Monument to mistakes
Museum of Failure honors stinkers
Green ketchup? Fat-free Pringles? Colgate frozen lasagna? You don’t need to be an expert to know those products weren’t successful.
Which is why those creations, with dozens of others, are featured in the new Museum of Failure, a wacky parade of rejected products from years gone by set up in the Swedish town of Helsingborg.
It’s the brainchild of 43year-old curator and clinical psychologist Samuel West. The idea came to him while on vacation and he quickly purchased the Internet domain name. He later realized he’d accidentally misspelled “museum” — a sure sign the project would succeed.
“We know that 80 to 90 percent of innovation projects, they fail and you never read about them, you don’t see them, people don’t talk about them,” West says. “And if there’s anything we can do from these failures, it’s learn from them.” Many items in the museum show companies’ attempts to diversify their brand. There’s Coca-Cola’s BlaK coffee beverage and Pepsi’s Crystal clear soda. Motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson makes an appearance with its Hot Road men’s cologne, launched in the mid-’90s. “The fans hated it,” West said. Even one of the world’s best-knownn businessmen, President Trump, makes an apppearance. Trump: The Game from 1989 is a lot like Monopoly, but Trump-themed, of course. “It’s also horribly boring,” according to West. The museum is also home to some high-tech devices, including the Google Glass headset with aug- mented reality display, and the Segway mobility device. “The Segway was supposed to revolutionize the way we transport people,” West said. “[Now it’s] used by tourists before they go get drunk.” Experts say innovation is tough and failure is often part of the process. “You’re working on the edge of tomorrow,” says Nicolai de Gier, a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. “The other part of trying is failing, so it’s just a very natural thing and very important thing.” West says many brands featured in his museum want nothing to do with it. But other companies have booked large group visits, perhaps to learn from past mistakes. “It’s liberating for us, when wwe try out a new skill or learn something,” he said. “It’s OK to fail.”