5 Corporate Promotions That Ended in (Predictable) Disaster
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The Web has made things easier for everyone. Unfortunately, some of those things are incredibly dangerous, and they seem to be aimed at exactly the sorts of people you'd least want to find out about them. So while the Web may have facilitated the information age, we can also thank it for these 10 things that will almost certainly end badly: #10. Gun-Hiding Underwear
The Thing: Unlike traditional holsters, gun-concealing compression underwear "can be worn with just about everything you own, gym shorts, sweat pants, jeans, dress pants, suit and tie. Works great with or without a belt." Because, seriously, fuck belts. When you're a man on the go, changing pants dozens of times a day, you need to keep your gun as close to your ass skin as physically possible. The description at GlockStore.com promises that "it's like not wearing a holster at all! So comfortable, so secure, and yet so concealed."
Why It Will End Badly: This product is either for people who aren't supposed to have guns to hide that fact that they're carrying one, or people who frequently find themselves pantless in the middle of mortal danger. In support of the former is the product review from JP in Houston, who finds his gunderwear helpful because "I often wear sweat pants while in public." Unless he's a secret agent infiltrating Houston's shady underworld of unemployed comic book collectors, JP's problem with effectively concealing a gun in his best "going out sweat pants" is one we'd just as soon leave unsolved. Then again, it looks like the creepy soft-porn video demonstration on the site has the naked-gunfight scenario in mind, as we find ourselves rooting for the lady to pull out her panty gun and shoot the camera man:
The first half of the video demonstrates how well the product hides guns on people who don't tuck their shirt into their underwear, while the remainder shows us what a blonde underwear model looks like saying "Why do I need to take my jeans all the way off?" through her teeth. And really, aren't fans of uncomfortable, forced nudity the sort of people we want to be able to hide guns on their body? #9. Close Range Bear Survival Kit from Smith & Wesson
The Thing: After some rather extensive research, the folks at Smith & Wesson discovered that most bears prefer to do their attacking at close range. How close? Well, the kit contains a short barrel revolver because "[a] longer barrel would make it more difficult to use in such a confined place and at point blank range, accuracy isn't that much of an issue." But don't let the size fool you. The gun is so powerful that they claim merely firing it on the range will make your hand sore. Just make sure to find a range where they let you walk up within a few feet of the target, and pretend that it's attacking you.
Why It Will End Badly: The product description readily admits that by the time you get your gun out of your rubber ducky colored lunchbox, the bear's going to be so close that gangland execution is your only option. Just make sure to aim carefully as the bear makes a crunchy pretzel sound with whichever of your extremities it has in its mouth.
The kit also includes a whistle, some Mylar blankets and a saw. We have to assume that you amputate your gnawed off limbs with the saw because you just fought a grizzly bear at close range with a pistol and a whistle, and you use the blanket to stay warm as you wait for help while slowly bleeding to death. Most helpful of all, while you wait, you can read the book that comes with the kit: Bear Attacks of the Century and think to yourself "Man, my bear totally did that to me too." #8. Ninja Home Study Course
The Thing: By now, you're probably pretty familiar with the following scene, described in vivid detail on the front page of Blackbelt.com:
That's right folks, for three easy payments, you can learn to be a fucking ninja. No longer will you be menaced by your inability to hear anything when glancing around. And if you think robberies only happen to people in stories that are loosely plagiarized from the first level of Double Dragon, Master Richard Van Donk would have you know that "out of every 334 people someone will get robbed that is scary." It's good to finally see a Ninja site that cares about the scary people of the world. Why It Will End Badly: Professor Van Donk lives in a world in which hiring a ninja is not only a viable option, but a "good idea" in the few seconds before a violent crime occurs. But even in that world, we have to think that if you already own a dojo, you probably won't be paying this guy to teach you Ninjitsu.
At first we thought Master Van Donk was a con man, preying on the minds and wallets of legally retarded people. But there are too many little clues that suggest a much, much sadder version of the truth that lives in the basement of a 70-year-old woman who regrets giving birth to it. There's the fact that he rounds the price of his videos off to the nearest thousandth, and that he seems genuinely surprised by a statistic he just made up off the top of his head.
Of course those clues, as well as the only good advice offered on the page to "not be fooled by made up Ninja courses," are in fine print, safely tucked away from the dim eyes of the people we're really worried about. #7. The Secret Art of Stunt Driving- All The Insider Tricks of Driving at the Edge
