De Beers tried to own lab-grown diamonds — Lightbox folded when prices fell 90%
De Beers launched Lightbox in 2018 to position lab-grown diamonds as fashion at $800/carat. Seven years on prices collapsed 90% and the brand was gone.
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3,222 PUBLISHED CASES · REGULARLY UPDATEDThe Ravens released a $22M kicker on allegations, then the NFL suspended him 10 weeks
Justin Tucker was accused by 16 massage therapists; Baltimore cut him with three years left, and the NFL banned him for the first 10 weeks of 2025.
Read the caseRent the Runway hit $1B as a unicorn — then the subscription bills came due
Rent the Runway grew to a $1B unicorn — but dry cleaning, shipping, and inventory made every subscriber a loss. A 2025 recap wiped out common shareholders.
Read the caseMotoGP's Indian round: one race in 2023, then three straight cancellations
India hosted its first MotoGP race in September 2023 — and its last: the 2024 round was postponed, 2025 cancelled, and India fell off the 2026 calendar.
Read the caseCantine Leonardo da Vinci: Tuscan winery forced into liquidation by €13.4M debt
A wine cooperative in Leonardo da Vinci's hometown ran for 65 years, then collapsed when short-term debts of €13.4M exceeded its liquid assets of €5.5M.
Read the caseAmazon bricked its $2,350 Astro robots 10 months after launch
Amazon sold Astro for Business robots at $2,349.99, then remotely deactivated every unit — refund plus $300 credit — before the product's first birthday.
Read the caseNIO's phone: ¥500m a year for an accessory nobody asked for
NIO spent ¥500m a year building a phone for its car owners; by 2025 the team was cut, the software folded into the cockpit unit, and it became an accessory.
Read the caseSony's $9,000 Airpeak drone: dead before DJI noticed
Sony sold a $9,000 camera drone into DJI's market, sold barely any, and ended the line in March 2025 — three and a half years after launch.
Read the caseMitsubishi's i-MiEV — first mass-market EV, sold 46,827 ever
The i-MiEV beat every automaker to market in 2009 with 62 miles of range; Mitsubishi sold under 50,000 in a decade and killed it.
Read the caseEvergrande lost ¥3.9bn on bottled water — then sold the brand for ¥1.8bn
Evergrande's bottled water lost ¥3.95bn in two years of marketing blitz; the property giant sold the brand for ¥1.8bn in Sept 2016.
Read the caseL'Oréal's Urban Decay hired an OnlyFans creator — and triggered a backlash
Urban Decay hired OnlyFans star Ari Kytsya as brand ambassador for its 'Battle the Bland' campaign. Critics said the partnership clashed with its values.
Read the caseZume Pizza raised $445M to automate pizza-making — and died with no robot pizza delivered
SoftBank valued Zume at $2.25B after investing $375M in its robot-pizza vision. The company cut 360 jobs in 2020, pivoted to packaging, and shut down in 2023.
Read the caseApple's $3,499 Vision Pro went from launch hype to halted production in under two years
Vision Pro launched at $3,499 in Feb 2024. Its maker stopped production in early 2025; Q4 2025 shipments were just 45,000 (IDC) and marketing was cut ~95%.
Read the caseToyota's first global EV was recalled six weeks after launch — the wheels could fall off
Toyota's first global EV launched May 2022; six weeks later all ~2,700 built were recalled — wheel bolts could loosen. Production stayed halted until October.
Read the caseCondé Nast closed Glamour in Germany, Spain and Mexico — they were 'unprofitable'
Condé Nast shut Glamour Germany, Spain and Mexico editions in April 2026, calling them unprofitable — the end of a 30+ year run in Europe.
Read the caseCoinbase's 'Don't change anything' campaign banned — satire that trivialised crypto risk
Posters joked everything was fine while revealing 'EGGS NOW OUT OF BUDGET'. Thirty-five complainants later, the ASA ruled the joke sold crypto as the answer.
Read the caseM&M's yellow mascot banned — a shape and a colour turned brand advertising into an HFSS ad
An Instagram ad showed two M&M's characters: the oval yellow one depicted Peanut M&M's and was banned, the round green one 'a range of flavours' and cleared.
Read the caseWilly Chavarria × Adidas made a huarache without Oaxaca — Mexico's president objected
Adidas × Willy Chavarria 'Oaxaca Slip-On' was made in China without consulting the indigenous community — Mexico's president condemned it.
Read the caseFreis Lab's 'NHK sold-out' serum ads — all three misrepresentation rules at once
Affiliate ads said a serum was 'selling out after NHK' and 'No.1', while paid posts went undisclosed. Tokyo's order hit all three types at once.
Read the caseMotorpoint's 'Save up to £17,000' ad banned — 1.2% of its cars qualified
An Instagram ad promised savings 'up to £17,000'; only 20 of 1,611 cars reached that band. The ASA: 'up to' claims must reflect the true picture.
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