Atticus
Kissed by Fire
10) McDonald's: "I'd Hit It"
In January 2005, McDonald's launched an ill-conceived banner campaign featuring a young man slavering over a double cheeseburger. "Double cheeseburger? I'd hit it. I'm a dollar menu guy," went the animated ad. Amidst controversy, McDonald's pulled the banners and said their marketing department misunderstood the term. For our part, The Consumerist only copulates with food that's certified organic fair-trade.
7) Calvin Klein's Amateur Porno Jean Commercial
Calvin Klein has drawn frequent ire for its provocative advertising and use of teenage models. The series of commercials above, however, pushed the envelope right of the cliff. They feature what appear to be "barely (if even) legal" amateur models in a wood-paneled room being interviewed by a creepy older man. For all intents and purposes, they look like prequels to amateur pedophile pornos. Conceptually brilliant but deeply unnerving, the work perhaps deserves a place in the Whitney rather than Kansas TV screens. In August 1995 the commercials were yanked from the airways and Calvin Klein himself issued a public apology.
http://www.youtube.com/v/vZVk21Pco-c
6) Microsoft Blue Screen Of Death At Press Conference
A classic Microsoft moment. During a press event audience members watch as a pre-release of Windows 98 crashes before their very eyes. Bill Gates was a good sport, chuckling and saying, "That must be why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet."
5) Beatles Yesterday and Today Butcher Cover
On June 14th, 1966, The Fab Four shocked their American record-label with the the infamous "Butcher Cover" of their album Yesterday and Today. After slipping through the cracks during pre-production, 750,000 copies were distributed across America. At first Capitol Records ordered the albums recalled and destroyed, but then it sent out replacement covers to be glued onto the remaining copies.Though Lennon and McCartney were in on the joke, George Harrison later expressed his disapproval, "I thought it was gross, and I also thought it was stupid. Sometimes we all did stupid things thinking it was cool and hip when it was naive and dumb; and that was one of them."
Yesterday and Today went on to become one of the only Beatle's albums to actually lose money, thought this probably had less to do with its cover art than that it was a compilation album with no new material.
Bonus: The lame cover it was replaced with.
2) AC vs DC: Thomas Edison Electrocutes Topsy The Elephant
Starting in the 1880's, George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison became fierce rivals over what the best way to deliver energy into American houses. Edison favored the Direct Current (DC) approach, touting its safety. Westinghouse favored Nikola Tesla's Alternating Current (AC) method as it solved a number of prohibitive cost factors and allowed for more efficient delivery. Edison launched a a bitter publicity campaign, designed to frighten the public into using Direct Current. Under his command, Edison filmed and publicized a number of Alternating Current executions of animals including that of Topsy the Elephant (shown). The executions were designed to show how unsafe Alternating Current could be, as it "Westinghoused" his victims. Despite Edison's fervent desire to bring Direct Current into every home in America, he ultimately lost the War of Currents due to the impracticality of wide scale deployment.
Bonus: Harold Brown, an Edison employee, developed the first electric chair to further underscore AC's danger. After the first botched use of the chair in 1890, Westinghouse commented, "They would have done better using an axe."
1)The AYDS campain
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7935064058166993925
7) Calvin Klein's Amateur Porno Jean Commercial
Calvin Klein has drawn frequent ire for its provocative advertising and use of teenage models. The series of commercials above, however, pushed the envelope right of the cliff. They feature what appear to be "barely (if even) legal" amateur models in a wood-paneled room being interviewed by a creepy older man. For all intents and purposes, they look like prequels to amateur pedophile pornos. Conceptually brilliant but deeply unnerving, the work perhaps deserves a place in the Whitney rather than Kansas TV screens. In August 1995 the commercials were yanked from the airways and Calvin Klein himself issued a public apology.
http://www.youtube.com/v/vZVk21Pco-c
6) Microsoft Blue Screen Of Death At Press Conference
A classic Microsoft moment. During a press event audience members watch as a pre-release of Windows 98 crashes before their very eyes. Bill Gates was a good sport, chuckling and saying, "That must be why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet."
5) Beatles Yesterday and Today Butcher Cover
Yesterday and Today went on to become one of the only Beatle's albums to actually lose money, thought this probably had less to do with its cover art than that it was a compilation album with no new material.
Bonus: The lame cover it was replaced with.
2) AC vs DC: Thomas Edison Electrocutes Topsy The Elephant
Starting in the 1880's, George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison became fierce rivals over what the best way to deliver energy into American houses. Edison favored the Direct Current (DC) approach, touting its safety. Westinghouse favored Nikola Tesla's Alternating Current (AC) method as it solved a number of prohibitive cost factors and allowed for more efficient delivery. Edison launched a a bitter publicity campaign, designed to frighten the public into using Direct Current. Under his command, Edison filmed and publicized a number of Alternating Current executions of animals including that of Topsy the Elephant (shown). The executions were designed to show how unsafe Alternating Current could be, as it "Westinghoused" his victims. Despite Edison's fervent desire to bring Direct Current into every home in America, he ultimately lost the War of Currents due to the impracticality of wide scale deployment.
Bonus: Harold Brown, an Edison employee, developed the first electric chair to further underscore AC's danger. After the first botched use of the chair in 1890, Westinghouse commented, "They would have done better using an axe."
1)The AYDS campain
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7935064058166993925
Last edited: