Top 10 Failed Products: Our Roundup of Classic Flops

Sometimes good companies make very bad decisions. Twenty-five years ago, Coke unleashed what would become a classic lesson in business schools for what not to do: the launch of New Coke. In 1985, the company tried to replace its century-old cola formula by marketing this newer version in order to compete with Pepsi. Consumers protested, lighting up the switchboards at Coca-Cola. That was the end of New Coke, and the tried and true formula returned to the shelves.

Companies continue to make bad products they think people will buy. In recent years, there's been Bud Light Lime, with its citrus taste that overpowers any beer flavor. Consumer Reports dubbed it one of the worst products of 2009. And it also earned the Facebook page: Bud Light Lime Sucks. Then another company thought Spinlash Mascara--a mechanical, spinning mascara brush--was a good idea. Consumers found it to be messy, causing clumps when it claimed to get rid of them. Consumer Reports agreed, ranking it a worst product of 2009.

Only time will tell if these products go down in history with the classic flops. If they do, they would be in good company. In 1957, Ford only sold 64,000 Edsels, a car with a front grill folks compared to "an oldsmobile sucking a lemon." Sony's Betamax video recorder hit stores in 1975, and within a year, major competitors jumped aboard the VHS bandwagon, a rival format to Betamax, which ultimately lost the technology war. McDonald's Arch Deluxe was going to put the "gold" into golden arches by being a high-end hamburger. Debuted in 1996, consumers weren't lovin' it, preferring price and convenience over fancy marketing.

WalletPop rounded-up the top 10 failed products of all time, (a list that unfortunately will always have to be updated). Some of these product concepts may work in the movies or in an alternative reality, but in our world, they just didn't make the grade. If there's a product out there on the shelves now that you can't stand, please let WalletPop know in the comments section. From Bottled Water for Pets to Ben-Gay aspirin, there's no shortage of products that we bet these companies wish never happened.