In late November 2019 Peloton, the in-home exercise bike company, released an ad to spur holiday sales. But by December 6th the backlash from the ad was so bad that it caused the stock to drop 15% and wipe out nearly $900 million worth of compa

Ep 5 - The Boston Mooninite Panic

Nov 22nd, 2019 22m 14s

On January 31st 2007 Boston residents started noticing strange looking devices on their local train stations and near some bridges. By 9am on that morning the Boston Police Department’s bomb squad received a phone call from the MBTA requesting

Ep 4 - American Airlines' Lifetime Pass

Nov 12th, 2019 22m 44s

In 1981 American Airlines was hurting for money. They had just posted a loss of $76 million the previous year, and were dealing with increased competition and lower airline ticket prices. In order to get some much needed capital, they started o

Ep 1 - Quiznos' Singing Rodents

Nov 11th, 2019 16m 19s

In 2007 Quiznos’ Subs had over 4,700 locations across the United States. By 2017 that number had shrunk to less than 400 and the company was bankrupt. As is the case with any major business collapse, there are a multitude of factors that contri

Ep 0 - Introducing Terrible Ads

Nov 11th, 2019 1m 30s

Every year over $200 billion is spent on advertising in the U.S. alone. Most of these ad campaigns are wildly ignored or missed by the general public, and many of them still accomplish their goal of drumming up business for their respective com

Ep 3 - Kendall Jenner Pepsi Ad

Nov 11th, 2019 22m 23s

In April 2017 Pepsi released an ad called “Live For Now” featuring one of the most popular models in the world, Kendall Jenner. The ad was designed to show the world how even though we may be divided in political beliefs, we can all bond over t

Ep 2 - 79 Days of New Coke

Nov 11th, 2019 24m 20s

In 1985 the Coca-Cola company was losing ground to rival Pepsi. Coke had to do something drastic to win back consumers and in their mind that thing was taste. On April 23, 1985 Coke introduced the world to New Coke. But by June of that same yea

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