8 Disastrous Product Names

Times change, the meanings of words change, things get lost in translation. Whatever the reasons, over the years product-makers have hit upon some of the silliest and most unfortunate names for their wares imaginable, and even though many of these aren't available at your local corner store, they're still here for us to laugh about. The classic example may be the Chevy Nova, which in Spanish roughly translates to the Chevy doesn't-go -- though strangely, the accidental joke didn't significantly affect the car's sales south of the border. But we're just getting started.

1. Ayds diet candy

The honorary granddaddy of all disastrous product names has to be Ayds, an appetite suppressant "candy" which sold well in the 1970s and early 80s -- until the soundalike wasting disease we all know and fear hit the scene. By 1988, sales of Ayds had been so negatively impacted that the company changed the product's name (to "Diet Ayds," not much better), but it was eventually withdrawn entirely. Nowdays the product's slogans are easy fodder for dark humor: Ayds helps you lose weight, Why take diet pills when you can enjoy Ayds? or, my favorite, Thank Goodness For Ayds! Here's a now-classic commercial:

2. The Golden Gaytime Bar

Gaytime ice cream bars have been sold in New Zealand for decades, and through some trick of marketing genius, have weathered the gradual shift in the popular meaning of the word "gay" without much trouble. Here's how they did it. This is an old, I think completely unironic commercial for Gaytime ("it's so hard to have a gaytime on your own!") --

And here's a recent Gaytime ad, where they just unapologetically run with it, making fun of their own name: