Top 30 Junk Food and Drink FAILS
These fails made people physically and financially sick. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for junk food and drink fails.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 "Crystal Pepsi. All the great taste of regular Pepsi, but without that troublesome opacity."
00:05 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for junk food and drink fails.
00:10 Fails include financial missteps, but also questionable dietary choices and
00:15 things that are just frankly kind of gross. "Those candy cigarettes with red tips."
00:19 Number 30. New Coke. Have you ever heard the expression, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it?"
00:27 Apparently, the Coca-Cola company had not back in 1985 when they decided to change the Coke formula.
00:33 "After a century of dominating the world's soft drink market, Coca-Cola is changing."
00:38 Sure, Coke had been losing market share to Pepsi, so maybe in their minds it was broke.
00:42 Either way, their fix kind of failed. "It's a hit, it's a Coke. Coke is hit."
00:49 While the initial response to the new taste was positive, once the Southern states got their hands
00:54 on it, the backlash was mighty. It was so intense that Coke brought back the old formula within
00:59 three months as Coca-Cola Classic. And remember when we said their fix kind of failed? Well,
01:05 the reintroduction of the Classic formula led to a very nice bump in sales.
01:09 "Is Coke nervous? Not at all. We've never had more fun in our life."
01:13 Number 29. Candy cigarettes. Kids today will know them as candy sticks,
01:18 but back in the 20th century, and even as far back as the late 1800s,
01:22 they were straight-up called candy cigarettes.
01:24 Many even had a red tip to mimic a lit cigarette. These things are pure sugar with very little
01:33 flavor. But if we were judging a product solely on its longevity, then candy cigarettes would not
01:38 have made the list. However, in this case, it's safe to call these things a failure to our children.
01:44 "Now each of these boxes are only about 25 cents versus the actual cigarette boxes which are
01:50 around six or seven dollars." Especially children of the previous generation who,
01:54 according to various surveys, were more likely to take up actual smoking if they'd been consumers
02:00 of candy cigarettes. "Candy cigarette?" "I don't want a candy cigarette, I want our Annie."
02:04 Number 28. 7-Up Gold. 7-Up has always been clear-colored, and its marketing slogan for
02:10 many years was "Never had it, never will," with the "it" being caffeine. "Never had it, never will."
02:16 This is important to note because 7-Up Gold was distinctly dark-colored and contained caffeine.
02:22 "Introducing 7-Up Gold." "Wow, thanks!"
02:26 If you're confused by the decision, you're not alone. Consumers in 1988 were seemingly just as
02:32 confused by it. They were so confused, in fact, that they basically decided that they never had
02:37 it and never would, with "it" being 7-Up Gold. The product was discontinued within a year.
02:42 "Wow, thanks. I think I love you."
02:46 Number 27. 3D Doritos. Sometimes, like with the first Avatar movie,
02:51 having something in 3D can actually make it a better experience.
02:53 And other times, it's just a gimmick. 3D Doritos is much more the latter. Don't get us wrong,
03:02 we love Doritos. But puffing them up didn't really add much to them besides being able
03:06 to fit fewer of them in a bag. "A whole new shape that begs to be eaten."
03:12 The original product had a decent six-year run from 1998 to 2004 before being discontinued.
03:18 However, in 2020, they were back, in both Chili Cheese Nacho and Spicy Ranch flavors.
03:23 And if nothing else, the return of the chip provided us with a great Matthew
03:27 McConaughey Super Bowl commercial. "Doritos, now in 3D."
03:30 Number 26. Cheez Whiz. This one might be a little controversial, as we know that
03:35 there are people out there that love Cheez Whiz. And those that love it, really love it.
03:40 "The waiting is over. Cheez Whiz Processed Cheese Spread."
03:43 But the fact is that this is a bright orange processed cheese spread.
03:47 And to call it cheese is a stretch, which is probably why they spell it with a Z.
03:52 Although, to be fair, it would seem that when the product was introduced in the 1950s,
03:56 it did contain a good amount of actual cheese.
03:59 We aren't sure when that changed, but it did, and it was noticeable.
04:05 Dean Southworth was on the development team that created Cheez Whiz. And in 2001,
04:09 he tasted the current product and exclaimed that it tasted, quote, "like axle grease."
04:14 Number 25. Pepsi Blue. In 2001, Mountain Dew introduced their Code Red flavor,
04:23 and saw a nice bump in sales. When Pepsi saw that, they decided that they too needed a
04:28 brightly colored version of their soda. And in 2002, the world got Pepsi Blue.
