These infamous product fails should be studied in business classes across the globe. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’ll be looking at some of the most memorable product failures in history.
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00:00 "You know why? It's the car design around you."
00:05 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at some of the most memorable product failures
00:09 in history. "Sweeter, bolder, better." "You're insane."
00:15 Number 30, Harley Davidson cologne. "All my life, I wanted a Harley Davidson.
00:21 And with the $10,000 I'm saving on that wedding, I can get the hog of life."
00:28 Who do you think of when you think of perfume and colognes? Dior? Calvin Klein? Yes. What
00:33 about Harley Davidson? No, probably not. Beginning in the mid-1990s, Harley Davidson
00:39 expanded into the perfume and cologne industry, introducing a number of fragrances with the help
00:44 of L'Oreal. These scents included Hot Rod, which had notes of wood and tobacco, and Destiny Man,
00:49 which smelt of cinnamon and cedarwood. "What if I told you there once was a fragrance that was
00:54 inspired by burning rubber, exhaust fumes, and knife fights?" They failed to catch on with their
01:00 audience, however, who were just much more interested in the whole motorcycle aspect of
01:04 the brand. The perfumes and colognes faded quickly and were discontinued within a decade on the
01:09 market. "It's a formidable scent. Stings the nostrils." Number 29, Blockbuster Total Access.
01:18 The Blockbuster versus Netflix war is one for the ages, and towards the end, Blockbuster was just
01:23 too slow playing catch-up against the streaming giant. There was a time in 2006, however, that
01:31 Blockbuster looked like they might overtake their rival with the introduction of Total Access.
01:36 This new scheme copied what Netflix was doing, but with a twist. If online customers returned
01:41 their rentals to a physical store, they could receive another rental for free. Blockbuster
01:46 initially saw great success with this, but it cost them around $2 a pop. Eventually, the cost
01:52 caught up with them, and when that was compounded by legal issues from Netflix and a reluctance from
01:57 store franchises to embrace the Total Access project, the initiative ultimately ended up
02:01 being a big part of why Blockbuster toppled. "How am I supposed to be the next Tarantino if I don't
02:05 work in a video store?" Number 28, Friendster. Ah, yes, another social media casualty, thanks largely
02:12 in part to, yes, you guessed it, the popularity of Facebook. "Since we left school, all my friends
02:17 have ended up doing different things." But Friendster actually found success a year before Facebook
02:22 even launched, hitting the ground running in 2003 and earning itself millions of subscribers in its
02:27 first year. Its downfall was partially due to the rise of Facebook, but the company also failed to
02:33 scale up quickly enough to meet subscriber spikes, which in turn resulted in slow site performance.
02:38 Friendster also failed to keep up with trends and what competitors like Myspace and Facebook
02:43 were doing, and it saw a gradual decline before finally closing up shop in 2015. Regardless,
02:49 Friendster was still one of the very first big mainstream social media sites. "But with Friendster
02:55 on my Nexus mobile, I can stay in touch with everyone." Number 27, Philips CD-i Player. "This
03:01 is CD-i, compact disc interactive, a new world standard in multimedia home entertainment from
03:07 Philips Electronics." Released in 1991 and discontinued just seven years later, the Philips
03:13 CD-i Player was, well, a disaster. The device was a multimedia home entertainment system, able to
03:19 read and play compact disc interactive, a digital optical disc data storage format upon which media
03:25 like video games, interactive museum tours, and internet access could be accessed. "Wow, what are
03:30 you gonna use it for?" "Games and stuff." And man, was technology expensive back then. The first
03:36 commercial CD-i was released in 1991 and retailed for $800, which is the modern equivalent of about
03:44 $1,800. This high price tag was a major detriment to the device, as it was forced to compete with
03:49 much cheaper multimedia PCs. Furthermore, the tech was considered outdated even at the time of
03:55 release, and it received bad reviews from major outlets. The CD-i only sold about 400,000 units
04:01 before it was quietly discontinued in 1998. "Awesome!" "Awesome is right. Awesome sound,
04:08 awesome pictures, awesome choices." Number 26. Microsoft Kin. Marketing experts will probably
04:15 tell you a thousand reasons why Microsoft's range of Kin smartphones failed in 2010. In reality,
04:21 though, it's very, very simple. The Kin 1 and 2 were aimed at the youth market, but they didn't
04:27 support apps. Like, what is that about? If you wanted to check in and update your social media
04:32 streams on your Kin, you had to go through a browser. This is in the era of the app-happy
04:37 iPhone. Oh, and by the way, it was really expensive to buy as well. Microsoft's Kin range was
04:43 discontinued about a year later. "Throw it in the ocean." Number 25. Cosmopolitan Yogurt. "Oh,
04:49 this is terrible." "Fat." "Oh, it stinks." "Mine too. We got one more day." "I can't eat this."
