Advice Network Founders Blog

Okay, so I’m a couple weeks late…but I just found Fortune’s choices for the dumbest moments in business in 2007 and found it to be extremely interesting and entertaining.

Here are my 10 favorites:

KFC/Taco Bell
Ooh, gross!

A video clip showing hordes of rats in a closed-for-the-night KFC/Taco Bell outlet in New York City gets nearly a million hits on YouTube.

Bindeez
But officer, it was the Toy of the Year!
Australia’s Toy of the Year, a bead toy called Bindeez made by Moose Enterprise, is pulled from stores after scientists discover that the beads contain a chemical that converts into the date-rape drug GHB when ingested.

Microsoft’s PR firm
And the Patricia Dunn Pretexting Award goes to …
While working on an article about Microsoft, Wired contributing editor (and former Fortune writer) Fred Vogelstein receives a 13-page dossier about himself, describing him as “tricky” and his stories as “sensational.” The document, prepared by the company’s public relations firm, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, as background for Microsoft executives, was sent inadvertently to the writer.

Cartoon Network
Right back atcha …
To build buzz for its animated show “Aqua Teen Hunger Force,” Turner Broadcasting’s Cartoon Network places electronic lightboards throughout Boston, triggering a bomb scare that shuts down two bridges, an expressway, a subway station, and a stretch of the Charles River. The devices depict a character from the show saluting passersby with an upraised middle finger.

Adam ‘Pacman’ Jones
…stays in Vegas
Tennessee Titans Cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones rains dollar bills down on dancers at a Las Vegas strip club, setting off a melee in which three people are shot.

Serendipity 3
We seriously mistrusted those sprinkles
Just one week after unveiling the world’s most expensive dessert - the $25,000 Frrozen Haute Chocolate, 28 cocoas infused with edible 23-karat gold served in a goblet with a diamond bracelet at its base - New York restaurant Serendipity 3 is shut down for failing its second health inspection in a month. Inspectors find a live mouse, multiple piles of mouse droppings, fruit flies, houseflies, and more than 100 live cockroaches.

McDonald’s
In fact, many of our employees go on to be McBrain Surgeons
McDonald’s launches a “word battle” against the Oxford English Dictionary to amend the definition of McJobs, which the OED currently describes as an “unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects.” The goal, according to a company vice president, is to change the citation to “reflect a job that is stimulating, rewarding, and offers skills that last a lifetime.”

Circuit City
Good job. You’re all fired.
In a cost-cutting move, Circuit City lays off all sales associates paid 51 cents or more per hour above an “established pay range” - essentially firing 3,400 of its top performers in one fell swoop. Over the next eight months Circuit City’s share price drops by almost 70%.

Radiohead
Can’t wait for the follow-up album, ‘In Debt’
British rock band Radiohead makes its new album, “In Rainbows,” available for download on the Internet and lets its fans decide how much they want to pay. Sixty-two percent, according to comScore, decide to pay nothing, while the other 38% voluntarily fork over an average of six bucks.

Blogger
What comes up first when you Google “screwup”?
Google’s Blogger software misidentifies a company-written blog as spam and automatically disables it.

For the full list, click here.

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