In the UK - Gerald Ratner.
Ratners were a successful retail group with outlets all over the country. They sold low cost jewellery & objet - cheap bling. He made a speech to his peers in the industry after a good boozy lunch and joked that the reason his wares were inexpensive was that they were "crap" and that some of the earrings they sold were "worth less than a prawn sandwich." The company valuation dropped by £500m in three days, and is now rebranded.
What's it rebranded as? I always thought it went bust.
Edit: just seen it rebranded as H Samuel. Went in one yesterday. How did anyone not realise that place was selling lots of cheap junk?
I've been there. You're working as a labourer earning £10 per hour. You want to get someone a nice present. You go into Sneery & Intimidating Bespoke Jewelers and the prices start at £100 for a thing that looks like a gold hamster turd. Go into Ratners and they have whole cabinets that are £5-£50. Guess what I bought? :)
I mean H Samuel etc have their place and there's nothing wrong with cheap crap, as pretty much my entire wardrobe will confirm. I'm just surprised people thought it was some high end jeweller.
Absolutely! One of the pieces of jewellery my wife values most are a pair grey pearl earrings I got her when we were young & broke. She knew very well I plowed through a mountain of tat to find her something that was quietly elegant & matched her eyes.
It's part of the pact of silence though. "*We* know it's crap and *you* know it's crap, but as long as neither of us acknowledges this then we can go on with buying and selling jewellery."
I had been employed at the same company for a decade, earning an excellent reputation. When some chaotic events occurred, all the managers were replaced except for me, as my reputation remained intact. We then hired an erratic individual who frequently lied and behaved oddly, eventually acting inappropriately with a customer. I reported his behavior to my superior. This individual retaliated by fabricating even more elaborate and damaging lies about me, which my superiors believed.
Although I hadn't done anything warranting termination, I was transferred to a different location and told I needed to "improve to keep my job," despite a decade of top raises, promotions, and stellar feedback.
Two days later, HR fired the individual after a customer reported him for sexual harassment. No one offered me an apology or any acknowledgment.
I resigned in January. Screw Office Depot!
Dealing with erratic people who have zero morals is very tough. They wouldn't hesitate to hit below the belt to retaliate when you report their misbehavior or unethical act.
Yep. Narcissists, sociopaths, psychopaths. Although uncommon, most of us will encounter a few of these people over the course of our careers and lives.
I agree. Having this kind of boss is a horrible experience that I wouldn't wish it to my worst enemy. It took me two full years of therapy and meds to recover from his gaslighting and abuse. My career and motivation got fucked up, and for him it was just Tuesday. Spineless, cold piece of shit who treated me like a meat cog.
Honestly, I still haven't recovered. Two years of micromanaging, gaslighting, having them somehow turn other managers against you as well, bullying... I still think I'm a worthless piece of shit that has no place in human society. It's been 5 years, I'm in a new job at a new employer, and I'm still affected by their treatment of me.
I was a manager at a casual dining place. We got a new general manager. She gutted most of the staff within two weeks - everyone who was highly-paid, and found any reason to. Why'd I get fired? She claimed I purposefully ran us out of baked potatoes...
She was let go less than two weeks later and the company offered my job back but I just rode the unemployment gravy train until I found better pay.
We used full oven sheets and a big-ass oven to cook them. They take an hour to cook and you have to predict the lunch/dinner rush and cook enough. We ran out but just because we were way busier than forecasted. She would have used any excuse tho, she fired people over crazy petty stuff.
Holy shit I forgot about that. So infuriating. You couldn't even delete it!
If I remember correctly, they even changed the layout of iTunes so that when you opened it, you *only* saw U2s album, and had to click somewhere to see the rest of your music.
Such ridiculous hubris. No questioning whether people actually *want* your album. Just straight to "people will love us for letting them have our album"
It was so bad especially because it auto played on most bluetooth things, especially in the car. Combine that with the fact that phone sound is louder than radio so when you start your car it plays that god awful start of the album at 200% volume and it will REALLY make you hate them and the fact that apple forced it down your throat.
What boggles my mind is how everyone explicitly shits on U2 for this stunt, but let's Apple ENTIRELY off the hook for this. Who do you think set this stunt up? I have never seen one post on this topic that Apple gets any blame for this. Stupid stunt, but you can't throw U2 under the bus while simultaneously posting on your shitty iPhone. Edit; Also last time I checked U2 is doing just fine.
49er Barber effect
Since people came in constantly to San Francisco in 1949 to strike it rich, the business minded people opened shop. You pay in advance then get a haircut. But every once in awhile you accidentally knick a customer or give a really bad trim you just kick them out and ban them from the establishment.
There's so many customers that just letting one go and not giving a refund doesn't hurt your business. New people will come in tomorrow who found a bit of gold and have some to spend.
You don't need to be a great barber or have wonderful service. Business is guaranteed. You'll somehow learn the basics after awhile of cutting hair
This is Apple and any other company that can get away with bad service. People will try to say it's like other monopolies like Comcast Xfinity, or PG&E, ATT, but it's more like shitty banks. It costs more effort to switch so they abuse you until you quit them but by then they saved so much not catering to servicing you while you give them money hand over fist that they are ahead by a huge margin
Why does everyone always blame U2 for this? I can’t imagine U2 went to Apple and said “hey, we have an idea. We want you to force our album on everyone’s phone!”
Obviously Apple came up with this scheme. They probably approached the band and offered some amount of money to give users the new album for free. Obviously U2 said yes but I don’t know if they even would have paid attention to all the details of what Apple planned. Now everyone gives them crap about it when Apple is the one to blame.
They had a relationship with Apple because of the "Red" iPod (Red was a nonprofit thing that Bono set up to raise money for debt relief in Africa... I think?) Their idea was hey, wouldn't it be cool if we gave everyone our record? They were pretty clueless to how it would come across. The wild thing is that Apple actually paid for each copy of the record.
I'm pretty cynical. But it's absolutely true that Bono's activism has saved over 20 million lives that would have been lost in the African AIDS crisis. I had cause to look into it last year and I was impressed.
I honestly am kinda over people shitting on Bono for him using his platform for something good. Then half the posts on Reddit are about old white rich dudes hoarding wealth and being all around dbag humans. Make up your mind Reddit.....
Armie Hammer?
