Difference between revisions 3106278 and 3106292 on enwiki

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.

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=== Flops in film  ===
A movie is most likely a flop if it doesn't perform as expected. A major movie flop might barely (or not even) make back the money it took to finance it. In extreme cases it might put the studio out of business.

A separate discussion of [[list of movies that have been considered the worst ever|movie flops]] and [[box office bomb]]s provides examples and rationales.
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==Commercial Flops==
===Commercial Failures in Aviation===

These are aircraft which were technically sound, but failed in the marketplace.  For aircraft which failed to work at all see '[[#Flops in science and engineering]]'.

* The [[Convair]] [[Convair 880|CV-880]] and [[Convair 990|CV-990]] - these aircraft were commercial disasters as they only offered five-abreast seating, and were easily outcompeted on price by the [[Boeing 720]] which was based on an existing aircraft type.
* [[Supersonic transport]]s: [[Boeing 2707]], [[Tupolev Tu-144]], arguably [[Concorde]]
* The [[Dassault Aviation]] [[Dassault Mercure|Mercure]] - this aircraft had extremely limited range and as a result only ten were built for the [[France|French]] domestic airline [[Air Inter]]
* The [[Northrop]] [[F-20 Tigershark]] - this [[fighter aircraft]] was designed as a private venture for export, but failed utterly as foreign air forces wanted the more prestigious [[F-16 Fighting Falcon]] used by the [[USAF]], despite the F-20 having superior performance and lower cost.⏎
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===Automotive Flops===

*[[Ford Motor Company]]'s [[Edsel]]
*[[DeLorean]] automobile
*[[Electric vehicle|Electric cars]] - [[Ford Motor Company]] and [[General Motors]], who only had lukewarm interest in the technology, have dropped production of their [[electric vehicle|electric car]] models.
*[[Sinclair C5]] - a battery powered car designed by Sir [[Clive Sinclair]]
* The [[Bricklin SV-1]]
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* The [[INMOS Transputer]], a brave attempt at a different way of computing - but now largely forgotten.
*WebTV (now [[MSN TV]]). Internet delivery via television set and set-top box. Cited by Jim Louderback as one of the "eight biggest tech flops ever".
* The [[Sinclair QL]] an unsuccessful attempt by [[Sinclair Research]] to make a [[16 bit]] computer in the mid [[1980s]]
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===Video Game Flops===

*[[Sega]] has had numerous flops in [[North America]], for example the [[Sega Saturn]], the [[Sega Nomad]], the [[Sega Master System]] II and III, and the [[Sega 32X]]. (The Master System was successful in [[Europe]] and [[Brazil]], and the Sega Saturn was successful in [[Japan]].) The [[Sega Megadrive]] was not well received in [[Japan]].
*[[Nintendo]], not to be left behind, has produced the [[Nintendo Virtual Boy]] and [[video game light gun|light gun]] games.
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* The [[Tanganyika groundnut scheme]], a plan by [[Clement Attlee]]'s [[British government]], financed by British tax-payers, to cultivate tracts of what is now [[Tanzania]] with [[peanuts]].
* [[Crystal Pepsi]] was Pepsi's answer to New Coke
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==Flops in science and engineering==

A scientific flop may be something that took years of man-hours and a lot of money to complete (or perhaps never completed) and ended in failure.

===Technical failures in aerospace===

* The [[Brewster Buffalo]] - this [[World War II]] [[fighter aircraft]] turned out to be no match for [[Axis Powers|Axis]] fighters
(contracted; show full)* The [[Tacoma Narrows Bridge]] collapsed due to [[resonance]] in a gale force wind.

==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]].

*[[John Connolly]], ran for the [[United States Republican Party|Republican]] nomination in [[1980]]. Spent millions and ended up with a single delegate to the convention.
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*[[Howard Dean]], gaining lots of support and cover-page articles in major news magazines prior to the primary elections, but winning only one state--his home state of Vermont--in the election, and even Vermont he only won after he dropped out of the face
*[[Walter Mondale]] got 13 [[U.S. electoral college|electoral votes]] to 525 for [[Ronald Reagan]], and lost by 18 points in the popular vote.⏎
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===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'.
*The [[UK Conservative Party|Conservative Party]]'s performance at the [[1997 UK general election|1997 general election]], and also at  [[2001 UK general election|2001 general election]].  In both [[General Election]]s the Conservatives were routed disasterously.  Their showing was both times far worse than that of Michael Foot.
==See also==

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