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35 Very Dumb Moments From Companies and Countries That Couldn’t Find Their Rear Ends With Both Hands

December 23, 2023

We get it. Coming up with a name for yet another Mountain Dew flavor is hard. You might want to outsource that brainpower to the public, but don’t be surprised when their choice involves Hitler. Now it’s on you to either use it (which we’re guessing you won’t), or scrap the whole campaign and admit that you just straight up lost to the internet.

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35

Mountain Dew

Public votes that backfired big time THE DEW Dew DUB Mounta the De DE 7 This very short-lived 2012 promotion had Mountain Dew fans name its new drink. Suggestions like the contest winner, Hitler did nothing wrong had Mountain Dew apologize to consumers, claiming that they lost to the Internet. CRACKED — Source

34

Public votes that backfired big time A DUMP BY ANY OTHER NAME Ca Amo Austin, TX citizens voted to rename its Solid Waste Department the Fred Durst Society of the Humanities and Arts, and Durst tweeted, I hope we win. They did win, but the city chose boring old Austin Resource Recovery. CRACKED — Source

33

Public votes that backfired big time ENR norwegian.com NORWEGIAN AIR'S DANCE WITH THE DEVIL A poll to name their new mascot was meant to honor a Norwegian hero, but metalheads rocked the vote, and black metal guitarist Euronymous won. Не was a Satan worshiper known for church burnings in the '90s. CRACKED — Source

32

Public votes that backfired big time THE MOLSON CANADIAN NATIONAL CAMPUS CHALLENGE The Canadian photo contest for a trip to Mexico had college students prove they went to the No. 1 party school by Showing how you and your crew get the party started! Parents and schools obviously hated it, and it was shut down. CRACKED — Source

31

Public votes that backfired big time PEPSI NUMBER pepd FEVER A Pepsi contest in the Philippines had a grand prize of 1 million pesos, but an error at the bottling plant led to 600,000 winning bottles. Riots and even grenade attacks injured dozens and killed 5 people in the deadliest marketing disaster in history. CRACKED — Source

30

Public votes that backfired big time Microsoft MICROSOFT'S TAYTWEETS Microsoft told users that the more they tweet to Tay (their artificially intelligent Twitter page), the more she'd learn. Within 24 hours, she tweeted racial slurs, Hitler quotes, and incestuous sexual acts, and was immediately canceled. CRACKED — Source

29

Public votes that backfired big time PEOPLE'S MOST BEAUTIFUL PERSON IN THE WORLD For this 1998 People Magazine poll, Howard Stern fans wrote in 230,000 votes for Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf to beat Titanic-era Leonardo Dicaprio. People said he would never be considered and gave Leo the cover. Pffft. CRACKED — Source

28

Public votes that backfired big time SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH BOATY McBOATFACE An online poll named a $288 million British research ship Boaty McBoatface. The Royals didn't honor it, and named it Sir David Attenborough (the fifth place name). As consolation, the name Boaty McBoatface was given to a small, yellow research vehicle. CRACKED — Source

27

GRACKED #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 NGY M BBQ Sweetie CREW — Source

26

Quantas Luxury

GRACKED #QantasLuxury Aussie airline Qantas asked customers to share their experiences just one day after the airline grounded their fleet and locked out staff over a union dispute. Disgruntled staff and customers used the hashtag to put them on blast. QANTAS ............ Spirit of Australia — Source

25

GRACKED #pokemonmastersex Pokémon Masters EX did use capitals in their original #PokemonMastersEX, but that didn't stop immature (and hilarious) fans from using it without the caps, or switching up the caps to #PokemonMasterSex. — Source

24

Marketing Mishaps

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 — Source

23

The Hobbit

GRACKED #hobbitch When promoting The Hobbit in Switzerland, Swiss marketers unfortunately added CH (the country code for Switzerland) to the hashtag and other promo. — Source

22

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

21

Belgian comedy magazine Humo ran a 9/11 ad in 2004. - - - - - - - - Back when the site of the World Trade Center was still an empty lot called Ground Zero, Humo tried to milk comedy from the tragedy. Their ad showed pilots about to crash into the WTC because they were too busy reading Humo. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

Jolly Rancher thought prison rape would sell candy. JOL ran GET BUSY SUCKING OR GET BUSY DYING! A tweet that stayed up for a weekend had a blue candy prisoner telling the reader, Get busy sucking or get busy dying! Not only was it a prison rape joke and a threat, it was also twisting a pop culture message of hope (from The Shawshank Redemption). CRACKED.COM — Source

19

Target

Target associated plus-size women with manatees. add to registry add to list Mossimo® Women s Plus-Size Kimono Maxi Dress - Assorted Colors 12 reviews $22.00 Free shipping when you spend $50 choose color: Manatee Gray quantity: size : 1 Please make a selection Target listed kimono maxi dresses in regular size as dark heather gray. In plus size, they were called manatee gray. Target said that both names are regularly used, and this happened because different teams posted the different dress information. CRACKED.COM — Source

18

Penguin floor cleaner used child prostitution to sell cleaning products. FILTH HAS NOWHERE TO HIDE Their ad shows a businessman with a bulge in his pants paying a schoolgirl - all of which we see only as a reflection on the super-shiny floor. Filth has nowhere to hide, says the tagline, totally not trivializing pedophilia. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