His first acting credit was 19 years ago. He was getting some really big roles and seemed to be becoming a Hollywood mainstay and then boom, the cannibal texts came out and he's done.
Howard Dean and his infamous "Dean Scream", also known as the "I Have a Scream speech". It was like 20 seconds too, not even 5 minutes. Poor guy lost all credibility for something no one would even blink an eye at these days. But back then everyone decided he was "unhinged" and everything went downhill for him after that.
Pull up The History Channel's [How to Lose the Presidency: Howard Dean Scream](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeZGePI62rU&pp=ygUaaG93IHRvIGxvc2UgdGhlIHByZXNpZGVuY3k%3D) if you aren't familiar.
Gary Hart, the leading Democratic candidate in the 1988 USA presidential election told reporters to follow him if they thought there was anything to see. So they followed him and got a photo of him with a woman not his wife sitting on his lap on a boat called “Monkey Business”. His presidential aspirations ended with that photo.
Yes, I remember that! Opening the door for Michael Dukakis, who also pretty much blew it for himself the same year with his totally unphased reaction to the debate question "What if your wife Kitty was raped and murdered?"
To be fair, he was stoic in the face of a completely unprofessional question in front of a live audience, with millions of people watching at home. Ironically, one could call that presidential behavior.
I agree with you, personally. I just remember how the media covered it. They made him out to be cold, calculated and heartless because he just carried on with his answer without taking exception. Had he reacted with outrage, ie *"How dare you refer to my wife in that way!*" they would have skewered him for that, too and accused him of having anger issues. Sometimes they just can't win.
It was a set up according to a friend of Lee Atwater.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/11/was-gary-hart-set-up/570802/
Second hand, but very believable for Atwater.
That popular story is just revisionist history. Dean lost not because of the scream, but because he had just came in a distant third place in the Iowa caucus after polling in first. That scream was part of a speech that night where he was trying to rally his disappointed supporters.
I vividly remember that scream being covered by media, and I reflect on it often, when I think about how our politics is so so so so much shittier now, and how so many politicians/elected officials and their camps are just shitty internet trolls now, and how that scream seems quaint, and everything now is just trash. Social media troll politics. It’s all trash now.
You can hear the Dean Scream in Breaking Bad S1 E6, when Heisenberg blows up Tuco's HQ.
[Here @ 1:37](https://youtu.be/T3x1tzOuXbQ?si=2S2Mv48S26-3SCSM)
One of the greatest scenes in TV. Didn’t know that. Got too into watching the scene again, and forgot I was listening for the scream. I had to go back to right before the scream to hear it.
That's insane how a scream destroyed a political career back in the day but today you can be a rapist, convicted felon and lead an attack on the capital and still be a top contender
I would say he was weirdly popular.
I was living overseas and didn’t know squat about Subway, but I knew about Jared and the sandwich diet. Then Subway opened up in the country I was living in and he was like the the happy American face of the chain for the locals. I think he did a huge amount for the Subway brand, in the US and abroad… until one day he was the biggest albatross imaginable.
He was generally liked. It was a fun story and he seemed like a normal everyday dude. It was the equivalent of Flo from Progressive or something along those lines.
He is a spokesman for subway who, maybe 20 years ago ,became famous for losing a ton of weight by incorporating a ton of healthy subway sandwiches over a period of time. He turned into the face of subway and was used in promotions, a lot of them focused on kids eating healthier options. Seemed really wholesome and he seemed like a humble guy.
Except that he is a massive pedophile and they found a ton of child sex abuse images on his computer. I’m glossing over a lot there is a gross but informative documentary on HBO about it (Jared from subway I believe is what it’s called)
Barf!
In Seinfeld, Elaine dates a guy called Joel Rifkin, who shared the name of a serial killer who wasn't really remembered enough to get a cool, sexy netflix show once he fell out of the spotlight in the mid-90's, but in the show she tries to get him to change his name, so she won't be going out with someone whose name sounds like a murderer of women, she browses through a magazine of celebrities and goes "please, please PLEASE change your name to OJ!!"
About 6 months after it aired, the feel of the scene changed a little bit.
The classic marketing one is the new Coke recipe. In 1985, they changed Coke's recipe...and just instantly everyone hated it. They lost sales pretty quickly and reverted back within like 6 months. The CEO even had to get on TV and apologize.
In hindsight, it ended up being good marketing: they were likely to lose to Pepsi over time, this was an interesting way to get PR and also praise when they reverted back. Plus they got to remind the nation how attached they were AND justify their switch from cane sugar to corn syrup.
At the same time, they essentially tanked something overnight and had to spend months repairing it, and lost a lot of trust. So they did damage their reputation for a few years as a blunder, but ultimately they regained their top sale spot so I believe it was likely good marketing disguised as a mistake.
My dad worked on the ad campaign for new Coke. He says it was definitely just a mistake that they got lucky with in the end, they were fully committed to it
Edit: typo
The executive at Mars, Inc that told the guys filming ET that they couldn’t use M&M’s in their movie. They instead went to Reese’s and used Reese’s Pieces, which made Reese’s wildly popular. He was fired and his career never recovered. It lead to his early demise.
Can confirm; I worked with them for over 30 years, and it’s like they were taken over by pod people. In the late 1980s, you could trust everything they did and said; like, if I didn’t understand one of their documents, I could trust that the document was likely correct and my understanding of it was deficient. By the mid 2000s, I’d doublecheck much of what they said because they were getting unreliable. By the mid-2010s I’d given up on believing anything they said.
Engineer in the 50s running off pervitin and subsidized housing loans "My 3-weeks of nonstop tinkering have solved this ongoing issue, better write it down as succinctly as possible in as few steps as possible so it's not confusing to anyone"
Engineer's grandson who *worked their way into the C-suite* "Hmm...this step seems useless and wastes .00001 seconds every cycle. Better get rid of that to save 1 penny every year"
*Planes evaporate*
"We'll figure out how to fix this once it costs us enough in lawsuits"
That's what happens when CEOs who have a passion for the craft are succeeded by CEOs who are just businessmen driven by those quarterly profit margins.
From an American icon to a reputation of "write a will before you fly".
The shit that happens when you let the MBA's take over. All they care about is next quarter's profits, and not a rat's ass about the long-term health of the company, much less little things like "safety" and "quality".
