This article was originally published on Mako
Valentine's day comes around each year with more creative goodies which draw people in. Most of us fall for the money-making event and we love to buy something cute and different for our loved ones. People try to come up with unique objects, toys, accessories, and cards, and sometimes they do not really go as planned. Mug designs gone wrong, crabs on special, cards that say things they shouldn’t, and questionable vegetable advertising, we will see it all. These design fails are none other than shocking and hilarious and will leave you thinking twice about your next valentines day gift.
Crabs
Does this store know that people can get “crabs” for free, and not just one valentines day, but all year round? Luckily this sign is just a simple mishap from the Little Critters Pet store which had decided to market their 25% special on crabs to those who see their furry friends as their special valentines. Although a thoughtful gesture, they should have rethought their wording around this advert before putting it up.
However, if anyone, for whatever reason, would like a case of bad crabs for valentines day, just know that Little Critters has them on special for 25% off this year.
Heart Sack
Heart-shaped objects always look so different. Some have longer bottoms, some look like they have been free drawn by a 5-year-old and some just look like good old plain-jane hearts with a twist. But as for the company who designed this headphone splitter, they didn’t seem to try out their product first, because instead of this looking like a cute heart, it presented itself to look more like a scrotum.
Valentine's day is all about love and sharing that love and this idea of splitting headphones was great. But it may give your Valentine a bit of a different idea.
Death
This furry cute-eyed grey sloth teddy bear would melt anyone's heart on Valentine's Day until you read what the heart it’s holding says. “I death you” is not something you would like to hear on Valentine's Day, let alone on any other day. This font was probably not the best choice for the designer to use for the words “I sloth you”, because it just doesn’t look anything like that.
Even if it read “I sloth you” properly, we are not quite sure what the word sloth should be implying. People should just use normal words, like “I love you”, don’t you think?
Cake
If you ever think of getting your Valentine a cake with some cute words on it, be sure that you write the words down correctly. Also, remember to ask the bakers to use normal handwriting, or else you could have a cake mishap just like this one. We think that this cake was supposed to say “Love is a song that never ends” but instead they got “Love is a dong that never ends”.
You would not want to have to give this cake to someone who would find it offensive, or take it as an insult. Because for some, their “dongs” do end.
Office Depot
Well isn’t that just lovely? On offer for Valentine's Day at Office Depot, you can get your wife a cute pink computer mouse, a scotch tape holder in the shape of a high heel, a premium notebook, and oh, a divorce kit, just in case the other gifts were not good enough. This could be a fail or a strike of genius because people need to keep their options open.
Imagine the poor husband who is standing at this table having to decide what gift would be best for his wife, while a divorce legal kit is staring you dead in the face.
Female Friend
Let this card be a lesson to all, that grammar or punctuation or design choices are extremely important for relaying the correct message because if not followed correctly, you land up with a card like this. This must have left so many people disgusted and could have been easily avoided with just a few design tweaks. Because by “girlfriend” they actually meant “girl friend”, as in a female friend who is like a sister to you.
However, we’re sure that in some parts of America, someone would have bought that for their actual girlfriend. Whether as a joke or to be real, we just wouldn’t want to know.
Rapey Vibe
Everyone loves reading those quotes that come with sweets or sugar packets and they always seem so motivational. But Sweethearts missed something with this one and should never have added it to their Valentine’s Day mints collection because it gives off a bit of a rapey vibe by doing so. It also gives men the idea to try and get away with something they know will completely annoy their partner.
We are sure that Sweethearts would be the ones who would need to ask for forgiveness after this stunt. They should have just stuck with the cute little lovey-dovey quotes.
Dad
Once we have all overcome the shock of this situation, let's just evaluate what seems to have happened here. Whoever placed this heart-shaped “share the love with your dad” note here, did not think things through first. Because we bet that no one would want to share the love with their dad with some pleasuring items. The “share the love with your dad” part was really thoughtful but it definitely does not belong there.
The sign should have gone along with the socks and shaving items and either someone didn’t know that or they deliberately just didn’t want people to enjoy their Valentine's Day.
