Corporations are constantly coming up with new products, but what happens when the big brands get it badly wrong? Click or scroll through as we take a look at some of the biggest product failures of all time.

The light version of the popular salty snack was marketed as a more diet-friendly version of classic Pringles. The only thing was, they contained a fat-substitute called Olestra (also known as its brand name Olean). Unfortunately, this ingredient could have laxative side-effects if anyone ate too many of the Fat Free Pringles. No thanks.

Nobody really believes that fast food restaurants are the best place to grab a healthy and nutritious meal. However, that didn't stop Burger King trying to meet people halfway by launching a lower fat version of their fries. Unfortunately, the reduced fat, sodium and calories didn't convince customers and they were phased out after not making enough sales.

Netflix is now a household name and even has its own euphemism ‘Netflix and chill’. What you may not be able to recall quite so readily is Netflix's 2011 blip when it launched Qwikster, a DVD delivery service which charged a separate subscription fee. Originally Netflix had offered DVD delivery as part of its main service, but by splitting the two services Qwikster soon flopped. However, Netflix's streaming service has since gone from strength to strength.

We all need a little caffeine boost in the morning, so why not ditch your coffee and wake up to a can of fizzy cola instead? Not convinced? Well, neither were Pepsi’s customers when it launched its new morning pick-me-up drinks line.

Somebody decided that incorporating an MP3 player into a pair of sunglasses would be a great idea, which with their proximity to your ears seems like a reasonable idea. However, when Oakley launched its ‘Thump’ sunglasses in 2004, potential customers were met with a bulky design and hefty price tag. Let’s just say when you search for ‘Thump’ on the Oakley website it comes up with “no matches found”.

When Samsung had to discontinue its Galaxy Note7 phone, it came as a (literal) blow to the company. After reports of the devices spontaneously combusting, the tech giant was forced to recall the model on safety grounds and issue a public apology.

There seem to have been two reasons behind this product’s failure. First of all, the benefits of putting dairy produce in your hair weren’t explained too well, so the concept was bizarre from the get-go. Secondly, some people tried to eat the yoghurt-coloured, yoghurt-textured, yoghurt-named shampoo believing it was, well, edible yoghurt. It wasn’t, and offering the shampoo alongside yoghurt cookery books probably didn't help much either.

Mornings are a busy time, so Kraft’s Maxwell House brand of coffee introduced a ‘ready to drink’ beverage to help people get their caffeine fix in a hurry. The problem was that it wasn’t ready to drink at all. The coffee came cold in a carton and needed heating in the microwave before drinking. What's worse? The packaging wasn’t even microwave-friendly.

When it was finally revealed that smoking was dangerous and that even second-hand smoke could be damaging in the late 80s, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company decided to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on creating a smokeless cigarette product. The smokeless cigarettes – called Premier – were designed to cling on to some of their spooked customers, but the cigarettes tasted and smelled so awful that they made people retch. Not quite the desired effect.

The popular cheese puffs Cheetos might be a tasty snack, but they do tend to leave a layer of cheesy, orange dust smeared around your mouth and on your fingertips. So it was a bit of a surprise when Frito-Lay announced that it was bringing out a Cheetos lip balm in 2005. The novelty product received bad reviews, and was discontinued.

For a huge beverage brand, diversifying into other drinks products may seem like a logical idea. Apparently this isn’t always the case, especially when you normally make alcoholic beer and you fancy trying your hand at selling some fresh spring water. The Coors branding on the water bottles confused buyers who associated the company too heavily with beer.

Soup and a sandwich may sound like a match made in heaven, but Campbell's took convenience a step too far. The food brand sold the pair as a frozen prepared package that could be microwaved all at once at lunchtime. The time-saving element didn’t make up for what was ultimately a pretty depressing meal.

It looks like something out of a horror movie, right? In fact, when it came out in the 90s Rejuvenique's Electric Facial Mask promised to give users “a more toned, youthful looking face” within 15 minutes thanks to an electronic impulse to the 26 “gold plated facial cushions” on the inside of the mask. Ouch.

Coca-Cola fans were disappointed in 1984 when classic Coke was replaced by Coke II, or New Coke, in an attempt to make a clear distinction between its soda and rival Pepsi. But within months customers demanded the original drink was put back on the shelves. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Mark Zuckerberg usually seems to know what he’s doing when it comes to innovative tech but even he got it wrong when Facebook backed HTC’s Android mobile. The phone was expensive and too geared towards posting on Facebook. Eventually reduced to just 99 cents in the US, the phone didn’t exactly rake in the profits.

In the 1990s, soft drink giant Pepsi released a brand new version of its fizzy beverage. Its latest innovation was caffeine-free, but the biggest difference was that the drink was completely clear. Crystal Pepsi was billed as a health alternative, but the colourless drink was too far removed from the product people already knew and loved, and production was halted.

Frito-Lay may be synonymous with potato chips/crisps in many countries, but its foray into soft drinks is less well-known. A cool, refreshing glass of lemonade can often be the perfect accompaniment to a packet of potato snacks, but sadly Frito-Lay’s Lemonade was too far off the mark and the drink is no longer available.

