Top 20 Product Packaging Fails

“Endgame,” step aside. This is the true Disney crossover of our dreams. See, if this toy box is any indication, Earth’s Mightiest may be fielding a new recruit soon. His name? Buzz Lightyear. In a supposed manufacturing mixup, the “Toy Story” character ended up in a plastic box for an “Avengers New Arrival” figure. This isn’t the only one, either. There’s at least a handful of mistakenly packaged Buzz figures floating out there. To be fair, the astronaut’s purple and green suit could easily be mistaken for a Marvel hero. But, that doesn’t change the fact that, at this point, the blunder has gone to infinity and beyond.

When it comes to food, more is always better. That’s what Lay’s thought, at least, and so they produced a whole line of sour cream and onion chips inside bigger bags. More chips for us, and more money for them. Sounds like a win-win. The issue is that, compared to a normal bag of chips, the new size was certainly not new and improved. In fact, some angry buyers pointed out that the so-called upgraded size was actually smaller than the original. Whether this was an innocent misprint or a marketing gaffe, it’s not a good look for Lay’s either way.

This one takes the idea of potty humor to a whole new level. No matter if it’s in another language, there’s simply no getting around what the word “urinal” means to English speakers. Particularly when you’re trying to sell urinary care products. The unfortunate name could almost have been forgiven if they’d stuck to tablets and capsules. But the Urinal brand’s launch of a hot drink was simply too much to ignore. After all, bathrooms are just about the last thing we want to be thinking about when enjoying a beverage. Given the connotation, we can’t imagine this product was flying off the shelves.

Look, mistakes happen. We get it. But, screw-ups like this really make you wonder what exactly happened behind the scenes. The package clearly says it's an 8-pack of stainless steel forks. There’s zero room to interpret that the wrong way. So, how did it end up full of spoons, instead? Your guess is as good as ours. What’s even more baffling is how it made it all the way to store shelves. That means it was assembled, shipped, inventoried, and stocked, all without anyone noticing the name was wrong. Hey, at least there’s a knife for sale, too - and that one’s properly packaged and everything.

If you’re in the mood for something sweet, you’re better off looking elsewhere. Sorry to disappoint, but despite the very clear label, this is, in fact, not a watermelon. No, as anyone with eyes can tell, this is corn. You know, the yellow stuff that comes on cobs? It’s one thing to mistake foods that look similar, but there’s nothing remotely corn-like about watermelon. Instead of yellow and cylindrical, the seeded fruit is green, pink, and round. And you definitely don’t eat it off cobs. This labeling error is so obviously wrong, you can’t help but laugh at it.

Is anyone else getting mixed signals here? The box objectively states that its contents are 100% beef. And yet, on the very same logo, it also claims that it’s been made with all-white chicken. We’re not culinary experts or anything, but that feels like an oxymoron. Unless there’s some very creative math going on, there’s no way for something to be completely beef and chicken at the same time. The container looks a lot like the one for White Castle, considered the first fast-food hamburger chain. But, if they’ve been around that long, you’d think they’d have their meats straight.

Jell-O may not specialize in accounting, but it doesn’t take a mathematician to see what’s wrong with this picture. To set the stage, some of their smile-themed snack packs featured the phrase “Frown is a four letter word.” Don’t ask us what it means, we’re too busy recounting those letters. It says that frown, F-R-O-W-N, is a four letter word. The only thing more embarrassing than failing a basic math test is printing the results on Jell-O containers around the world. Given how much money the company probably spent on this, something tells us these smile-packs made Jell-O do anything but.

From afar, this bottle looks normal enough. It’s olive oil, extra virgin; plain and simple. But, if you pick it up, you may notice some faint words above the title. In just the right light, you can read that this is actually sunflower and olive oil mixed together. Some further investigation on the ingredients reveals that this so-called extra-virgin bottle is actually 90% refined sunflower oil. If “extra virgin” only means ten percent, then it’s time to switch brands. Not only is this the textbook definition of false advertising, but they clearly tried to hide it with their font choice, too.

Juice pouches are one of the simpler pleasures in life. But as this mishap shows, even they can go very wrong. At first, Rubicon thought that putting a plastic lid on their juices was a good idea. And it would’ve been, if their aim was a little bit better. Unfortunately, a few of their caps ended up on the opposite corner of the juice opening. It looks silly, and even worse, it completely defeats the purpose of having a lid in the first place. The silver lining is that you can definitely still get the juice box open. Resealing it, on the other hand? That’s a different story.

It’s hard to mess up something as straightforward as bread. Incredibly, though, this one came with an asterisk attached. Literally. It says that, apparently, this 12-pack of rolls only adds up to a dozen when cut into fours. Basically, these aren’t rolls at all. They’re three loaves of bread trying to pass off as something they aren't. It’s nothing short of absurd to sell a twelve-pack of rolls that you have to slice yourself. Especially since the packaging has the gall to claim it’s “ready to eat.” By that logic, anything can be a twelve pack with a knife and enough motivation.