Wrong
Although this seems wrong in so many ways and almost left us speechless, it is so common for people to need cucumbers for their sexual pleasure that there is even a scientific name for it. Sitophilia is real and although this “Ideal for Valentines Day” sign probably was not supposed to be placed there, it could actually have generated sales because of those who are so inclined to enjoy them.
Once we get our heads out of the gutter, we could find other ways it could be ideal though. Perhaps heart-shaped cucumber cuts for gin, or roses made from cucumber slithers for your breakfast plate.
Cheap
Do you think someone would be brave enough to bring both his girlfriend and his wife to a restaurant just to get 50% off? If they did, cheap would be well-fitting to describe the person who would. This was definitely done on purpose and probably just for enjoyment to see who would actually go for the 50% off deal. We bet the polyamorous people would love this idea and enjoy it fully.
For all the people who would have to work there on Valentines' Day, they would obviously need some entertainment somehow. And what better way than a live viewing of Cheaters.
Hell
Everyone deserves to get some love on Valentine’s Day, whether you like the day or not. And by everyone, we mean even people who love hell. Because of this design failure, Target made it possible for people who love hell to also get gifts for Valentine’s Day. The light pink heart on the beer mug didn’t quite fit as an “o” to complete the word “Hello” for the mug to actually say “Hello Love”.
The beer mug may not be the best gift to give someone for Valentine's day, but then again it is from Target, and they always know how to provide the weirdest products.
One Page
There is nothing worse than not being able to fit something all on one page, but usually, when that happens, you get another page and do it again, just with better planning. Well, obviously this business did not care to try to redo it. So now we have so many days left to “valent day” and “ines” just seems to have been shoved on the side with no real reference at all.
This company could of at least tried to make the word a bit shorter, like “V-Day” or something especially because they battled so much with fitting the “Valentine’s” word in.
Rubbing It in
Valentine’s Day is not always the best day for people, especially those who are single. But for others, because heartbreak does not have a set time and so many people spend Valentine’s Day with a broken heart. This snappable crispy crunch candy chocolate would be perfect for them, especially because it says “share with a friend” and not with a partner. They just really rubbing it in with this fail.
Palmer did well with providing something that may make a broken heart feel a little better, but Valentine’s Day isn’t really the best time to launch it, it’s just a bit too soon.
Lole
This manufacturing mishap has a bit of a snowball effect because now someone is sitting at home with their Valentine’s Day banner reading “vove”. “Vove” would be more fitting for Valentine’s Day as it means to dare or venture and “lole” stands for loss of load expectation. Unfortunately, it’s not like these people would be able to try to make it work because changing an L to a V is difficult.
It seems like this person went through a lot of effort for their Valentine’s Day because if they put a love banner up, then there must be a lot more loving in store for them.
Asparagus
This gift would have been really cute if the design around it actually worked and made the heart that it was supposed to be. But unfortunately, it looks like half of this attempted bamboo heart has seemed to have died and now it just looks like 2 long potted asparagus stalks. One thing that this love plant does is represent love as both perfect and imperfect and sometimes a part of it dies.
If you want to get deep with your partner then this fail would make the perfect realistic love gift. With a bit of water and care, you could end up with a full bamboo heart.
Nuts
This Reese's chocolate heart should come with a warning label that says “may contain nuts”. Their attempt to make chocolate hearts was short-lived when they came out looking mall like a pair of balls rather than a Valentine’s Day chocolate heart. Even though their design did not go as planned, the delicious peanut butter and chocolate nutsack-shaped treat would still taste really good and would not stop people from buying them.
Treats like this that have gone wrong will at least provide couples with something to have a good laugh about. And we can agree that nutsack-shaped things are way more entertaining than hearts.
Cupid
Out of all the fails so far, this one must be the worse one yet. Once you see it, you can not unsee it. This cupid and heart look slightly carnal because his bottom arm is not coming from the shoulder point, but rather the crotch point. And we know cupid loves love, but we doubt he loves it that much to be provocative as this major design fail suggests.
This could have been quite the cute Valentine’s Day decoration if done properly, but now this store is just stocked with sexual cupids and there is nothing cute about that.
