Worst Ideas Ever: A Celebration of Embarrassment

by Daniel B. Kline, Jason Tomaszewski

From memorable disasters such as New Coke, the XFL, and Tiger Woods’ marriage to less-remembered failures such as Yugo, Cop Rock, and Microsoft’s BOB, Worst Ideas Ever revisits history’s biggest blunders. Whether it’s a pop culture failure the likes of Dennis Miller’s disastrous run on Monday Night Football, a political one such as John Edwards’ odd decision to run for president while cheating on his cancer-stricken wife, or a technological misstep such as Apple’s Newton OS, Worst Ideas Ever uncovers the ridiculous stories behind mistakes so huge, you’ll have to constantly remind yourself that they actually happened.

Moving from Mariah Carey’s “performance” in Glitter to the Minnesota Vikings decision to trade away their future for an aging Herschel Walker, Worst Ideas Ever offers the real stories behind some of the dumbest things ever done. Whether it was ego (Michael Jordan leaving basketball for baseball), greed (nobody questioning their impossibly high returns when investing with Bernie Madoff) or simple stupidity ( Jay Leno moving to 10 p.m.), Worst Ideas Ever brings it all back in hilarious detail.

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Audiobook, History, Social Science, Pop Culture

240 pages, Paperback

First published July 8, 2011

Reviews

[Tony · Rating 1 out of 5]

This feels more like a series of poorly-written blog posts hastily cobbled together than a professionally published book. It fails on multiple levels. At the most basic, there appears to have been no copy-editing: the book is full of poor sentence structure, bad grammar, etc. On top of that there seems to have been no research — many of the accounts are full of factual errors that even five minutes on Wikipedia would uncovered.

But most disappointing is the complete absence of any attempt to understand how or why these ideas were thought to be good in the first place. Rather than trying to find any interesting lessons as to why bad ideas very often look like good ones, the authors simply fall back on ridiculing caricatures of them instead.

The “New Coke” disaster takes pride of place:

It's fun to imagine the meeting where someone stood up in front of a roomful of Coke executives and said, “Eureka! I’ve got it. Why don’t we get rid of our beloved product that outsells our rivals by huge amounts and completely change it?” Any version of that meeting you can dream up ends in people laughing and suggesting that the person making the suggestion has had too much to drink. Instead, somebody must have said, “Good thinking, Pepsi would never expect that we would take our most popular product off the market. This strategy will really keep them guessing” or something of that ilk.

The reality, of course, is not only much more subtle, but also much more interesting. Contrary to the authors' claims that Coke was “widely outpacing rival Pepsi in sales”, Coke had actually started to lose the cola wars, having seen its market share decline from 60% to less than 25% — and even that was mostly only propped up by its well established position in restaurants and vending machines. Pepsi had been hitting them hard with its Pepsi Challenge, showing that in blind taste tests, people preferred the sweeter taste.

Coke's new CEO had to turn things around, and all the signs pointed towards changing the formula as their best option (not least because it had already been successfully changed several times in the past).

And, initially, it was a success, with sales rising, and most customers saying they preferred the new version.

But a well orchestrated campaign forced them to reintroduce the “original” formula quite quickly. This was initially in parallel, mainly to placate the outspoken critics, but then it came to dominate again — not only over New Coke, but also over Pepsi.

There are lots of fascinating things that could be expanded on in this: reliance on faulty sampling (the Pepsi Challenge was largely successful because people prefer sweeter drinks in smaller doses — when it came to drinking a full can or bottle, however, the preference was much less clear cut); overlooking the power of a vocal minority (even in a pre-Twitter age); how to know when you're clinging on to yesterday's success rather than moving boldly into the future; etc; etc; etc.

Instead, the authors of this book prefer to simply take the drunks-in-the-bar “New Coke!? How could anyone have ever been so stupid?!” approach. The whole book is hindsight bias writ large, and reading it will actively make you more stupid.

