The Great Fail

Episode 51: Why the World Unfriended MySpace

Before there was Facebook, there was MySpace, once the world’s most dominating social networking company. In the summer of 2005, one of the biggest deals in internet history made headlines when News Corp., famously known as Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, acquired MySpace for $580 million in cash. In the business realm, it seemed that with the backing of the media giant, MySpace would have the world at its fingertips. And to the outside, it appeared that Myspace was going to be unstoppable. Find out how MySpace got unfriended on Episode 51 of The Great Fail. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Episode 50: Terra: Crypto’s TERRA-ble Crash

We’re doing a special episode on cryptocurrency this week and covering what occurred in May of 2022 when the world watched as one of the biggest projects imploded. Once valued at $400 billion, the project was known as TerraUST, a stablecoin that was going to transform the crypto market and the way that traditional payments would be made in the future. Instead, investors watched as its market value dropped by almost 99% within 24 hours. What led to this death spiral and more importantly, what does the future hold for crypto investors? Our special guest Omid Malekan, Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School, will break down the story in Episode 50 of The Great Fail. Terra Sources How a Trash-Talking Crypto Founder Caused a $40 Billion Crash [https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/18/technology/terra-luna-cryptocurrency-do-kwon.html] Terra Was Too Big to Fail, and It Failed: Bloomberg Crypto [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-05-12/terra-ust-was-too-big-to-fail-and-it-failed-bloomberg-crypto] TerraUSD’s collapse will take down every other algorithmic stablecoin, crypto analysts say [https://fortune.com/2022/05/19/luna-terrausd-ust-algorithmic-stablecoins-doomed/#:~:text=People%20rushed%20to%20redeem%20their,value%20in%20about%2024%20hours.] TerraUSD ‘stablecoin’ delisted from crypto exchanges [https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/may/13/terrausd-stablecoin-crypto-exchanges] How $60 Billion in Terra Coins Went Up in Algorithmic Smoke [https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2022-crypto-luna-terra-stablecoin-explainer/#xj4y7vzkg] The Fall of Terra: A Timeline of the Meteoric Rise and Crash of UST and LUNA [https://www.coindesk.com/learn/the-fall-of-terra-a-timeline-of-the-meteoric-rise-and-crash-of-ust-and-luna/] The Terra (LUNA) Collapse: 4 Lessons To Be Learned (Opinion) [https://cryptopotato.com/4-valuable-lessons-from-terras-collapse-opinion/] The Real Reasons Behind the Crypto Crash, and What We Can Learn from Terra’s Fall [https://time.com/6177567/terra-ust-crash-crypto/] Luna Crypto Crash: What Happened To Terra Luna? [https://www.gfinityesports.com/cryptocurrency/luna-crypto-crash/] Who is Do Kwon, the ‘lunatic’ who created a $60 billion cryptocurrency that collapsed in days? [https://fortune.com/2022/05/18/who-is-do-kwon-luna-ust-crypto-founder-rise-and-fall/] Crypto investors contemplate SUICIDE and hide from friends seeking revenge for losing their life savings as currency crashes to zero [https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10823197/Terra-Luna-crypto-crash-investors-suicidal-friends-seek-retribution-millions-lost.html] Terra LUNA Investors Lose Everything In 98 Percent Plunge, Suicide Hotline Posted At Top Of Forum [https://moguldom.com/408010/terra-luna-investors-lose-everything-in-98-percent-plunge-suicide-hotline-posted-at-top-of-forum/] All Those Celebrities Pushing Crypto Are Not So Vocal Now [https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/17/business/media/crypto-gwyneth-paltrow-matt-damon-reese-witherspoon.html] Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Episode 49: Von Dutch, From Price Tags to Toe Tags

Back in the early 2000s, the Von Dutch ubiquitous trucker hats were seen everywhere- and their line of denim brought us the classic low-rise, sometimes frayed at the hem, sometimes with tons of bling, but never without the iconic “Von Dutch” stamped logo. That uniquely distinctive font bared the cool culture Americana aesthetic. Von Dutch’s popularity was so tremendous that in 2003, the Company was raking in $33 million in sales from their jackets, denim, t-shirts, and trucker- until the brand got hit with counterfeiting. But the story of Von Dutch isn’t just about rhinestones and rip-offs, it was a story about deception, betrayal, murder, and a scandal that would serve as the epitaph of its tombstone. Find out how it all went down in Episode 49 of The Great Fail. Join Retail Brew's community of retail professionals by subscribing here [https://www.retailbrew.com/subscribe?utm_campaign=rtb_072022&utm_medium=partnership&utm_source=greatfail]! Sources: Inside The Messy, Chaotic Downfall Of Von Dutch [https://www.bustle.com/entertainment/what-happened-to-von-dutch-founder-owner-controversy] A New Docuseries Explores the Rise and Fall of Von Dutch [https://www.vogue.com/article/von-dutch-new-hulu-docuseries] Drug fronts, murder, and Paris Hilton: the rise and fall of Von Dutch [https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/54875/1/drug-murder-paris-hilton-britney-spears-rise-fall-curse-of-von-dutch-hayu-y2k] The Untold Story of Von Dutch [https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/17/style/von-dutch-hulu-documentary.html] Wikipedia: Von Dutch [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Dutch] S.C. man shot dead in Venice Beach [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79973845/mark-rivas-venice-beach/] How Von Dutch’s Trucker Hat Empire Ended in Chaos and Death [https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-von-dutchs-trucker-hat-empire-ended-in-chaos-and-death] 1999 Week [https://www.avclub.com/star-wars-v-matrix-santana-v-smash-mouth-and-y2k-pa-1836970492] Before There Was Snapchat: A Look Back At The Biggest Stars Of 1999 [https://www.vh1.com/news/fefnwk/biggest-stars-of-1999] Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Bonus Episode: The Speed of Culture Podcast

This week we’re releasing a bonus episode from one of our sister podcasts on the Adweek Podcast Network called The Speed of Culture Podcast [http://adweek.com/speed]. In this episode, host Matt Britton talks to Ken Ohashi about bringing a brand’s DNA into focus. Ken is a marketing expert with years of experience in the retail industry with brands like Aéropostale, and the Authentic Brands Group. Having acquired the iconic suit brand Brooks Brothers prior to the pandemic, Ken found himself navigating a new, potential post-office wear world during the Covid 19 pandemic and what that means for a brand synonymous with formal wear. We’ll return in 2 weeks with another episode of The Great Fail. Thanks to our partners Adweek and Acast. www.TheGreatFail.com [www.TheGreatFail.com] Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Episode 48: Phar-Mor, From Savior to Misbehavior

Get ready to hear about the most scandalous retail pharmacy chain of all time that was Phar-Mor. We hear about companies and financial misconduct frequently–stories of cooked books and misappropriated funds are hardly rare, but often leave us questioning–how do companies manage to pull these off, and more importantly how do they get past trained professionals, auditors and investors? In this episode, our featured guest Professor Kelly Richmond Pope of DePaul University, a forensic accounting expert with a specialty in corporate crime, will explain how an accident exposed a $1 billion fraud and took down one of the nation’s largest retail chains. Listen now to Episode 48 on The Great Fail. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.