will sell us lots of soda for sure"

Final score:

159points

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Fenchurch 1 year ago (edited)

Nestle were at it in the UK, with a chocolate bar - "The Yorkie bar is famous in the UK for its former tag line: "It's not for girls." Nestlé first launched the slogans "Don't feed the birds," "Not available in pink," and "King size not queen size" in 2002" The chocolate had an icon of a woman, like on a toilet door, crossed out, on the packaging.

81points

#27

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy [U.S. Army tweets, "How has serving impacted you."](https://www.npr.org/2019/05/27/727254720/a-u-s-army-tweet-asking-how-has-serving-impacted-you-got-an-agonizing-response). I actually learned about this one watching it unfold in real time on Reddit.

USArmy Report

Final score:

152points

POST

Satan 1 year ago

"My wife slept with 20 guys, and I'm now afraid of fireworks" - to quote one Reddit user I remember.

211points

#28

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy One of the movie directors for the Flash movie basically said " This movie will be so AMAZING you'll forget about all the things Ezra Miller did."

Ex_Fact , Gage Skidmore Report

Final score:

148points

POST

James016 1 year ago

Yeeaahhh, no we wont

107points

plain-plainsman , www.youtube.com Report

#29

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy Gillette's toxic masculinity commercial. They lost over 8 billion dollars because they directly attacked their target audience. Good idea

Final score:

113points

POST

Lama 1 year ago

Great idea actually. Maybe not commercially, but making a big statement like that, taking responsibility by using your huge coverage in media, to spread a message of change and respect, absolutely brilliant. It didn't "attack" men, certainly not all men. It called them to action, to hold each other accountable, to teach their boys to be kind humans. If you felt attacked by this, you might have been part of the problem, you might have been the one they were calling to change and reflect. - Which doesn't mean you were a bad person, just that there was still an opportunity to grow!

340points

UnfinishedThings , popculturechat Report

#30

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy James Corden thinking that doing an AMA on Reddit would go any other way than it did

Final score:

110points

POST

VonBlade 1 year ago

Q1 Why are you such a pandering, insincere blue waffle?

60points

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#31

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy The BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion was pretty bad on many levels. One of the largest environmental disasters in history.

ThereWasOnceADJ , US Coast Guard Report

Final score:

47points

POST

TotallyNOTaFox 1 year ago

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? Nobody, thanks to BP

68points

#32

Bud Light pissing off both sides of a stupid culture war.

Instead of backtracking, they could have said nothing, and conservatives would have moved on to the next stupid thing they get triggred by.

HighlyOffensive10 Report

Final score:

47points

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James016 1 year ago

Forgetting the PR disaster for a moment, Bud Light itself is awful.

51points

#33

Pepsi company offers a harrier jet fighter for 7 million Pepsi points, equaling to close to 700k when the jet itself costs about 30 million.

whitewinewyatt Report

Final score:

41points

POST

Nacho Man Sandy Ravage 1 year ago

Half decent documentary on Netflix about this called "Pepsi, Where's My Jet??"

25points

#34

Captain Edward Smith's decision to steam Titanic full-speed at night into a field of icebergs because he didn't want to disappoint investors by being late to New York must be regarded as one of the worst corporate decisions in history.

What made it so terrible is that on the surface it didn't seem entirely unreasonable. It was a clear night, and Titanic should be nigh unsinkable anyway. But this was the ship's maiden voyage, the crew wasn't used to the ship, the view from the bridge was quite poor, a ship that large doesn't turn quickly, and the captain left less experienced officers on the bridge while he went to enjoy a private party.

All of which resulted in a bit of a PR blunder for the White Star Line.

JaiC Report

Final score:

41points

POST

TotallyNOTaFox 1 year ago

There were also several other factors in play, like the bolts at the front bow being softer or the decision to dodge the iceberg instead of ramming it head on (less sections being damaged that way)

20points

#35

Powell Motors creating The Homer. Forbes dubbed it "the blunder of the century".

BroadcasterX Report

Final score:

38points

POST

OhnoI’vebeencensored 1 year ago

Hey I love that car. Separate sound-proof bubble for the kids - genius.

18points

#36

Coca Cola tried releasing a bottled water product in the UK called Desani which went terribly.

People in the Uk expected bottled water to be spring mineral water. Coca-cola’s water was bottled local water. Even though it wasn’t malicious, the public essentially thought it was a scam.

