Top 10 Products So Bad It Forced Recalls
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]