November 5, 2000

• Proposal: A Field Trip to The Museum of Failed Products!
  

  The other day, I read about The Museum of Failed Products in Ithaca, NY.
  

  Rather than describe it myself, I’ll let the article do the honors:
  

  
  

  It’s not the Guggenheim. Nowhere near the Louvre. But you can look up and down those hallowed places and never find an exhibit of edible deodorant. That’s right, edible.
  

  Such a giggle-inspiring item is the soul of this museum, though, full of failed products, in Ithaca, New York, a place where classical sculpture and portraits give way to marketing disasters and just plain dumb ideas.
  

  Like Garlic Cake.

  
  

  I’d love to take a field trip and go to Ithaca, NY to visit this museum. For one, it’s got to be really interesting, funny, and absurd. So, it’d be fun to go down and visit it with some like-minded friends. Also, I bet you could learn a lot about business by looking at all those failed supermarket products. Nothing teaches better than reality, and those shelves are filled with actual ideas executed by actual companies that didn’t pan out. What better Business School could someone fascinated by consumer packaged goods ask for?

  • 2:21 pm
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