The McHotDog was a short-lived hot dog introduced by McDonald's in 1995. It famously went against the wishes of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc, who had a strong aversion to hot dogs. McDonald's built its global reputation on burgers, fries, and consi ...
In 1966, Pepsi released the Devil Shake, a chocolate-flavored drink marketed as a richer milk-based soda. However, Pepsi was known for cola so a chocolate milk-style drink didn't naturally fit the Pepsi brand. In addition, it ran into production p ...
Schlitz was one of America's top-selling beers. After a brewery strike and pressure to expand nationally, management focused heavily on increasing output and reducing costs. This led to using cheaper ingredients and stabilizers while shortened aging ...
Warrior Custom Golf was a direct-to-consumer golf equipment company best known for aggressive TV infomercials and "free club" promotions in the 2000s and 2010s. Warrior clubs were marketed as premium custom clubs at bargain pricing, but many golfer ...
LiveWire was launched by Harley-Davidson as its electronic motorcycle division and later spun out via a SPAC in 2022. Investors initially valued it like a high-growth EV startup, but demand turned out to be much smaller than hoped. Younger EV-orie ...
FlexICs, an early 2000s semiconductor startup, set out to commercialize a technology that could print transistors on a flexible substrate. The initial application was for flexible displays. The core tech spun out of Lawrence Berkeley Labs. They were ...
Founded in 1998, Fogdog tried to become the online version of a sporting goods superstore. It sold athletic apparel, equipment, and gear online during the early e-commerce explosion. Fogdog went public in late 1999 during the peak of the dot-com b ...
Launched in 1978 by Mattel, the Battlestar Galactica Cylon Raider toy was discontinued due to safety concerns. It was a die-cast and plastic spaceship featuring spring-loaded missile launchers, a functioning cockpit that opened for a small pilot fi ...
The 1959 Mattel Remington Derringer belt buckle was discontinued due to safety concerns. The toy cap gun disguised as a belt buckle that flipped out and fired a small plastic projectile. It used a spring-loaded mechanism trigger by pressure on the b ...
Launched in 2023, KFC failed at launching roast beef sandwiches. Customers go to KFC specifically for chicken and couldn't compete against Arby's, the roast beef specialist. The product had no clear advantage in price, taste, or uniqueness. Meanw ...
