Remember a couple of weeks ago when Guido Barilla, CEO of the Barilla pasta empire, said something really dumb?
Here’s a recap, ICYMI:
"I would never do
(a commercial) with a homosexual family, not for lack of respect but because we
don't agree with them,” Barilla
said in an interview with Italian radio station Radio 24. “Ours is a
classic family where the woman plays a fundamental role. … [If gays] like our pasta
and our advertising, they’ll eat our pasta; if they don’t like it, then they
will not eat it and they will eat another brand.”
He's not the only honcho with foot-in-mouth disease. Here are the dumbest things that 20 other CEOs have said.
Let’s hope pasta is not prologue. Stop
saying dumb things, CEOs.
HEY, FATTIES! AND UGLIES!
“[In England], the food is terrible and
the women are not very attractive. Here in Chicago, the food is good, and you
are known for good-looking women.”
—Former Burger King CEO Bernardo Hees in a 2011
talk at the University of Chicago
HEY, DUMMIES!
“Please respond, Pasquale, but we owe him
nothing as far as I’m concerned. Let him tell the world how bad we are. He’s
never flown us before anyway and will be back when we save him a penny.”
—Spirit Airlines CEO Ben Baldanza in indignant
response to a complaint from a first-time customer (which he accidentally
also emailed to the customer himself)
“We think
Mrs. McLeod should pay … for being so stupid.”
—Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary in
response to customer who complained about being charged $375 dollars to
print out boarding passes
—Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in IM
to a friend about early users of his social media site
OK COMPUTER
·
“Customers do not want online
games."
·
—Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata
·
"There is
no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home."
—DEC CEO Ken Olsen
WORKER AND PARASITE
“When you leave the office, you are
done and you have a weekend all to yourself. I, unfortunately, do not have that
freedom.”
—Westgate Resorts CEO David Siegel
THE IDIOT DEFENSE
“We didn’t know who to hire. I wouldn’t
be able to recognize a good technology person — anyone with a good bullshit
story would have gotten past me.”
—Former Universal Music Group CEO Doug Morris regarding the music
industry’s myopia about the threat of MP3s (and his own total cluelessness
about technology)
“I know what I don’t know, and to this
day I don’t know technology, and I don’t know accounting and finance.”
—Former WorldCom CEO Bernie
Ebbers
FUNNY MONEY
“This is not the Soviet
Union. This is the United States of America. That’s what I remember. Guess what
... it’s a free. Fucking. Country.”
—Chase CEO Jamie
Dimon regarding people blaming big banks for the financial crisis
“I, like you, get a little
incensed when you think about how much all of you do, whether it’s volunteer
hours, charitable giving we do, serving clients and customers well. [Critics]
ought to think a little about that before [they] start yelling at us.”
—Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan at a 2011
employee meeting discussing all the “haters”
“[The uproar over bonuses] was intended
to stir public anger, to get everybody out there with their pitchforks and
their hangman nooses and all that — sort of like what we did in the Deep South
[decades ago]. And I think it was just as bad and just as wrong.”
—AIG CEO Robert Benmosche comparing public
outrage over AIG awarding bonuses to its executives to lynchings in the
South
OTHER THINGS SAID OUT LOUD
“Today, with cameras as pervasive as
they are, there’s no such thing really as professional photographers.”
—Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer at 2013
press conference
“I
always say counterfeits, we’re happier to have them than not have them. Don’t
you think it’s sad for a brand that no one wants to copy them? … [Something]
else about counterfeits is that they provide a source of labor and income for
lots of other people. So maybe they’re not totally bad.”
—Prada CEO Patrizio Bertelli on
Bloomberg Television
“Nevertheless,
whilst [smoking] is addictive, it is not that hard to quit.”
—Former Philip Morris CEO Louis C. Camilleri’s statement while addressing a 2011 shareholder’s
meeting
—American Apparel CEO Dov Charney in response
to outcry about American Apparel capitalizing on Hurricane Sandy by holding
sales for “bored” customers in states affected by the natural disaster
“The one opinion, which I think is
extreme, is represented by the NGOs, who bang on about declaring water a public
right. That means as a human being you should have a right to water. That’s an
extreme solution. [The] other view says water is a foodstuff like any other,
and like any other foodstuff, it should have a market [value]. Personally, I
think it’s better to give foodstuff a market value.”**
—Nestlé CEO Peter
Brabeck
** Note: Nestlé has gone to great lengths to clear
up the context of this statement. Do with it what you will.
ALMOST THE WINNER
“We’re sorry for the massive disruption
it’s caused their lives. There’s no one who wants this over more than I do. I
would like my life back.”
—Former
BP CEO Tony Hayward when asked what he
had to say to Louisiana residents affected by the largest
commercial marine oil spill in U.S. history
“I think the environmental impact of
this disaster is likely to have been very, very modest.”
—Hayward
during a Sky
News interview about the disaster
“Yeah, of course I am.”
—Hayward
to
Forbes magazine when asked if he’s
sleeping well at night
WINNER!
“Groups
with guitars are on the way out.”
—Dick Rowe, Decca Records executive, after
hearing the Beatles audition in 1962
Credits: Samesame.com.au; clutchmagonline.com; poetry.rapgenius.com; Yahoo Finance/Magnolia Pictures; Perez Hilton
I see Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, the proud spokesperson for the Foot-in-Mouth Disease Foundation, is missing from your list. But I'm sure it's only because, as a very busy woman, you don't have time to catalog his lengthy and growing list of shenanigans and oh-no-this-MFer-didn'ts.
ReplyDeleteI simply ran out of time to get the post up today. Mackey was on the short list (and maybe should've been at the top of the list), but there was so. much. to. research, because he's said so many ridiculous things.
ReplyDelete