Brands that succeed despite being shite...

nick_s

equalsql said:

Spam ffs. How is it possible for something so disgusting to still be so popular?

 It's the English version of Surströmming 

Open a tin of Spam and I guarantee that most people won't start heaving and possibly vomiting on the spot  

For me, it has to be McDonalds.  Their 'burgers' are a piss poor excuse at best.  The only things Maccy D's are good for are McMuffins, Apple Pies and Milkshakes.

richardhomer

stickyfiddle said:

Nintendo?!?!?

Get out! 

Likewise Boss! Ultra reliable, decent sounding pedals, still used by some of the biggest names in preference to boutique alternatives. Cheap too....

thecolourbox

Gassage said: .

I am a purist.

And, given the chance, RWD with rear engine is the most wonderful (dry) driving experience ever.

That just be why all the lovely rear wheel drive BMW drivers on the road are so happy, chilled and slow-to-anger then especially when they get overtaken by me in my red Fiat on the Aston Expressway because they were in the wrong lane...

I've only ever driven Fords or Fiats (I'm looking for any other four letter manufacturer names that begin with F) which are of course extremely basic but I've never had so much as a slight wheel spin whenever I've driven in snow, because I try to drive sensibly... And I don't have rear wheel drive of course

Each to their own I guess, it's very easy for me to be anti car snobbery when I drive a (perfectly practical) red Fiat

TTBZ

ThePrettyDamned said:

I had to use word for a cv because I submitted one formatted in an open source editor (can't remember the name but it's a popular one) and they didn't recognise the file type. 

Fucking joke. 

You do know you can save to .pdf .doc and .docx (and many others) in Open Office and Libre Office? PDF should work for everyone. 

crunchman

Winny_Pooh said:

Then when you get the food it gets worse.  They can't just put it on the plate.  You get some kind of branded greaseproof paper on the plate (at least with a burger).  Every thing comes in it's own container.  The skinny chips (yuk) come in their own container, the overpriced puny portion of guacamole that you pay extra for comes in another container.  If I order burger and chips with guacamole just put it on a plate.  Don't kill the food (and the environment) by putting extra branded greaseproof paper and giving me loads of extra containers.

The service in there hasn't been great either.  I'm also sure that I've ordered a dessert from the menu that I like the look of and been told that they don't have it.

This, Bill`s is shit (and I live in Surrey and the tables still wobble!)

A very heavy bit of critique that makes no mention of the food. Wow, my grandfather re-incarnated.

The bits I bolded make mention of the food.

It's the corporate brand bit that makes it worse, but if the food had been good then I wouldn't have mentioned it.  There are other chains like Ask, Gourmet Burger, and Zizzi's that at least served reasonable food at not stupid prices when I went in there.

I also forgot to mention that you can only get the burger well done cremated.  If they were using decent quality meat and preparing it properly then they would be happy to do it medium or rare.  It's another corporate policy though that it has to be well done, and they won't budge on it.  Probably because it is prepared off site and stored for ages.

Flink_Poyd

guitarfishbay said:

KFC still can't figure out how to make chips.  The entire menu is based around frying.  It just makes no sense.

It's unbelievable how bad they are. Within seconds they go to a horrible cardboard mess although the zinger fries they did were much better but were only around for a short period. 
 I as them to substitute fries for sweetcorn even time. 

Yo Sushi can fuck right off. Sons birthday treat there today which he enjoyed but I refused to eat anything. £2.66 for a 330ml Coke then anywhere up to £5 for a couple of scraps in a bowl with shit service in a tiny booth. 

Teetonetal

Don't get the Ernie Ball thing at all. Quality strings that last for ages and ages. 

Boss is just a plain daft comment. They make well built decent sounding affordable pedals. Sure not every one is a hit. But some are very good (sd1 Bd2w dm2w and fz2 for me)

Can agree with Schecter.  Ehx, fulltone and a whole multitude of boutique nonsense would hit my list but at the very top would be BOSE.