The Thing: If you are like one of the hundreds of thousands without a job right now, you might want to pick yourself up this copy of stunt drivers for beginners. Keep in mind, it wasn't written for "seasoned" stunt drivers. It was written for you! YOU! Buy this book now and you can be doing 360 degree turns at 100 kmh! Seamlessly!
Why It Will End Badly: Because his sales pitch appeals directly to the sort of person who might a difficult time retaining all "seven crucial steps of spinning a seamless 360 at 100 kmh." For instance, before launching into the product description, Mark Aisbett states, "As I said before, you're either a hero or an idiot." He has in fact set up this dichotomy already, which is strange since it's been our experience that those aren't mutually exclusive categories. In fact, people who self-identify as heroes tend to be pretty stupid by definition.
They're also exactly the sort of people who might give stunt driving a whirl as soon as they've thumbed through a couple of pages of this book and their mom lets them take the car out. So the next time you find yourself facing down a teenager tumbling toward you inside a chunk of flaming mini-van, don't forget to quietly thank Mr. Aisbett before commending them for their heroism. #6. Knife Fighting: A Practical Course
The Thing: Michael D. Janich has written a book for those of us who are tired of all those theoretical knife fighting guides. He is such a prolific knife fighter that when it was time to take the fourth picture for his cover, he'd run out of shirtless gay men and napping homeless people to stab.
Why It Won't End Well: There are a few indicators inside the book that your new sensei would be on the bleeding side of an actual knife fight if he chose opponents who knew why they were being attacked. Take for instance the athletic pose that Janich strikes when demonstrating proper use of "your natural body weapon."
There's also the photograph that accompanies his advice on what to do when "facing an armed opponent":
Either his opponent is armed with one of the most pathetically small weapons in the history of combat, or Janich believes that you only need arms to qualify as an "armed man." At least he's anointed himself an expert in a short range weapon. Just don't get within stabbing distance of Janich and the 38 people who gave his book a five-star rating on Amazon, and you should be fine. Right? |
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#5. Beginner's Guide to Catching Monster Sharks
The Thing: Learning new things is cool. Fishing is kind of cool. Sharks are really cool. So why not combine it all together and learn how to bring "monster" sharks onto your boat? The book has 250 photos, and by the time you're done looking at those you should be ready. And it's not like the sharks are actually monsters, right? Why It Will End Badly: Well, actually, according to Captain Mike, the author, at least one type of shark is a monster.
In fact, the chapter on Makos makes them sound like the Velociraptors from Jurassic park: smart, fast and incredibly pissed off at you. Of course, the characters from Jurassic Park never tried to pull a pissed off raptor into a tiny enclosure by a hook in its mouth. Here, that's the entire point. You'd think you'd want to ease into that chapter, but then you're not a fucking monster shark fisherman:
#4. Explosives Detection Field Test Kit - DropEx Plus
The Thing: Now, when you stumble across a ticking package, you no longer have to scream "BOMB!" and run away as fast as you possibly can. In fact, you won't even need to wait a few hours and Google your local news station to find out what kind of explosive device disintegrated everything in its blast radius earlier that day. Now that the Explosive Detection Field Test Kit is available online, you can conduct experiments on highly explosive material yourself.
Not an expert? No problem. The kit comes with easy to follow instructions like, "Drop-Ex-2 for Group B Drop-Ex-2 is used to search for GROUP B type explosives which include Dynamite, Nitroglycerine, RDX, PETN, SEMTEX, Nitrocellulose and smokeless powder. If after Drop-Ex-1 there is no color change, use Drop-Ex-2." And let's not forget about the detail you really care about: free shipping. Why It Will End Badly: We literally can't imagine a single scenario where the use of a D.I.Y. bomb kit could possibly be even remotely advisable. There are trained professionals, who are far better equipped to DIThemselves. It should also be noted that those trained professionals use remote controlled robots whenever possible in order to stay as far the fuck away from the job they've spent their entire life training to do. Compare the highly trained professionals, disarming bombs from a safe distance with you; the guy with his face directly over the bomb who needs big blinking arrows to show him where the bottles are.
#3. Heroin User's Handbook
The Thing: Racial prejudice is bad and all, but probably more damaging is prejudice against heroin. People act like heroin use is a scourge on society, but according to the Heroin User's Handbook, it's really heroin prejudice.