04:33 "Pepsi Blue, a fusion of berries with a splash of cola."
04:35 However, while Code Red is still going strong today, Pepsi Blue was off store shelves in North
04:41 America by the end of 2004. Pepsi promoted the hell out of the new blue product. And while the
04:46 company saw growth, the product did go down as a failure. Not to mention the fact that they used
04:51 the Blue One coloring agent to get the soda's bright color, an agent that was, even at the time,
04:57 banned in numerous countries. That's two fails in one, Pepsi.
05:00 "Pepsi Blue, a new fusion of berry and cola."
05:03 Number 24. Lay's Cappuccino Flavored Potato Chips.
05:07 "How's this sound? Cappuccino flavored potato chips?"
05:10 In 2014, the Lay's Do Us A Flavor contest came down to four new flavors. Mango Salsa,
05:17 Cheddar Bacon Mac and Cheese, Wasabi Ginger, and Cappuccino. The winner was Wasabi Ginger.
05:23 But to say that Cappuccino just lost would not be doing it justice to some of the comments
05:27 Lay's got on their Facebook page regarding said flavor. How do "nasty" and "gross" sound?
05:33 Not good when talking about how something tastes, right?
05:35 The Today Show even did a taste test among their staff. And while one person called the
05:40 Cappuccino chips, quote, "not unacceptable," there was an acknowledgement of a rather
05:44 unpleasant aftertaste that stuck around for a while.
05:47 "That's terrible."
05:48 Number 23. Coors Rocky Mountain Sparkling Water.
05:51 The Coors Beer Brewing Company has been brewing their beer using Rocky Mountain
05:55 Spring Water for well over 100 years. "It's brewed with pure Rocky Mountain
05:59 Spring Water and its own special high country barley." So back in 1990, when the bottled water
06:04 industry was raking in the cash, Coors saw an obvious opportunity to get in on it. The problem
06:10 was that they kept the Coors name in the marketing and put it right there on the bottle as well.
06:14 We're sure it tasted fine, but with so many options out there, who would grab the bottle
06:18 of water with the beer name on it? Not many people, it turns out, because Coors Rocky
06:22 Mountain Sparkling Water was discontinued. "How'd you do it? How'd you do it?"
06:27 Number 22. Swedish Fish Oreos.
06:29 "The Swedish Fish Oreo. Yep, that's, you heard me right."
06:33 Yep, this was actually a thing. You know how Oreo loves putting out limited edition flavors?
06:38 Well, back in 2016, they gave us Swedish Fish Oreos, with a bright red Swedish Fish-flavored
06:44 cream sandwiched between two classic chocolate cookies. So what'd they taste like? Well,
06:49 according to various reviews, words like "waxy," "artificial cherry," "slimy," and "cough syrup"
06:55 were popular descriptors. "It's not like paint."
06:59 We appreciate Oreos' willingness to take chances and bring us all kinds of flavor options we never
07:04 would've thought possible. But they can't all be hits, and Swedish Fish Oreos was definitely
07:08 one of their bigger misses. "Do it, do it. It's gross."
07:14 Number 21. Surge Soda.
07:16 If imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery, then the Coca-Cola company was really
07:21 flattering Pepsi in 1997 with the release of Surge Soda. "Oh, Surge, life's a scream."
07:27 Mountain Dew, which was owned by Pepsi, was growing fast, and Coke wanted something to
07:32 compete with it. The original codename for the product was "MDK," or "Mountain Dew Killer."
07:38 But kill Mountain Dew it could not. "Speed to run!"
07:41 And by 2003, it was pretty much over. Not to say Surge didn't have its fans. In fact,
07:46 it had some very dedicated fans who were loud enough to get Coke to re-release Surge in 2015.
07:52 We're happy for these folks, but the aggressive marketing and the extreme sports?
07:56 It all feels like an off-brand Mountain Dew to us. "Surge is back."
07:59 Number 20. Pringles Restaurant Cravers.
08:04 Mozzarella Sticks and Marinara. We love a good serving of mozzarella sticks and marinara sauce
08:08 as much as the next person, but did we really need them in the form of a potato chip? Pringles
08:13 certainly thought so. The chip brand once launched a line of flavors dubbed "Restaurant Cravers,"
08:18 focusing on classic entrees and appetizers like onion blossom and Mexican layered dip.
08:23 Unfortunately, mozzarella sticks and marinara doesn't translate nearly as well to chip form.
