These infamous recalls cost companies millions. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down the products that failed so hard they required recalls.
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00:00 If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.
00:04 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down the products that failed so hard they required recalls.
00:10 A fire risk from Samsung's newest smartphone, which is already under recall.
00:14 Number 10, Peanuts from Peanut Corporation of America.
00:19 Founded in 1977, the Peanut Corporation of America processed about 2.5% of American peanuts.
00:25 That was until 2009, when the CDC and FDA linked an enormous outbreak of Salmonella to the company.
00:31 Government called was a grand criminal conspiracy, the end result of which was sickening 20,000 people.
00:40 Nine people died in the outbreak, and hundreds, likely even thousands, had become sick.
00:44 The official number was 714, but many cases of Salmonella go unreported.
00:49 With the outbreak affecting the entire country, Peanut Corp issued the largest food recall in American history.
00:54 Food and Drug Administration is advising Americans not to eat any products made with peanut butter or peanut paste until further notice.
01:01 It was also a PR disaster, driving down peanut butter sales by 25% and losing the industry $1 billion.
01:08 President and CEO, Stuart Parnell, was sentenced to 28 years in prison for shipping products he knew to be contaminated,
01:14 and the company quickly went bankrupt.
01:15 This former CEO is already 61 years old, so they're calling this a virtual life sentence.
01:22 Number 9 – Infantino Baby Slings
01:25 More than 1 million baby slings made by Infantino are being recalled
01:29 because the products have been linked to three infant deaths.
01:33 These products are a godsend for new parents,
01:35 allowing their baby to rest against their chest and freeing their arms for other activities.
01:39 However, as Infantino's sling rider and Wendy Bellissimo models proved, they could also be very dangerous.
01:45 With the fabric at the top, it can sometimes obscure your view of the baby,
01:50 or that the fabric could actually just sort of cover the baby's face.
01:53 Beginning in 2010, Infantino recalled over 1 million baby slings across the United States
01:58 as they were posing a risk to babies.
02:00 Due to the way the sling was designed, the fabric had the potential to push against the child's face
02:04 and cover their mouth and nose, thereby making it difficult to breathe.
02:07 The Consumer Product Safety Commission tracked three baby deaths to the Infantino sling rider in one year.
02:14 Number 8 – Ace Bayou Beam Bag Chairs
02:17 The chairs are from Ace Bayou Corp.
02:19 The Consumer Product Safety Commission says the zippers on the chairs don't lock, so kids can climb inside.
02:25 Introduced in 1968, beam bag chairs are a favorite of children and adults alike.
02:30 But in 2015, Ace Bayou began recalling over 2 million beam bag chairs after a flaw was found in their zippers.
02:36 The recalled beam bag chairs have two zippers that can be unzipped and opened.
02:41 They were sold nationwide at various retailers, including Walmart.
02:45 Safety standards required that non-refillable beam bag chairs be completely inaccessible.
02:49 However, a design flaw in these Ace Bayou chairs allowed children to open the zipper and crawl inside,
02:54 where they could potentially suffocate in the dangerous beads.
02:57 In response to the recall, Ace Bayou sent out free repair kits that permanently disabled the zippers' operation.
03:02 He had had this beam bag chair for half of his life.
03:06 He played video games in it. He read books in it.
03:10 It never seemed like it could be dangerous to us.
03:13 #7 Ford Pinto
03:15 Nothing screams '70s quite like the Ford Pinto.
03:33 Manufactured between 1971 and 1980, the Pinto was a popular car, but it was also...
03:38 how do we say this...
03:39 a horribly designed potential death trap.
03:42 Owing to the poor placement of the fuel tank,
03:43 it would sometimes rupture in otherwise unremarkable rear-end collisions and burst into flames.
03:48 An investigation conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
03:52 attributed 27 deaths to these car fires.
03:55 The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside.
03:58 Now, should we initiate a recall?
04:00 To end public concern amidst the resulting media circus,
04:03 Ford voluntarily recalled 1.5 million vehicles,
04:06 which at the time was the largest automotive recall in American history.
04:09 The Pinto was discontinued not long after.
04:12 I've always loved you.
04:13 #6 Graco Harmony High Chairs
04:20 More than a million Graco high chairs are being recalled
04:23 because they could break, causing children to fall.
04:25 Graco Harmony high chairs were manufactured between 2003 and 2009
04:29 and contained several disastrous flaws,
04:31 which is never something you want to hear about a baby product.
04:34 One flaw was with the plastic brackets on the chair's rear legs,
04:37 which had a penchant for cracking.
04:38 Back legs on these Graco high chairs can swivel out of position,
04:43 making the entire product unstable.
04:45 Another problem was with the screws holding the front legs to the chair,
04:48 which sometimes came loose or completely unscrewed.
04:51 Both issues could cause the chair to fall and result in 24 reported injuries,
04:55 including a broken arm.
04:56 While the chairs had already been discontinued,
04:58 a major recall was issued in March 2010,
05:00 affecting roughly 1.2 million products.
05:03 Graco says five children sitting in the chairs have tipped over
05:06 and suffered minor bumps and bruises.
05:08 Number five, Vioxx.
