10 Naming Contests That Failed Hilariously

9. Greenpeace Whale Naming Contest

Out of 11,000 submissions and over 150,000 votes, Mr. Splashy Pants was the winning name chosen for a humpback whale being tracked by Greenpeace on its migration to the Southern Ocean.

Though the name was probably intended as a joke, once word spread about the contest, the name quickly became the favorite, especially among many social news networking sites like Reddit where support for the name quickly grew and spread like wildfire. In the end, Mr. Splashy Pants received 78 percent of all the votes with the next closest name — Humphrey — receiving less than three percent.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-35860830 Via BBC

8. Slovakian Bridge Naming Contest

Officials in Slovakia rejected the overwhelming results of a popular internet campaign to name a new pedestrian and cycling bridge after action film star Chuck Norris. In an online poll, nearly 13,000 people voted in favor of naming the bridge after the bearded martial arts actor but the Bratislava regional assembly decided to disregard those results and go with a name that only received 457 votes — the much lamer sounding “Freedom Cycling-Bridge”

But perhaps not naming the bridge after Chuck Norris was for the best. If what we’ve heard is true, no one ever crosses Chuck Norris and lives.

https://www.visitbratislava.com/events/bike-tour-cesta-priatelstva-through-three-states/

7. Vegemite Snack Naming Contest

Unless you happen to be from Australia, chances are you don’t want anything to do with this salty sandwich spread but, in the Land Down Under, they just can’t seem to get enough of the stuff. So, when Kraft had a contest to name its new vegemite-based product, they received nearly 50,000 entries to choose from. Unfortunately, since there was no voting involved in this contest, the general public wasn’t too pleased with the name that ended up being chosen. “Vegemite iSnack 2.0” was the winning entry submitted by IT designer Dean Robbins. Apparently Kraft was eager to change the products image and wanted to market it as an innovative new snack-on-the-go. When they announced the winning name in front of a packed stadium during a championship soccer match, the public backlash was so fierce that they decided to have a re-renaming contest. This time around they let people choose from a list of six entries submitted by the company in an online and telephone survey. The new winning name: Cheesybite.

http://idsgn.org/posts/crowdsourced-branding-a-disaster-for-kraft/ Via idsgn.org

6. Internet Baby Naming Contest

A Canadian couple got exactly what they bargained for in 2014 when they decided to crowdsource their daughter’s name on the internet. Alysha and Stephen McLaughlin of Kelowna, British Colombia were probably expecting people to come up with a lot of original and unconventional baby names, and, in that sense, their assumptions were certainly proven correct. After 150,000 votes were tallied, the clear-cut winner was “Cthulhu All-Spark” — an apparent tribute to both the mythical creature and ancient Cybertronian artifact capable of giving life to inanimate machinery. But apparently the McLaughlin’s just weren’t the huge H.P. Lovecraft and Transformers fans that the internet presumed them to be. Consequently, the couple decided to go with the distant second place name Amelia Savannah Joy.

http://www.businessinsider.com/internet-names-couples-baby-cthulhu-all-spark-2014-4 Via BusinessInsider.com

5. The Norwegian Airlines Favorite Folk Hero Contest

In 2012, Norwegian Air announced that they would honor a deceased Norwegian hero by putting their face on the tail fin of their jets. After it was stated that the selection would be determined by a poll, the country’s zealous metal community got together and stockpiled enough votes to propel Euronymous, the deceased guitarist of the black metal band Mayhem, to the top of the list. But despite clearly winning the popular vote, Euronymous — whose real name is Oystein Aarseth — was ultimately removed from the running.

According to The Gauntlet, Aarseth was not included on the short-list of candidates that were presented as the finalists because his family asked that his name and likeness not be used in the campaign. The airline likely took great comfort in knowing that their jets wouldn’t be carrying the face of the notorious guitarist, whose outspoken stance against compassion, peace, happiness and fun would likely have marred their image. Because nothing says “fly the friendly skies” like burning churches and making necklaces out of your dead bandmate’s skull fragments.

http://www.vboogieman.com/?tag=euronymous Via vboogieman.com

4. The BC Ferries Naming Contest

Much like the naming contest involving the British polar research ship, BC Ferries launched a contest asking the public to submit what they think would be good names for three of their newest vessels. And just like all the other well-intentioned campaigns on this list, the marketing effort was almost immediately hijacked and mocked with hilarious results on social media.

