BP Dumps Huge Oil Slick On Bank Of America To Earn Title Of 2010's Biggest Business Debacle

In what will probably come as a surprise to no one, Consumerist readers have overwhelmingly selected the BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as the biggest business debacle of 2010.

The only competition for BP came from the ongoing foreclosure fracas (mostly represented by Bank of America), which came in a distant second with only 15.8% of the vote.

None of the three remaining candidates were even able to notch 5% of reader votes. While millions of people were affected by the leak of the Gawker e-mails and passwords (4.67%), the iPhone 4 death grip (4.22%) and the Toyota recall (3.83%), it looks like the large majority of readers considered these snafus as mere inconveniences when compared to the economic and ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico or the utter incompetence evident in the foreclosure f-ups.

With the big losers out of the way, here’s a look at some dishonorable mentions for 2010:

THE PHOTODRAW AWARD FOR WORST REBRANDING:
The Gap’s short-lived, much-derided new logo.

JURY PRIZE FOR SELLING CUSTOMERS SOMETHING THEY DON’T NEED OR WANT:
Consumerist kicked off 2010 by busting Best Buy’s computer optimization deal as nothing but a big, stupid, annoying waste of money.

SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN CREATING AN INSTANT COLLECTOR’S ITEM:
Only six weeks after launching the social-networking-focused Kin smartphone, Microsoft sends it to an early grave.

THE JOE ISUZU AWARD FOR HALF-TRUTHS:
Then-CEO of General Motors Ed Whitacre brags in a TV ad campaign that GM had paid back all the bailout money to taxpayers. Except… not so much.

PERSON LEAST FAMILIAR WITH THIS THING CALLED THE INTERNET:
The editor at Cooks Source magazine who not only lifted a story wholesale from a website without permission but then wrote the author a nasty e-mail declaring that everything on the internet is fair game. A few hundred thousand nasty e-mails and Facebook comments later and Cooks Source is no more.

THANKS BUT NO THANKS AWARD:
First Google automatically opts-in all its users to its new Google Buzz feature. Then they find out that they’ve unleashed a Pandora’s box of privacy problems. By summer’s end, Google was settling a lawsuit over Buzz for $8.5 million.

THE OZYMANDIAS LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD:
Remember when Blockbuster was the biggest video rental chain in the country? Alas, the giant has been felled by its inability to adapt with the times and now only makes headlines for going bankrupt.

Go ahead and take out your year-end frustrationgs by creating your own dishonorable mentions in the comments.

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