04:55 If we learn anything from this list, it's that established companies should probably stay in
05:00 their own lanes. Enter Cosmopolitan Yogurt, a special yogurt made by the popular fashion magazine.
05:06 Why? We really don't know. Released in 1999, Cosmopolitan Yogurt was not the first thing that
05:12 people reached for in the dairy aisle. Probably because they, like us, were thinking, "Why is
05:17 Cosmo making yogurt?" "Hello. Hello. Magazine, interview, Cosmo, can't flake twice." "Well,
05:23 I think this is a little bit more important than Cosmo, don't you?" The brand was handily
05:27 outsold by competitors, and the magazine company left the yogurt market after about a year and a
05:32 half. And somehow, this isn't even the only yogurt-themed failure. In 1979, Plarol released
05:39 Touch of Yogurt Shampoo, which some confused buyers even ingested. "Touch of yogurt, get the
05:45 touch." Number 24. Windows Vista. Vista launched in 2007 and was a replacement for the well-thought
05:53 of Windows XP. People were excited, but that didn't last long. From the moment it launched,
05:58 people everywhere were pulling out their hair due to incompatibility issues with their current
06:03 computers, despite promises from Windows that that wouldn't happen. "Windows 95 was key to its era,
06:09 and Windows Vista is key to the era we have today." Users were forced to upgrade due to
06:16 increased hardware requirements, and the general speed and performance of Vista was, well, not
06:21 good. Loads of Windows users remained on the XP system and refused to switch, waiting for things
06:27 to get better. Thankfully, they did when Windows 7 launched in 2009. "Now, give us the glorified
06:34 Windows Vista." Number 23. Lawn darts. "Frivolous lawsuits are chasing good people out of business.
06:40 People who sell propane, people who manufacture flu vaccine, and people who make lawn darts."
06:46 In hindsight, making a metal-tipped toy that kids throw in the air maybe wasn't the greatest idea.
06:52 A variation on horseshoes, lawn darts are tossed or thrown towards the target sitting a number of
06:58 feet away. While modern lawn darts are quite safe, this wasn't the case back in the day.
07:03 Like real darts, they were pointed and incredibly sharp, and thousands of miners were hospitalized
07:08 after injuring themselves with the toys. "Do you have any idea what could happen if you play around
07:12 with one of these?" The FDA designated lawn darts as a mechanical hazard in 1970 and banned them
07:18 from toy stores. But it wasn't until 1987, when a California girl tragically lost her life, that
07:25 they were banned entirely in both the United States and Canada. "A rope, shovel, bag of lime,
07:34 and some lawn darts." Number 22. Nintendo Wii U. "What? Oh, it is time for Wii U." The Wii U is a
07:44 great innovative console with an awesome games library, and it's bookended by the super successful
07:50 Nintendo Wii and Nintendo Switch. So what gives? Well, Nintendo's marketing of the Wii U when it
07:55 was launched in 2012 was just confusing. It carried a similar name to the Wii, but it wasn't merely an
08:02 accessory for the Wii. It was a separate console. And the controller was also a screen so you could
08:08 play it handheld, but you could also connect it to a TV. It was kind of like an early iteration
08:12 of the Switch, but it didn't seem like the gaming world was ready for it. The high price tag did not
08:17 help its cause either. Number 21. 3D TV. "Samsung 3D TV. The world's first 3D LED TV." Samsung, LG,
08:31 Sony, take your pick. There were tons of major tech brands that dipped their toe into the 3D TV
08:36 market, and ultimately came out wondering where it all went wrong. The 3D TV hype peaked around 2012,
08:42 just a few years after James Cameron unleashed Avatar on the world. People were enjoying 3D
08:48 movies and live sports events from the comfort of their living rooms, thanks to the use of specific
08:52 displays and glasses. But it didn't take long for the fad to fizzle. Many got bored of it fast,
08:58 or just couldn't be bothered to fiddle with 3D glasses, especially with the rising popularity
09:03 of ultra clear 4K TVs and curved displays, which enhanced the viewing experience with no extra