[Terrible Book Club · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is essentially a long-form and bound Buzzfeed listicle. There are no behind-the-scenes interviews or analysis of why bad ideas are allowed to get as far as they do, or any insight into the creative process that made them seem like a good idea. A lot of the ideas are common cultural touchstones, like New Coke or Jar Jar Binks. There are SOME things you might not have known about depending on what you followed in the 80s-2000s, but ultimately, if the authors themselves admit in the book they're not sure this was a great idea after they wrote it, why bother?

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute book, not as funny as I expected. A good deal is based on poor sports decisions so know that if it concerns you. As noted mildly interesting. I think most of already knew "New Coke" was a bad idea.

[Elizabeth Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

hahahaha I can't stop laughing at what a weird book this was. But I'd still give it a solid 2.5.

Despite its poor editing (random word mistakes and periodic poor grammar), I enjoyed listening to the book while I cleaned the house. It was kind of like a road trip with your uncle -- the one with the great memory who likes to grumble about stuff...the one who has all the little factoids about hilariously lame things that happened in the past and makes you say, "Oh yeah! I totally forgot that Rush Limbaugh had that stint on ESPN as a commentator. And that he said that stuff about that black quarterback and had to resign. I'd totally forgotten about that!" Kline's commentary about why LeBron James' "Decision" was so hurtful to people in Northeast Ohio was actually quite insightful (in terms of history), but then other sections of the book contained short mentions of supposedly "bad ideas" (according to Kline) and didn't have much explanation. This book was such an odd hodge podge!

I'd say the best parts were about bad tv (spinoffs in particular), bad movies (like Battlefield Earth), and bad decisions on the part of politicians (like Mark Sanford's fake "Appalachian Trail hike" hahaha). The parts I didn't enjoy so much were about products that Kline doesn't think are a good idea (e.g., Krispy Kreme Burger). I enjoyed hearing about poor choices from a marketing standpoint, like the Taco Bell Chihuahua (in fact, when I bought it I thought the whole book was going to be about poor marketing decisions), but I didn't much enjoy hearing about Kline's view that the Krispy Kreme Burger or KFC's Double Down sounded disgusting.

I got this book on a "Deal of the Day" for 99 cents, and it was a good use of a buck. It ended with a list of bad celebrity baby names, and the last words of the book were so abrupt, you feel like you and your uncle arrived at your destination suddenly and without warning. "Thanks for the ride, Uncle Bob! I enjoyed listening to your wacky stories!"

[Kay Siuti · Rating 1 out of 5]

Worst ideas ever include: reading this book.

[Superconformal Hassaan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An account of failed attempts from various areas. I will write the rest of the review when I get free.

[Douglas · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was OK, but I would've liked to hear some deeper digging into each topic. Although I guess it just wasn't that sort of book, I would've liked to hear both sides of each story a little more. It was a lighted sort of read though, more "point and laugh" sort of thing rather than any insight into each. Not that I wasn't amused, I was, but would've liked fewer stories in more detail than so many superfluously.

[Matthew Cirilli · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a lot of fun but is marred by an absurd number of grammatical/mechanical errors. Thankfully, I only payed bargain price for it.

[Blake Petit · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mildly entertaining, but far too many entries were matters of taste rather than inarguable failures, and the editing on this book is terrible -- typos and punctuation errors galore.

[BJ Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this for a bargain price, and it sounded like it should be a humorous read, but I was underwhelmed - I guess just like many of the Worst Ideas Ever!

[Sylvia Snowe · Rating 2 out of 5]

An extraordinarily dated book examining mostly bad ideas in business and pop culture--pretty much the same thing in the US--its content is so dated that it is not of interest to anyone under the age of fifty. It's barely interesting to boomer me, since I never watched much tv or had interest in Hollywood. For anyone who studies decision making, there's plenty of source material. Makes me wonder how many boardroom and group decisions are made while the participants are high on testosterone, liquor, and drugs of some sort. In 2021, we've seen what happens when businessmen take over the country. One astoundingly bad decision after the other--and yet, people loved it. I listened to this book on audio, so it was still better than a lot of podcasts, and I was doing other stuff as I listened. But really, who cares about tv series spinoffs? TV is kind of dead.

