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Biggest business blunders in Canada in 2013
Who’s the dummy now?
It was such a genius idea that it seems almost inconceivable that it could misfire. The plan: Randomly mix French and English words on the bottle caps of your drinks and, well, um, that’s the whole idea. Not exactly up there with “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” , but still, not without a certain goofy appeal. Bilingual bottle caps, how quintessentially Canadian. Unless of course, the English word is “You” and the French is “Retard”; then it starts to feel a little off, particularly if the person who paid for the privilege happens to have a developmentally-delayed sibling, as was the case with Blakes Loates in Edmonton this September. It’s "very, very unfortunate that this happened," said spokesperson Shannon Denny.
This year the Seinfeld rules applied: No learning, no hugs. Massive mistakes and misjudgments, repeated for good measure, earned companies their place on this ignominious list this year. And while the miscues were no fun for those involved, they offer up cautionary tales for the rest of us. This way madness lies, t'is best to go the other way. | By Noel Hulsman