08:28 The joy of mozzarella sticks is rooted in texture. Why disrespect the cheesy,
08:33 gooey nature of this timeless appetizer by turning it into a powder-coated chip?
08:37 That's just blasphemy.
08:39 Number 19. Pepsi A.M.
08:41 When it comes to revolutionizing the concept of the morning beverage, there have been far
08:46 more spectacularly bad ideas. There are a lot of people who struggle to face the day without a
08:50 morning dose of caffeine. Hoping to cash in on this demand, and maybe even convert some coffee
08:55 drinkers, Pepsi unveiled Pepsi A.M. in 1989. To be clear, this wasn't some revolutionary new type of
09:02 beverage. It was good old-fashioned Pepsi-Cola with the caffeine level jacked way up.
09:06 If your stomach is churning at the thought of starting your day with soda, you are not alone.
09:15 It was discontinued just one year later.
09:17 Number 18. Lay's Wow Chips
09:20 It's amazing how far some companies will go just so they can plaster their food with healthy
09:25 phrases like "sugar-free" or "zero calories." Unfortunately, changing a tried-and-true recipe
09:34 is risky business, as Frito-Lay learned the hard way with their Wow Chips lineup.
09:39 In 1998, Frito-Lay made special bags of Lay's, Doritos, and Ruffles that were fat-free. But
09:45 this supposed benefit came at an immense cost. Since the chips were made with Olestra instead
09:50 of regular cooking oil, customers not only digested fewer calories than regular Lay's,
09:55 they also began suffering from stomach cramps and diarrhea. Around 2004,
09:59 Frito-Lay renamed the lineup as "Lite" with a slightly new formula.
10:04 Number 17. Hubba Bubba Bubble Jug
10:06 Wow. The Hubba Bubba brand has certainly put out some strange products beyond their standard gum.
10:11 Some have really resonated with consumers like bubble tape. But the Hubba Bubba Bubble Jug?
10:17 Not so much. These miniature containers housed a powder that would turn into gum when chewed.
10:22 In other words, it was kind of like a Frankenstein Pixie Stix. What makes the product off-putting
10:26 is that you're basically chewing pure sugar to the point where it becomes a homogenous,
10:30 chewy substance. And while the gum that you wind up with is basically the same old Hubba Bubba,
10:35 that initial mouthful of chunky powder is a serious turn-off.
10:38 Number 16. Budweiser Extra
10:42 Can we just keep it to one vice at a time? In the early 2000s, when energy drinks were all the rage,
10:47 the quote-unquote "king of beers" decided to jump on the bandwagon by pumping a variation of their
10:52 ever-popular beer full of caffeine. Boasting 6.6% alcohol and a hearty dose of caffeine,
10:58 the beverage was certainly sending your body mixed messages. Leaving aside the fact that
11:03 numerous studies have proven caffeinated alcoholic beverages to be incredibly dangerous,
11:07 this brew was just downright disgusting. Oh, they also like to refer to it as Budweiser B to the E,
11:13 like someone's deeply uncool uncle. You know, just to make you cringe twice as hard while drinking it.
11:18 Number 15. Colgate Kitchen Entrees
11:22 Just as we blasted Coors for not being smart enough to realize that keeping the Coors name
11:26 on their sparkling water bottles was a bad move, so too do we need to give Colgate their due.
11:31 We're talking about Colgate Kitchen Entrees. Yes, the toothpaste company making frozen dinners.
11:37 At least Coors had a connection to the Rocky Mountain water. The only connection Colgate has
11:43 to frozen food, or any food for that matter, is brushing it off our teeth before we go to bed.
11:48 At least, from what we can tell, the frozen lasagna did not taste minty-fresh.
11:56 Number 14. True Blood
11:58 For starters, can you say false advertising? This carbonated beverage is not in fact blood,
12:04 human or otherwise. It is, however, a tie-in to the hit HBO series True Blood,
12:09 and the blood beverage that the vamps in the show consume to quench their insatiable thirst.
12:13 For die-hard fans of the series, this remarkably accurate-looking replica is sure to get their
12:19 hearts pounding. Unfortunately, the marketing department decided to treat this beverage as
12:23 more of a collector's item than a viable product, slapping on a hefty price tag that scared away
12:28 many would-be faux vampires. Oh, and did we mention that most bloodsuckers in the show
12:33 couldn't stand the stuff? Not exactly a great endorsement.