Basically Coca-Cola didn’t realise that the Uk public wouldn’t accept bottled tap water.

man-vs-spider Report

Final score:

38points

POST

James016 1 year ago

I live in a hard water area of the UK. Nothing a filter jug can't fix.

8points

Dutch Swimmer Goes Viral For Super Revealing Trunks During 2024 Olympics: “Is This Legal?”

See Also on Bored Panda

Thrill-Seeking Diver Jumps Down Extreme Waterslide, Ignoring The Strict Ban For Women

#37

So this came from a U.S. state instead of a company, but it was such a masterpiece of P.R. failure that Id argue it qualifies. The U.S. m**h epidemic hit the midwest and south especially hard, and South Dakota's situation was particularly bad per capita. Their genius idea to try to mitigate some of the damage to tourism (yes, there are actually people dumb enough to go there willingly, I was shocked too) and commerce was to put out an ad campaign assuring people they were addressing the issue. The slogan they landed on? "M**h, we're on it"

OrphicDionysus Report

Final score:

37points

POST

Teresa Sacristan 1 year ago

What is the censored word supposed to be? The drug?

23points

Woman Put A Water Fountain With A Camera In Her Yard, Here Are 24 Photos Of Regular Visitors (New Pics)

See Also on Bored Panda

“Ma’am I Live Here”: Woman Refuses To Back Out Of Driveway, Learns A Lesson The Hard Way

#38

Wizards of the Coast and the open gaming license earlier this year.

Worst handling ive seen. Literally caused dozens if not hundreds of companies to pull away from creating content for the company to making new games that will directly compete with them while alienating their fans at the same time.

Konocti Report

Final score:

33points

POST

similarly 1 year ago

This one is a fiasco for WotC and Dungeons & Dragons. A lot of players, as well, have been looking for alternatives to D&D over their handling of this issue.

7points

#39

The Pepsi Number Fever promotion in the Philippines went really terribly! They basically never recovered in the market there. It’s really interesting actually! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepsi_Number_Fever

londonbreakdown Report

Final score:

32points

POST

Rizzo 1 year ago

This is so crazy!

3points

50 Of The Most Incredible Shots That Were Submitted To The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

See Also on Bored Panda

French Diver’s “Jewels” In Tight Swimming Trunks Become Talk Of The Town At Olympics

#40

Subway spokesperson turns out to be a paedo.

Wiaaa Report

Final score:

31points

POST

A. HAM 1 year ago

As seen elsewhere on BP: He went from a mild cholesterol problem, to a child molesterol problem.

79points

#41

SEGA's North American advertisement department not advertising the SEGA Dreamcast. Now Sonic the Hedgehog, who was ironically created to be the anti-Mario mascot, now makes Nintendo richer. The Dreamcast would have sold so much better had people been aware it even existed.

SkyOfAegis13 Report

Final score:

29points

POST

Fat Harry 1 year ago

Still got mine. Best console I ever bought.

3points

Woman Moves Out Of Parents' Home After They Asked Her To Give Her Space To Brother, They Freak Out

See Also on Bored Panda

Mom Leaves $250k Inheritance To Son, Throws A Fit When Daughter Stops Looking After Her

#42

Back in the 90s Hormel Foods went on a Cease & Desist spree against anyone who was making jokes about Spam because they felt the brand had been damaged and needed to be rebuilt.

The last straw was when they threatened to sue Jim Henson Studios over the character Spa'am in Muppet Treasure Island. That turned people against them pretty quick. It turns out if you want to rebuild your brand in the public eye, suing one of the most beloved entertainment franchise of two generations was a bad way to go about it.

Eventually the dropped all the C&D stuff and changed their marketing strategy, instead deciding to lean into it and proclaiming that there are always going to be jokes about Spam so they might as well be in on them.

weirdoldhobo1978 Report

Final score:

28points

POST

Robert T 1 year ago

No mention of Monty Python?

18points

Woman Refuses To Chip In For Babysitting Because She Doesn’t Even Have Kids, Asks If She’s A Jerk

See Also on Bored Panda

“This Breaks My Heart”: People Stunned—And Angry—After Woman Buys Lost Luggage From Airport

#43

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy Kodak shunning digital photography

uvaspina1 , dpu80 Report

Final score:

28points

POST

Suzy Creamcheese 1 year ago

Kodak actually marketed the first commercially available digital camera system in 1991. Aimed at professional photojournalists, the system was based on a modified Nikon F3 and was offered in several different configurations. It had a resolution of 1.3 megapixels and sold for $20,000.