You've probably heard that using heroin could give you AIDS, make your teeth rot out and even kill you. According to Francis Moraes, Ph.D., that shit is on society. If they'd just start teaching the HUH in schools, kids would know about all the ways they can safely put heroin in their body, helpful hints for "scoring on the street" and "purifying heroin." And it's not like Dr. Moraes doesn't cover the risks involved. His first chapter opens with the sage advice "Don't try heroin." Why It Will End Badly: Mr. Moraes's book is an insane mixture of acknowledging the dangers of heroine, while trying desperately to explain why he finds the stuff so damn great. The first chapter may open with a warning, but it ends with a helpful reminder that "heroin can be used safely." The whole concept of "addiction" would seem to argue against that but hey, maybe it's possible to get addicted to safety. There's also the bizarre passage where he acknowledges that it's possible to die of a heroin overdose, but then says it's "not at all clear as to why it happens." Hey, maybe they were all poisoned by the CIA. Maybe the government doesn't want heroin users to succeed in their mission to save the world with their good vibrations and jazz music. It's sure as fuck not because heroin is bad for you at all! Ironically, probably the greatest testament to the dangers of heroin is the fact that Moraes, a long time user, has used his Ph.D. to amass the following body of work:
#2. How to Build Your Own Catapult
The Thing: Now you too can build medieval siege devices, for any number of practical modern uses, primarily giving emergency crews a hilarious story they can tell for years.
Why It Will End Badly: If you feel the need to make the very first chapter of your book into what is basically one long disclaimer, you might want to think twice about making it available to the general public. "The catapults and related projects described in this book have been designed with your safety foremost in mind. However, as you try them out, there is still a possibility that something unexpected may occur ... [A] few of the projects result in powerful siege engines with projectiles that can move pretty fast."
What the author really should say here is: "...there is a possibility that the expected may occur. That is to say, as you advance down your street pulling your Macedonian catapult behind you, you will likely be shot or captured by the police before you can load it with your first boulder or infected cow. So, why don't you just stick to reading a book about catapults instead of buying a book that teaches you how to build them." Really, the best case scenario is that this thing malfunctions and only injures you. That's quite an accomplishment for a do-it-yourself guide. Sure, there are guides out there for things like D.I.Y. hot air balloons, which have a high potential for hilarity but in the hands of a competent builder, could still turn out perfectly harmless and even cool. But here, if everything goes perfectly, it still ends with a huge fucking projectile whistling through the air. You can load this thing with food and fire it toward an orphanage and you're still probably going to wind up shot by a police sniper. #1. Under the Gun: Gun Disarming Tactics for the Street
The Thing: We've all been there: You and your loved ones are walking at an oblique angle towards a brick wall when a man in a ski mask and roller skating wrist guards points a gun in your face. He's cocking it to the side like they do in rap videos, so you know he means business. What do you do?
Well, if you prefer gun-disarmings to be relatively nonsense free, you've already purchased and learned the lessons from Under The Gun, an instructional DVD so good that its title works just as well for a Steven Seagal movie. Why It Will End Badly: The DVD description repeatedly and emphatically points out that in a confrontation with an armed man, "compliance can get you killed!" Yes, it's far more dangerous to give the mugger the five bucks in your wallet, rather than do the sensible thing and try to lunge at him and wrestle the gun out of his hands. The product description uses more exclamation points than most of the emails in your spam filter to let you know that "You can defeat the gunman!" while promising to give you "the attitude necessary to defeat a gunman who is about to blow you away!"
Of course, copping a 'tude and refusing to hand over the cash is only half the battle. You'll also need to learn "the twelve possible assault positions of a gun." Twelve? Wait, is this fucking Gunkata?
We'll let you know when our copy arrives. . |
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2009 is 50% over, but has already left a decade’s worth of brand carnage in its wake. In May alone, 376 companies per day sought protection from creditors in bankruptcy court, according to Aacer’s court records.
Everyone was affected, from small, family-run outfits to major corporations.
This list represents a sampling of brands and products that died in 2009. You may be familiar with some of the brands.
Others are smaller or regional, but symbolize the story of what happened many other businesses this year. Even a Wal-Mart generic brand got the shaft.
It’s worth noting that when a brand dies, it doesn’t necessarily get buried, the way humans do. Some brands, like Circuit City, are resurrected in a different form.
Others, like Saab, go dormant, then reemerge in a new form. Still others find themselves gobbled up by bigger fish.
The brands and products in this list reflect all possibilities. Sadly, most are gone forever.
Sterling trucks
Sterling Trucks, originally Ford’s heavy truck division, was declared a goner by Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) in March 2009.
The brand encompassed a range of heavy trucks and tractors, including snow plows, garbage trucks, landscaping, and other vocational vehicles.
With Sterling gone, DTNA will focus its strategy on its other two heavy truck brands, Western Star and Freightliner.
Circuit City

