The Dumbest Moments in Business History: Useless Products, Ruinous Deals, Clueless Bosses, and Other Signs of Unintelligent Life in the Workplace

Adam Horowitz9781591840350, 159184035X

Business 2.0 magazine publishes an annual cover story called “The 101 Dumbest Moments in Business. Featuring 101 hilarious items about the year’s most unbelievably stupid business blunders, it’s hugely popular with its more than half a million print subscribers-and with the two million people who read it on the Web this year. In The Dumbest Moments in Business History, the editors of Business 2.0 have compiled the best of their first four annual issues plus great (or not so great, if you happen to be responsible) moments from the past.From New Coke to the Edsel, from Rosie magazine to Burger King’s “Herb the Nerd,” the book’s highlights include:• a Romanian car plant whose workers banded together to eliminate the company’s debt by donating sperm and giving the proceeds to their employer• the Heidelberg Electric Belt, a sort of low-voltage jockstrap sold in 1900 to cure impotence, kidney disorders, insomnia, and many other complaints• the time Beech-Nut sold “100% pure apple juice” that contained nary a drop of apple juice• the Midas ad campaign featuring an elderly customer ripping open her blouse and showing her “mufflers” to the guys in the shop• a London videogame maker that sought volunteers who would allow the company to place ads on the headstones of deceased relativesGrouped by theme-bosses gone bad, criminally creative accounting, etc.-The Dumbest Moments in Business History is a fun and funny look at the big-time ways that big-time companies have screwed up through the decades.