Six Worst Product Collaborations Ever
Posted on 25. Mar, 2010 by Joe in Collaborative Top 10's
A good collaboration (which is hard to come by these days) has all the potential in the world. Just think about the magic that Google and Verizon have created with their new line of Android phones, which are the closest thing Apple’s had to a rival in ages. Also, consider Tim Burton’s collaborations with Johnny Depp. Those two have made some of the most engaging and visually stunning movies of the last decade, including Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, Sweeney Todd, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and the newly released Alice in Wonderland- just to name a few.
Obviously, many product collaborations don’t go over as smoothly. More often than not it’s because someone has forced two completely unrelated or poorly-chosen items/people/concepts together in a nonsensical way in hopes of making a fortune, but instead what they get is a flop. Here then, to illustrate this point, are the 10 worst product collaborations ever. Prepare yourself for a whole lot of epic fails:
1. The Snuggie
The Snuggie is perhaps the most ridiculous product collaboration ever; it forces together a blanket and a bizarre, back-closing-robe-jacket-kinda-thing. The reasoning for the product is also ludicrous: It’s based on the idea that blankets are inconvenient in some way. Apparently, pulling your hand from underneath your blanket while snuggling in order to reach for a phone or remote control is entirely too overwhelming and troublesome. How financially lucrative Snuggies have managed to be is unknown, but it’s doubtful that many folks are shelling out twenty bucks to look like a member of some bizarre cult while walking around their homes. Simply put: Coats/robes and blankets shouldn’t be thrown together and when they are, it results in one of the worst and silliest product collaboration ever–and it only gets worse when you involve your Snuggie dog.
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2. Pajama Jeans
If you spend any time watching infomercials late at night (as some of us do), you’ll notice that bizarre clothing couplings seem to be one of the biggest product trends. After the Snuggie, it only seemed appropriate to discuss Pajama Jeans, which are a new product that brings together the comfy material of pajama pants and the look of jeans. As if jeans weren’t comfortable enough? Even if there is a market for this kind of thing, is it socially responsible to help people be as lazy as possible and essentially assist them in being able to wear their pajamas all day, out in public? Oh the humanity! Even worse, Pajama Jeans provide a one-two punch in terms of bad collaborations; not only do they put together jeans and pajama pants, but the materials used for the product are also quite troublesome: cotton and spandex. When did wearing real denim become such a hassle?
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3. Hello Kitty Urinal Target
“Hello Kitty” and “urinal target” are two things that should literally never be in the same sentence, but here we find them in the same product! Perhaps it isn’t too big of a jump seeing as how San Rio, the maker of Hello Kitty products, which once only offered stationary supplies to young girls, have extended their brand to include products such as toilet paper, Kotex, and men’s underwear. Regardless of these products, the urinal target is by far the most disturbing and seeing Hello Kitty’s sweet face and huge, red bow while using a public bathroom may prove to be a traumatic experience for many men the world over.
4. MeatCards
Perhaps we spoke too soon; perhaps <a href=http://www.meatcards.com/ MeatCards or business cards made of meat are the worst and weirdest product collaboration to ever be made. The company that creates these unique cards seems to have cornered their market because they proudly proclaim that their laser etched beef jerky business cards are the only meat-made cards in existence, but maybe that’s a good thing. Yes, just think of how impressive you’ll be the next time you’re at a big networking event. Important people, people who may become clients or bosses in the near future, are handing you their elegant business cards … and you, in turn, are handing out small slabs of dehydrated meat. What a catch you’ll be!
5. Handerpants
The title on this one says it all: Handerpants- yes, this will be a doozy of a bad product collaboration. Have you ever sat around thinking how badly you need underpants for your gloves? If so, this is the product for you! For just under twelve bucks, you can purchase what essentially amounts to a pair of fingerless gloves that look like men’s tighty whities. According to the manufacturers, these gloves are perfect for everyone from all walks of life- from stone masons to “Twitterers” … whatever that means. They’re supposed to be worn underneath regular gloves as a way to cut down on sweating and chaffing, but it seems likely that adding another layer underneath your gloves will just add to the sweating and chaffing, but what do we know?
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6. The Winestein
This product collaboration obviously isn’t as bad or crazy as the other ones we’ve featured thus far, but it may rub a few people the wrong way because it ignores some very common knowledge: There are beer people and there are wine people, period. Given this very common knowledge, why–or why–would a company willingly choose to throw those two types of people together with a single product called the Winestein”? Essentially, it’s a beer mug, or stein, that has a wine glass inside forcing beer drinkers to drink out of a wine glass and wine drinkers to drink out of a beer stein–it’s madness!
We’ve come a long way from the Snuggie and covered a lot of ground, but this is just a drop in the bucket. Believe it or not there were far more bizarre, bad product collaborations to choose from; some were even more tasteless and ill-conceived than the ones featured here. Just consider yourselves lucky that this is as far as we went.
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