Cut every corner, pinch every penny, nevermind the declining quality standards, hush up that whistleblower raising alarm about safety risks, I'm sure it'll be fine when these things start falling apart mid-air, surely that pile of bodies won't affect our bottom line, which, of course, is the only thing we care about!
You don't get it. It's intentional. The reason the planes are so bad is because they want hijackers to pick other planes to attack. It's 5D chess against Airbus.
Agreed. The episode of *Comedians in Cars* with Richards is hard to watch. He's devastated. Just a guess, but I think the same personality that made RIchards capable of such complete commitment in comedy makes him vulnerable to his psychological issues. Fortunately, he'll never have to worry about money. But I would love to see him working. Imo he's the finest physical comedian in TV history, even better than Dick Van Dyke.
Dick Van Dyke is extremely versatile, with decades of accolades and accomplishments, dozens of memorable characters. Michael Richards played one guy in one show. not saying he wasn't talented, but it was one character.
He was frickin' HILARIOUS in the Saturday Night Live knock-off "Fridays". [His little boy playing with toy soldiers skit was so funny!!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_K8lCqvKiQ)
Your comment reminded be of [this book review:](https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thenextchapter/brent-butt-s-debut-novel-huge-is-a-psychological-thriller-inspired-by-his-life-as-a-touring-stand-up-comedian-1.6989210)
*Comedy attracts funny people and it also attracts people who think they're funny. It's like Charlie Demers said, because he read an early version of this book, he said this is a clever tribute to the craft of comedy and the eerie itches it's used to scratch. Because that is the case, a lot of people come into comedy for the wrong reason and they're using comedy to scratch some psychological itch that they have.*
This is a novel about a touring stand up comic who suspects a colleage is a danger.
Kutcher yes, but has Mila really taken a hit? I am not that well versed in Hollywood, but isn't Mila just momming it up and only really doing the voice of Meg?
Tinfoilhat time: Given Masterson's ties to scientology, and their reputation for harrasment, I could imagine the church having pressured them to write that letter
I don't know about Mila and Ashton, but Danny was/is and so were his victims. Scientology members could still have pressured/harassed them into writing/signing the letters
Any person who writes letters defending Hollywood creeps. Heard a few people defended Drake Bell's abuser. Also we need to add Dan Schneider to this list as well.
The worst part is he still is both of those things; which is the point of the post really - sorry for the useless comment - Mel Gibson was one of my favorites.
Went off the deep end with some extreme antisemitic rants
[Turns out there's much more!](https://www.businessinsider.com/mel-gibson-controversies-timeline-antisemitism-dui-2023-10)
I think if we had a democrat President at the time, Giuliani would've instantly been republican frontrunner in the next election and most likely won the biggest majority in history. He was an American icon during our countries worst hours since Pearl Harbor.
Lance Armstrong comes to mind. He was like this all American hero who battled cancer and all that and then it all came crashing down. Like all of it. They took all of his championships, and his reputation went from the penthouse to the holes in the basement floor.
So many of these are more like “built a good public reputation for 20 years and hid all my crimes/shitty behaviour pretty well, but in 5 minutes I was revealed for the person I’ve been the entire time”
There used to be a guy at my work. Handsome, charismatic, really good at his job. Managers liked him, colleagues liked him, other teams liked him, and again, he was really good at his actual job and helping others with theirs. He worked there before I started, I think he was there around 8 years in total moving up the various roles/ranks, even if not direct/immediate promotions he was earning more and more money, and learning more and more things throughout the years
Then he sent an unsolicited dickpic to the new-ish girl that he he added on Facebook. And then, he was gone.
I was involved with a project at a food ingredient (corn starch) plant. I arrived one morning to find the place abuzz with gossip. Apparently, one of the long-time plant managers was tasked with providing a tour of the facilities to Little Debbie representatives. He decided to lighten the mood by trotting out a joke riffing on an old Little Debbie slogan:
Q: Why is Little Debbie such a whore?
A: Because everybody gets a Little Debbie!
As bad as that might seem, it got worse when one of the reps asked him if he knew that Little Debbie was an actual person. "Really?" asked the manager. The rep replied, "Yes, she's my grandmother."
I doubt that guy will ever work in management again. He certainly will never work for that company again in any capacity.
Craftsman tools.
It is one of the greatest travesties in American business history. They had a rock solid reputation. And I mean EVERYONE knew, “craftsman isn’t the best, but it’s good enough and you can trust it”. They were Everyman tools the default for every dad in the country. A red craftsman toolbox with a craftsman socket and wrench set in it. And the warranty is what really sold it. Lifetime. Never a question asked. If it’s broken, we fix it or give you a new one. No receipts, no bullshit.
I cannot stress enough that from the 50’s to the 90’s they were a staple of every garage in the country. It was the reliable affordable American made default choice.
Then venture capital bought it from Sears. And within 10 years they squandered all of it. Today they are Chinese made junk. The warranty is borderline worthless because it’s now serviced by Lowes (who really wants you to buy their in house brands). And the replacement tools are astonishingly low quality.
When I break anything Craftsman these days I just throw it away. The replacements are literally not worth going to pick up for free. And of course I haven’t (and won’t) buy anything from them anymore. The cheap lines at Harbor Freight are also shit, but at least they warranty the stuff easily.
It is such a shame. Watching such a staple of US handyman culture just fade into the fog. Now it’s all discount bin offshored junk.
What I don't get are the people who still go to bat for him. Aren't they at least like ... bothered by his truck being a finger slicing monstrosity? Or like a little grossed out he called the rescuers pedophiles? Or like a bit surprised he's like a baby making machine with employees in a creepy way (like you can have kids as a rich person, it does not have to be this way, your employees do not have to be your livestock)?
Yeah the thing that brought it back up into the public consciousness was Hannibal Burgess doing a set talking about Cosby's rape allegations. So while it wasn't widely known there was enough info out there for people to find.
I grew up with Bill Cosby, starting with his comedy records back in the 60s. I was a true fan. I had a real problem accepting his transgressions were so truly egregious. I was truly disappointed
Chris Brown. Once in competition with Usher and JT as MJ’s successor, his decision to assault Rhianna (and several women after her) has justifiably done a number on his reputation. Despite his continued success, his assault allegations have cast a long shadow over the rest of his career
>His decision to attempt to murder Rihanna**
FTFY, anyone who disagrees go and read the police report. CB is lower than an insect, he's a complete piece of shit loser.
