Difference between revisions 2278249 and 2415159 on enwiki

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List of miscellaneous commercial failures
A '''flop'''  or '''product failure''' is a [[product (business)|product]] that doesn't reach expectations of success, failing to come even close. A major flop goes one step further and is recognized for its almost complete lack of success.

(contracted; show full)
* The British [[SA80]] rifle was notoriously unreliable.

===Scientific projects===

* [[Cold fusion]] - after much hype, claims of success proved false. (Research into cold fusion continues.)
* [[Project Mohole]] was a [[1950s]] proposal to drill through Earth's crust and sample the material below, but it was never implemented because in the mid-[[1960s]] the planners realized it was impossible.

===Civil engineering projects
===

* The [[Tacoma Narrows Bridge]] collapsed due to [[resonance]] in a gale force wind.


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==Political flops==
===USA Presidential campaigns===
*[[Lyndon LaRouche]] has run in every single election since his federal indictment.
*[[David Duke]], former Grand Dragon of the [[Ku Klux Klan]].
*[[Harold Stassen]], former [[United States Republican Party|Republican]] governor of [[Minnesota]], ran unsuccessfully for his party's nomination nine times, from [[1948]] to [[1992]].

===French elections===
*[[Lionel Jospin]]'s 2002 presidential campaign was such a flop he retired from politics.
*The unnecessary dissolution of a favourable parliament (''Assemblée nationale'') in 1997 by President [[Jacques Chirac]] should have presaged an easy win for his partisans. They lost, yielding power to the opposition.

===Canadian elections===
*[[Kim Campbell]] led the governing [[Progressive Conservative Party of Canada|Conservatives]] in the 1993 election campaign and succeeded in winning only two seats in the legislature.

===UK elections===
*Sir [[James Goldsmith]]'s anti-[[European Union|EU]] [[Referendum Party]] failed to win a single seat in the [[UK general election, 1997|1997 general election]], despite heavy publicity and a significant number of votes.
*The [[UK Labour Party|Labour Party]]'s performance at the [[1983 UK general election|1983 general election]], led by [[Michael Foot]].  The manifesto was described as 'the longest suicide note in political history'.

==See also==

* [[product management]]
* [[management]]
* [[new product development]]
* [[product (business)|product]]