Foster

Bucket said:

Apple.

Overpriced, style over substance, with a fucking useless, horrible "walled garden" approach to connectivity that makes everything needlessly difficult unless you do everything Apple's way and buy all their other products as well.

See I disagree, I bought a MBP in 2009 for uni - cost me about £1500.

In that time it has been used and abused. It copes well with protools, ableton, logic, max, aperture, photoshop and various other programs that I use fairly often. Sometimes it gets a bit hot but it still works and i'm happy using it live for pantos, shows, gigs, etc.

I like the fact I can buy pretty much anything I need and it'll work without a load of hassle and pissing about with drivers.

So how long did the MPB last? Still using it, rarely ever update it because it works. I think i'm still running on Lion, couldn't see the point in upgrading the OS (though I miss snow leopard, that was good). Admittedly the CD/DVD drive died but I just took the thing out, rarely ever use CDs or DVDs anyway (when I do I have a £5 USB one that does the job fine).

Got a show next week where my laptop will be running both the sound and lighting at the same time, just got to muck about in max4live so that ableton will control everything and make life so much easier.

Sporky

Gassage said:

Bremont Watches- no heritage whatsoever so they use tenuous historical 'memorial' pieces.

I'd like to say that the hysterical reaction of watch snobs was a factor in buying my Bremont. But actually I just liked it - the watch snob reaction is just a bonus.

I'd say Porsche. The best thing they make is a reskinned Audi - and the Audi is better.

kossofffan

Halfords

Supercars of London

Coventry

Sporky

Gassage said:

Third; comfort and refinement- in a different league. Balance is 50/50 whereas a Fr WD will be c. 75/25.

I know people post a lot of ridiculous guff about cars here, but that's well up there.

57Deluxe

Portaloo

Foster

57Deluxe said:

Portaloo

Good call! Those things are disgusting. Given the choice at a festival of a portaloo or shitting into a wheely bin - I go for the bin every time

mike_l

Teetonetal said:

Don't get the Ernie Ball thing at all. Quality strings that last for ages and ages. 

They didn't for me. Longest I've had from a set is 2 weeks, without much playing.
Dean Markleys however seem to last (for me) ages, at least 2-3 months with a lot of playing.

lasermonkey

EBs last ages with me too, though I stopped buying them for a while after I had a set that were rusty.
 One of my friends has this weird, alien, acid sweat that kills strings within a couple of hours playing. Kinda wishing I hadn't let him play my Ric 12 string, as the strings are now deader than a dead thing and feel disgusting! And we all know how much of a ballache it is changing strings on a 12 string Ric......

octatonic

Garden centre cafeterias.

I mean what sort of fucking moron dines at a garden centre?
Same with supermarket cafes.

Emp_Fab

Fuck me, I thought I was a moaning bastard!  This is like a "Shit that boils your piss - for snobs" thread!

Given how so many of you seem to hate pretty much every brand under the sun, wouldn't it just be easier to create a "Brands that are really good" thread ?  At least I'd know where to go, what to buy and what to eat then.  This way round, it's like 'Which?' magazine just printed the negative reviews only... "This is shite, don't buy that, this is utter wank, that's appalling junk...."

boogieman

Emp_Fab said:

Fuck me, I thought I was a moaning bastard!  This is like a "Shit that boils your piss - for snobs" thread!

Given how so many of you seem to hate pretty much every brand under the sun, wouldn't it just be easier to create a "Brands that are really good" thread ?  At least I'd know where to go, what to buy and what to eat then.  This way round, it's like 'Which?' magazine just printed the negative reviews only... "This is shite, don't buy that, this is utter wank, that's appalling junk...."

Go on then, you start it off. 

robgilmo

Land Rover and Jaguar.

boogieman

robgilmo said:

Land Rover and Jaguar.

What's wrong with them? I love our Jaguar, best car I've ever had.