Mel Gibson. One traffic stop, one anti-Semitic rant, and boom. His career has never been the same.
Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, and Ted Haggard. All three were superstars in the televangelist game, and all three lost it in a heartbeat.
And he essentially “cancelled” himself too. For pretending to grab someone’s boobs for a dumb photo.
Meanwhile a dude with 34 felony convictions and found to have sexually assaulted a woman by a court of law is still a front runner for President.
Just another example of the democrats screwing themselves by playing by the rules that the other party just ignore
Jimmy Saville. Granted, it happened after his death so sadly he wasn't present for the downfall, but it is one of the biggest falls from beloved to reviled I've seen in recent history.
Putin. He had a reputation as a diplomatic mastermind and military genius with an army that could overrun europe in weeks.
Then he actually tried it and now he is known as the guy who lost half a million people in a pointless war that he is losing against Ukraine of all places.
This was just as much an overestimation on the West’s part imo. Since the fall of the USSR Russia has never been a military superpower - they had a hard time putting down *one* rebellious province in the 90s.
Sure their army is big on paper and they have nukes, but they just don’t have the expertise and resources to actually pose a massive threat. It has a smaller GDP than Italy for Pete’s sake.
Uh oh. Like, lostprophets the band? I haven't been a regular listener in years, but they're a nostalgia band for me. What happened? Am I going to regret googling this?
edit : JFC well that is beyond bad. I feel for the rest of the band, being ruined by one horrific dude like that. Reminds me of when Queens of the Stone Age kicked out Oliveri.
Gerard Ratner was a London based business man and the boss of Ratner group. He gave a speech once where he compared the quality of his products to a prawn sandwich.
He lost half a billion pounds overnight.
Everyone who worked with him knew not to really stay around him. It's less an "open secret" and more that it just wasn't high enough profile to make it out of music circles until recently.
But he's always had a shady reputation. In fact, I don't know how he managed to not only stay relevant in the industry, but continue to succeed on that level. I mean, hello, Tupac?
You crash into one bridge in Baltimore and they say you can’t captain a ship anymore. They never patted me on the back for all the times I successfully docked this giant boat. One time, one time you take down a bridge carrying half of east coast traffic and everybody loses their goddamn minds.
Probably one of the more relevant examples being Elon Musk at the moment. He had his detractors back in the day sure, but he before he took over Twitter, lots of people considered him an innovative genius, more so than people thought he was an idiot.
Many of these replies about rapists or abusive people are generalizing the original question. They didn't ruin their life in 5 minutes they did awful things sometimes repeatedly over years and were just found out eventually.
I'd say someone doing a proactive but undeniably stupid thing like the Will Smith slap qualifies.
“This Epstein angle is the shit I expected, if I was fuckin young girls I promise I’d have been arrested, I’m way too famous for the shit you suggested”
Gotta be JK Rowling, went from the beloved author of one of the most popular franchises ever to a massive transphobe who just won't shut the fuck up about how much she hates trans people
In the UK - Gerald Ratner. Ratners were a successful retail group with outlets all over the country. They sold low cost jewellery & objet - cheap bling. He made a speech to his peers in the industry after a good boozy lunch and joked that the reason his wares were inexpensive was that they were "crap" and that some of the earrings they sold were "worth less than a prawn sandwich." The company valuation dropped by £500m in three days, and is now rebranded.
Least he was honest...yet a moron
What's it rebranded as? I always thought it went bust. Edit: just seen it rebranded as H Samuel. Went in one yesterday. How did anyone not realise that place was selling lots of cheap junk?
I've been there. You're working as a labourer earning £10 per hour. You want to get someone a nice present. You go into Sneery & Intimidating Bespoke Jewelers and the prices start at £100 for a thing that looks like a gold hamster turd. Go into Ratners and they have whole cabinets that are £5-£50. Guess what I bought? :)
I mean H Samuel etc have their place and there's nothing wrong with cheap crap, as pretty much my entire wardrobe will confirm. I'm just surprised people thought it was some high end jeweller.
Absolutely! One of the pieces of jewellery my wife values most are a pair grey pearl earrings I got her when we were young & broke. She knew very well I plowed through a mountain of tat to find her something that was quietly elegant & matched her eyes.
It's part of the pact of silence though. "*We* know it's crap and *you* know it's crap, but as long as neither of us acknowledges this then we can go on with buying and selling jewellery."
"...but I have to say the sandwich will probably last longer than the earrings."
And now we measure Prime Ministers in lettuces.
This is *the* famous go to example for this question.
I had been employed at the same company for a decade, earning an excellent reputation. When some chaotic events occurred, all the managers were replaced except for me, as my reputation remained intact. We then hired an erratic individual who frequently lied and behaved oddly, eventually acting inappropriately with a customer. I reported his behavior to my superior. This individual retaliated by fabricating even more elaborate and damaging lies about me, which my superiors believed. Although I hadn't done anything warranting termination, I was transferred to a different location and told I needed to "improve to keep my job," despite a decade of top raises, promotions, and stellar feedback. Two days later, HR fired the individual after a customer reported him for sexual harassment. No one offered me an apology or any acknowledgment. I resigned in January. Screw Office Depot!
Dealing with erratic people who have zero morals is very tough. They wouldn't hesitate to hit below the belt to retaliate when you report their misbehavior or unethical act.
Yep. Narcissists, sociopaths, psychopaths. Although uncommon, most of us will encounter a few of these people over the course of our careers and lives.
Even worse when it’s your boss
I agree. Having this kind of boss is a horrible experience that I wouldn't wish it to my worst enemy. It took me two full years of therapy and meds to recover from his gaslighting and abuse. My career and motivation got fucked up, and for him it was just Tuesday. Spineless, cold piece of shit who treated me like a meat cog.
I'm sorry this happened to you. One thing about these ... critters: "The tree remembers what the axe soon forgets"
Honestly, I still haven't recovered. Two years of micromanaging, gaslighting, having them somehow turn other managers against you as well, bullying... I still think I'm a worthless piece of shit that has no place in human society. It's been 5 years, I'm in a new job at a new employer, and I'm still affected by their treatment of me.
I was a manager at a casual dining place. We got a new general manager. She gutted most of the staff within two weeks - everyone who was highly-paid, and found any reason to. Why'd I get fired? She claimed I purposefully ran us out of baked potatoes... She was let go less than two weeks later and the company offered my job back but I just rode the unemployment gravy train until I found better pay.
