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Business 2.0's 101 Dumbest Moments in Business

Every year I enjoy reading through the list of the dumbest moments in business. I love the executive quotes they sometimes capture.

Speaking at an ad industry event in Toronto, WPP Group's worldwide creative director, Neil French, says there aren't more female creative directors "because they're crap" and they eventually "wimp out" and "go off and suckle something."

And the boneheaded moves involving data.

In February, ChoicePoint -- the self-proclaimed "leading provider of identification and credential verification services" -- admits that it sold the personal data of 145,000 people to a number of unauthorized recipients, including an identity-theft ring in Los Angeles. ChoicePoint thoughtfully offers the victims a free credit report -- but still makes them pay to see the detailed information that was provided to the criminals.

And marketing (my perennial favorite, BK delivers two years in a row!).

In July, Burger King launches an ad campaign for its new Chicken Fries featuring a faux heavy-metal band called CoqRoq. Coqroq.com initially features photos of female fans captioned "Groupies love the Coq." After the captions are removed, Burger King spokeswoman Edna Johnson tells Advertising Age that they were written and assigned randomly by computer software that has since been disabled.

And of course chutzpah

"If I can help people focus on preparedness ... then I hope I can help the country in some way." -- Former FEMA director Michael Brown, just two months after he resigned in the wake of his agency's failed response to Hurricane Katrina, announcing plans to start his own disaster-preparedness consulting firm.

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Posted by Mark Thursday, January 26, 2006 10:08:00 PM | permalink |