i read recently a brief description of the new products showcase and learning
center in ithaca, new york - a museum housing over 60,000 products which have
failed on the marketplace!  over 2,300 shampoos, 600 coffees, four shelves of
mustard and an equal number for barbecue sauces, 5,500 beverages and
short-lived celebrity products such as billary beer (this is bill & hillary
beer, not to be confused with another former u.s. president's distillery gift
to the nation, billy beer), bush cologne and muhammad ali potato chips.

a former colgate-palmolive marketing executive, robert m. mcmath is the
center's curator and a collector of product failures for more than forty
years.  according to james dao (the new york times) "the collection had been
much larger, but raccoons broke into it several years ago and destroyed
thousands of packages of candy, pet food and dried goods."  the four-legged
looters also got to a large portion of the curator's collection of laxatives
that didn't cut it in the marketplace.  dao added that unfortunately the
animals left behind "convincing evidence that the products' expiration dates
hadn't been reached."