101 Dumbest Moments in Business in 2007
December 19, 2007 by Susan Gunelius
Filed under Marketing
Fortune put together a list of the 101 Dumbest Moments in Business in 2007 that is absolutely hilarious but frightening at the same time. It’s amazing that some of these ads and marketing campaigns could come to fruition.
From pictures of toddlers on Luvs packages whose parents never knew their children’s images would be used to a promotion in Boston by the Cartoon Network that triggered a bomb scare which shut down bridges, highways, subways and part of the Charles River, there’s no doubt someone took the blame for these mistakes.
One of my favorite examples from Fortune’s list of the 101 dumbest business moments of 2007 is Belgian IT security consultant Didier Stevens’ Google ad that he created to test Google’s ability to spot and block harmful ads. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) constantly touts its best-in-class Adsense program and its proprietary serving system, yet Stevens’ ad was accepted by Google and served 259,723 times. Sadly, 409 people actually clicked on the ad which asked, “Is your PC virus-free? Get it infected here.” You can see the actual ad in the picture above.
When I see examples from the list like the Chrysler Nitro ad that depicted a dog urinating on a Nitro and subsequently getting electrocuted and erupting in flames, I wonder (as usual) where was the common sense when these marketing programs and ads were being developed?
What do you think of Fortune’s list of the 101 Dumbest Moments in Business in 2007? Do any examples stand out as particularly surprising or interesting (or laughable) to you?