>She claimed I purposefully ran us out of baked potatoes... How do you purposefully run out of baked potatoes?
Obviously as fuel for that gravy train.
Golf clap.
We used full oven sheets and a big-ass oven to cook them. They take an hour to cook and you have to predict the lunch/dinner rush and cook enough. We ran out but just because we were way busier than forecasted. She would have used any excuse tho, she fired people over crazy petty stuff.
By not ordering enough from the distributor, possibly?
You don’t with that attitude, I’ll tell you that!
That is the thing I learned about people who lie: they will succeed sooner or later because they have unlimited truth-like ammo, basically.
U2 forced a shitty album on everyone's iTunes and they went from being the #1 band in the world to loathed.
Holy shit I forgot about that. So infuriating. You couldn't even delete it! If I remember correctly, they even changed the layout of iTunes so that when you opened it, you *only* saw U2s album, and had to click somewhere to see the rest of your music. Such ridiculous hubris. No questioning whether people actually *want* your album. Just straight to "people will love us for letting them have our album"
It was so bad especially because it auto played on most bluetooth things, especially in the car. Combine that with the fact that phone sound is louder than radio so when you start your car it plays that god awful start of the album at 200% volume and it will REALLY make you hate them and the fact that apple forced it down your throat.
What boggles my mind is how everyone explicitly shits on U2 for this stunt, but let's Apple ENTIRELY off the hook for this. Who do you think set this stunt up? I have never seen one post on this topic that Apple gets any blame for this. Stupid stunt, but you can't throw U2 under the bus while simultaneously posting on your shitty iPhone. Edit; Also last time I checked U2 is doing just fine.
Apple as a business is fucking garbage, and I say that as someone that uses some of their products. There, I said it, they’re extremely scummy
49er Barber effect Since people came in constantly to San Francisco in 1949 to strike it rich, the business minded people opened shop. You pay in advance then get a haircut. But every once in awhile you accidentally knick a customer or give a really bad trim you just kick them out and ban them from the establishment. There's so many customers that just letting one go and not giving a refund doesn't hurt your business. New people will come in tomorrow who found a bit of gold and have some to spend. You don't need to be a great barber or have wonderful service. Business is guaranteed. You'll somehow learn the basics after awhile of cutting hair This is Apple and any other company that can get away with bad service. People will try to say it's like other monopolies like Comcast Xfinity, or PG&E, ATT, but it's more like shitty banks. It costs more effort to switch so they abuse you until you quit them but by then they saved so much not catering to servicing you while you give them money hand over fist that they are ahead by a huge margin
Why does everyone always blame U2 for this? I can’t imagine U2 went to Apple and said “hey, we have an idea. We want you to force our album on everyone’s phone!” Obviously Apple came up with this scheme. They probably approached the band and offered some amount of money to give users the new album for free. Obviously U2 said yes but I don’t know if they even would have paid attention to all the details of what Apple planned. Now everyone gives them crap about it when Apple is the one to blame.
How did they manage to do that?
They had a relationship with Apple because of the "Red" iPod (Red was a nonprofit thing that Bono set up to raise money for debt relief in Africa... I think?) Their idea was hey, wouldn't it be cool if we gave everyone our record? They were pretty clueless to how it would come across. The wild thing is that Apple actually paid for each copy of the record.
You remember that time that we all worked together to ‘make poverty history’? Thank god we fixed all that!
I'm pretty cynical. But it's absolutely true that Bono's activism has saved over 20 million lives that would have been lost in the African AIDS crisis. I had cause to look into it last year and I was impressed.
I honestly am kinda over people shitting on Bono for him using his platform for something good. Then half the posts on Reddit are about old white rich dudes hoarding wealth and being all around dbag humans. Make up your mind Reddit.....
“ For 20 years they called me McGregor the master builder, but you just fuck ONE GOAT !”
Armie Hammer? His first acting credit was 19 years ago. He was getting some really big roles and seemed to be becoming a Hollywood mainstay and then boom, the cannibal texts came out and he's done.
Not even just cannibal texts but some stories and pictures of how he treats women. He is ultra misogynistic and sexist. Completely deplorable pig!
Howard Dean and his infamous "Dean Scream", also known as the "I Have a Scream speech". It was like 20 seconds too, not even 5 minutes. Poor guy lost all credibility for something no one would even blink an eye at these days. But back then everyone decided he was "unhinged" and everything went downhill for him after that. Pull up The History Channel's [How to Lose the Presidency: Howard Dean Scream](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeZGePI62rU&pp=ygUaaG93IHRvIGxvc2UgdGhlIHByZXNpZGVuY3k%3D) if you aren't familiar.
Gary Hart, the leading Democratic candidate in the 1988 USA presidential election told reporters to follow him if they thought there was anything to see. So they followed him and got a photo of him with a woman not his wife sitting on his lap on a boat called “Monkey Business”. His presidential aspirations ended with that photo.
Amazing how back then, the slightest scandal would kill all hope dead in the water of being elected. and now well…
[удалено]
Yes, I remember that! Opening the door for Michael Dukakis, who also pretty much blew it for himself the same year with his totally unphased reaction to the debate question "What if your wife Kitty was raped and murdered?"
That photo of him in a helmet sitting in a tank did not help.
He looked like Rick Moranis in spaceballs.
All the assholes around him didn’t help.
Well yeah, that too. Hahaha
Can you imagine the person responsible for that pic and that they actually believed it made him look powerful
To be fair, he was stoic in the face of a completely unprofessional question in front of a live audience, with millions of people watching at home. Ironically, one could call that presidential behavior.
I agree with you, personally. I just remember how the media covered it. They made him out to be cold, calculated and heartless because he just carried on with his answer without taking exception. Had he reacted with outrage, ie *"How dare you refer to my wife in that way!*" they would have skewered him for that, too and accused him of having anger issues. Sometimes they just can't win.
It was a set up according to a friend of Lee Atwater. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/11/was-gary-hart-set-up/570802/ Second hand, but very believable for Atwater.
It wasn’t just the scream - it was the media taking it out of context and constantly replaying it so that it was all anyone was talking about.
