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Reactions to 101 Dumbest moments There are 3 replies: View/Reply options

Aaron Virgil Woolridge Students

Reactions to 101 Dumbest moments Original post: Sun 2/19/2012 at 9:28 PM

The first dumbest moment I laughed at was Microsoft. While Microsoft showed up on the list twice I liked number 23. The story behind this was Microsoft launched a product called Windows Live Search that is consumer oriented product for searching the web. Soon after the launch Microsoft released another business oriented tool called Windows Live Search. Now Microsoft had two products with the same name that had two completely different functionalities.

Initially when I read this I thought to myself 'Microsoft has clearly outgrown itself'. Then I wondered how this could happen. Clearly internal communication is suffering. I don’t know if some executives are not talking, if executives are not thinking, or if 1 executive is managing both products. There had to be some sort of plan that wasn’t executed properly or something. Just seems silly to have two versions of Windows Live Search not completing the same functionality. I quickly Googled Windows Live Search to see what came up. Bing is the first item in the Google search list. Microsoft rebranded the consumer search engine to Bing to clear up confusion over Windows Live Search. I can only imagine the millions of dollars that was probably spent to create Windows Live Search then the amount they spent to rebrand to Bing.

The second dumbest moment I reviewed was about Fiji Water. This was number 20 on the list. What happened was Fiji water ran a magazine add where the headline was "The Label Says Fiji Because It's Not Bottled in Cleveland." Public officials in Cleveland were clearly not pleased with what Fiji Water said and ran tests on Cleveland water and Fiji Water. The Cleveland water came back with less Micrograms per liter.

I can't believe a company that sells water all over the United States would say something this idiotic. While I doubt this had any effect on sales across the United States you can bet sales dropped in the Cleveland, Ohio area. Then to be proven your water is less pure then Cleveland's water is priceless.

There is no way to judge intentions of Fiji Water's ad. Fiji Water may have meant nothing negative about Cleveland in their ad. However, getting an outside perspective of a questionable idea might not be a bad idea in the future.

Joel Patrick Forck Students

Re: Reactions to 101 Dumbest moments Posted: Tue 2/21/2012 at 12:16 PM, in reply to Aaron Virgil Woolridge

I agree with Aaron that Microsoft probably lost an egregious amount of money over the debacle with having two products with the same name. Also, who thought up the name windows live search? I don't know, to me that just does not scream creativity. Bing has a nicer ring to it, though I am still not a fan of the engine, but that is besides the point.

Regarding the Fiji water advertising about Cleveland, I also completely agree with Aaron. To make an underhanded comment about Cleveland and market your water that way only to be informed that Cleveland's water is actually more pure than your water degrading them is just embarrassing.

Edited:Tue 2/21/2012 at 12:17 PM by Joel Patrick Forck

Christy Lyn Brookins Students

Re: Reactions to 101 Dumbest moments Posted: Tue 2/21/2012 at 4:45 PM, in reply to Aaron Virgil Woolridge

Aaron Virgil Woolridge wrote:

The first dumbest moment I laughed at was Microsoft. While Microsoft showed up on the list twice I liked number 23. The story behind this was Microsoft launched a product called Windows Live Search that is consumer oriented product for searching the web. Soon after the launch Microsoft released another business oriented tool called Windows Live Search. Now Microsoft had two products with the same name that had two completely different functionalities.

Initially when I read this I thought to myself 'Microsoft has clearly outgrown itself'. Then I wondered how this could happen. Clearly internal communication is suffering. I don’t know if some executives are not talking, if executives are not thinking, or if 1 executive is managing both products. There had to be some sort of plan that wasn’t executed properly or something. Just seems silly to have two versions of Windows Live Search not completing the same functionality. I quickly Googled Windows Live Search to see what came up. Bing is the first item in the Google search list. Microsoft rebranded the consumer search engine to Bing to clear up confusion over Windows Live Search. I can only imagine the millions of dollars that was probably spent to create Windows Live Search then the amount they spent to rebrand to Bing.

The second dumbest moment I reviewed was about Fiji Water. This was number 20 on the list. What happened was Fiji water ran a magazine add where the headline was "The Label Says Fiji Because It's Not Bottled in Cleveland." Public officials in Cleveland were clearly not pleased with what Fiji Water said and ran tests on Cleveland water and Fiji Water. The Cleveland water came back with less Micrograms per liter.

I can't believe a company that sells water all over the United States would say something this idiotic. While I doubt this had any effect on sales across the United States you can bet sales dropped in the Cleveland, Ohio area. Then to be proven your water is less pure then Cleveland's water is priceless.

There is no way to judge intentions of Fiji Water's ad. Fiji Water may have meant nothing negative about Cleveland in their ad. However, getting an outside perspective of a questionable idea might not be a bad idea in the future.

The sad thing is that most bottled water comes from someones tap water. To target one city over another is just plain wrong when other cities bottle water also. After hearing that, the first thing I would do is look on the label and see where the water that I was drinking came from. Most of the time, it is no different than water out of the Culligan water cooler or the kitchen sink. Why pay the price and create more pollution when there is no difference? Fiji's PR really did a BAD job when they posted that. They probably lost lots of business when people found out where their water was from.

James Matthew Maynard Love Students

Re: Reactions to 101 Dumbest moments Posted: Thu 2/23/2012 at 12:58 PM, in reply to Aaron Virgil Woolridge

Aaron Virgil Woolridge wrote:

The first dumbest moment I laughed at was Microsoft. While Microsoft showed up on the list twice I liked number 23. The story behind this was Microsoft launched a product called Windows Live Search that is consumer oriented product for searching the web. Soon after the launch Microsoft released another business oriented tool called Windows Live Search. Now Microsoft had two products with the same name that had two completely different functionalities.

Initially when I read this I thought to myself 'Microsoft has clearly outgrown itself'. Then I wondered how this could happen. Clearly internal communication is suffering. I don’t know if some executives are not talking, if executives are not thinking, or if 1 executive is managing both products. There had to be some sort of plan that wasn’t executed properly or something. Just seems silly to have two versions of Windows Live Search not completing the same functionality. I quickly Googled Windows Live Search to see what came up. Bing is the first item in the Google search list. Microsoft rebranded the consumer search engine to Bing to clear up confusion over Windows Live Search. I can only imagine the millions of dollars that was probably spent to create Windows Live Search then the amount they spent to rebrand to Bing.

The second dumbest moment I reviewed was about Fiji Water. This was number 20 on the list. What happened was Fiji water ran a magazine add where the headline was "The Label Says Fiji Because It's Not Bottled in Cleveland." Public officials in Cleveland were clearly not pleased with what Fiji Water said and ran tests on Cleveland water and Fiji Water. The Cleveland water came back with less Micrograms per liter.

I can't believe a company that sells water all over the United States would say something this idiotic. While I doubt this had any effect on sales across the United States you can bet sales dropped in the Cleveland, Ohio area. Then to be proven your water is less pure then Cleveland's water is priceless.

There is no way to judge intentions of Fiji Water's ad. Fiji Water may have meant nothing negative about Cleveland in their ad. However, getting an outside perspective of a questionable idea might not be a bad idea in the future.

The unfortunate moment with Microsoft seems to occur in business a lot. I have seen a lot of the secrecy that likely lead to this issue between departments in almost every place I have worked. There are usually a couple of team players that get the bigger picture, but overall, there is a significant communication failure. Great choice.