101 Dumbest Moments in Business

Just when I thought I had short-comings...I stumbled upon this great article from CNN, (or is that Money, or Business 2.0?) If you visit the site you'll see that there's so many names on the page I can't quite tell who's in charge.

Anyway, they've done a great job at picking some of the dumbest moments that have passed into history. Remember some of these great blunders that just made you wonder (just a few of my favorites):

-General Mills launches a new marketing campaign touting the "healthiness" of Cocoa Puffs, Lucky Charms and Count Chocula. That's the way to fight obesity!

-Talk about bad timing! Starbucks releases a new coffee called the "Black Apron Exclusives Aged Sumatra Lot 523 coffee", just days after the tsunami killed tens of thousands on the Indonesian island.

-Even too expensive for Vail? People have complained for years that housing was so outrageous in Vail that few can even live there anymore. I guess including the ones who started the whole thing...unable to buy office space in a community where the average home price recently headed north of $4 million, the Aspen Board of Realtors heads north too -- to Basalt, Colo., a town of 3,000 residents 20 miles away.

-A bit more than they bargained for. Looks like this contest didn't work out quite as the airline planned. The winner of the American Airlines "We Know Why You Fly" contest, which promised to award 24 round-trip tickets to the traveler who submitted the best video about his airborne experiences, turns down the grand prize. Why? Because American fails to cover the winner's federal, state, and local income taxes, which amount to about $19,000, or $800 per ticket.

You may ask yourself. Self? How does this relate to blogs? Well, it's been mostly blogs that have brought these stories out into the public. As you can imagine, an organization's goal is to down play negative publicity as much as possible. So, the only way most of us would ever know that all is not "perfect" in the corporate world is thanks to blogs.

Have you thanked a blogger today?

Go ahead and do it, then go read the 101 Dumbest moments. You'll either laugh until you cry or be horrified, or both. But either way you'll know what not to do on your next marketing campaign.