13points

#44

Currently on r/games:

Don Mattrick and his disastrous Xbox One reveal event in 2013. A tone-deaf presentation almost devoid of actual games in favor of "TV! TV! TV! SPORTS! TV!"...capped with always online requirement, restricted game sharing, and Mattrick himself saying if you want an offline console, get an XBox 360.

Sony capitalized hard on this PR disaster, receiving standing ovations for announcing very basic console functionalities one would expect: no online check-in, buy and share/sell physical game copies, etc, in addition to a short cheeky game sharing commercial. Plus the PS4 launched at $100 less than the X1.

The XBox brand was ruined and is still trying recovering today.

Marzoval Report

Final score:

28points

POST

Billy Harrelson 1 year ago

I think the controversy around the Xbox One launch was what drove me away from the brand. That and they didn't have a decent baseball game anymore (Sony had the exclusive rights at the time). But, on the flip side, the console makers are starting to "encourage" you to switch to digital with these lower priced digital versions of their consoles.

4points

"I Didn't Start The Dryer": Karen Gets Taught A Lesson After Throwing Out Neighbor's Wet Clothes

See Also on Bored Panda

Guy Divorced 3 Years Ago Drops Off 3 Y.O. With His Ex-Wife Completely Out Of The Blue

#45

Harry and Meghan (hides under table). It seems like they had the whole world at their feet but every move they make is read by the public as wrong, demanding, spoilt etc. They’re darned if they do and darned if they don’t at this stage.

ETA: their PR has been a disaster from start to finish

Own-Firefighter-2728 Report

Final score:

28points

POST

VonBlade 1 year ago

"We're sick of the press intrusion, let's renounce our royalty, go to the US, still claim to be princes and go on ALL the talk shows".

44points

#46

Two stick out. IBM deciding they would not write the operating system for PCs. Hello Bill Gates.
Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) was a huge player in main frame computers. Mr Olsen, it's CEO said we are not going to make home computers. No one is going to want a computer in their house.

So never believe everyone all the time.

Ruseriousmars Report

Final score:

27points

POST

Robert T 1 year ago

Can't remember the name, but I remember a quote relating to one of the first computers - "I can only see a need for maybe 2 or 3 computers in the world".

12points

College Student Does Exactly As Told After Roommates Demand They Keep Their Stuff In Their Room

See Also on Bored Panda

Internet Gives Unemployed Woman A Reality Check After She Expects Friends To Buy Her A Trip

#47

VW diesel gate has to be up there.

WTH were they thinking... lol.

2lovesFL Report

Final score:

26points

POST

Geoffrey Scott 1 year ago

A former Ford mechanic told me VW was not alone in cheating software.

13points

#48

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy That Pepsi and Kendal Jenner ad.

77Columbus , www.youtube.com Report

Final score:

25points

POST

Ace 1 year ago

Useless without the story.

27points

#49

Squirrels are rats with good PR.

HorrorxHeart Report

Final score:

25points

POST

The Original Bruno 1 year ago

Rats big PR disaster? Repeatedly decimating global population. Squirrels WILL invade a home, but their diet is much more limited, so their reliance on food from outdoors means they don't exclusively LIVE indoors (even if their nest IS indoors) or grow to rely on human food.

4points

#50

Nokia, once the biggest phone company in the world, failed to move with the times and switch to Android/smartphones.

bent_eye Report

Final score:

25points

POST

James016 1 year ago

I've had a Nokia Lumia Windows phone and a Nokia 8 Android phone. Both were decent. The Nokia 8 had pure Android so no manufacturer bloat etc like Samsung

8points

#51

Fyre Festival...poorly organized, no infrastructure...wire fraud charges.

Supaspex Report

Final score:

24points

POST

Rosie 1 year ago

There was no festival, it was always a scam to get $$$ from gullible investors & rich kids. They just thought slapping together a kind of party at the last minute would be enough to get away w/it. After all, first time big events *always* have bad stories, right? ::eyeroll::

1point

At_omic857 , United States Department of Energy Report

#52

The Exxon Valdez oil spill

The deep water horizon oil spill

Somerset76 Report

Final score:

23points

POST

#53

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy Three Mile Island’s little situation they had - the actual nuclear disaster wasn’t that bad, but the media coverage was. It’s been described by many as possibly the worst PR disaster in history.

Met-Ed had horrid communication with the plant during the media frenzy, and both Met-Ed and TMI had bad communication with the government, so everyone was saying things that contradicted each other with every word, pretty much.