Circuit City liquidated in 2009, after 50 years of operation.
According to the company’s now-defunct investors page, more than 30,000 employees were laid off.
Hardware company Systemax purchased the Circuit City brand in May, which it now uses at circuitcity.com, an online version of the old retailer.
Home Depot Expo
Home Depot’s yupperific counterpart closed its doors in April 2009, shedding 34 stores and 7,000 employees.
Home Depot admitted in a statement that Expo hadn’t even performed well during the housing boom.
Now home flippers will have to settle for plain old Home Depot, the way they always did.
Max Factor

Proctor & Gamble announced in June that Max Factor will be pulled from American shelves by early 2010, according to TradingMarkets.
The company will put its resources into the Cover Girl brand. Max Factor will continue to be sold abroad, where it continues to be a fast-growing brand.
White Cloud Diapers

This cheaper alternative to Huggies, Luvs and Pampers, was discontinued in spring 2009.
Many mothers grieved the loss of the brand, which was sold exclusively at Wal-Mart.
MSN Encarta

When Microsoft launched Encarta in 1993, the multimedia encyclopedia was a revolutionary concept.
Encarta integrated Funk & Wagnall’s, Collier’s, and the New Merit Scholar’s encyclopedias into its 62,000+ article collection.
As of October 31, 2009, Encarta will cease to exist. Wikimedia’s Jimmy Wales has approached Microsoft about picking up some of Encarta’s information for free.
Monson Trucking
Duluth, MN-based Monson Trucking will be closing its doors on August 31.
The family-owned business had been in operation for 94 years before two of its biggest customers declared bankruptcy, forcing Monson out of business, too.
The company was run by four generations of the Monson family. (From the Journal of Commerce.)
Mac Homepage, Groups
Apple launched HomePage with iTools in 2001. July 7 marked the date when you could no longer edit or create new pages.
iWeb, which publishes websites and blogs, will replace Homepage. .Mac Groups, on the other hand, will be taken offline on July 7.
MobileMe members will have access to their archives, but all group HomePages, message boards, group addresses, and iDisk Groups will be removed.
Pontiac
Pontiac, creator of the fabled Bonneville and GTO, will be phased out forever in 2010.
GM announced the sad news on April 27, 2009, burying Pontiac on a plot in its ever-expanding brand graveyard.
iPhone bluetooth headset

In April 2009, Apple removed its iPhone Bluetooth Headset from the Apple Store for undisclosed reasons.
The Apple Insider speculates that the company will either release an improved, iPhone 3.0-compatible version sometime in the future, or it is backing out from the accessory business entirely. Time will tell.
Kodachrome