09:09 effort. Maybe they'll make a comeback? "So, how smart is your 3D?" Number 20. The DMC-12. This one
09:17 may come as a surprise, considering it has unending popularity, a rabid fan base, and pop culture cred
09:22 courtesy of its use in Back to the Future. But Marty McFly saddled up in 1985, by which point
09:36 the car had been deemed an abject failure. On the market for a scant three model years before DMC
09:49 was shuttered amid multiple forms of controversy, the DeLorean, as it later came to be known,
09:54 never performed as well as it looked, disappointing drivers and turning off would-be owners. The first
09:59 production car was completed in January of '81, but by December of '82 the game was over, with DMC
10:06 itself following suit soon after. Number 19. Apple Maps. When Apple Maps launched in 2012,
10:14 it was riddled with issues. Boldly, the company made Apple Maps the default Maps application on
10:19 iPhones, and boy did people hate it. Tim Cook even issued a public apology for all of the problems
10:25 the application had. Some of these problems included misspelled place names and locations
10:30 being placed miles from where they actually were. Since then, Apple has improved some features,
10:35 but its reputation hasn't fully recovered, and in terms of users, Google Maps remains way ahead.
10:48 Number 18. Segway. The Segway has certainly fallen from grace since it was first introduced
10:58 back in 2001, to the excitement of local dads and mall cops everywhere. The problem was the
11:03 astronomical hopes of the Segway's creator. The intention was to have the product completely
11:08 revolutionize how humans got around in urban areas. But there was just something undeniably
11:16 dorky about it, and it wasn't adopted nearly as fervently as its producer had hoped. In an
11:21 unfortunate turn of events, the product's viability died with the company owner Jimmy Heselden,
11:26 who was killed when he fell off a cliff while riding his Segway scooter through the English
11:30 countryside. Number 17. Colgate Kitchen Entrees. In the 1980s, frozen meals were popular and
11:38 prevalent, so that's perhaps why Colgate, best known for their line of "toothpastes," decided
11:42 to get into the market, because why not? But there's something distinctly unappetizing about
11:47 the name Colgate Kitchen Entrees. No one wants to be slumming it with a half-frozen, half-overcooked
11:55 plate of gruel, and be reminded of fluoride-enhanced mint-flavored grit cream. Anyone who's ever had
12:00 a glass of OJ after brushing their teeth knows toothpaste and food do not mix. Sorry, but we
12:05 will pass on this one. Number 16. Coors Rocky Mountains Sparkling Water. You will start to
12:11 notice a trend on our list that many of the entries involve companies leaving their comfort zones in
12:16 an attempt to branch out into new markets. Coors Rocky Mountains Sparkling Water is a prime example
12:22 of this. In 1990, when the product was released, Coors was one of the most successful brewing
12:29 companies in America. And while their beer was popular across many demographics, one they were
12:34 not hitting was the sparkling water crowd. But people didn't want to drink bubbly water that
12:39 perhaps tasted like ultralight beer, and the trademark expired a few years after launch.
12:43 Number 15. Virtual Boy. In the mid-90s, Nintendo was thriving. Their Super Nintendo,
12:51 released in 1990, was a massive success. But a few short years later, they delivered a serious flop.
12:57 The Virtual Boy was marketed as the first 3D gaming console, and there were many issues in
13:03 development, causing it to be released before it was properly finished.
13:06 I know they're really, really bad for your eyes. You can only play them 20 minutes at a time.
13:10 The company had decided to shift its focus onto their next idea, the N64. And they were right to
13:15 do so. The Virtual Boy was a big disappointment, with poor 3D effects and a big price tag.
13:21 Not to mention concerns of it affecting the health of users.
13:24 Number 14. Microsoft Bob. Back in 1995, the masses weren't exactly computer savvy,
13:31 so we can understand the thinking behind the launch of the Microsoft Bob.
