The video will start in 8 Cancel

News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Everyone makes mistakes.

Even successful, big corporations like Google and Apple have had their share of embarrassing failures.

But even though failure is often the best way to learn, many companies do everything they can do to bury all evidence of their professional flops.

And that's where collector and innovation researcher Dr Samuel West steps in.

He doesn’t just encourage failure, he collects it.

(Image: The Museum of Failure)

While conducting research on innovation and organisational creativity, the American psychologist, who co-founded product developing service Superlab, got tired of only reading about exceptional product innovations.

“Companies would immediately sweep their failures under the carpet without acknowledging it,” Dr West told the Mirror. He became infatuated by failed innovation and started an impressive collection.

“Last summer, when I was at the Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb, Croatia, I had a ‘eureka’ moment.”

Intrigued by the abstract concept of the museum, he decided to create his own - the Museum of Failures.

(Image: Sofie Lindberg)

Contrary to its name, however, it’s a place of creative celebration.

The museum is home to nearly 80 examples of products that went horribly wrong in one way or another.

Whether it was the products’ failed innovation, design or marketing strategy, the collection shines light on the importance of imperfections.

This idea of psychological safety, according to Dr West actually amplifies team productivity and success.

“Every failure is uniquely spectacular,” he explains, “while success is nauseatingly repetitive.” From disastrous flavours to sexist marketing, here are some of the failures that will be on display at the museum.

Colgate’s beef lasagne

(Image: The Museum of Failure)

Yes, you read that right.

The toothpaste brand once tried to ride the 1980s frozen dinner wave by launching their own beef lasagne.

Apparently the plan was to encourage people to eat a branded dinner before brushing their teeth with Colgate toothpaste.

“It was a limited launch, but honestly, who wants to eat frozen food from a toothpaste brand?” Dr West laughs.

Colgate, however, refused to co-operate with his project. So Dr West had to recreate the original packaging of the lasagne as best as he could, making this the only unoriginal product on display.

Coca-Cola BlāK

(Image: Sofie Lindberg)

Released in 2006, the coffee-flavoured Coca-Cola drink was considered a major flop.

Its poor taste combination of coffee essence and Coke, as well as its excessive caffeine meant that it only lasted two years on the shelves.

“It was marketed for the so-called under-30 sophisticated consumer,” Dr West explains. “But people simply didn’t like it.”

Even TV host Anderson Cooper had to spit it out in disgust on national television. Bad move, Coca-Cola.

Bic’s “for Her” pens

(Image: Sofie Lindberg)

Who knew that women had to have their own pens? In 2015, Bic South Africa launched their supposedly female-friendly pink and purple pens for National Women’s Day.

But instead of emphasising the importance of the day, the advert’s mantra - Look like a girl. Act like a lady. Think like a man. Work like a boss - sparked outrage.

Completely defeating the purpose and offending women all over the world, the pens made headlines - even Ellen DeGeneres had a go at its absurdity on her talk show.

Twitter Peek

(Image: Sofie Lindberg)

And the award for most useless piece of technology goes to… Costing £150 ($200), the device sought to bypass expensive cellphone data.

It launched in 2008, a year after the first iPhone. “Most people already had cellphones with Internet when it came out,” Dr West says.

Twitter Peek was created solely for tweeting. But there was one little problem - it didn’t tweet very well.

Its small screen could only display 25 characters at a time and required tiring amounts of scrolling to serve its purpose.

The same year, parent company Peek Inc. launched their own product which solely sent emails.

By 2012, however, they seemed to realise how useless their innovations were, and shifted their focus towards cloud technology.

Blockbuster DVD

(Image: Sofie Lindberg)

“My favourite innovation fails are those with an exciting story,” Dr West says, “the ones where the failure is not as apparent.”

Blockbuster DVD was a brilliant idea at the time of its launch. However, the video rental leader got caught up in internal feuds.

The CEO, who promoted streaming and subscription-based rental was fired, and streaming services were cut. Bad mistake.

The company's inability to adapt eventually led to bankruptcy in 2013, and paved the road for Netflix’s success. “In this case, it wasn’t a technological fail,” he explains. “They were just greedy.”

Harley Davidson perfume

(Image: Sofie Lindberg)

A line of tobacco-scented perfume that reeks of leather? No thank you.

The motorcycle company’s 1996 launch of “Hot Road” may have had good intentions, but the outcome was just disastrous.

Nothing screams badassery and masculinity like a perfume line.

Kodak DC40 digital camera

(Image: Sofie Lindberg)

Kodak’s 1975 release of the digital camera was revolutionary - it was the first of its kind. In 1989, their engineer Steven Sasson co-created the first modern DSLR camera.