In 1993, Apple released its first experiment in tablet computing. The MessagePad could take notes and faxes, which was ground-breaking at the time, but Apple soon struggled against rival Palm Pilot. Unfortunately, its handwriting capabilities were poor, and with a base price of $699/£549, the MessagePad was pricey and ineffective.

Back in 2003, a handheld gaming system/phone sounded ground-breaking. But with a niche market to break into, few games available, and a flaw in the design of the phone, which had to be totally dismantled to change games, there wasn’t much hope. And when you compare the N-Gage’s $299 (£235) price tag against the GameBoy Advance’s $99.99 (£80), it’s a huge jump too. Thankfully phones have modernised since.

When most people think about motorcycles and smell, they’re more likely to recall petrol fumes than a scented eau de toilette. Let’s just say the Harley-Davidson branded perfumes and aftershaves didn’t sell quite as well as expected.

Sony was onto a winner in the 1970s with its Betamax Player. It was better for speed and quality than rival VCR players available, and was the first commercially successful device to tape TV shows for viewers. The issue? Japanese rival JVC released its model, which could record for 60 minutes longer and was far cheaper, which meant it won the VCR war.

Apparently for women to be able to write well, they need their own pens. Well, according to BIC... For National Women’s Day in 2015, BIC South Africa launched supposedly female-friendly purple and pink pens, with the mantra: ‘Look like a girl. Act like a lady. Think like a man. Work like a boss.’ It empowered no one, and offended everyone.

In the Legally Blonde movies, Reese Witherspoon’s character, Elle Woods, declares Cosmopolitan magazine “the bible”. But even her loyal persona would have been confused by the publication’s bizarre segway into yogurt production. Cosmopolitan apparently drew a connection between the magazine’s sex and relationships content and food fetishes, which ‘logically’ meant that branded yoghurts would sell. They didn’t.

Toothpaste and food both go into your mouth, and this connection seems to have been enough for Colgate to take a stab at the culinary industry. The company released a range of prepared frozen meals in the 1980s. But Colgate was too associated with minty oral hygiene to make its branded beef lasagne look in any way appetising.

In true POTUS style, Donald Trump was sure his take on Monopoly would fly off the shelves. In fact, the game did so badly after its initial release in 1989 that it barely made half its total expected sales. Not known for backing down, he re-released the product to further disappointment in 2004 following his success on reality TV show The Apprentice. But now people are selling mint-condition original editions of the game on eBay for as much as $65 (£50). 

The early noughties were filled with useless technology, and the Cuecat barcode scanner was no exception to the rule. Even the cat-shaped scanner didn’t add anything to the product. The device allowed users to scan magazine barcodes, rather than typing them in, fixing a problem that never existed. This flop lost investors $189 million (£145m).

After infiltrating the cigarette-lighter, razor and pen markets, BIC decided to launch a line of perfumes. The range was made in Paris and the products were even given French names (‘Jour’, ‘Nuit’, ‘Homme’ and ‘Sport’) to provide a high-class, European allure. But the perfumes were sold in tiny bottles reminiscent of BIC lighters, with plastic caps in primary colours like its pen lids. BIC didn’t quite manage to get the balance right with this venture.

This was an invention to get the kids talking. In 2000 “Heinz EZ Squirt” or “Heinz Green Sauce” was released, featuring spinach-coloured “Blastin’ Green” ketchup and it was an instant hit with the kids. Although the product boomed initially, sales began to dwindle as children lost interest in the shiny new condiment on the table and the line was discontinued in 2006.

The British media savaged Coca-Cola after it attempted to launch its Dasani water brand in the UK in February 2004 after it was revealed the product was nothing more than treated tap water. The corporate fiasco reached a climax the following month when UK health and safety officers discovered possible carcinogens in samples of Dasani water, prompting Coca-Cola to withdraw the product from the UK market and abandon the ill-fated launch. 

This electronic Twitter pal was released in 2009, purely for tweeting. Unfortunately, there was one major flaw – it was incapable of fitting the 140 characters on the screen. What's more, the device cost a minimum of $99 (£80) with an additional monthly charge to receive tweets. That combined with the fact that smartphone popularity was soaring at the time meant that Twitter Peek never really took off.

Once dubbed Time magazine’s Best Invention of the Year, Google Glass didn’t make it to mass popularity. Released in 2012, its hefty price tag of over $1,000/£1,000 made it largely unaffordable, and many people complained about privacy issues as they could be filmed without knowing. Google decided it was better to look at other wearable technology. 

The very public failures of famous businesses

The Amazon Fire Phone was released in 2014. It was Amazon’s first venture into the smartphone market, following the success of its Kindle Fire tablet. The app store was too small so loyal iPhone and Samsung users couldn't be pulled away from their devices. Unfortunately for Amazon, the Fire Phone was a classic “too little, too late” move into this industry.

Thanks to the Museum of Failure for permission to use its imagery in this piece.

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