Voices: The Top 10 failures of all time, anywhere
This list was inspired by Trung Phan, who posted on Twitter about the Museum of Failure, a touring exhibition that displays unsuccessful products in an attempt to show that innovation requires risk-taking.
Exhibits include the DeLorean sports car with doors that open upwards (1981) and New Coke (1985).
Here are 10 less well-known ones:
1. Ikea a.i.r. Inflatable furniture, 1980s, which leaked and needed frequent repumping, although the line did last a decade.
2. TwitterPeek. A $200 handheld device, 2009-10, that ran only Twitter, which launched in 2007. “You could see only 20 characters at a time, and linked websites were inaccessible,” said Phan.
3. Nintendo Power Glove. One of the company’s first forays into virtual reality, in 1989. “It sold 600,000 units in its first six weeks but didn’t actually do anything of note,” according to Phan. “The hand-motion tech would later develop into the super-successful Nintendo Wii controller, though.”
4. Arch Deluxe. McDonald’s “adult” burger, launched in 1996 and discontinued in 2000. The expensive ad campaign flopped.
5. Nike Magneto sunglasses, 1995. With no arms to go over ears, they clicked on to magnets which you glued on your face. Discontinued 1997.
6. Amstrad E-mailer. Landline phone with LCD screen for email, 2000. Nominated by John Peters and Rob Jackson.
7. Heinz Coloured Ketchup. In green, purple, blue and pink, 2000. The company did “wild food engineering to make the colours work”, said Phan, but it folded after six years.
8. The Winnebago Heli-home. Ex-military Sikorsky S-55 transport helicopters converted to make mobile homes, 1975. Eight of them sold, for the modern equivalent of about $1m. Nominated by Ken Wallace.
9. Crystal Pepsi. Clear soft drink launched in 1992 and discontinued the following year. Thanks to Compound248.
10. The Brexit Mug. This is such a fabulous story, of the Bentham pottery mug, with holes spelling “Brexit”, hand-carved in 2019 to make a point about Brexit not working. Went on to be a roaring success, raising a lot of money for charity. Nominated by Ali Hughes and Edwin Hayward.
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Other famous failures include the Sinclair C5 (Jo-Anne Burrow and Robert Eichel), the square steering wheel on the Austin Allegro (Rob Jackson), and Boris Johnson (thank you, Bill Heywood).
Next week: Attempts by politicians to seem cooler than they are, after Rishi Sunak claimed to enjoy breakfast pancakes at McDonald’s with his daughters, two and a half years after they had been discontinued.
Coming soon: Jesters, as Boris Johnson prepares to leave the stage.
Your suggestions please, and ideas for future Top 10s, to me on Twitter, or by email to top10@independent.co.uk
