TanaCon sold 20,000 tickets to a venue built for 5,000
YouTuber Tana Mongeau launched a rival convention to VidCon in 2018. Four times the expected crowd showed up; the event was shut down in a single afternoon.
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3,222 PUBLISHED CASES · REGULARLY UPDATEDAkshay Kumar apologised for a pan masala ad — then appeared in another one
Old clips surfaced of him vowing never to promote tobacco. He apologised at midnight and donated the fee. Eighteen months later he was back in the same ad.
Read the caseDAZN raised Serie A prices four times in two years — subscribers revolted
From €30.99 to €34.99 to €69.99. Fans asked if Serie A was worth €70 a month. The hashtag was #vergogna.
Read the caseNotCo parodied Parmalat's baby animals — CONAR pulled the ad in 48 hours
The plant-milk brand grew up Parmalat's 1996 mascot animals and gave them stomach aches. Lactalis called it IP theft. Brazil's ad regulator agreed.
Read the caseSnow Brand poisoned 14,000 people — then lied about it and made the crisis worse
Japan's worst food-poisoning case, 2000. Snow Brand delayed the recall, lied about the scope, and suspected coverup destroyed a 75-year-old company.
Read the caseOrange slipped ads into 7.8M email inboxes disguised as real mail — fined €50M
France's top telecom sold ad slots inside its own email service. The ads looked like real mail. Users never consented. 7.8 million saw them.
Read the caseAir Miles became Avios — and 8 million members found 'free' flights now cost £301 extra
The UK's best-known loyalty scheme merged into Avios in 2011. Members kept their points but lost the tax-free redemptions that made the programme worth joining.
Read the caseTwo Korean ecommerce platforms stopped paying sellers in the same week
TMON and WeMakePrice, owned by Qoo10 Group, missed vendor settlements in July 2024. The court found liquidation value exceeded going-concern value.
Read the caseCass Beer hired Gordon Ramsay to call a mass-market lager 'great' — Korea laughed
Ramsay drank Cass on camera and called it 'bloody fresh.' Korean drinkers, who know Cass is bland, mocked the mismatch between chef and product.
Read the caseScotland's 170-store fashion chain closed every shop and sold only the name
M&Co survived its first administration in 2020. The second, in December 2022, found no buyer for the stores — only for the trademark.
Read the caseTesco's 'personalised deal' on sunflower oil cost 6p more than the shelf price
The algorithm-generated Clubcard offer was priced above the standard price after a separate promotion cut it. The screenshot went viral on Reddit.
Read the caseA $300M beauty chain built for photos discovered photos don't repurchase
THE COLORIST's stores were designed for Xiaohongshu check-ins. After the photos were taken, customers did not come back to buy anything.
Read the caseWoolworths survived 99 years on the high street — then closed 807 stores in six weeks
From 1,141 shops at its peak to £385M in debt and administration. Supermarkets, the death of CD sales and the 2008 credit crunch finished it.
Read the caseJapan's third-largest phone maker left ¥143B in debt five years after its spin-off
Fujitsu handed its mobile division to a fund in 2018. Five years later FCNT was in rehabilitation with ¥143B in debt. Lenovo bought the brands.
Read the caseGermany's last department store chain went insolvent three times in four years
Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof survived two world wars but not its landlord-owner Signa's collapse. 15,000 staff, €680M in state aid, and 92 stores kept shrinking.
Read the caseFunai Electric, last VHS maker on Earth, went bankrupt with ¥82B in debt
Funai supplied Walmart with 2 million TVs a year and made Philips, Magnavox and Emerson sets. It never built a brand of its own, and China made it irrelevant.
Read the caseTing Hsin's subsidiaries bought tainted oil for seven years — Taiwan boycotted the group
Wei-Chuan's milk share fell from 40% to 25%. Three subsidiaries shut. The group donated NT$3B and exited Taiwan's oil market entirely.
Read the caseJapan Life sold ¥240B in magnetic necklaces nobody rented
Customers paid millions of yen for magnetic therapy devices they never saw, promised rental income that came from the next customer's deposit.
Read the caseYumeijing was China's No.1 children's cream for 25 years — then fell to 12th with 2% share
From 20,000 retail terminals and 90% market coverage to 2.06% share and a state-owned buyout. The 2-yuan cream that defined a generation lost the online era.
Read the caseCoconut Palm has been fined four times for suggestive ads — it keeps running them
Each fine is ¥400,000. Each round of coverage is worth more. After the 2024 penalty the brand posted a public statement saying it disagreed.
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