101 Dumbest Moments in Business

By CNN Money

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2. Northwest Airlines
And don't forget, you only need one kidney... In July, bankrupt Northwest Airlines begins laying off thousands of ground workers, but not before issuing some of them a handy guide, "101 Ways to Save Money."

The advice includes dumpster diving ("Don't be shy about pulling something you like out of the trash"), making your own baby food, shredding old newspapers for use as cat litter, and taking walks in the woods as a low-cost dating alternative.


21. FCC
Part of the FCC's new open-pants policy... For a Details magazine story about the most influential people in media, Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin poses for a photograph in bed - literally - with Alex Vogel, a tech industry lobbyist, and Eric Logan, an executive at XM Satellite Radio, which is regulated by the FCC.

25. BBC
Who's on first, what's on second, and some random Guy's on third...
In May the BBC invites IT expert Guy Kewney to its studios for an interview about Apple's iTunes Music Store. But when the cameras start rolling, BBC correspondent Karen Bowerman finds herself talking to the wrong Guy - namely, Guy Goma, a computer technician who was waiting in the lobby for a job interview.

Goma gamely tries his best, telling viewers that "if you can go everywhere, you're gonna see a lot of people downloading to the Internet and the website and everything they want."



27. RadioShack
From: RadioShack
To: RadioShack employees
Subject: Your former job

In August, RadioShack fires 400 staffers via e-mail. Affected employees receive a message that reads, "The work force reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately your position is one that has been eliminated."

69. Royal Mail
Hang on -- that's not a lump of coal!
Great Britain's Royal Mail introduces a stamp that some believe shows Santa defecating into a chimney. The Church of England protests the series of stamps - not for their scatological drift, but for insufficient Christian imagery.


77. Bank of America
After Bank of America announces plans to outsource 100 tech support jobs from the San Francisco Bay Area to India, the American workers are told that they must train their own replacements in order to receive their severance payments.


99. Tesco

"Mom, Kelsey's hogging the stripper pole again!"
"Unleash the sex kitten inside ... soon you'll be flaunting it to the world and earning a fortune in Peekaboo Dance Dollars."

- From a product listing by $75 billion British retailer Tesco, plugging the $100 Peekaboo Pole Dancing Kit - which includes an 8.5-foot chrome pole, a "sexy dance garter," and play money for stuffing into said garter - in the Toys & Games section of its website.

After complaints from parent groups, Tesco decides to keep selling the item as a "fitness accessory" but agrees to remove the listing from the toy section.


100. Spin Master
Customers who bought the Peekaboo Pole Dancing Kit also purchased this item... Toymaker Spin Master releases the I-Tattoo, a $15 kit for kids ages 6 and up that features a "realistic, vibrating tattoo pen" and instructs youngsters to "get ready to 'get inked.'"


101. Hasbro
Customers who bought the Peekaboo Pole Dancing Kit and the I-Tattoo probably would've been clueless enough to buy this one too...
To compete with the spectacularly successful Bratz doll phenomenon, Hasbro unveils plans to launch the Pussycat Dolls, aimed at girls as young as 8 years old and modeled after the risqué, burlesque-inspired pop group of the same name.

(Yes, the "Don't cha wish your girlfriend was a freak like me" Pussycat Dolls.)

After protests by parent groups, Hasbro nixes the line.