It's clever to use suicide in beauty branding ... right? for happier hair, dark or fair anatomicals peachy head peach shampoo for suicidal hair de elita и n alt Jom n por only abile adida Mentiful and colour, for this see . want el state heaven dye clitte late, conditioning me, page by wonderfully 1 knew but job. hair you tossing completely and of bring to i just here I never complete the follow would for de wacky your was rocks put your & Itself on peach de actually knew world feeling earth. that locks bald. Twitter body below. depression off de down — Source

16

TENDER PRODUTO ONE HUNDREDDO FACEBOOK ... no MAY 6 BAL NOTE O H adidas LIKES KB46279860I B2 TENSER en LAST NOT 1903 ISC - Chese E DE DER UNITED ST GRACKED. GOM PER THE SIM Tolem The State Department spent $600, ,000 in 2012 to attract fans to its Facebook page. Shockingly, KB4 this did nothing to raise America's standing in the world, not even in terms of the sad metric of social 46279 60 I media engagement. 860 T — Source

15

In the city of La Paz, Colombia, people dressed up in zebra costumes direct traffic. Unlike police, they just kind of nudge you into behaving well -- for example, if you stop your car on a pedestrian crossing, they'll lie across the hood. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

14

Colombia used a Christmas-themed ad campaign to get guerrilas to go home. They put up Christmas trees in the jungle, with the message If Christmas can come to the jungle, you can come home. Demobilize. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

13

Project Stargate was a 20-year government program launched in 1978. The project employed 22 full-time psychics. Apparently Command heard rumors that the Soviets were using psychics for military intelligence, and they didn't want to be left out. The psychics were used to telepathically view distant locations, looking for military installations. CRACKED.COM http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,983829,00.html — Source

12

Government Spending

When healthcare.gov launched and immediately crashed, the government paid $4 million to fix it. Affordable Care Act That money went to the same contractor who screwed it up. Despite the fact that the flaws were generated by the contractor, the CMS withheld only $267,420 of the $4 million. http://www bloomberg com/news/articles/2015-09-22/-s-paid- GRACKED.COM healthcare-gov-contractor-4-million-to-fix-its-own-mess — Source

11

INDIA'S UTTARAKHAND STATE PUNISHES LOCKDOWN VIOLATORS LIKE A MIDDLE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL WOULD. Police caught at least 10 foreign nationals walking outside despite quarantine, and made them write I did not follow the lockdown, I am sorry 500 times. CRACKED.COM — Source

10

The Finnish foreign ministry promoted the idea of päntsdrunk using emoji. It means drinking at home, by yourself, with no pants on. In addition to two emoji for the concept, the ministry also created a promotional video. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

9

UNICEF ICH WARTE AUF DEN LETZTEN SCHULTAG. DIE KINDER IN AFRIKA OCH AUF DEN ERSTE CRACKED.COM In 2007, UNICEF wanted to raise money to build schools in Africa, and they decided to visualize the link between different cultures by slapping some mud on the faces of white kids. Baffled by the backlash, UNICEF insisted their German focus groups hadn't flagged any of this as racist. — Source

8

Demeter Fragrance DEMETER® DEM FRAGRANCE FRAGRANCE LIBRARY •BOST First Response First Respo •BOSTON DO GOOD SMELL GOOD 75% OF SALE DO GOO DONATED TO BOSTON FIRST RESPONDERS FUND Pick-Me-Up Cologno 30ml CRAGKED.COM 1.0 fl oz Demeter's whole thing is fabricating weird stinks that no one would really want on their body. They had already developed a smoke and burning rubber scent that was meant to honor first responders, but when the Boston Marathon bombing happened, their pupils turned into dollar signs. — Source

7

PopChips CRACKED.COM They put Ashton Kutcher in brownface in an attempt at light-hearted parody, perhaps inspired by the box office smash hit The Love Guru? — Source

6

The European Union CRACKED.COM The EU thought the best way to promote unity was to show a white lady being menaced by a bunch of foreigners martial artists, and ultimately being saved by summoning several more, identical white ladies. — Source

5

Sony PlayStation. Portable White is coming CRACKED.COM Sony's defense of this weirdly vicious billboard was that it was meant to be viewed in Holland, and Americans just don't get it. — Source

4

Nivea - - NEW! IMPORTANT UN THE - - - OF AND - - ingerseve I entergen NIVEA poor PIN amous - - KING - - - I - SMART commund The - D-CH - - - DE - - OF and DE - - me and NOT NEW Twitt THE up enex BY e - PART . The Happy e PO - - - - POT cone RE-CIVILIZE YOURSELF NIVEA - NIVEA KIA - CRACKED.COM In an attempt to... sell skin cream, somehow... they showed a guy hurling a grimacing, disembodied head and bidding others to follow suit and — Source

3

Burger King CRACKED.COM This spot for the Texican Whopper is condescending as hell, what with the great big cowboy towering over the tiny widdle Mexican wrestler. But the Mexican government spoke out against it for disrespecting their flag as a fashion item --something Americans are weirdly cool with. — Source

2

Chicago Lake Liquors CRACKED.COM After evesdropping on a black guy talking on his phone, the whitest man in Minnesota is inspired to dap up the cashier, declare his savings pimp tight, and spontaneously grow a diamond grill. The black guy is visibly uncomfortable, which... is supposed to be the funny part? — Source

1

Intel CRACKED.COM Intel promised to maximize the power of your employees with this portrait of a modern-day plantation owner. They tried to pull the ad, which they admitted was insensitive and insulting, but one publication squeaked it out by accident. — Source

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