50 Interesting Facts about Recalled Products

On February 6, 2014, General Motors recalled 800,000 cars for faulty ignitions. The cars would shut off while being driven which meant drivers lost power steering and brakes, and the airbags wouldn't deploy. They knew about the problem since 2005 but never fixed it because it would have been 'too expensive.' About 124 people died due to the faulty ignitions before they began the recall process.

2. There was a product sold in the '80s and '90s called the "Electric Worm Getter." It was sold to fishermen for the collection of earthworms for bait. An electric shock was sent through the top layer of soil forcing the worms to surface. It had to be recalled in 1993 after 30 people died using it.

3. In 1999, Disney recalled 3.4 million copies of the children's movie "The Rescuers" because one of the animators inserted a picture of a nude woman into two frames of the movie.

4. In 2016, an employee at the ‘BrewDog’ brewing company printed "Mother F**cker Day" on 200,000 cans of their Punk IPA, after saying the company was not punk enough anymore. Though all of them had to be recalled, the Company made him employee of the month.

5. In 2011, Mazda recalled 52,000 units of their Mazda6 models after they found out that one species of spider loved the smell of gasoline so much that it chose to build its web in the car's emission systems. This caused restriction in the vent line and caused increased pressure in the fuel tank.

Pencils produced in the 1990s with the anti-drug slogan "Too Cool to Do Drugs" were recalled because, when sharpened, they read "Do Drugs."

7. In 1999, EA had to recall 100,000 copies of the Tiger Woods PGA Tour 99 video game, as an EA employee hid an uncensored copy of South Park's Jesus vs Santa episode on the PlayStation disc.

8. Nike had a t-shirt in its stores that said "Boston Massacre" with blood splattered across it. The T-shirt was created for Yankees fans to highlight series sweeps of the Red Sox in 1978 and 2006 and it was a play on the infamous 1770 attack on Boston civilians by British soldiers. However after the Boston Marathon bombings of 2013, it was deemed offensive and recalled.

9. In 1631, almost all the copies of the King James Bible were recalled and burnt due to a minor typo. The Seventh Commandant stated, "Thou shalt commit adultery." It was called the 'Wicked Bible' or the 'Sinners' Bible.'

10. In 2014, Walmart China had to recall donkey meat products because testing revealed they contained fox meat.

In 2014, Hot Pockets issued a major recall after the meat in their product was found to have been processed using diseased or unfit animals. The USDA wrote the products were "unfit for human food."

12. A Teletubby Po toy was recalled in the late 90s for calling kids "faggot" and telling them to "bite my butt."

13. In 2007, CBS released a CSI toy that included a fingerprint dusting powder that contained up to 5% asbestos. Finally, 20 months after an asbestos victims' organization made this fact public a recall was carried out.

14. Insane Clown Posse was once on a Disney-owned record label. On the scheduled day of release for their record "The Great Milenko" however, Disney recalled all 100,000 shipped units upon discovering the graphic nature of the album's lyrical content.

15. BMW had to recall their GPS system because male German drivers refused to take directions from a female voice.

In 1998, Sony released a Night Vision camcorder that inadvertently could see through people’s clothes while it was in an infrared recording mode. About 700,000 units had to be recalled.

17. During World War 2, the US government recalled all paper currency circulating in Hawaii and replaced it with notes stamped with "HAWAII". In the event of a Japanese invasion of Hawaii, all currency captured would have been easily identifiable and would be rendered worthless.

18. On four separate occasions, British retailer B&Q has had to recall their sonic mole Repeller in their Northern Ireland stores after being informed that there were no moles in Ireland.

19. In 1997, Reebok released a line of athletic shoe for women named ‘Incubus.’ They immediately had to recall 180,00 pairs of these shoes after news stories broke out that Reebok had named women’s shoes after a mythological demon that rapes women in their sleep.

20. The first-ever product recall of food because of its genetically engineered ingredients was when Taco Bell brand taco shells were pulled from stores after tests confirmed the presence of an ingredient not approved for human consumption. Most bioengineered corn and soybeans are considered safe for humans, but StarLink corn contains a pest-repelling protein, Cry9C that may be hard for humans to digest.

Little Shop Of Horrors was the first-ever DVD in history to get recalled. In 1998, a disc was released to stores containing a "black-and-white, un-scored, un-dubbed video copy of the original ending that looked like sh*t."

22. In 1974, the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued 80,00 lapel buttons promoting toy safety. The buttons later had to be recalled because they contained lead paint, had sharp edges, and were considered a choking hazard.

23. The original theatrical trailer for Disney's "The Tigger Movie" was recalled by the studio because parents complained that the background music was "Semi-charmed life" by Third Eye Blind, a song about crystal meth addiction.

24. When Mitsubishi released a car called the Pajero, it had to be recalled in South America. Its name had to be changed because Pajero translates to wanker in Spanish.

25. In 1962, in anticipation of the 1963 release of the movie, "Son of Flubber", Disney/Hasbro released a product similar to silly putty. In 1963, the putty caused more than 1,600 cases of face and throat rashes in children, so the product had to be recalled. The recalled units could not be burned or dumped at sea, so they were buried under a Hasbro parking lot instead.