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Americans may love their junk food, but that doesn’t mean they’ll scarf down just any old snack. That’s why the big name brands have so many failed flavors, even after spending thousands on marketing and development for said flavors. Here are some of the many flops created by some of the biggest names in junk food.
Perhaps the most documented failure of any American company was Coke II, aka “New Coke.” Humorously, despite the massive reaction against the beverage, Coke II actually smoked both Pepsi and original Coke in taste tests. While most people did prefer it, the idea of losing a beloved American classic was too much for some people, who protested and called the company headquarters until the old version was reintroduced three months later. Coke II continued to be sold until 2002 when it was pulled due to poor sales.
Of course, Coke II wasn’t the brand’s only failure, there was also Coca Cola with Lemon, Coca Cola Black Cherry Vanilla, Coca Cola Black (a coffee-flavored cola) and Coca Cola C2 (a low-carb version).
Image Via akeg [Flickr]
When you think of failed Pepsi flavors, let’s face it, one variety seems to come to mind before all others –Crystal Pepsi. While it might not have been the marketing disaster that Coke II was, it was still a huge failure and ended up being discontinued in the US only a year after its introduction. A little while later, Pepsi tried again with a citrus-flavored version called Clear from Pepsi, but that flavor also bombed and was quickly discontinued.
A few other Pepsi failures include Pepsi Kona (a coffee-flavored Pepsi that was only sold on the East Coast before it was discontinued), Pepsi Vanilla, Pepsi AM (Pepsi’s attempt to compete with coffee as the morning beverage of choice, this one contained far more caffeine than the average Pepsi), Pepsi Blue (a berry-flavored, non-cola beverage).
Image Via Roadsidepictures [Flickr]
Hershey’s flops may not be as well-known as Coke or Pepsi, but they have far more discontinued flavors than either of those cola brands. You may remember some of these flavors but there are so many, at least a few will probably be new to you.
A few original products they discontinued included Bar None (a chocolate bar with two wafers and peanuts), Hershey’s S’mores (a chocolate bar with graham crackers and marshmallows), Swoops (chocolate slices shaped like potato chips) and Hershey’s Sticks (chocolate sticks individually wrapped and sold together in boxes).
They’ve also discontinued quite a few variations on their popular products, such as Hershey’s Cookies and Mint, Hershey’s Kissables (Hershey’s Kisses with candy shells) and Hershey’s Bites, which were bite-sized versions of their classic candies sold in bags.
Additionally, the company also experimented with beverages, discontinuing a premade bottled milk drink called Hershey’s Milkshake and their Hershey’s Chocolate Milk Mix.
Image Via theimpulsivebuy [Flickr]
Cherkees are beef jerky pieces with the texture of a potato chip.I’m honestly not sure if I should be terrified or excited by this concept because it’s so wrong, but it might just be the ultimate snack food. If you get a hold of them, let us know what they taste like.
It looks like a pizza and is made from a bunch of pizza-flavored ingredients, but it certainly isn’t a pizza and almost definitely tastes nothing like a pizza. This “meta-pizza”is made from Pizza Supreme Doritos, Pizza Pringles, Flavor Blasted Xplosive Pizza Goldfish Crackers, Pepperoni Pizza flavored Combos and Pizza-flavored Tribe hummus. Yummy? I’m not so sure.
You have heard of space chimps, now it’s time for space CHIPS. Could the future of space exploration be to create tiny micro-machine sized space craft? Some researchers feel this will be the more economical form of space flight.
Miniaturization will inevitably mean limitation—less power, fewer instruments, and reduced ability to store and broadcast data. But dust-mote-size spacecraft could do things that no current space probe can do: coast without a parachute onto the plains of Mars or float for weeks in the soupy atmosphere of Titan. They could be mass-produced and launched by the thousands to form vast space-based networks of sensors. And if the probes could be made thin and lightweight enough, alternative forms of propulsion could eventually send them to distant worlds, without the need for rocket fuel.
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Remember Shrinky Dinks? Michelle Khine sure does, and has implemented the decorative toys into her research project at UC Irvine.
She was experimenting with tiny liquid-filled channels in hopes of devising chip-based diagnostic tests, a discipline called microfluidics. The trouble was, the specialized equipment that she previously used to make microfluidic chips cost more than $100,000–money that wasn’t immediately available.
Racking her brain for a quick-and-dirty way to make microfluidic devices, Khine remembered her favorite childhood toy: Shrinky Dinks, large sheets of thin plastic that can be colored with paint or ink and then shrunk in a hot oven. “I thought if I could print out the [designs] at a certain resolution and then make them shrink, I could make channels the right size for micro fluidics,” she says.
Technology Review has the story: Link. | Photo by Dave Lauridsen
