Did Someone Forget to Google It?

From time to time a product comes out that is so poorly thought out that one’s brain grinds to a halt and refuses to work. When your brain finally reboots itself you always utter the same expression, “What were they thinking!”

If you need an example of what I am talking about, consider this. In support of the Harry Potter movie where they fly around on broomsticks a “Magical Broomstick” was developed. It was a plastic broomstick that required batteries. What did the batteries do? Did the broomstick have lights that flashed? Maybe it made some fun noises that kids love. WRONG! The batteries made the broomstick vibrate. I’m not kidding. Some mental giant thought that would be a good idea. What is even more shocking is that the product made it onto store shelves before it was pulled. Thankfully some parent somewhere must have reminded the toy makers that making something vibrate that a kid is going to stick between his legs is a shockingly bad idea.

In another case that will fry your head, a software giant in the US top 500 companies thought they would take all of the credit union software vendors they owned and group them under one name. They called it CU7. The idea was there were seven different vendors that served credit unions. Apparently the marketing department forgot to Google CU7 before pulling the trigger and blowing a massive amount of money in marketing and logistics. What was the problem? When you Googled CU7 you got a hit for the credit union thing but you also got a hit for the IUD called CU7 and the combat / hunting knife called CU7. Brilliant!

What does Disney have to do with this post? The answer is simple – Deebees. Right off the bat I had a “what were they thinking” moment. I’ll let you Google it to find out what it is. Many of you already see the problem. For those of you who don’t let me fill you in. If you heard Deebees would you have thought it was spelled like that? I didn’t. I thought it was DBs at first. In a world where millions if not billions of texts are sent everyday DBs has a very specific meaning. It’s a crude insult related to a certain feminine hygiene product. To call someone a DB is vulgar and insulting. So you can understand why my jaw dropped when I heard Disney was releasing a bunch of Deebees.

I’m amazed that in this day and age that when an idea is created that a tool like the internet isn’t utilized. Even if you skip the internet, ask your kids and your friends. Someone should have raised their hand and said “we really shouldn’t call them that.” Then again if Disney always did that I wouldn’t have much to write about.