Edsel

Cause of death

Killed by indifference

Made by

Ford Motor Company

Ford spent years telling America something extraordinary was coming and then showed them a slightly odd Mercury.

The Edsel is the benchmark against which every subsequent product failure is measured, and it earned the title mostly through anticipation. Ford ran a long, deliberately mysterious campaign promising a car unlike any other, then launched a vehicle that was recognisably a Ford at a price nobody wanted during a recession. It lasted twenty-six months and cost roughly $250 million, and its name became a common noun for failure.