Epic Fails: The Edsel, the Mullet, and Other Icons of Unpopular Culture

by Salvador Jimenez Murguía

Many of the most successful innovations—from the light bulb to the Internet—have often resulted from ingenuity, ambition, and dedication. Such achievements have changed lives for the better. Yet for every new development that the public embraces, there is a dark side of cultural byproducts that litter the road to obscurity. Just because something is a failure, however, doesn’t necessarily mean that it shouldn’t matter.

In Epic The Edsel, the Mullet, and Other Icons of Unpopular Culture, Salvador Jiménez Murguía examines some of the most iconic missteps of the past several decades. In order to shed light on the inherent, often comic strain in American life between fame and infamy, the author surveys some of the best—or rather, worst—of what man has to offer. From fashion flops like the mullet and Zubaz pants to marketing mistakes like Bud Dry, New Coke, and Crystal Pepsi, this text captures the unintentionally entertaining milieu of failure. Placing these gaffes in cultural context, Murguía considers how each of these products crashed and burned, while trying to arrive at an answer to the ultimate “What were they thinking?”

Whether these attempts were doomed from the start, failed because of consumer indifference, or were simply the victims of poor timing, this book returns them, however briefly, to the spotlight. A fascinating look at man-made disasters, Epic Fails is an entertaining treatise about the forgotten—and infamous—endeavors of American creativity, or lack thereof.

Genres: Nonfiction

184 pages, Hardcover

Published September 15, 2018

Reviews

[Kusaimamekirai]

When I first arrived in Japan almost two decades ago, there would invariably be some kind of daily cultural reminder that I wasn’t in Kansas (figuratively speaking) anymore. none more so than my experience with Zima. Like most young men coming of age in America, Zima was one of those social cues that defined your masculinity for others. Even if you liked Zima (which I did and I suspected most of my male friends did), you not only didn’t talk about it, you certainly didn’t drink it in each others company. This isn’t to justify such random and silly gender stereotypes, it just was what it was back then.
On one of my first days in Japan however, I came across a bar in Japan in which I saw two men who were not only drinking Zima, but Pink Zima at that! Free of the arbitrary and gendered drinking rules in my own country, I promptly ordered one myself.
I mention this story because Zima plays a part in Salvador Jimenez Murguía’s “Epic Fails” as an example of cultural products and fads that once were widespread, only to fade into obscurity soon after. Murguía in particular is interested in the “why” some of these items that in some cases were as good as or better than the products that drove them into obsolensce, Microsoft’s competitor to the iPod named Zune is one example, failed to gain prolonged cultural traction.
Murguía in a number of cases argues that some products despite their worth, came into a marketplace with an already established competitor, failed to understand its own business model (Burger King’s table service(!), or simply failed to understand the psychology of their customers.
The latter is particularly evident in the drinks market where Crystal Pepsi and Zima both attempted to capitalize on a market where “clear” was the hottest trend of the moment, but didn’t take into account the years of ingrained association people associate with their favorite brands colors and tastes. There was a pronounced cognitive dissonance for those drinking what was virtually identical in taste to Pepsi but looked like a Sprite or 7-up.
Despite the somewhat low-brow and sensationalist title, this book is an in depth look into what shapes culture at any given moment and how difficult it is to alter preconceived notions of how we expect certain things to be.
Murguía’s chapters on the Betamax vs. VHS wars are particularly fascinating (Sony, which produced Betamax, was the market leader but refused to do any licensing with pornography studios. VHS with no such qualms were left with that massively lucrative market to themselves, and while not the sole factor in Betamax’s demise, certainly didn’t help).
If you are a child of the 1980’s and early 90’s like myself, this is a fun walk down memory lane (mullets and Zubaz!) as well as an insightful look into how cultural trends are constructed and deconstructed

[Brian]

I really wanted to like this book a whole lot more. I’ve always been fascinated by products that have failed and this book covers them; Crystal Pepsi...Zima... Burger King Table Service. It’s all there but the book is very very dry and lacks a lot of polish. Instead of being fun and informative, it reads like a textbook.

[Elizabeth Mabrey]

Dry and dull, when it's not being preachy. Seriously, how can you turn the failure of New Coke and Zima into a boring chore to read through? I struggled to the end, only to be rewarded with a faux self-deprecation about his own failures, a handwave at his lack of objectivity because he wanted to react with the amount of comtempt he felt each rated, took a vague swipe at capitalism for giving people a place to try their ideas even if they failed. Do not recommend

[Ken Lewin]

Full disclosure, only got a chapter and a half in. The book can't decide whether it wants to be a humorous retelling of these failures' stories or an academic exploration of the phenomena. This results in tonal shifts enough to give a serious case of whiplash. Like a comedian saying "but seriously, folks" after every other punchline. Plus a few annoying editing errors that, fortunately, were enough to jar me from putting any more time into it.

[MichaelR]

I expected an entertaining book about the topic instead this is a deeper, scholarly investigation into some well-known pop culture fails. It includes long quotes from other material to support key points that go below the usual coverage of these topics. Short chapters, so easy to read will commuting.

[Amanda Ellison]

I picked this up in the young adult section of the library with high hopes. But it was not written in a very engaging way, the text was super tiny, and not really teen friendly. It could have been super fun to read and it just was a drag.

[Jbussen]

This book is an Epic Fail. He lists fads as epic failures. If I am a company and there is a new fad going around, I'm going to cash in! Do we see any "dry" beers anymore? What about "clear" beers? There are still "ice" beers (higher alcohol content for the same price) but epic failures? Hardly.

Speaking of dry, this guys preachy writing is so, so bad. The author clearly thinks he's clever but is really amusing only to himself. I had a hard time even skimming chapters. He devotes many words to subjects that should be brief. I am so sorry I wasted 20 minutes on this book. This book is bad, just plain bad.