Residents of British Colombia are painfully aware that the company continues to struggle with maintaining service and routes, while adding pricey fare increases, and this knowledge is scathingly reflected in many of the suggestions posted to the BC Ferries Facebook page. Some of the more sarcastically critical names include, Spirit of the WalletSucker, S.S. ShouldveBeenABridge, Queen of the Overpriced, MV Corporate Pork, Queen of No Other Choice, Queen of the Cash Cow, The Christy Clark Ark, and Incompetence Afloat.

The first of the new ships is scheduled to be rolled out in August 2016, so we’ll just have to wait and see if the company decides to bestow any of these illustrious names upon it.

https://www.250news.com/2015/05/25/naming-the-b-c-ferries-sparks-response/ Via 250news.com

3. Waste Disposal Facility Naming Contest

In 2011, the City of Austin surveyed its residents in the hopes that they could come up with a new name for its Solid Waste Services Department. The feedback was staggering, but not exactly in the way the city planners had expected. You see, many of the submitted names had absolutely nothing to do with garbage or waste management. Though some of the names consisted of clever puns relating to waste removal, the new name that beat out all the others by a landslide was the “Fred Durst Society of the Humanities and Arts.”

As fans of early 2000’s rap-rock might remember, Fred Durst is the lead singer of the Limp Bizkit and regarded by many as a trashy talentless hack. The name was suggested by Kyle Hentges, a student who moved to Austin from Minnesota after he was fired from a call center due to insubordination. Hentges was fond of the Solid Waste Services Department and took on a summer job there picking up trash on weekday mornings. It was during this stint that he saw an opportunity to give the facility a more memorable name that the people in the community would recognize and connect with. Durst himself even said on Twitter that he appreciated the naming recommendation and hoped it won. And while the entry did amass 30,000 votes, the city ultimately decided to name the facility Austin Resource Recovery instead.

http://www.hexjam.com/uk/entertainment-/11-public-votes-that-were-completely-hijacked-by-the-internet Via HexJam.com

2. International Space Station Capsule Naming Contest

Clearly NASA underestimated the collective power of the Colbert Nation. After an online contest was held to determine the name of a new module for the International Space Station, Comedian and talk show host Stephen Colbert called upon his audience to make a push for the capsule to be named after him. Colbert is known for encouraging his viewers to hijack online polls or other contests and so far his legion of followers have managed to get no less than nine things named after him including a Virgin Airlines airplane called Air Colbert, and a hockey mascot named Steagle Colbeagle the Eagle.

Unsurprisingly, Stephen Colbert once again won by a wide margin beating out NASA’s obvious top suggestion, Serenity by over 40,000 votes. However, NASA still retained the right to choose the name for the new module and on April 14, 2009, astronaut Suni Williams appeared on The Colbert Report, to announce that the name of the capsule would be “Tranquility” —  chosen in honor of the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing of Apollo 11 on the Seas of Tranquility. However, not to be forgotten, the astronauts named an ISS exercise treadmill the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill, or C.O.L.B.E.R.T. for short.

http://www.nextinpact.com/archive/50219-colbert-nasa-iss-vote-internet.htm Via nextinpact.com

1. The Mountain Dew ‘Dub the Dew’ Naming Contest

Everyone knows that Mountain Dew drinkers are the most reserved, dignified and sensible people around. Therefore nothing could go possibly ever go wrong with a campaign designed to build brand loyalty by letting them choose the name for a new green apple infused soft drink, right? No. Not right. As should have been expected, the results of Dub the Dew campaign were so offensive and unintelligible that the plug had to be pulled on the entire promotion.

Some of the more notable name suggestions that topped the online poll only to be disregarded include “Diabeetus,” “Gushing Granny,” and “Hitler Did Nothing Wrong.” Some other high ranking and less offensive suggestions included “Soda” and “Sierra Mist,” but the online tomfoolery didn’t stop there. In addition to simply bombarding the poll with hilariously unusable names, the jokesters even went so far as to hack into the promotional website and alter the banner so that it read “Mtn Dew salutes the Israeli Mossad for demolishing 3 towers on 9/11!” and a pop-up message that affirmed the people in charge of the campaign had been officially RickRoll’D.

https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/y9kxw/i_grabbed_a_screenshot_of_the_dub_the_dew/ Via Reddit