13:34 This was an operating system interface that made your desktop look like a house,
13:38 with each application corresponding to a regular household item.
13:41 The idea wasn't a terrible one, but it used a ton of processing power,
13:53 which most home computers didn't have in access in 1995. It was discontinued shortly after launch.
13:58 To make matters even worse, it gave the world Clippy, and perhaps worse still,
14:03 Comic Sans was actually invented for use in Microsoft Bob,
14:07 even though they didn't end up using it on the interface.
14:09 Number 13. HD DVD. Remember back in the late aughts when people had to decide whether to
14:16 commit to HD DVDs or Blu-ray? There was a race to replace, or at least improve upon, the DVD.
14:21 And Toshiba threw their hat into the ring with the HD DVD.
14:31 There wasn't anything wrong with the HD DVD per se, but it simply lost the war against Blu-ray,
14:36 and two years after its release, it was discontinued. Unfortunately for consumers,
14:41 many had invested in HD DVD players which were essentially made obsolete,
14:46 or at least of limited use. Although some may now say the same about physical media in general,
14:51 so is there a real winner here?
14:53 Number 12. The Arch Deluxe. Over the years, McDonald's has introduced dozens of new menu
14:59 items. Some are hits and some are definite misses. The Arch Deluxe was marketed as a
15:04 burger with a grown-up taste, and the ad campaign focused on getting adults with
15:08 sophisticated palates to try it. The company spent over $300 million on development and
15:19 marketing for the Arch Deluxe, and yet it didn't meet sales expectations.
15:23 There was nothing in particular wrong with the burger, which was pretty standard with
15:26 additions like peppered bacon, leaf lettuce, and a special mayo and mustard sauce.
15:30 But consumers just weren't biting, and the Arch Deluxe went McBye-bye soon after.
15:42 Number 11. Zune. Back in the mid-aughts, it was tough to compete with Apple's hugely
15:47 successful iPod, but some companies tried anyway to varying results. Microsoft produced
15:53 its own MP3 player called the Zune, which was released in 2006 and managed to stick
15:57 around until 2012, though in the latter years it was definitely not selling much.
16:02 The performance of the Zune never quite matched up to that of its competitors,
16:06 and in an embarrassing instance in 2008, most of the 30-gigabyte Zunes completely
16:10 stopped working on New Year's Eve because they forgot to account for the extra day in
16:14 the leap year.
16:15 I stood in front of a case of iPods and I bought a Zune.
16:18 What's a Zune?
16:24 Yep, exactly.
16:25 Number 10. Easy Squirt Colored Ketchup. Kids, historically, love ketchup. So, it makes
16:33 sense that Heinz, the world's best-known maker of ketchup, decided to market ketchup
16:37 directly to children with its Easy Squirt line. The squeezable containers were easy
16:41 for kids to use, but not only that, the product was made available in a variety of fun, and
16:45 dare we say it, rad colors other than the standard red. Who wouldn't want to squirt
16:50 something purple and toxic looking onto their french fries? While the novel idea may have
16:53 had some kids begging their parents to put it in their grocery carts, by 2006, production
16:58 was stopped.
16:59 Number 9. Cheetos Lip Balm. Some products on this list were good ideas that just weren't
17:05 well executed or didn't catch on, but this is absolutely not one of them. Sure, we all
17:10 loved soda-flavored ChapStick, but when Frito-Lay introduced Cheetos-flavored Lip Balm, it was
17:16 obviously a step too far. We acknowledge that Cheetos are incredible, but not every snack
17:21 food belongs in our makeup case. We can't even imagine what the marketing pitch was
17:25 for this product, and we wouldn't be surprised if someone was fired for creating this monstrosity.
17:30 Number 8. The Newton. The Apple Newton was the product for which the term "personal
17:36 digital assistant" was created, and at the time of its release in 1993, it seemed like
17:41 the height of new technology. But the price of the product was very steep, making it a
17:53 difficult sell for consumers. Another factor in its failure was that the highly anticipated
17:57 handwriting feature ended up being a disappointment, at least if you didn't want to eat up
18:02 Martha. The Palm pilot ended up overtaking it, and when Steve Jobs came back to Apple
18:11 in 1997, he ordered the Newton line to be discontinued.