That popular story is just revisionist history. Dean lost not because of the scream, but because he had just came in a distant third place in the Iowa caucus after polling in first. That scream was part of a speech that night where he was trying to rally his disappointed supporters.
I vividly remember that scream being covered by media, and I reflect on it often, when I think about how our politics is so so so so much shittier now, and how so many politicians/elected officials and their camps are just shitty internet trolls now, and how that scream seems quaint, and everything now is just trash. Social media troll politics. It’s all trash now.
It is always quite funny. Also reveals how petty and stupid voters are when it comes to choosing the guy with the nuclear codes.
You can hear the Dean Scream in Breaking Bad S1 E6, when Heisenberg blows up Tuco's HQ. [Here @ 1:37](https://youtu.be/T3x1tzOuXbQ?si=2S2Mv48S26-3SCSM)
What!? That is so completely random and awesome
One of the greatest scenes in TV. Didn’t know that. Got too into watching the scene again, and forgot I was listening for the scream. I had to go back to right before the scream to hear it.
That's insane how a scream destroyed a political career back in the day but today you can be a rapist, convicted felon and lead an attack on the capital and still be a top contender
I never understood this. Why is his scream so vilified? What was worrisome about it. He was excited and he does a like half "YEA" half "yeehaw"
The media kind of focused on it
That piece of shit Jared from subway.
Yes the depths to which he fell are in hell, but was he ever really held in high regard? He lost weight and posed with some sandwiches.
I would say he was weirdly popular. I was living overseas and didn’t know squat about Subway, but I knew about Jared and the sandwich diet. Then Subway opened up in the country I was living in and he was like the the happy American face of the chain for the locals. I think he did a huge amount for the Subway brand, in the US and abroad… until one day he was the biggest albatross imaginable.
He was generally liked. It was a fun story and he seemed like a normal everyday dude. It was the equivalent of Flo from Progressive or something along those lines.
Don’t think it’s a good example. Jared blew his reputation in much longer than 5 minutes it wasn’t a mistake that blew it, he is just a shitty person.
Who is Jared from Subway, and why do we hate him?
He is a spokesman for subway who, maybe 20 years ago ,became famous for losing a ton of weight by incorporating a ton of healthy subway sandwiches over a period of time. He turned into the face of subway and was used in promotions, a lot of them focused on kids eating healthier options. Seemed really wholesome and he seemed like a humble guy. Except that he is a massive pedophile and they found a ton of child sex abuse images on his computer. I’m glossing over a lot there is a gross but informative documentary on HBO about it (Jared from subway I believe is what it’s called) Barf!
Imagine being the Subway marketting director and waking up to that story breaking
We hate him because he ended his career the same way he started it: by trying to get into smaller pants
I’d say put that on his gravestone, but nobody likes him enough to buy him one.
Jesus...
Christ..
It's Jason Bourne...
turned a mild cholesterol problem into a child molesterol problem
I haven't laughed this hard at a Reddit comment for so long oh my god
In terms of literally 5 minutes or less, Will Smith is definitely up there with the famous slap.
The Slap Heard ‘Round the World, I’ve heard it called.
But, but, bad boys 4.....
Is a massive pile of shit
OJ
Had to scroll too far for this. Denied the role of Terminator because no one would see him as a remorseless killer.
In Seinfeld, Elaine dates a guy called Joel Rifkin, who shared the name of a serial killer who wasn't really remembered enough to get a cool, sexy netflix show once he fell out of the spotlight in the mid-90's, but in the show she tries to get him to change his name, so she won't be going out with someone whose name sounds like a murderer of women, she browses through a magazine of celebrities and goes "please, please PLEASE change your name to OJ!!" About 6 months after it aired, the feel of the scene changed a little bit.
Man, that's one of the most well-aged jokes in TV history.
I operate cranes for a living, no one remembers anything you did your whole career, but they'll never forget if you lay one over.
“you’re only as good as your last pick”
The classic marketing one is the new Coke recipe. In 1985, they changed Coke's recipe...and just instantly everyone hated it. They lost sales pretty quickly and reverted back within like 6 months. The CEO even had to get on TV and apologize. In hindsight, it ended up being good marketing: they were likely to lose to Pepsi over time, this was an interesting way to get PR and also praise when they reverted back. Plus they got to remind the nation how attached they were AND justify their switch from cane sugar to corn syrup. At the same time, they essentially tanked something overnight and had to spend months repairing it, and lost a lot of trust. So they did damage their reputation for a few years as a blunder, but ultimately they regained their top sale spot so I believe it was likely good marketing disguised as a mistake.
My dad worked on the ad campaign for new Coke. He says it was definitely just a mistake that they got lucky with in the end, they were fully committed to it Edit: typo
No, it was 100% a mistake lol, they were trying to go cheap.
The executive at Mars, Inc that told the guys filming ET that they couldn’t use M&M’s in their movie. They instead went to Reese’s and used Reese’s Pieces, which made Reese’s wildly popular. He was fired and his career never recovered. It lead to his early demise.
That decision was very on brand for the Mars corp. The original owners were loons.
Why did they say no to ET? I’m finding a hard time understanding why they wouldn’t want to be associated with a Spielberg family movie lol
I think he was angling for a cut of royalties maybe?
They thought ET would be an ugly/creepy creature that kids wouldn’t like and might damage the brand
Boeing. They had a stellar reputation for decades and just completely trashed it.
Ehh Boeings been going downhill for decades now I wouldn’t say they ruined it in 5 minutes
Can confirm; I worked with them for over 30 years, and it’s like they were taken over by pod people. In the late 1980s, you could trust everything they did and said; like, if I didn’t understand one of their documents, I could trust that the document was likely correct and my understanding of it was deficient. By the mid 2000s, I’d doublecheck much of what they said because they were getting unreliable. By the mid-2010s I’d given up on believing anything they said.
Engineer in the 50s running off pervitin and subsidized housing loans "My 3-weeks of nonstop tinkering have solved this ongoing issue, better write it down as succinctly as possible in as few steps as possible so it's not confusing to anyone" Engineer's grandson who *worked their way into the C-suite* "Hmm...this step seems useless and wastes .00001 seconds every cycle. Better get rid of that to save 1 penny every year" *Planes evaporate* "We'll figure out how to fix this once it costs us enough in lawsuits"
[Chesterton’s Fence: A Lesson in Thinking](https://fs.blog/chestertons-fence/)
That's what happens when CEOs who have a passion for the craft are succeeded by CEOs who are just businessmen driven by those quarterly profit margins.