05:10 Vioxx is an anti-inflammatory drug that was introduced in 1999.
05:14 With medications, it's unfortunately not rare for recalls to be issued.
05:18 In 2005, Pfizer was forced to recall Bextra,
05:21 their brand name for Vodicoxib,
05:23 over potential heart risks and skin reactions.
05:26 The recall cost the company over $3 billion,
05:28 but that's nothing compared to Merck's Vioxx recall.
05:31 It was pulled last week after Merck said a study
05:34 found increased risk of heart attack and stroke with the drug.
05:38 Vioxx was an enormously popular anti-inflammatory
05:41 used to treat arthritic pain,
05:42 but Merck was accused of withholding its potential harmful effects on heart health.
05:46 Between recalls and legal settlements for many thousands of claimed cardiac events,
05:50 the drug ended up costing Merck billions.
05:52 Vioxx was permanently taken off the market in 2004.
05:55 Last week, the Journal said Merck didn't provide all of the clinical data.
05:59 That's correct. They left three heart attacks out.
06:02 Number four, Firestone tires.
06:04 Throughout the 1990s, Ford Explorers were crashing at an alarming rate.
06:08 The Explorer was equipped with Firestone tires, a lot of them defective,
06:13 and a recall of 6.5 million of those tires was announced.
06:16 Most of these accidents occurred in the American South
06:19 and were related to a high failure rate of their Firestone tires,
06:22 resulting in the deaths of 238 people.
06:25 Hundreds more were injured.
06:26 Ford Explorer, we said, "Oh my God,
06:28 you could not imagine how many accidents had happened with these cars."
06:33 Why couldn't we hear about that before?
06:35 Blame was thrown around with Ford blaming Firestone and Firestone blaming Ford.
06:39 Regardless, the damage was mutually disastrous.
06:42 Millions of tires were recalled,
06:44 and the PR disaster cost both companies billions of dollars.
06:47 Even worse, the scandal ended the business relationship between Firestone and Ford,
06:51 which had been in place since 1906,
06:53 when Harvey Firestone began supplying Henry Ford with tires.
06:56 And there were criticisms that the settlement wasn't large enough.
06:59 Attorneys went after Ford for billions of dollars,
07:01 and they settled for $500 million in the form of vouchers.
07:04 Number 3.
07:05 Samsung Galaxy Note 7
07:07 Samsung and the Consumer Product Safety Commission
07:09 telling customers to power them down and return them.
07:12 The problem?
07:13 The new replacement Note 7s are also catching fire.
07:16 When it comes to infamous smartphone launches,
07:18 nothing beats the absolute PR nightmare that was the Galaxy Note 7.
07:22 Released in August 2016,
07:24 it didn't take long for reports of exploding phones to start surfacing.
07:27 Certain units were overheating and combusting owing to a faulty battery,
07:31 and a major recall was announced on September 15th.
07:34 However, even the fixed phones had problems,
07:36 and Samsung's media nightmare continued.
07:38 In one instance, an entire flight had to be evacuated when a customer's phone began popping.
07:43 This was the last straw.
07:55 The Consumer Product Safety Commission not only recalled every Galaxy Note 7 on the market,
08:00 they banned the sale of all future units.
08:02 The phone was officially discontinued less than two months after it debuted.
08:05 Introduced back in 1963,
08:14 the Easy-Bake Oven is certainly an iconic toy,
08:16 but it's not without its controversies.
08:25 For example, Hasbro released a new model of the Easy-Bake Oven in 2006,
08:28 but it was quickly recalled over serious safety issues.
08:31 There were eventually reports of hundreds of children getting their small hands or fingers
08:35 caught inside the oven's front-loading door.
08:37 As the Easy-Bake Oven uses a real heating element,
08:40 this resulted in a number of serious burns.
08:42 Hasbro was forced to recall roughly 1 million units,
08:48 and they provided buyers with a voucher that could be used to buy another Hasbro product.
08:52 "Cause we're really cooking with Easy-Bake!"
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09:09 Car recalls, like medication ones, are unfortunately also not uncommon.
09:18 "Okay, now I'm gonna hit the brake while the throttle's forward, watch."
09:20 Toyota is one of the most reliable automakers on the market,
09:25 but even the giants stumble from time to time.
09:27 Toyota hit a massive speed bump between late 2009 and early 2011,
09:31 when they were forced to recall millions of vehicles.
09:33 The recalls began after reports that some Toyota cars were experiencing unintended acceleration.
09:38 "Shooting out of control, with at least 16 deaths."
09:41 The reasons for this varied.
09:43 Some foot pedals became stuck after getting wedged under the floor mat,
09:46 and some simply became stuck owing to a mechanical issue.
09:49 A third problem also arose when the 2010 Prius reported braking problems.
09:53 Toyota's shares initially fell by 15%,
09:56 and the company is estimated to have lost well over $2 billion in revenue.
10:00 "The whole episode's jolted Toyota's corporate culture,
10:03 which prided itself on building top-quality vehicles."
10:07 Did you have any experience with these products? Let us know in the comments below.
10:11 "Only 10% of recalled products are ever returned, replaced, or repaired,
10:15 often becoming hand-me-downs."
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10:25 [Music]