[Posted by Jeremiah Owyang]

A list of companies that were blind-sided by the internet, they didn’t understand the impacts of the power shift to the participants, or how fast information would spread, or were just plain ignorant. 

Criteria of "Punk’d" includes a situation where the story would have not been told if social media was not available, or if social media enhanced the situation.

This doesn’t include fake blogs, companies who deliberately tried to cheat the system get their own honorable mention.


2008

2007

 

2006

2005

  • Why we Dwell on Dell Hell
    Jeff Jarvis launches blog post that sends a flurry of PR negativty at Dell’s poor service, it’s since been improved.

2004

  • Kryptonite unlocked
    Locks were disabled using a simple bic pen cap, spread on forums and blogs, one of the earliest examples that got mainstream attention.

2003

2001

Also see: 8 Groundswell Examples: News, Education, Religion, Cops, Restaurants, Music, Conferences, and Analysts

This is a cross post from the Web Strategy blog. Thanks to Jackie Huba for correcting that Apple’s dirty little secret was actually form 2001, very early on.