Highly recommend the video by Kyle Hill as part of his series “Half Life Histories,” this video specifically goes in-depth into TMI: https://youtu.be/cL9PsCLJpAA

Final score:

22points

POST

David H 1 year ago

It was actually a case where every safety feature worked properly, it prevented a disasters and special controlled released only gave people the exposure of half an x-ray worth of radiation. It showed that the safety features worked, but PR bungled it, the KGB went spreading via agents how "dangerous" it was to undermine US Nuclear industry (several former KGB agents who defected showed how much of the US anti Nuclear movement was being manipulated from Moscow, and why today we have so little zero emission nuclear energy but rather coal), and the public fear of nuclear at the time cause it to be perceived as a disaster

17points

#54

Target's expansion into Canada. Collapsed in 2 years and cost 7 billion.

[https://archive.canadianbusiness.com/the-last-days-of-target-canada/](https://archive.canadianbusiness.com/the-last-days-of-target-canada/)

USSMarauder Report

Final score:

21points

POST

TotallyNOTaFox 1 year ago (edited)

Or Walmart's push to Germany - they failed gloriously because they thought they could just open stores here and do what they do in the US

21points

#55

30 Times PR & Companies Messed Up So Bad It Made Some Of Them Face Bankruptcy Apple Computer throwing away its position as the leader in computer games.

I know this is a bit before many people here were born, but the Apple II was the leader in terms of computer games from roughly 1977 to 1984. It was a great hobbyist computer, thus had a lot of the early computer games, many of which were influential and would create the companies and brands we know today, while the IBM PC (what we know as PCs today) was a computer for the corporate world.

Steve Jobs decided he wanted Apple to pivot from being seen as a hobbyist device which would play games (the horror!), and the Apple III actually put extra chips in the device to block functionality that was already there, so that many of the computer games would not run.

behindtimes , gmahender Report

Final score:

21points

POST

Donna Peluda 1 year ago

I've never understood the fascination people have with Steve Jobs and Apple, the guy was a b*****d. Never really made anything, outsourced the tech and treated staff like slaves, demining them and overworking them. Abandoned the mother of his child left her living on benefits while he mad millions. Real piece of S***

44points

#56

"Do you guys not have phones?!?"- Blizzard

simbahart11 Report

Final score:

18points

POST

TotallyNOTaFox 1 year ago

"We will use this Diversity chart to create stories in the future" - Blizzard is a fountain of bad PR

5points

#57

Well that schizophrenic guy who held up a Domino's because he thought the 'Avoid the Noid' commercials were directed personally at him pretty much killed the campaign

LegendOfDylan Report

Final score:

17points

POST

YTK 1 year ago

But was that a corporate blunder, or a reason schizophrenia meds should be free?

27points

#58

Bowing 737 Max - two planes had crash before they admitted what had happened.

GFVeggie6 Report

Final score:

15points

POST

MichelleDonut 1 year ago

Boeing

28points

#59

AOL-Time Warner merger. Ted Turner told them it was a blunder at the time, but hey why listen to him.

golden_fli Report

Final score:

14points

POST

#60

Pfizer wanted a word meaning "dog who takes RIMADYL".

They came up with "[RimaDog](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.reutersevents.com/pharma/commercial/pfizers-rim-dog-raises-more-few-eyebrows)".

mzanon100 Report

Final score:

14points

POST

TotallyNOTaFox 1 year ago

I'm always surprised that there are several people within the creation progress that have to come up with that, proof read it, print and release it - and it still slips through

2points

#61

Yahoo not buying Google!

BeerisAwesome01 Report

Final score:

14points

POST

v 1 year ago

Shouldn't this be written as "Yahoo! not buying Google."?

23points

#62

The [Atari E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial video game burial](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_video_game_burial) is a big one

celebrityDick Report

Final score:

12points

POST

Asher Tye 1 year ago

A prime example of a company greeding itself into disaster.

1point

A_Wild_VelociFaptor Report

#63

Xbox One's E3(?) announcement.

It was basically a TV box, hardly any mention of video games, and who could forget the infamous "fortunately, we have a product for people who aren't able to get some form of connectivity, it's called Xbox 360."

Final score:

11points

POST

Asher Tye 1 year ago

Basically a "Screw You loyal customers."

3points

#64

Ford Edsel

Ford spend millions on marketing for that mid a*s car that almost nobody liked and it almost drove the company to an early death

Subject_Form1843 Report

Final score:

11points

POST

R.A. Haley 1 year ago (edited)

Afaik it was actually a pretty good car, it just looked awful (the 'vulva' on the grill mentioned elsewhere was more accurately described as a 'horsecollar') and had terrible pr.