But although their ideas had significant impact on the camera world, they failed to realise that the future was in online photo sharing.

They continued to focus on photo printing and failed to adapt its business model to change with the times.

Kodak eventually went bankrupt in 2012, only months before Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion.

Nokia N-Gage

(Image: Sofie Lindberg)

A smartphone slash handheld gaming system, the device sounded like a great idea in 2003.

“Brilliant technology. The design sucked though,” Dr West comments. Its odd design and button display made it impractical.

With such a niche market, very few games were available, and the whole phone had to be disassembled to change games. We’ve definitely come a long way since then.

Rejuvenique Ultimate Facial Toning System

(Image: Sofie Lindberg)

Yes, the product is just as absurd as its name. It is said that electrocuting your face everyday for months with this so-called beauty mask tones and lifts your muscles.

Even Dynasty's Krystle Carrington, aka actress Linda Evans, was promoting it. But whether or not it actually works, this ridiculous invention looks like a torture mask.

Trump: The Game

(Image: Sofie Lindberg)

Property-mogul-turned-president Donald Trump has done some bizarre things - but this may be one of his biggest flops to date.

A copy of Monopoly, his board game involves players using big golden T pieces and Trump dollars to buy Trump properties.

Initially released in 1989, the game did so badly, barely scraping half of its total expected sales.

Following the success of his reality TV show ‘The Apprentice’, he re-released the product in 2004, but was met with disappointing success yet again.

That being said, Trump did go on to become President so perhaps this failure wasn’t so bad after all.

Plus people are selling mint-condition original editions of the game for £50 on ebay .

Coke II (New Coke)

(Image: Sofie Lindberg)

In early 1984, Coca-Cola replaced all its Classic Cokes on shelves with this new completely pointless rendition.

Although initially a strategic move in response to losing ground to nemesis Pepsi, it only took months before customers were demanding that they revert to their original formula.

That being said, the fizzy drink leader’s sales did actually surpass that of Pepsi by the end of 1985, so maybe it was worth the shot.

Apple’s Newton Messagepad

(Image: Sofie Lindberg)

Apple wasn’t always the successful, flawless company we know it as today.

The Messagepad could take notes and send faxes, an impressive achievement at the time, but its poor handwriting capabilities and high costs made it pretty pointless.

It soon found itself struggling to capture market share from rival Palm Pilot.

“This is just proof that if the big guys can fail, so can we,” said Dr West.

However, Apple definitely learned from their debacle and went on to dominate personal computing from 1993.

Cuecat barcode scanner

(Image: The Museum of Failure)

Nothing says early 2000s like completely useless technology.

An incredibly expensive failure, these cat-shaped scanners allowed consumers to look up products they saw in magazines by scanning a code, rather than going through the trouble of typing in its URL.

Surely it was easier and faster to just type it in?

“This is one of those inventions that actually never should have existed,” Dr West said.

Sony’s Betamax Player

(Image: Sofie Lindberg)

In the 1970s, this Sony invention was seen as the superior choice to VCR players - they were better in speed and quality.

In fact, it was the first commercially-successful device that allowed viewers to tape their TV shows. So what was the problem?

When Japanese rival, JVC released a competitor which could record for 60 minutes longer and was available for a cheaper price, Sony’s Betamax saw itself failing to capture the video-rental market.

Despite their struggles, they didn’t stop manufacturing the Betamax player until 2002.

But Sony’s real failure? They didn’t stop making cassette tapes until 2015 when the whole world had already moved on to better things decades earlier.

Google Glass

(Image: Sofie Lindberg)

We were all talking about it and we all wanted it. But this Google gadget wasn’t here to stay. So why is one of Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of the Year considered a major fail?

While it tried to tackle how humans should interact with technology in a way no one had ever seen before, its hefty price made it largely unaffordable.

The innovation also left many people complaining about privacy issues, as they could be filmed without their knowledge at any time.

Although revolutionary for its use in sport, the military and journalism, the company eventually waved goodbye to Google Glass and went on to focus on other wearable technology.

(Image: Sofie Lindberg)

But what do all these failures have in common? “Every time you try something new, there is a huge risk of failure,” says Dr West. “Most people don’t realise that 80-90% of the time, innovations don’t work.”

He urges people to be more comfortable with trying new things, and not fear the idea of failure.

“The trick is to create an organisational culture that accepts failure so that you can fail small, rather than failing big,” he explains. Making mistakes and learning from them is actually beneficial and could save companies billions.

The Museum of Failure opens on June 7th in Helsingborg, Sweden.