There are horrendous marketing mistakes made all the time, but a spectacularly botched experiment happened right here in Utah.  On December 7th, at the season opener of the local NBA Development League team, the Utah Flash, and their owner Brandt Andersen, decided to spread the word that Michael Jordan would be appearing in a charity one-on-one game with rival Bryon Russell(with a $100,000 purse, no less, for the winner’s charity of choice).  Andersen even went so far as to post this YouTube video with a look-alike who was paraded all over town the day of big game.  Well, game time shows up…no Jordan (duh!)…and thousands of angry fans in attendance (and the thousands more who found this stunt appalling) vow to stop their support of the team, based on the heinous promotional hoax at the hands of their controversial owner.

Well, who could have seen this coming??

Me.  And so, this spectacularly-awful idea deserves our first awarding of the Botched Experiment.

Dear Mr. Andersen:  Abraham Lincoln once said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”  They don’t like it so much, you know.

Today’s Lesson:  you can’t lie to your customers.  You can talk yourself up.  You can add all the bells and whistles.  You can overuse your positive testimonials.  You can even give ‘em the hard sell.  But you can’t lie.  It’s wrong, uncool, and horrendous.

(Sidenote: Also Horrendous–no charities benefited here.  No $100,000 donation from the team or its owner…Lame.