5points

#65

Bhopal Disaster is a doozy

SnooOranges4231 Report

Final score:

11points

POST

#66

The "Driver" tutorial level was so hard that many, many people were unable to even get past it. You had one minute to do a bunch of poorly explained tricks and it wasn't skippable.

Introvertedotter Report

Final score:

11points

POST

Suzy Creamcheese 1 year ago

15points

#67

Not sure how Samsung survived this:

[2016 Note 7 Recall](https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2016/Samsung-Recalls-Galaxy-Note7-Smartphones)

FrnakRowbers Report

Final score:

9points

POST

Suzy Creamcheese 1 year ago

Probably because the media made it out to be worse than it actually was. The vast majority of Note 7 owners never had any problems with exploding batteries.

9points

#68

EA Games Star Wars "Pride and Accomplishment" Reddit Post. Truly one the most inept PR posts.

https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsBattlefront/comments/7cff0b/seriously_i_paid_80_to_have_vader_locked/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

https://kotaku.com/ea-received-a-guinness-world-record-for-most-downvoted-1837955807

DrakeAU Report

Final score:

8points

POST

nancy 1 year ago

Instead of posting links, just explain the context using a few sentences. I don't want to go to reddit and attempt to figure out what this is all about.

16points

#69

Surprised no one has mentioned the Bhopal disaster.

Taman_Should Report

Final score:

-1point

POST

Tucker Cahooter 1 year ago

Except they have

22points

Howdy, I'm Adelaide! I'm originally from Texas, but after graduating from university with an acting degree, I relocated to sunny Los Angeles for a while. I then got a serious bite from the travel bug and found myself moving to Sweden and England before settling in Lithuania about two years ago. I'm passionate about animal welfare, sustainability and eating delicious food. But as you can see, I cover a wide range of topics including drama, internet trends and hilarious memes. I can easily be won over with a Seinfeld reference, vegan pastry or glass of fresh cold brew. And during my free time, I can usually be seen strolling through a park, playing tennis or baking something tasty.

Read less »

Hi there! I am a Visual Editor at Bored Panda. My job is to ensure that all the articles are aesthetically pleasing. I get to work with a variety of topics ranging from all the relationship drama to lots and lots of memes and, my personal favorites, funny cute cats. When I am not perfecting the images, you can find me reading with a cup of matcha latte and a cat in my lap, taking photos (of my cat), getting lost in the forest, or simply cuddling with my cat... Did I mention that I love cats?

Read less »

What do you think ?

POST

TotallyNOTaFox 1 year ago

Would be cool if some of them had explainations instead of just links

25points

Vicki Doggurl 1 year ago (edited)

Agreed! The links were useful for the posts that explained the story. The interesting ones I followed and now have a couple of rabbit holes to follow. But the posts with just the link and title I ignored. Obviously they weren’t intended to peak my interest. :)

5points

XenoMurph 1 year ago

So many of them just give some vague hint about a company I've barely heard of, then a web link.

7points

The Original Bruno 1 year ago (edited)

Know you used to absolutely OWN the home computer market? Commodore. Then they ditched their own awesome next-generation computer in favor of buying up and selling to America, "Amiga" computers. They were great, but they offered no compatibility to billions of dollars of equipment Commodore customers had bought, so they basically swapped their own world-dominating brand for someone else's, and lost all customer trust in the meanwhile.

4points

Dodo 1 year ago

Commodore 64 was my very first computer. Never actually knew what happened to the company.

2points

JL 1 year ago

Betty Crocker once had a TV ad (pre-internet) for a new time-saving dessert product, where the family is talking and the mom (who works full-time) says the product is "for moms like me, who have a life". Apparently someone realized that insulting every stay-at-home mom was not a good idea, and the next time I saw the ad, it was "for moms like me, who leave it to Betty." I can't imagine the blowback they'd have gotten if social media was around back then.

3points

Hey! 1 year ago

Was it those boxes where you did the cake right in the pan without using a bowl?

0points

Blue Chambers 1 year ago

Anheuser Busch and Target? We are currently witnessing two massive PR disasters in real time and they aren't even going to mention them?

3points

Hey! 1 year ago

Target tried to come to Canada. They lasted a year, then went back home in the USA. Bad PR and bad management, not offering what Canadians wanted (i.e. good prices and quality).