[MrsIcarusPain · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting but some comedy is outdated.

There are some interesting stories but I wish they sited their sources . I'm not sure if books like these site their sources. I also feel like some sections are more an opinion of a failure rather than an actual failure. Such as saying parents fail by giving their children unusual names. There are no sources stated on how the children become failures or their parents just because they have names not fitting to society.
Also there are alot of mygsnostic jokes. Comparing a model to a regular woman and basically saying a man is a failure and downgrading for choosing a "normal" woman. It comes off like a book written for men who watch "mainly" things and fail videos of women's tits falling out.

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very funny and mostly true. It is the history of big screw-ups including changing the Coca-Cola formula to something sweeter and then relabeling the original formula "Classic Coke." Another food blunder was when Taco Bell had a little dog promoting their fast food, "Yo Queiro Taco Bell". It was great for name recognition, but it made people think they sold dog food. Then there was the time when Michael Jordon switched from basketball to baseball. He was a great basketball player but a so-so baseball player. And so forth. Sometimes it gets political but nothing horrifying. I liked it.

I will probably listen to the audiobook again.

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. This was one of the books that currently comes included in my Audible membership, it served its purpose in terms of providing a decently engaging listen while I loaded the dishwasher, cooked dinner, folded laundry, and did assorted other household chores, and I learned a few things. But I can't really recommend it. Each "dumb" idea is discussed very briefly, and there's not much analysis of why the ideas were dumb, or how the often otherwise smart people involved came to make such dumb decisions. The whole thing feels a bit shallow and smug.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun book- nothing outstanding but it was entertaining. I enjoyed some chapters more than others but I enjoyed that the authors covered a range of topics from foods, to marketing campaigns, to politics, to sports. I didn’t agree with all the things the author said were the worst ideas but it still managed to be amusing. It was also a fun to remember some of these mistakes- blue Pepsi! It reminded me of simpler times.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute book, easy to read. Someone mentioned it was basically a lengthy Buzzfeed list, and as someone who enjoys Buzzfeed lists I agree. This made it easy to pass over a section if it didn’t interest me. I was entertained by this book, but the editing needs major work…tons of spelling errors and missing words in the version I read.

[Tereza · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nedoposlouchala jsem. Myslela jsem, že to bude zajímavě pojaté téma nejtrapnějších výrobků, a místo toho jsem polovinu času poslouchala o sportovních kiksech a normálních věcech. Mrzí mě to, byla to nuda.

[CM Tallman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Possibly because I'm an optimist or because I prefer to look at the positive side of things, I didn't enjoy this book. I thought it was going to poke light fun at horrible ideas, or how they lead to good ideas. It's just a list of bad ideas.

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s…fine. It seems strange that most of the worst ideas occurred in the last century according to this book. I can think of more than a few really horrible ideas that happened historically and was hoping they would show up in this book.

[Luna · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author draws strong conclusions from flimsy supporting statements and doesn't seem super informed on some of the subjects discussed. Author also struggles to not include their mysoginistic takes on things.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 3 out of 5]

309 - 2019

[Dr. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Occasionally funny

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a fun quick listen.

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining and fun to look back on other mistakes.

[Christopher Mcdermott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny and brief.

[AttackGirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Analogies, you can really picture exactly the point Daniel is making.

[Jaana · Rating 2 out of 5]

The stories lack depth and are not great in tone. They also gave off a strongly sexist air. Luckily it is over before I got too angry

[JC · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. It's a short listicle in a book. A few minor interesting things but nothing I didnt already know.

[Book · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit too liberal for me. I didn’t want to hear their political opinion, I wanted to hear about embarrassing moments.

[Bob McCormick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a book. It's a listicle in book form