Perfect Gift
Product placement is more important than people might understand and it seems like the people who work at this store are part of those who do not understand how it works. There appear’s to be a lot of breakup gifts that come out around the time of Valentine’s Day and a movie titled “Unfaithful” that was placed on a Valentine’s pop-up stand was this store's addition to those marketed products.
We doubt that for most, this would not be seen as the “perfect gift” to give to someone. And it surely would not be something that would share the love.
Helicopter Member.
Here is another Valentine’s Day teddy bear that’s gone very very wrong. There are two design fails with this teddy bear though, one being the fact that there is, what we suspect to be a fan on a teddy bear, so you can not even cuddle it. The second is that the fan is designed and placed in such a way that it looks like this gorilla has a helicopter member.
Would you buy this gift for your loved one? Something that they can not cuddle but keeps them cool? Or will you just stick to the normal gifts people buy?
Angles
We think that penis-shaped gifts should just become a thing on Valentine’s Day, that way when fails like this one happen, it would just be seen as normal and not as a design fail. You can not tell us that companies who make Valentine’s Day gifts do not see these problems before releasing a product, or do these companies not do checks on the way their products look from all angles?
Luckily if this Chupa Chups lollipop is kept the right way up, it looks like a heart with a lollipop. So if it is offensive, just do not turn it around.
Bear Mug
If we could see the full mug from a different angle, then this wouldn’t look as bad as it does. This mug is a bear hugging a box, but when you can only see one arm it looks like it would give you more than just hugs. The designers should’ve made the box in such a way that it would fit on the shelf by facing forward so you can see the whole picture.
But now, there are a bunch of bear mugs on a shelf in a store with their bits out and it looks “bearly legal”, let alone appropriate for Valentine’s Day.
Wrong Direction
Although it is cute that people want to promote father-daughter dates and allow the love of Valentine’s Day to be shared with everyone, this just didn’t seem very appropriate. When your Valentine’s Day advert says “spread the slider love” perhaps you shouldn't use a father and daughter as the models for the picture. It would have been cuter if a couple were messy eating some sliders while staring each other deeply in the eyes.
Design fails make our minds run in the wrong direction, usually to the gutter and although there were good intentions, it just didn’t work out as well as I think they thought it would.
Misplaced
This poor pug’s tongue has been completely misplaced on his poor little face. It makes it look like his tongue is coming straight out of his throat through the esophagus. These designers just needed to move that small pink tongue a few inches up and it would have been the perfect cute Valentine’s Day card. At least they have the “pugs and kisses” going for them because that makes sense.
Although this may not be the worse design fail, it still isn’t a perfect card and would make probably make people question it rather than see it being as cute.
Yourfelf
In the marketing world, there are so many steps that designs need to go through before they go live that one would think they would be perfect by that point. But obviously, not for this store, someone didn’t do their double checks. If your brain read what it thought it should check again. This sign reads “love yourfelf” instead of love yourself perhaps the person who wrote it has a lisp.
We bet that this store has some great underwear collection that would make your Valentine’s Day even more special. Ladies, why not go on and try it out for yourfelf.
And Moon
The only thing that is worse than a spelling mistake is putting words in the wrong order and then the whole sentence just does not make any sense. And to make matter’s worse, this happened on this Valentine’s love pillow. It should have read “I love you to the moon and back” but instead whoever gets this pillow would get the message “I love you to the and moon back”
At the end of the day, it should be the thought that counts, and if someone feels they love you too “the” and “moon back” then we should just let them do that.
Squirrel
There will be a divide on this design fail as to who thinks it is wrong and who thinks that this is just a realistic view of what their Valentine’s Day usually is. Obviously, the saying on this chocolate box with a squirrel teddy is supposed to mean “I’d be nothing without you” but for the singles out there on Valentine’s Day, they possibly would be nutting without someone anyways.
However, when we keep our minds thinking clean, this is actually a really nice gift. At least the words are spelled correctly and the sentence makes complete sense, unlike some others.
