MovieChat Forums > Elizabethtown (2005) Discussion > So a billion dollar loss on a pair of sh...

So a billion dollar loss on a pair of shoes, huh?


I guess Alec Baldwin the visionary never heard of product liability insurance. I guess Alec Baldwin the visionary never heard of product testing. I could probably go on all day.

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That argument would suggest that products never flop which patently isn't true.

New Coke anyone?

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I agree with the original poster. The shoes were a disaster because the company didn't prepare correctly.

And the New Coke fiasco isn't a good example. The problem with New Coke was that they discontinued Classic Coke. That was a monumentally stupid decision. Who would discontinue one of the top two best selling sodas in the world to bring out a new untested soda??? The New Coke thing wouldn't have been a huge fiasco or even that much of a money loss for Coke if they had kept Coke Classic and just introduced a new soda to their line. I am sure the company Drew worked for did not discontinue all their best selling sneakers when they introduced a new sneaker to their line-up.

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That's a very valid point about Coca-Cola's product line. I can't argue with that.

I'll suggest the Ford Edsel instead. Ford lost the equivalent of $3 billion dollars in todays money on that model whilst still having strong sales of other models in their car range.

I guess I was just trying to say that regardless of all the insurance policies that companies have at their disposal flop products do still get through, it DOES happen.

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It wouldn't be a big loss for a company that size but if you lose but someone will still get fired over it. Usually they blame the lowest person in the corporation while higher ups don't get the blame.




Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.

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But thats not the way things were done back then.

You didnt have 13 variations from the same company.

Coke , Diet Coke, that was it.

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They had two other variations at the time....Caffeine-Free Coke and Cherry Coke. I have actually read that the whole New Coke fiasco was a marketing ploy so that they could change the sugar in classic Coke to high-fructose corn syrup. They were worried that people would complain about the change so they briefly took it off the market (and introduced a New Coke at the same time). They always had plans to bring back classic Coke and people would be so happy it was back that they wouldn't complain about the slightly different taste.

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A designer also doesn't make the business decisions and wouldn't get the blame for a flop. The board would pitch a fit if the executives were pawning off their responsibilities like that.

A billion dollar loss wouldn't be that huge for a company as large as this one appears to be. Say they were the same size as Nike, a billion dollar loss would be 4% of their revenue for the year and they would still make a profit.

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The company wouldnt go under... But people would definitely get fired.

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Microsoft managed to survive Windows Vista so a company can cope with a bad product!

Its that man again!!

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Agreed, it was just a very unnecessary part of the script. The movie would have been much tighter and focused without it.

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