Kleenex did Peter Parker so dirty. They went to the trouble of licensing his alter ego for their tissue boxes, only to make it seem as though Kleenexes come out of his bottom. Yeah, the word “regrettable” doesn’t even begin to cover it. If you really think about it, there’s some warped justification in the fact that Spider-Man does shoot webs. But that’s from his wrists. Whether he can expel them from his other orifices is something we never wanted to think about. Certainly not when we’re blowing our nose. In this case, great power did not come with great responsibility.

You’re really going to want to read the fine print on this jelly. See, it doesn’t taste like Grandma’s. It specifically tastes like Grandma, full stop. That’s an appetite-ruining hiccup no matter what food it is. But it’s particularly egregious as the logo for homemade black raspberry jam. Let’s just say that the dark contents look like they might live up to their slogan, and not in a good way. As opposed to buying this cannibal jelly, you could always just ask your Grandma for some normal spread. It’s probably cheaper, and won’t cost anyone their life.

Why choose between Christmas and Easter when you can have them both - at the same time? That’s the premise behind this chocolate figure, which comes wrapped in your classic Santa Clause foil. Then, if you don’t get around to eating it for a few months, it also serves as a great Easter gift. That’s because, beneath the merry and bright exterior, the chocolate mold is actually of an Easter bunny. Despite popular internet theories, this wasn’t a mistake. Apparently, an ad agency manufactured these holiday mash-ups as a way to raise awareness for Alzheimer's. Credit where it’s due; using chocolate to talk about mental health is definitely creative. Not to mention, delicious.

Either someone picked the wrong stock photo for this frame, or this store has a massive cat person filling the shelves. There’s just no conceivable way that anyone thought this display was for a feline. It’s completely surrounded by dog paw prints, and, oh, yeah, has the words “my dog” plastered on it, too. Maybe the mistaken picture is part of the reason this frame is fifty percent off. Admittedly, as far as poor stock photos go, you could do a whole lot worse than this. At least this cat picture is good for a few laughs. That’s more than most photo errors can say.

The pitch for this 80s actioner is pretty straightforward. Nick Nolte is a cop. Eddie Murphy is a con. They work together, and hijinks ensue. And yet, even with that simple tagline, “48 Hrs.” somehow fumbled its own poster by swapping the names of its stars. Murphy’s name is below Nolte’s head, and vice versa. Even worse, this isn’t a one-off misprint, either. For some asinine reason, the design flub was used on the official cover of the blu-ray disc. Considering what the final product looks like, we’re beginning to wonder if “48 Hrs.” refers to how long they spent on this poor excuse for a poster.

There’s three key ingredients to a fortune cookie. The plastic bag, the cookie, and the piece of paper with a prophecy on it. Technically, this one has all three. But somewhere along the way, the fortune slipped out of the cookie. Yeah, it’s still in the bag, but it’s not quite the same when you don’t have to split open a cookie for it. The real kicker is that the fortune says “The job is well done.” It even throws in a pair of smiley faces, just for good measure. We don’t want to be downers here, but we wouldn’t exactly call this placement “well done.”

When you want something to pop on store shelves, placement is everything. Like, for example, where you put the balls in a Table Tennis training set. Butterfly’s product would be a great example of what not to do. They opted for both a real-life action shot and a small cutout of the balls themselves - and the results give the player a very pronounced chest. It wouldn’t be so bad if the hole wasn’t smack dab in the middle of his jersey. Or, if the product wasn’t for off-yellow balls. But, together, they make for an image that has you thinking about anything besides table tennis.

There’s funny human error, and then there’s just plain incompetence. This pair of scissors is most certainly the latter. In order to open these General Purpose shears, you first have to cut a plastic tab in the packaging. Let that sink in for a second. You need a sharp pair of scissors to open a package… of scissors. If you already have a working set of cutters, why would you need another one? And what are you supposed to do if this is the first pair you’re buying? This blunder is the kind of glaring design flaw that should have been brought up way before it was made. Let alone put up for sale.

When DC announced a collaboration with Crazy Foam, Princess Diana of Themyscira naturally made the cut. But that begged a very important question: Where does her foam come from? Well, as fans soon learned, it comes out of her mouth. Seriously. Crazy Foam took one of the most iconic and recognizable female superheroes in history, and made her spit out white stuff. Granted, there isn’t exactly a great spot for the nozzle at all, and it’s in the same place for all the Crazy Foam superheroes. But of all the options, the mouth is by far the worst one and seems especially inappropriate for the Amazon Princess. The only thing left to say is that this foam can is “crazy,” indeed.

Picture this: you’re at the grocery store, scanning the aisles, and remember you need buttermilk. You turn to look for the classic Tesco brand, and see it. An orange-ish visualization of buttermilk that falls right in the unmistakable shape of male genitalia. That was the jaw-dropping reality for some folks at an Irish Tesco branch. Quite frankly, we don’t even know where to begin on something like this. Someone either had too much fun making this or got a very angry phone call from their boss. Maybe both. Although from a marketing standpoint, it’s certainly eye-catching. For better or for worse.