2points

Vicki Doggurl 1 year ago

There was an advertising campaign for a brand name hemorrhoid cream which featured Johnny Cash singing Ring of Fire. Clever in a horrible way!

3points

Beans 1 year ago

This was curated pretty badly considering stuff was repeated multiple times. I guess the contributors don't read the stuff they steal.

3points

Powerful Katrinka 1 year ago

A very recent PR disaster? DeSantis's announcement of his entry into the presidential race. First, a strange "interview" on Twitter that was largely incomprehensible. Second, a bizarre video in which Elon Musk is on the screen about 80% of the time instead of DeSantis,

3points

Suna Amun 1 year ago

Don't waste your time trying to read this list, it doesn't load all the way. With the censorship, duplicate posts and just general shîïtiness of this site, I wonder why people even try to come here anymore.

2points

Matthew Thompson 1 year ago

Yeah, it suddeny changed from 69 entries to 30 entries whole I was in the list. I restarted the app and 30 entries had suddeny bern truncated.

3points

Beans 1 year ago (edited)

Unpopular opinion but I really dislike snarky corporate Twitters like Wendy's and stuff. I know everyone freaking loves them and thinks it's a huge PR win, but if you gotta throw shade and put down your rivals to get interest then imo you're doing it wrong. Your product should speak for itself. It just feels gimmicky and cringe to me.

2points

Phillip Moderow 1 year ago

Does anyone else remember when a school of higher learning in Texas was ALMOST named the "Sam Houston Institute of Technology"? Somebody figured out that the acronym for their football team just wouldn't fly. Do the math.

0points

Fabian Bernard 1 year ago

Coming next : Vinted stopping PayPal payment on their site. And one about Toyota in the past, in France : the Toyota MR2 ( in French, it sounds like ''Et merdeuh'' meaning ''F..k it'')

0points

Spack225 1 year ago

Are we just ignoring the elephant in the room here…Budweiser, target??? Odd timing in this post.

0points

D C 1 year ago

They are ignoring Budweiser and Target because Bored Panda is left leaning and don't agree that those were disasters. I'm surprised Gillette was included. And read the responses under it..

0points

Duncan 1 year ago

Bud Lite is one, Adidas is another for promoting womens swimwear with a man wearing it and all other companies shoving gender diversity BS down our throats.

-2points

D C 1 year ago

Thank you... Some one sane.

0points

POST

TotallyNOTaFox 1 year ago

Would be cool if some of them had explainations instead of just links

25points

Vicki Doggurl 1 year ago (edited)

5points

XenoMurph 1 year ago

So many of them just give some vague hint about a company I've barely heard of, then a web link.

7points

The Original Bruno 1 year ago (edited)

4points

Dodo 1 year ago

Commodore 64 was my very first computer. Never actually knew what happened to the company.

2points

JL 1 year ago

3points

Hey! 1 year ago

Was it those boxes where you did the cake right in the pan without using a bowl?

0points

Blue Chambers 1 year ago

Anheuser Busch and Target? We are currently witnessing two massive PR disasters in real time and they aren't even going to mention them?

3points

Hey! 1 year ago

Target tried to come to Canada. They lasted a year, then went back home in the USA. Bad PR and bad management, not offering what Canadians wanted (i.e. good prices and quality).

2points

Vicki Doggurl 1 year ago

There was an advertising campaign for a brand name hemorrhoid cream which featured Johnny Cash singing Ring of Fire. Clever in a horrible way!

3points

Beans 1 year ago

This was curated pretty badly considering stuff was repeated multiple times. I guess the contributors don't read the stuff they steal.

3points

Powerful Katrinka 1 year ago

3points

Suna Amun 1 year ago

2points

Matthew Thompson 1 year ago

Yeah, it suddeny changed from 69 entries to 30 entries whole I was in the list. I restarted the app and 30 entries had suddeny bern truncated.

3points

Beans 1 year ago (edited)

2points

Phillip Moderow 1 year ago

0points

Fabian Bernard 1 year ago

Coming next : Vinted stopping PayPal payment on their site. And one about Toyota in the past, in France : the Toyota MR2 ( in French, it sounds like ''Et merdeuh'' meaning ''F..k it'')

0points

Spack225 1 year ago

Are we just ignoring the elephant in the room here…Budweiser, target??? Odd timing in this post.

0points

D C 1 year ago

They are ignoring Budweiser and Target because Bored Panda is left leaning and don't agree that those were disasters. I'm surprised Gillette was included. And read the responses under it..

0points