Kodak retired Kodachrome one year before the product’s 75th anniversary.
70% of Kodak’s business revolves around digital products, according to a company statement referenced in the LA Times.
This leaves no place for Kodachrome, which is nonetheless forever immortalized in the Paul Simon song.
Rocky Mountain News
The Rocky Mountain News was one of many newspapers whose future was shredded in 2009. Its story represents a universal newspaper story.
In February 2009, one of Denver’s two newspapers published its last edition.
Owner Scripps Howard News Service said that even if the newspaper went online-only and revenues grew at 40% per year for five years, “they would still be equal to the cost of one newsroom today,” according to a RMN article.
The paper was 150 years old. Scripps owned the paper since 1926. It lost $16 million in 2008 alone.
Hummer

Chengdu’s Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company scooped up GM’s Hummer brand for less than $500 million (estimated) this June, according to the New York Times.
The Chinese company plans to sell more fuel-efficient versions of the trucks, says the Times.
Goody’s

Tennessee-based Goody’s closed 287 stores in April 2009, four months after emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, writes Alibaba.
The company had managed to reorganize after filing for bankruptcy last June, closing underperforming stores, cutting operating costs, and terminating its e-commerce business.
But a poor holiday season and slow retail environment killed the company, which had been around since 1950.
Factor 5

22-year-old video game developer Factor 5 shuttered after Brash Entertainment, its main customer, closed its doors in spring 2009.
Factor 5 was behind the Commodore 64’s Turrican, if you can remember that far back.
Other games include Lair for PS3, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron I/II/III for Nintendo 64/GameCube, and a series of Atari, Amiga, GameBoy, and Super Nintendo games.
BearingPoint
In 2006, BearingPoint was one of Fortune’s “Most Admired” IT services companies.
Just three years later, the company sold off its North American Public Businesses unit to Deloitte and its Global Practices and Commercial Services businesses to PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Predictably, you won’t be seeing the BearingPoint name on the PGA tour anymore, either.
Hard Rock Boulevard
This is the story of rebranding a street.
When Myrtle Beach, SC-based Hard Rock Park, a Hard Rock café-themed park featuring six “rock environs” with names like British Invasion and Lost in the ‘70s, folded in mid-2008, its new owners figured a little rebranding might keep it alive.
In mid-2009, the park was reborn as Freestyle Music Park. Unfortunately, the new name did nothing to boost the flopped park’s reputation, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Now, the owners want to rename the road it’s located on—Hard Rock Boulevard–as Fantasy Harbour Boulevard.
Only time will tell if the new street name removes the music park’s scourge of failure.
Agape World
Ponzi schemes have brands, too. Agape World, listed as #73 on last year’s Entrepreneur Hot 100 Fastest-Growing Businesses in America, cheated investors out of $380 million through a commercial bridge lending scheme, writes the Wall Street Journal.
Founder Nicholas Cosmo now sits in jail on fraud charges, while investors are agape at Entrepreneur for unwittingly promoting a Ponzi scheme.
Gottschalks
Founded in 1904 as a dry goods store, Gottschalks expanded to become one of the largest department store chains in the country.
The store filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January, then starting liquidating at the end of March 2009.
Linux Smartphone

The Openmoko Neo FreeRunner, the first Linux smartphone, lasted a mere 10 months before being discontinued.
The device was supposed to be the world’s first open-source hardware and software smartphone, according to Heise.
Creator Openmoko pulled the phone amidst heavy staff cuts. They are now working on a new device; however, it’s not a smartphone.
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A personal story in the experience: I Love Ice Cream
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Are you tired of the same old cheese course to round out your fancy dinner
parties? Serve up this salty cheese ice cream and watch your friends never come
back to your place to bum a meal. Still, cheese is dairy, unlike the rest of
the contenders in this list – therefore, parmesan ice cream, as disturbing
as it sounds, bottoms out this list.
9. Salad Ice Cream

Ah yeah! Ice cream with, let’s see… red pepper, orange pepper,
cucumber (or is that zucchini?) and cherry tomato! Wonder what the flavor of
the ice cream itself is. Actually, no, I really don’t.
8. Chicken-Fried Steak Ice Cream

