It Seemed Like A Good Idea Trivia Quiz

Answer: Hula Burger

Kroc attempted to cater to the Catholic population who refrain from eating meat on Fridays for religious reasons. What menu item did Mr. Kroc come up with? The Hula Burger, of course. It consisted of a ring of pineapple covered with cheese. Needless to say, it didn't go over well. He later came up with the Filet-O-Fish sandwich, a more successful meatless alternative.

Answer: Perfume

"Black Fire", "Hot Rod", and "Destiny" were the names of some scents in their "Hot Road" collection aimed at men. I don't know what inspired the company to introduce perfume and colognes that smelled of wood and tobacco, but female bikers didn't appreciate the scent or its target audience. It seems men didn't take to it either and the biker perfume never quite took off.

Answer: Frozen Meals

Needless to say, consumers couldn't connect toothpaste with frozen meals, unless you brush your teeth with Colgate toothpaste after eating their meals.

There has been some debate over whether or not their frozen lasagna even existed. Some sources say they really did introduce chicken and crab frozen entrees in 1966. Needless to say, it did not go over well with the public. No one wants to associate toothpaste with frozen dinners no matter what the ingredients are.

The "Museum of Failures" in Sweden has a replica of Colgate-Palmolive's frozen entrées.

Answer: Theranos

The idea that Ms. Holmes came up with sounded reasonable enough. Wear a patch that can deliver the correct amount of drug dosage. Her "Lab on a Chip", designed for testing blood, was supposed to make the process easier and cheaper.

"Lab on a Chip" didn't live up to its claims. Holmes had lied about its effectiveness.

In 2018, Holmes and company president, Ramesh Balwani, were indicted on wire fraud and use of the fraudulent portable blood analyzer. The scam affected doctors, investors and patients. Holmes was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Balwani was sentenced to over 12 years.

Answer: Reading Machine

The Fiske Reading Machine was invented in 1922. Books printed in tiny letters could be read with a magnifying glass that was modified. The invention was supposed to be better than printed books because less paper was used, it eliminated the use of reading glasses, and the device was cheaper to manufacture.

Unfortunately for Fiske, the popularity of mass-marketed paperbacks a decade later decreased the public's interest in his invention. No one wanted to hold a magnifying glass to their eyes for hours anymore. His invention fizzled out.

Answer: Electric Pen

Edison invented this unique pen for the purpose of document duplication. The idea was fairly simple by today's standards. The pen held a motor on top, powered by a wet-cell battery. The idea was to create a stencil by perforating a sheet of paper using the pen. An ink roller would cover the perforations, leaving a perfect impression of an image.

The pen was a great success, at first. However, sales began to decline. Mechanical pens hit the market and were replaced the popularity of Edison's electric pens.

Although the electric pen eventually lost sales, it lead to the modern electric tattoo machine. In 1891 tattoo artist, Samuel F. O'Reilly, took Edison's pen prototype (Edison's patent had expired) and created the electric tattoo needle.

Answer: Radithor

In the 1930s, Ebenezer Byers began taking Radithor, a medicine made from radium and patented by William J.A. Bailey who falsely represented himself as a physician. Byers believed that, among other health remedies, it would increase his libido. What it did do was dissolve his upper jaw, not to mention the fact that his teeth fell out.

Eben died at age 51 of cancer brought on by his use of radium-based products. Doctors at the time called his death "Acute Radiation Poisoning". It was the radium that led to the cancer. He is buried in a lead-lined coffin.

Answer: Merck

NSAIDs, or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, have been proven to cause severe gastrointestinal problems. In 1999 Vioxx (Rofecoxib) was marketed as a safer substitute for other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs on the market.

In reality the drug was proven to cause an increase in strokes and heart attacks. Some researchers at Merck knew the drug adversely affected the cardiovascular system by interrupting the balance between blood flow and clotting. The irresponsibility shown by Merck cost the company $4.85 billion dollars in payouts.

I can personally attest to the damage caused by using NSAIDS like Vioxx over a long period of time.

Answer: Pinto

Lee Iacocca, president of Ford Motors in 1971 when the car was produced, wanted to create a lighter, more affordable subcompact. He rushed the car to market too soon. The company's placement and design of the fuel tank was its downfall.

The fuel tank was situated between the rear axle and bumper, standard procedure at the time. Unfortunately, a lack of structural reinforcement in the rear caused a proneness to gas leakage and fire if the car was rear-ended.

Due to Ford's failure to produce a stronger fuel tank, drivers suffered burns from fires caused by those rear-end collisions. Some even died from their injuries. Lawsuits followed.

The Pinto was marketed from 1971 until 1980.

Answer: Virtual Boy

It took four years for the company to develop this game. Marketed as being capable of displaying stereoscopic "3D" graphics, the bulky game console was placed on the market too soon. Not enough attention had been given to user testing. After a period of time, users began to complain of back pain and impaired vision. If Nintendo had fully tested their product, the ergonomic and visual problems created by using the console could have been prevented prior to the lawsuits.