Dumb moments in business
A dozen Burger King marketing execs suffer first and second-degree burns while walking over hot coals as part of a teambuilding retreat in October. One of the injured, a VP for product marketing aptly named Dana Frydman, tried to put a positive spin on it by remaking to the Miami Herald, ‚It made you feel a sense of empowerment and that you can accomplish anything.‛
Mobile Office Enterprise unveils the Express Desk, which attaches a notebook computer to the steering wheel of a car. For use only while parked, of course.
In a co-sponsored contest Coca-Cola and AOL mistakenly inform 100 people that they have won $10,000. AOL attempts to propitiate the non-winners with $200 gift certificates and three free months of AOL.
Sept. 11 Inc., Some things are better left unsaid: The October issue of the Association of Lloyd’s Members newsletter announces that terrorist attacks represent a, ‚historic opportunity‛ for insurance underwriters to make money.
The Newspaper Association of America names Kmart its ‚Retailer of the Year‛ in January, one day before the company files for bankruptcy protection.
MSNBC misspells an onscreen caption during an interview with Republican consultant Niger Innis (who happens to be Afro-American). It reads: Nigger Innes.
In a tearful interview on NBC’s Today, Linda Lay, wife of Enron CEO Kenneth Lay, proclaims, ‚Everything we had is mostly in Enron stock‌We are struggling for liquidity.‛ Reporters soon note that the Lay’s have $8 million in stock in other companies and $25 million in real estate holdings.
Philip Morris attempts to counter anti-smoking measures in the Czech Republic by commissioning an economic analysis of the ‚indirect positive effects‛ of early death � savings on health care, pensions, welfare and housing for the elderly. The company later apologizes.
In June Sony admits that its marketing department created a fake critic, David Manning of the Ridgefield Press, to provide positive blurbs for its movies Hollow Man, A Knight’s Tale and The Animal.
The movie Pearl Harbor � a film budgeted at $135 million and scrutinized by countless Disney executives � nobody involved in its production thinks to question the scene in which Ben Afflick boards a train from Grand Central Terminal in New York to his airbase‌in England.
Having lured Mariah Carey with a $21 million signing bonus and an $80 million, five-album recording contract, EMI decides, after only one album, to pay her $28 million to go away. The net result: EMI pays $49 million for the soundtrack to Glitter.
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