18:14 Number 7. The Galaxy Note 7. One of the more recent flops we'll be discussing was one
18:28 of the most explosive launches in tech history. But in all seriousness, the Samsung Galaxy
18:33 Note 7 started literally catching on fire shortly after its release. This phablet was
18:38 actually pretty well-reviewed when it first launched in August of 2016, but those positive
18:42 critiques didn't count for much when the phones began smoking and setting aflame.
18:54 In one much-publicized instance, this even happened on a flight which had to be evacuated,
18:59 prompting airlines to ban the Note 7. Samsung discontinued the phone in October of 2016
19:05 and reportedly lost billions of dollars because of the debacle.
19:08 Number 6. Betamax. Remember VHS? Meet its older brother. Released in 1975, just a year
19:22 before the VHS tape came out, the Betamax arguably had better technology than its competitor.
19:27 The resolution and sound were considered to be superior to those of the VHS, but because
19:31 Sony made a major misstep with its licensing, VHS soared past it to quickly grab a larger
19:37 market share, providing more consumer options and lower price points. That is why 90s kids
19:42 will all remember having their Disney movies on VHS and not Betamax.
19:52 Number 5. Google Glass. In so many works of science fiction that imagine the future of
19:57 humanity, we had wearable technology that looked a whole lot like Google Glass. In fact,
20:02 theoretically, it seemed like an incredibly futuristic invention that could completely
20:06 change the way we viewed the world. But despite its lofty goals, Google Glass was mired with
20:16 criticism and was prohibitively expensive for many. Chief among the concerns were issues
20:21 of privacy, because the Glass could easily record people without their consent, as well
20:26 as safety. Number 4. Wow Chips. Consumers should probably be smart enough to be wary
20:32 of low-fat potato chips, but when Wow Chips were released by Lay's in 1998, no one could
20:38 have imagined the fallout. You see, they were made with a fat alternative called Olestra,
20:42 which caused, well, let's just say gastrointestinal distress. That is, visits to the bathroom.
20:50 How this was not discovered during the development phase, we'll never know. But the end result
21:01 was that Lay's was forced to put a warning on all bags, reading, "This product contains
21:06 Olestra. Olestra may cause abdominal cramping and loose stools." Now that is not exactly
21:12 great marketing material. Number 3. Premier Smokeless Cigarettes. Long before peeps were
21:19 vaping or using e-cigarettes, companies were trying to come up with a safer way to smoke.
21:23 In 1988, for tobacco company R.J. Reynolds, this meant introducing a line of "smokeless"
21:28 cigarettes. The problem was, smokers didn't get the same satisfaction from it because
21:32 of the lack of actual smoke. Not to mention, there was a chemical taste associated with
21:36 it that didn't improve things. In the end, the non-smoking smokes were only around for
21:41 a few months before they were removed from the market, and after R.J. Reynolds invested
21:45 hundreds of millions of dollars into them. Number 2. Edsel. The most memorable product
21:51 failures are usually the ones that were the most heavily hyped. This is true now, and
21:56 it was true all the way back in the 1950s as well. The Ford Motor Company came out with
22:06 the Edsel after a year-long marketing campaign leading up to its release, which branded it
22:10 as the car of the future. With so much anticipation, it was almost destined to fall short of what
22:16 people had expected. But this was an even more colossal failure than anyone could have
22:26 imagined. People thought they were too expensive, ugly, and suffered from being overhyped. In
22:32 short, the Edsel never picked up traction.
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22:49 Number 1. New Coke. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. This was a lesson that the Coca-Cola
22:57 Company clearly did not internalize when they came up with the idea for New Coke in the 80s.
23:02 We're not sure why they decided to mess with a good thing, but when they reformulated their
23:08 popular cola beverage to more closely align with popular tastes at the time, the reaction
23:13 was overwhelmingly negative. Several years later, Pepsi tried a similar tactic with Crystal Pepsi,
23:19 which was clear and caffeine-free and was similarly unsuccessful. Curious Parties and
23:24 latecomers got a second chance to try New Coke in 2019, however, when it was re-released as a
23:29 cross-promotion with Stranger Things. Did you own any of these products? Let us know in the comments
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23:54 [Music]