Weight
Perhaps this would be better suited on the list of what you should not be buying your partner for Valentine’s Day, especially if they are a female. We can not think of anything worse they receiving a gift which should help you lose weight. Because basically, a person who does that is saying you’re fat right? Why would a store even put a slimming shake kit as a Valentine’s Day gift though?
What would pair well with this gift though is the divorce kit we saw further up this list, that way your partner would have an immediate get-out card when you have riled them up.
Sudden Sleep
On this Valentine’s Day shelf of “the little things we love” you can get yourself a selection of different sweets, oh and, “Sudden Sleep” for women. The words “Sudden Sleep” and women stand out so it does come across as a bit like a type of date rape pill. But luckily it is not. However, this would be a great natural sleeping tablet for women to take to get out of sexy time.
“Sudden Sleep” is actually an all-natural sleeping aid and this specific one is just formulated for women specifically. So it would be completely safe for whatever use it may have.
Meat
Is this really a fail or is it pure genius? A heart-shaped steak for a romantic Valentine’s Day BBQ. The steak even looked a bit like a heart with its white veins and meaty texture, just a little bit of red sauce would complete the look. But if this does seem like a fail, then at least if you buy it you gain a heart-shaped container and you have yourself a steak to share.
The only people who may not enjoy this on Valentine’s Day would be vegans or vegetarians, and they also deserve to have love. Perhaps this store can do a heart-shaped broccoli for them.
Dirty Minds
These fails keep getting worse and dirtier and we really don’t know what it is with people and putting out the wrong things during Valentine’s month. Now obviously with us (that included you) and our dirty minds, this sign gave us the impression of a different type of facial. All this beauty salon wanted to offer is a special on skin facials and they missed the word “skin” or “pampering”.
A simple mistake can land your fails on the internet and people will tear it apart when they read them wrong. And there seem to be extra brownies points for when they happen during Valentine’s.
I Ho
You may not need glasses to read this, but you do need a lot of brainpower and concentration because this design fail did so well at failing. “I HO PEY OUSEE HOWSPECIAL YOUARETOME” does not make any sense and would most like to annoy you more than what it actually says, which is “I hope you see how special you are to me”. It just does not work for us.
This eye clinic had the right idea and a great marketing plan, but starting off this letter chart with the letters “HO” for their Valentine’s Day advert was their biggest mistake.
Smell Sugar Sweet
If we understand correctly, don’t people get perfume for their partners as a way to tell them they love the way they smell when they wear it? Apparently, that is not the only thing, because you can also get this $1 100 piece puzzle which is also a way to tell your partner they smell sugar sweet. Maybe the puzzle smells sweet or maybe it's just the sweets on the puzzle that implies their sweetness.
If anyone gets this gift, it could completely be a fail. It’s $1, you have to build 100 pieces for a mediocre picture and it might not even smell like anything but puzzle cardboard.
Romantic
How is this a Valentine’s Day word puzzle when it is just about bug words? You’ve got “beetle”, “bugs” and “incest”. Yes, you read that right. Of course, it is “insect” but our already corrupted minds saw the mistake first. If words can have the same letters as other words then they should have rethought this. And also maybe have added some hearts or something to make it more romantic.
We think this picture got a bit mixed up with Valentine’s day fails and would most likely be better off with the Halloween ones. Anyways, our minds go deeper into the gutter.
Cute Owl
This is a full-blown proper designer's fail, as in the fault of the designer themselves, 100%. The person who designed the cover of this item forgot to remove the “sample text” box underneath the main text. Not only that, the text says “Happy Valentine Day” and not “Valentine’s Day” and it is definitely not aligned at all. But we think that the cute owl images make up for the mistakes.
This designer could possibly not have known what they were doing at all or they were just completely lazy and could not care less about the job at hand and making it look good.
Yu
Well then, Happy Valentine’s Day to Yu! This page was not the greatest one we’ve ever seen. With a spelling mistake and a missing section, which would make adding the number of days in look much better than just writing it on with a pen or sharpie. This should’ve just come with some numerical stickers in the same font as the text to add on the cover, and an extra “o” to complete “you”.
It may just be better to stick to DIY cards for Valentine’s Day. That way you can add as many o’s in as you want and any number of days that you need to.