• by Todd Wasserman , Staff Writer, July 15, 2022

We’re only midway into 2022, but so far the marketing industry has suffered its share of flops. While such missteps are almost inevitable, they are almost impossible to avoid. None of these sink to the levels of New Coke or AT&T’s 9/11 tweet, but they are notable failures for midyear:

Buzz Lightyear

Who thought of removing Tim Allen from the “Lightyear” movie? While the production is estimated as costing $200 million and Disney and Pixar spent another $100 million or so marketing the movie, it took in just $50 million in its first week, and in its second week made less than $18 million.

Compare that with “Toy Story 4,” which made $120 million in its first week.

It didn’t help that some Hollywood celebs like Tom Hanks (the voice of Woody in all the "Toy Story" movies) and Patricia Heaton expressed confusion about Allen’s absence. Audiences also were confused by the more realistically rendered Lightyear voiced by Chris Evans. It didn’t help that Lightyear was marketed as a biography of the real astronaut who inspired the Buzz Lightyear toys.

Crypto:

At this writing, Bitcoin is trading for about half of its price in January. That doesn’t bode well for crypto firms that ran Super Bowl ads, like Crypto.com and FTX. There are still a number of crypto boosters out there to presage another wave of ads, but right now a sequel to 2022’s Crypto Bowl doesn’t seem to be in the offing.

"The Northman"

In an effort to drum up excitement for “The Northman,” an epic historical thriller, Focus Features ran ads in New York City’s subways that neglected to put the picture’s name on the ad. Some Twitter users opted to name the movie (“Flintstones 2: Bad Day in Bedrock” was a contender.)

Enjoy Life with Plastic

Enjoy Life Natural Brands recalled some of its baked snacks because they may have contained hard plastic pieces. The items were sold in Walmart and online.