12:36 Number 13. Tato Milk Chocolate Bars
12:39 How do you like your chocolate bars? You like 'em loaded with peanuts or crispy rice? Drizzled in
12:44 caramel? Coating cookie bits? Well then, Tato Milk Chocolate Bars are not the decadent sweet you've
12:49 been searching for. While most chocolate companies offer a variety of products in which chocolate is
12:54 combined with peanut butter, wafers or other candy, Tato chooses to load its chocolate bars
12:58 with its own cheese and onion crisps. We're no stranger to sweet and savory treats like Ben and
13:03 Jerry's late-night snack ice cream, but chocolate with chips that taste like cheese and onions?
13:08 Count us out.
13:09 Number 12. Maxwell Ready-to-Drink Coffee
13:13 Introducing a beverage that nobody needed. Making coffee simple. Add hot water to ground coffee
13:18 beans in a filter and voila. Alternatively, stop at a drive-thru on your way to work.
13:22 If you're really pressed for time and don't care about quality or taste whatsoever,
13:26 instant coffee can be made, well, instantly. With these options available, taking coffee and putting
13:32 it in a cardboard carton, to then be poured out into mugs and reheated in the microwave had no
13:37 justifiable reason to exist. In the end, it wasn't quicker or more convenient, and it certainly did
13:43 not deliver a superior taste to a fresh-brewed pot. Number 11. Burger King Shake 'Em Cheesy Fries
13:53 When Taylor Swift tells us to "shake it off," we listen. But in the early aughts,
13:57 when Burger King wanted us to shake up our fries, people were not as keen to obey.
14:02 This is how it worked. First, you dump your fries into the bag. Then, you add as much
14:07 dehydrated cheese powder as you want, shake it all up and voila, cheesy fries. Not to mention
14:16 the cheese powder all over your fingers, and if you weren't careful, everything else. It
14:21 didn't take long for Burger King to shake this one right off of their menu.
14:25 Number 10. Veo Once again, the leading soft drink
14:30 manufacturer makes an appearance. Veo is a flavored, carbonated milk beverage, which the
14:35 Coca-Cola Company introduced to American markets in 2009. To the shock of nobody who wasn't working
14:41 for Coca-Cola, it was deemed a failure and soon pulled from production. In their defense,
14:46 such beverages do succeed elsewhere in the world. In Japan, they're actually quite common.
14:51 This is simply a case of trying to push a market way outside of its comfort zone. That being said,
14:56 an updated Veo has since been introduced in India in 2016, where the product has seemingly fared
15:02 better. Number 9. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pies
15:06 The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have had their faces slapped on a wealth of food products over
15:10 the years. From cereal to cookies and even Chef Boyardee, marketing efforts seem to suggest that
15:15 the iconic turtles are fond of more than just pizza. However, not every TMNT-endorsed product
15:20 is created equal, with one of the worst offenders being Hostess's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Pies.
15:26 While the vanilla pudding filling is enough to sell any kid, one look at the pie outside of
15:30 the packaging will make you question what exactly you're putting in your mouth. They couldn't just
15:34 make 'em turtle-shaped cupcakes, huh? Number 8. Coca-Cola Black
15:39 How do you connect with trendy young adults? How about making a mysterious black edition of your
15:43 cola? Sure, that's great and all, but if you really want to get the people talking, you better drop a
15:48 letter. And randomly capitalize the K. Silly branding aside, Coca-Cola Black just didn't work.
15:54 Why? Because its whole gimmick was that it was coffee-flavored. Consider it
16:00 Coca-Cola's own attempt to capture the coffee-drinking market. They gave it a sophisticated-looking
16:13 bottle that screamed "flavored coffee" and hoped to connect with the masses. Connect, they did not.
16:18 It earned a few devotees, but mostly people preferred to keep their coffee and cola separate.
16:23 It only lasted two years. Number 7. The Thanksgiving Dinner Holiday Pack
16:29 Jones Soda has managed to coexist with the heavyweights by carving out a niche for themselves
16:33 with their unique photography-based bottle designs and willingness to embrace odd flavors. Yes,
16:38 they offer up standards like root beer and cream soda, but they also do unusual flavors like peanut
16:43 butter and jelly, chocolate, and fufu berry. It's the specialty in holiday releases where
16:47 things get really odd. The 2007 Gingerbread Man flavor? That we can get behind. This Thanksgiving
16:54 sampler? Not so much. The 2005 National Pack comes with the following flavors, turkey and gravy,
17:01 brussel sprouts with prosciutto, cranberry, wild herb stuffing, and pumpkin pie. The 2006 variety
17:07 added an antacid flavor. Yikes, not exactly refreshing. Number 6. Ghostbusters Key Lime
17:14 Slime Twinkies Speaking of Hostess, the company behind Twinkies has gone through some bizarre
17:19 flavors over the past decades, especially when it comes to cross-promotional products.