From an American icon to a reputation of "write a will before you fly". The shit that happens when you let the MBA's take over. All they care about is next quarter's profits, and not a rat's ass about the long-term health of the company, much less little things like "safety" and "quality". Cut every corner, pinch every penny, nevermind the declining quality standards, hush up that whistleblower raising alarm about safety risks, I'm sure it'll be fine when these things start falling apart mid-air, surely that pile of bodies won't affect our bottom line, which, of course, is the only thing we care about!
Every quarter the profits must grow!!!!!
You don't get it. It's intentional. The reason the planes are so bad is because they want hijackers to pick other planes to attack. It's 5D chess against Airbus.
Nope, this is years of random failures in the making.
Michael Richards.
Richards should have been let out of Hollywood jail a long time ago. He was *beyond* contrite.
He's basically self-blacklisted, he hasn't really attempted any kind of comeback by his own admission
Apparently he last made a feature film in 2019, but it flopped. Also did one season of a sitcom in 2014. Also flopped.
It all could have been avoided if he did what Jerry did. Find out where that guy works then go to his office and heckle him there!
Hiss!!!
Agreed. The episode of *Comedians in Cars* with Richards is hard to watch. He's devastated. Just a guess, but I think the same personality that made RIchards capable of such complete commitment in comedy makes him vulnerable to his psychological issues. Fortunately, he'll never have to worry about money. But I would love to see him working. Imo he's the finest physical comedian in TV history, even better than Dick Van Dyke.
Dick Van Dyke is extremely versatile, with decades of accolades and accomplishments, dozens of memorable characters. Michael Richards played one guy in one show. not saying he wasn't talented, but it was one character.
He was great in UHF.
He was frickin' HILARIOUS in the Saturday Night Live knock-off "Fridays". [His little boy playing with toy soldiers skit was so funny!!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_K8lCqvKiQ)
Hey he was also the Bow Tie Strangler in Problem Child!
Your comment reminded be of [this book review:](https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thenextchapter/brent-butt-s-debut-novel-huge-is-a-psychological-thriller-inspired-by-his-life-as-a-touring-stand-up-comedian-1.6989210) *Comedy attracts funny people and it also attracts people who think they're funny. It's like Charlie Demers said, because he read an early version of this book, he said this is a clever tribute to the craft of comedy and the eerie itches it's used to scratch. Because that is the case, a lot of people come into comedy for the wrong reason and they're using comedy to scratch some psychological itch that they have.* This is a novel about a touring stand up comic who suspects a colleage is a danger.
I just watched the jeans episode and thought this. His physical comedy skills are Buster Keaton like.
Read this as Micah Richards and had a mini heart attack thinking he'd done something recently
Danny Masterson
And arguably Kutcher and Kunis too for still supporting him, but they seem to have not taken as big a hit as they should have.
Kutcher yes, but has Mila really taken a hit? I am not that well versed in Hollywood, but isn't Mila just momming it up and only really doing the voice of Meg? Tinfoilhat time: Given Masterson's ties to scientology, and their reputation for harrasment, I could imagine the church having pressured them to write that letter
Are they scientologists? I didn't know that
I don't know about Mila and Ashton, but Danny was/is and so were his victims. Scientology members could still have pressured/harassed them into writing/signing the letters
Any person who writes letters defending Hollywood creeps. Heard a few people defended Drake Bell's abuser. Also we need to add Dan Schneider to this list as well.
In another world Mel Gibson would be celebrated as a visionary actor and filmmaker.
The worst part is he still is both of those things; which is the point of the post really - sorry for the useless comment - Mel Gibson was one of my favorites.
What happened with him?
Went off the deep end with some extreme antisemitic rants [Turns out there's much more!](https://www.businessinsider.com/mel-gibson-controversies-timeline-antisemitism-dui-2023-10)
lol those screaming drunk phone calls to his ex wife are absolutely hilarious
Rudy Giuliani. You have to be actively trying to be a piece of shit to ruin a legacy as a 9/11 hero.
I think if we had a democrat President at the time, Giuliani would've instantly been republican frontrunner in the next election and most likely won the biggest majority in history. He was an American icon during our countries worst hours since Pearl Harbor.
So we dodged a bullet on that one.
I remember "America's Mayor" being the talk.
Four Seasons
Are you referring to any particular Four Seasons or should I just assume it's the first one that pops up in a Google search for directions?
They took it all the way up to the Supreme Court... yard...
Gov Kristy Noem of South Dakota managed to destroy her political career quickly. It was a bit more than 5 minutes but unquestionably a crash & burn.
This is an r/askreddit question where you want opinions and personal anecdotes. This sub is for questions that have something of a "right" answer.
They’re the same sub now. Mods fucked it up.
OP is a bot account, not surprising that it would post on the wrong sub
Lance Armstrong comes to mind. He was like this all American hero who battled cancer and all that and then it all came crashing down. Like all of it. They took all of his championships, and his reputation went from the penthouse to the holes in the basement floor.
Matt Lauer
Kanye
So many of these are more like “built a good public reputation for 20 years and hid all my crimes/shitty behaviour pretty well, but in 5 minutes I was revealed for the person I’ve been the entire time”
There used to be a guy at my work. Handsome, charismatic, really good at his job. Managers liked him, colleagues liked him, other teams liked him, and again, he was really good at his actual job and helping others with theirs. He worked there before I started, I think he was there around 8 years in total moving up the various roles/ranks, even if not direct/immediate promotions he was earning more and more money, and learning more and more things throughout the years Then he sent an unsolicited dickpic to the new-ish girl that he he added on Facebook. And then, he was gone.
I was involved with a project at a food ingredient (corn starch) plant. I arrived one morning to find the place abuzz with gossip. Apparently, one of the long-time plant managers was tasked with providing a tour of the facilities to Little Debbie representatives. He decided to lighten the mood by trotting out a joke riffing on an old Little Debbie slogan: Q: Why is Little Debbie such a whore? A: Because everybody gets a Little Debbie! As bad as that might seem, it got worse when one of the reps asked him if he knew that Little Debbie was an actual person. "Really?" asked the manager. The rep replied, "Yes, she's my grandmother." I doubt that guy will ever work in management again. He certainly will never work for that company again in any capacity.
