5 Major Product Blunders made by Large F&B Companies

1. Burger King's New Chopsticks Advert

This particular example is all over social media at the moment, and is a fine example of just how badly wrong a PR advert can go. Burger King, the veteran fast food chain, is facing tremendous backlash for this advert as it depicts customers trying to eat its new Vietnamese Sweet Chilli Tendercrisp burgers with giant, red chopsticks. The advertisement is viewed as culturally insensitive and has faced a lot of backlash in New Zealand, where it premiered. As of this moment, the advert has been taken down and an apology has been issued by Burger King. 

Below is a news scoop from the South China Morning Post with some footage of the advert along with peoples' reactions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnaNZbgpt6w

2. New Coke

In 1985, the Coca-Cola Company decided to introduce a new type of coke that it claimed was 'smoother and sweeter' in taste. However, as expected, customers didn't take kindly to their favorite soft drink being tampered with - not even by Coca-Cola, themselves!  Instead of reversing their decision, Coca-Cola brought back their original 99-year old Coke recipe by reintroducing it as 'Classic Coke'. This move was made after a disastrous [1] 87% dissatisfaction rate by customers. Indeed, [2] "Angry fans launched campaigns, collected signatures and started hotlines to force the company to bring back the original soft drink."

3. Colgate Lasagne

We really want to know what the marketing team was thinking when this idea was given the green light. The Colgate Company, makers of toothpaste, got the idea to create a line of frozen meals in the 1980s. Unsurprisingly, the product was an utter failure as the public wasn't really sold on the idea of their toothpaste maker creating a delicious F&B product. In the end, the product was shelved, and immortalized in Sweden's Museum of Failure. 

4. Purple and Green Ketchup

While this product didn't perform terribly when it was first introduced, it quickly began to lose momentum and was eventually discontinued. The idea behind these colorful ketchup variants was that they would appeal to kids, who would get a kick out of dipping their food into a new range of brightly-coloured condiments. However, many felt the product was too unappealing, and lots of kids lost interest rather quickly. Plus, there's just something oddly unnatural about green and purple goo that's supposed to taste like tomatoes. 

5. Savory Jell-O

As horrid as it sounds, Jell-O salads were actually a thing! Instead of having Jell-O as a tasty dessert-based treat, there were so many competitors putting out savory-flavored jelly products that Jell-O felt like they had to join in. Adverts showed Jell-O encasing several products ranging from veggies to tuna and even eggs! Just thinking about it makes our stomachs turn, but luckily, savory Jell-O has since been discontinued. 

[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/30-years-ago-today-coca-cola-new-coke-failure/

[2] https://www.fooddive.com/news/6-of-the-worst-product-failures-in-the-food-and-beverage-industrys-history/444783/