Products, just like people, have life cycles. Typically, their existence is broken into four stages—introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. And, just like ours, the time of each one can vary greatly.
So when a post on r/AskReddit invited people to name the products that they believe have died just because we weren't smart enough to understand them, it received plenty of replies.
From movies to gaming consoles and even foods, here are some of the most interesting submissions and the stories behind their demise.
#1
The US National Park Service struggled for years to find a locking trash can that would be able to keep bears out. People couldn't figure them out so they wouldn't lock it back up, or litter, rendering them useless. One park ranger was quoted as saying there was considerable overlap between the dumbest people and the smartest bears.
377points
#2
The 1/3lb burger because people thought it was smaller than the 1/4lb one.
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232points
#3
Initially? The idea of washing your hands was resisted to the point that the man pushing the idea of hand washing was driven to a mental breakdown from the ridicule of his peers.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis#:~:text=Despite%20various%20publica,tions%20of%20results,rejected%20by%20the%20medical%20community](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis#:~:text=Despite%20various%20publications%20of%20results,rejected%20by%20the%20medical%20community).
Today's equivalent would be a toss up between masks and vaccines. Because some >!(overly vocal, inbred, mouth breathing Jesus freak)!< people are just too f*****g stupid to listen to science.
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219points
#5
About 15 years ago Arm & Hammer came out with a series of environmentally safe cleaning products for bath, kitchen, and glass. They worked well, smelled good, and I really liked them.
The drawback for dummies was the reusability of the spray bottle. Refills came in a cartridge the size of a five hour energy shot. You filled the bottle up to the fill line with water then screwed the cartridge into the bottle which had special inner threads to open the cartridge. The spray bottle was sold empty with a cartridge attached. The checker at the store paused when ringing me up to ask if I really wanted to pay six bucks for an empty bottle. When I bought the glass cleaner I got the same question. Nobody bought it because they didn't realize how it was packaged.
The drawback for dummies was the reusability of the spray bottle. Refills came in a cartridge the size of a five hour energy shot. You filled the bottle up to the fill line with water then screwed the cartridge into the bottle which had special inner threads to open the cartridge. The spray bottle was sold empty with a cartridge attached. The checker at the store paused when ringing me up to ask if I really wanted to pay six bucks for an empty bottle. When I bought the glass cleaner I got the same question. Nobody bought it because they didn't realize how it was packaged.
183points
#6
Quarantine procedures!
Jesus Christ we could have released these lockdowns months ago if people just listened to the experts!
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179points
#7
Golden Rice.
In many countries in southeast Asia White rice is the main food. But white rice lacks Provitamin A, which is essential for lots of stuff in the eyes and immune system.
So some scientists developed a new species of rice which has been genetically engineered to produce golden rice.
Studies have shown that the rice could be a serious help in those countries and it grows just as good as normal rice.
But because it is evil generic engineering lots of organizations give their best to slow the approval process down with (in most cases) b******t and some idiots keep destroying test fields.
In many countries in southeast Asia White rice is the main food. But white rice lacks Provitamin A, which is essential for lots of stuff in the eyes and immune system.
So some scientists developed a new species of rice which has been genetically engineered to produce golden rice.
Studies have shown that the rice could be a serious help in those countries and it grows just as good as normal rice.
But because it is evil generic engineering lots of organizations give their best to slow the approval process down with (in most cases) b******t and some idiots keep destroying test fields.
174points
#8
Those little shopping carts at grocery stores for kids. A bunch of dumb a*s parents refused to parent their kids and they would just let them jam the carts into displays, peoples legs, other carts etc, so almost all grocery stores in our area got rid of them. They were made so kids could put their own choices into the cart and be mindful of what they choose, not babysitter bumper cars.
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164points
#9
Removable batteries on smartphones.
People couldn't handle the "cHeAp PlAsTiC" on a phone they were putting a case on anyway. As a result, we can't change the batteries in smartphones anymore.
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148points
#10
There was a lottery ticket scratch off that had a temperature listed on it. You would scratch off to reveal your own temperature, and if it was colder than the listed one, you win. Pretty simple, right?
It failed because people don’t understand negative numbers. People called in claiming that they “won” because -6 is “colder” than -8.
It is not. The ticket was ultimately discontinued.
143points
#11
Police Squad!, made by the guys who did Airplane! and widely considered pound for pound one of the funniest TV shows that's ever aired. But it failed because it required audiences to actually pay close attention to the quickfire gags and fast dialogue. Led to ABC's president memorably saying it was cancelled because "the viewer had to watch it in order to appreciate it."
Later it was adapted into the Naked Gun movies, which were smash successes, probably because people in theaters are locked down into the movie.
129points
#12
For a while, seat belts, because auto executives thought it implied the car was unsafe.
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129points
#13
masks, vaccines, and anything else scientists spend literal years researching
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128points
#15
My dad once told me about how they tried to sell crumpets in a new country and they did really poorly because no one realised that they were supposed to be toasted. I think once they updated the packaging to tell everyone they were supposed to be toasted they did a lot better.
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113points
#16
COVID symptom checking websites. People don’t want to comply with these as a preventive measure to determine potential outbreaks before they occur because “they’re tracking my personal information.”
The COVID symptom checking programs track only your responses and if it’s through your employer or school, only your school or employee ID number. They don’t understand that their phones track much more information than the COVID symptom checkers.
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111points
#17
I'd have to say freedom. Too many people strip it down to "doing whatever the hell you want", and do all kinds of stupid and destructive things and give a bad name to the concept. Then people who know what freedom really is, but don't want people to be free, use it as a pretext for taking away our freedoms.
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110points
#18
In Sweden we had twopacks of sugarcubes at cafés. They were really simple to open, just hold it with the weld up, pinch each half and break it in half. The weld would open in an elegant way and expose the sweetness inside, ready to be taken out and consumed. Just like opening a book.
Very few understood this.
People would rip, tear, scratch, bite and do all sorts of f**kery to open the innocent packs of sweet reward. And they complained, oh they complained.
Story goes the inventor were depressed for life because just a few brilliant people could understand the beauty of his brilliant little treasure chests of sugary heaven. F*****s.
105points
#19
Off the wall one but: Soap that doesn't sud.
A chemical needs to be added to soap in order for it to sud, and it was added so people would know that they were scrubbing enough. Now, people all expect soap to sud, so if someone puts out soap that doesn't have that chemical, people say the soap is broken.
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102points
#20
The Wii U. People didn't know it was a new console and thought it was just a regular Wii, an add on to the Wii or who knows what else. A different name would have solved this entire problem. People still don't know how to distinguish Wii U games from regular Wii games, even though Wii U games will not play on a Wii console.
Marketing Geniuses take note, if you have a new product give it a different name than a slight variant on its predecessor.
93points