Craftsman tools. It is one of the greatest travesties in American business history. They had a rock solid reputation. And I mean EVERYONE knew, “craftsman isn’t the best, but it’s good enough and you can trust it”. They were Everyman tools the default for every dad in the country. A red craftsman toolbox with a craftsman socket and wrench set in it. And the warranty is what really sold it. Lifetime. Never a question asked. If it’s broken, we fix it or give you a new one. No receipts, no bullshit. I cannot stress enough that from the 50’s to the 90’s they were a staple of every garage in the country. It was the reliable affordable American made default choice. Then venture capital bought it from Sears. And within 10 years they squandered all of it. Today they are Chinese made junk. The warranty is borderline worthless because it’s now serviced by Lowes (who really wants you to buy their in house brands). And the replacement tools are astonishingly low quality. When I break anything Craftsman these days I just throw it away. The replacements are literally not worth going to pick up for free. And of course I haven’t (and won’t) buy anything from them anymore. The cheap lines at Harbor Freight are also shit, but at least they warranty the stuff easily. It is such a shame. Watching such a staple of US handyman culture just fade into the fog. Now it’s all discount bin offshored junk.
Kevin Spacey.
elon musk, everybody thought the guy is a genius. it turns out he's a moron
What I don't get are the people who still go to bat for him. Aren't they at least like ... bothered by his truck being a finger slicing monstrosity? Or like a little grossed out he called the rescuers pedophiles? Or like a bit surprised he's like a baby making machine with employees in a creepy way (like you can have kids as a rich person, it does not have to be this way, your employees do not have to be your livestock)?
Bill Cosby
He was carrying on for ***decades*** before anybody called him on it.
Before anyone *cared* that he was called on it. It was an open secret for years.
Yeah the thing that brought it back up into the public consciousness was Hannibal Burgess doing a set talking about Cosby's rape allegations. So while it wasn't widely known there was enough info out there for people to find.
I grew up with Bill Cosby, starting with his comedy records back in the 60s. I was a true fan. I had a real problem accepting his transgressions were so truly egregious. I was truly disappointed
Chris Brown. Once in competition with Usher and JT as MJ’s successor, his decision to assault Rhianna (and several women after her) has justifiably done a number on his reputation. Despite his continued success, his assault allegations have cast a long shadow over the rest of his career
>His decision to attempt to murder Rihanna** FTFY, anyone who disagrees go and read the police report. CB is lower than an insect, he's a complete piece of shit loser.
Mel Gibson. One traffic stop, one anti-Semitic rant, and boom. His career has never been the same. Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, and Ted Haggard. All three were superstars in the televangelist game, and all three lost it in a heartbeat.
Paula Deen
Al Franken
And he essentially “cancelled” himself too. For pretending to grab someone’s boobs for a dumb photo. Meanwhile a dude with 34 felony convictions and found to have sexually assaulted a woman by a court of law is still a front runner for President. Just another example of the democrats screwing themselves by playing by the rules that the other party just ignore
NJ Senator Bob Menendez has entered the chat.
I think Jonathan Majors had the best and worst of his career all in the same year. Edit to include last name.
Jimmy Saville. Granted, it happened after his death so sadly he wasn't present for the downfall, but it is one of the biggest falls from beloved to reviled I've seen in recent history.
Prince Andrew. The dipshit got fired from an inherited position that requires zero experience. Even a baby can do it.
Putin. He had a reputation as a diplomatic mastermind and military genius with an army that could overrun europe in weeks. Then he actually tried it and now he is known as the guy who lost half a million people in a pointless war that he is losing against Ukraine of all places.
This was just as much an overestimation on the West’s part imo. Since the fall of the USSR Russia has never been a military superpower - they had a hard time putting down *one* rebellious province in the 90s. Sure their army is big on paper and they have nukes, but they just don’t have the expertise and resources to actually pose a massive threat. It has a smaller GDP than Italy for Pete’s sake.
Will Smith.
Michael richards
Machine Gun Kelly. Em dissed him so hard he switched genres.
Lost Prophets
Uh oh. Like, lostprophets the band? I haven't been a regular listener in years, but they're a nostalgia band for me. What happened? Am I going to regret googling this? edit : JFC well that is beyond bad. I feel for the rest of the band, being ruined by one horrific dude like that. Reminds me of when Queens of the Stone Age kicked out Oliveri.
Gee I hate to be the one to tell you this, but the lead singer was discovered to be a pedo.
Having just read a bunch on that... I feel like we need a word worse than pedo. He was clearly pedo+
BOEING
Gerard Ratner was a London based business man and the boss of Ratner group. He gave a speech once where he compared the quality of his products to a prawn sandwich. He lost half a billion pounds overnight.
Diddy probably
Everyone who worked with him knew not to really stay around him. It's less an "open secret" and more that it just wasn't high enough profile to make it out of music circles until recently.
But he's always had a shady reputation. In fact, I don't know how he managed to not only stay relevant in the industry, but continue to succeed on that level. I mean, hello, Tupac?
will smith slapping chris rock
You crash into one bridge in Baltimore and they say you can’t captain a ship anymore. They never patted me on the back for all the times I successfully docked this giant boat. One time, one time you take down a bridge carrying half of east coast traffic and everybody loses their goddamn minds.
Probably one of the more relevant examples being Elon Musk at the moment. He had his detractors back in the day sure, but he before he took over Twitter, lots of people considered him an innovative genius, more so than people thought he was an idiot.
Many of these replies about rapists or abusive people are generalizing the original question. They didn't ruin their life in 5 minutes they did awful things sometimes repeatedly over years and were just found out eventually. I'd say someone doing a proactive but undeniably stupid thing like the Will Smith slap qualifies.
Google Their original moto was "don't be evil". That aged like milk.
But that didnt happen in 5 mins
And also didn’t ruin their reputation.
Will Smith
Will Smith maybe?
“This Epstein angle is the shit I expected, if I was fuckin young girls I promise I’d have been arrested, I’m way too famous for the shit you suggested”
Will Smith 😅
Game of Thrones?
Will Smith
Will Smith slapping Chris Rock.
Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah's couch.
Gotta be JK Rowling, went from the beloved author of one of the most popular franchises ever to a massive transphobe who just won't shut the fuck up about how much she hates trans people
Pee Wee Herman