17:23 We can tolerate flavors like orange cream pop, peppermint, and even pumpkin spice,
17:27 but there was something about their Ghostbusters Twinkies that really threw us off. In addition to
17:32 a white fudge marshmallow flavor, Hostess put out Key Lime Slime Twinkies as a promotional deal for
17:36 the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot. We suppose the key lime flavor fits with Twinkies' cakey nature,
17:43 but something about that green filling made these snacks seriously unappealing,
17:47 and oddly familiar. It just looks wrong.
17:53 Number 5. Crystal Pepsi Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the highest
17:57 grossing movie in the Indiana Jones franchise, and who doesn't love Crystal Gale? However,
18:02 not all things Crystal are a success. Allow us to take you back to the early 90s when North
18:07 America was going crazy for clear. Clear soap, clear mouthwash, and even clear beer.
18:13 Not to be outdone, Pepsi jumped headfirst into this fad with Crystal Pepsi. Sure, it did taste
18:18 a little different from regular Pepsi, and it did have those awesome commercials with that Van Halen
18:23 song. And yes, consumers did associate Clear with a more pure product, but they also associated a
18:32 certain taste profile with Pepsi that the Crystal version did not match. It was discontinued within
18:37 two years. Number 4. Ranch Dressing Soda. Like Jones, Lester's Fixins is known for taking soda
18:50 pop to strange and often exciting new places. This soda is without a doubt meant as a novelty,
18:55 but it makes you stop and wonder, how far is too far? Some of their concoctions are bizarre,
19:04 but nonetheless inspire a desire to give them a try. Take bacon, PB&J, and pumpkin pie. Ranch
19:09 flavor, on the other hand? The mere thought of it makes your stomach do somersaults. Based on
19:14 their advertising, weird is clearly the angle they were going for. With this particular flavor,
19:21 we wish they hadn't been so successful in achieving that goal. The smell is apparently repulsive,
19:26 and the flavor has been described as, at best, unremarkable. Number 3. Easy Squirt Ketchup.
19:33 Most people agree that ketchup is already perfect in its own right. Whether you're using it for
19:38 your fries, burgers, or a massive plate of crispy tater tots, ketchup arguably makes everything
19:43 taste better. But what happens when you decide to mess with an already winning formula? You wind up
19:48 with the sort of failed product line that Heinz had on their hands with the Easy Squirt Ketchup
19:52 in the early 2000s. For a limited time, kids could drizzle a rainbow of ketchup on their food.
19:58 Unfortunately, the color just made the food look less appetizing. To adults, at least. Yeah,
20:03 it was still ketchup, but its appearance did not sit well with customers.
20:13 Number 2. Shrek Twinkies. Yep, we knew something felt off about those Ghostbusters Twinkies,
20:19 and this was the reason. In 2001, dozens of food companies had their own cross-promotional deal
20:25 to make disgusting Shrek-themed products. But of them all, Shrek Twinkies were arguably the worst.
20:30 For starters, the green filling was unsettling, and it didn't help that the front of the box
20:43 proudly advertised "Ogre Green Creamy Filling." If you were one of the poor unfortunate souls who
20:48 bought a package, you probably realized your mistake after opening one of these foul sweets
20:53 and discovered the Twinkie looked worse than what was on the box. And to think,
20:57 they brought it back to promote Shrek 2.
20:59 Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified
21:11 about our latest videos. You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
21:17 If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.
21:21 Number 1. Cocaine. This drink promised serious levels of energy,
21:27 and was not afraid to invoke highly addictive illicit drugs to make that clear.
21:32 The can even featured a font that looked like bumpy lines of white powder.
21:35 The marketing was so problematic, the FDA actually had it banned on the grounds that
21:39 Redox Beverages was "illegally marketing the drink as both a street drug alternative
21:44 and a dietary supplement." They compromised and rebranded it as "No Name" before eventually
21:55 reverting back to the original name. Branding aside, this drink is also a bad idea for consumers.
22:00 The caffeine and taurine levels are drastically higher than the competition,
22:04 so much so that doctors have publicly warned against drinking it.
22:08 What are your feelings on these fails? Let us know in the comments.
22:12 Did you enjoy this video? Check out these other clips from WatchMojo,
22:20 and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
22:24 [Music]