First clue that this stuff belongs on the top 10 list of grossest ice creams:
You make it from the greasy scuzz left behind when you cook up a chicken-fried
steak. Never mind that chicken-fried steak itself is pretty gross – now
you can have it for dessert! For those of you who enjoy such fare, however,
you’re supposed to A) use this ice cream instead of gravy, and then B)
gag.
7. Ox Tongue Ice Cream

Yeah, I’m not finding any real information about this one, and had I
found a real pic of the actual ice cream, ox tongue may have ranked in the top
five. But the concept alone deserves inclusion, as does that cute ox on the
packaging. Look at it sticking out its tongue! So cute! So gross!
6. Oyster Ice Cream

Most people blame the Japanese for this one, but apparently the upper classes
of colonial America
enjoyed it. Think frozen oyster stew. Ew.
5. Fish Ice Cream

We couldn’t find an awesome pic of this ice cream, so here’s the
packaging. Apparently it’s a mix of brandy and saury, a salt water fish
that’s popular in Japan.
“Not Japan!”
you exclaim. Yes, it is Japanese. Yes, it sounds not super.
4. Pit Viper Ice Cream

We have no words, except for this: Japanese.
3. Astronaut Ice Cream

Developed for astronauts because NASA hates astronauts, freeze-dried ice cream
is solely responsible for every failed space mission ever. It’s a top
seller at “science museums.” Science museums. As if those exist.
Ha!
Still, as disgusting as Astronaut ice cream is -- and it is extremely
disgusting -- two other flavors beat it in the gross-out game through sheer
force of will…
2. "Cold Sweat" Ice Cream

AKA, “The Ice Cream From Hell.” Created by some dude in North
Carolina who despises you, this stuff is made with three kinds of hot peppers
and two kinds of hot sauce, and apparently will burn not just your mouth, but
your fingers as well. How bad is it? The creator requires the fools who try it
to be legal adults and to sign a waiver. I hate him!
But, for all this foulness, there’s yet one other flavor of ice cream
that dominates this list, and it is…
1. Raw Horseflesh Ice Cream

Yep, you read that right. "Basashi” means “raw horse
meat.” This noxious concoction is based on a regional Japanese specialty:
Raw horse sushi. ![]()
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There should only have been one winner. On the riverbank was Jessica Wanstall, 4ft 10in tall weighing less than six stone (84lb) and something of a tiddler among anglers.
In the river was a monster, a near 9ft catfish that hit the scales at a record 13st 8lb (193lb).
But despite its size and whiskery age, the fish was no match for the skills of 11-year-old Jessica who waged a 20-minute battle to land her prize.
What a catch: Jessica Wanstall with the 9ft-long, 14 stone catfish she caught during a trip to Spain's River Ebro
Jessica, from Sittingbourne, Kent, hooked the fish during a trip with her father to the Ebro River in North-East Spain. She said: ‘I didn’t realize just how big it was until I saw the photos afterwards. I look tiny next to it.
‘My dad thought it was going to be a small one and I told him it didn’t feel small when I picked up the rod. It was really hard work pulling it in and my arms turned to jelly.
‘My dad helped lift it on to the bank and I just laughed when I saw it. It was massive.’
Her father Mark, a 49-year-old engineer, helped return the catfish to the river after his daughter’s triumph was photographed.
He said: ‘Jessica normally catches tiddlers but just loves a day’s fishing.
Reeling it in: The 11-year-old schoolgirl needed help from her father Mark to heave the fish out of the water
‘As the fish got near we could see how big it was. Then its tail came out of the water and it looked like the Loch Ness Monster. Everybody on the bank was gasping. I’m so proud of her.’
And so he should be.
According to the International Game Fish Association, Jessica has set a world record for a freshwater fish caught by an angler aged 16 and under.
‘Her catfish easily outweighs the previous record - a 120lb Nile perch caught at Murchison Fall, Uganda, in July 2000,' a spokesman said.
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