Big business makes big mistakes

And the bigger they are…

• (10) Diebold, who put a picture of the key for their electronic voting machines on their website – just enough detail for somebody to cut a real one.
• (15) Bindeez, an Australian toy made from beads. When sucked, the beads released the date-rape drug GHB.
• (16) Microsoft, whose PR agency compiled a 13-page dossier on a journalist – then emailed it to him by mistake.
• (38) The 409 people who clicked on a Google Adwords ad that said ‘Drive-By Download. Is your PC virus-free? Get it infected here.’
• (48) The European Union, whose campaign to promote European cinema, Let’s come together, raised (at least) an eyebrow.
• (50) The US Defense Department, and the case of the $969,000 postage stamp.
• (51) Apple, who slipped up on customer service – with a nine-year-old iPod fan.
• (67) McDonald’s, who took on the Oxford English Dictionary over the word ‘McJob’.
• (81) Data-centre operator 365 Main, who set the bar high – then fell at the first hurdle.
• (93) British Airways, who put the body of dead economy passenger in the seat next to a sleeping first-class one  – and told him to ‘get over it’ when he woke up and complained.
• (97) Blogger, whose own company blog was flagged as spam and promptly disabled.