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Corporate Scandals Quiz

Can you name the corporations that were involved in these notorious scandals?
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: December 4, 2019
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First submittedJune 26, 2011
Times taken24,709
Average score50.0%
Rating4.43
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 / 16 guessed
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Year
What Happened
Company
2018/19
Two of its 737 Max jets crashed within a span of five months.
Boeing
2018
Self-driving car hit and killed a pedestrian.
Uber
2018
CEO falsely tweeted that the company is being bought for $420 per share.
Tesla
2018
Allowed the spread of fake news which led to atrocities commited against
Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
Facebook
2016
One of this company's phones is banned on planes due to frequent explosions.
Samsung
2015
Rigged its diesel cars to cheat on emissions tests.
Volkswagen
2013
Sold see-through yoga pants.
Lululemon
2013
Sold Swedish meatballs that contained horse meat.
IKEA
2010
Spilled oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
BP
2009
Recalled 9 million cars after problems with uncontrolled acceleration.
Toyota
2005
Sold music CDs which secretly installed an illegal "rootkit" onto users' computers.
Sony
2002
Marketed thong underwear to pre-teens.
Abercrombie & Fitch
2001
Appeared to be a thriving energy company, but was actually a
giant accounting scam.
Enron
1989
Spilled oil into Prince William Sound.
Exxon
1984
Responsible for the Bhopal Disaster, a chemical leak that killed
at least 3,000 people in India.
Union Carbide
various
Hired Nazi war-criminals, sold HIV-infected blood, and
marketed heroin as cough medicine.
Bayer
+16
Level 79
Apr 21, 2014
Bayer...Um, wow.
+4
Level 64
Apr 21, 2014
Bayer is a German company, btw.
+8
Level 72
Apr 21, 2014
Despite never having heard of any "thong" scandals, I correctly guessed Abercrombie on the first try.
+7
Level 82
Apr 21, 2014
I guessed Victoria's Secret, American Apparel, and then Abercrombie.
+4
Level 66
Jan 20, 2020
I guessed Urban Outfitters, cause it seems like that nonsense is always Urban Outfitters.
+3
Level 61
Jan 20, 2020
@Yantheman you're not wrong https://theweek.com/articles/480961/15-urban-outfitters-controversies
+3
Level 67
Jan 20, 2020
Same here. I got it immediately even though I've never heard of that scandal, because it just so like them to do that.
+3
Level 75
Apr 21, 2014
I got Abercrombie on the first try, but I was answering the first question about see through yoga pants.

Corporate crooks Bernie Madoff (Madoff Investment Securities) and Dennis Kozlowski (Tyco) would have been two others to include but their companies are not as well known. What they did though was just as heinous.

+3
Level 74
Apr 21, 2014
Remind me not to use Bayer, because i don't want AIDS
+2
Level 37
Aug 1, 2014
This was really tough, and informative. Was expecting more social scandals like starbucks and chick fil-A
+13
Level 84
Oct 6, 2015
I'd call those you cited "controversies" rather than scandals.
+4
Level 41
Jun 9, 2016
I wouldn't suggest buying stock in Bayer anytime soon...
+9
Level ∞
Dec 4, 2019
There was a Malcolm Gladwell podcast about the Toyota acceleration issue. After listening to it, I am fairly convinced that there was no problem with Toyota vehicles and that the problem is explained by people who pressed the gas thinking they were hitting the brakes.
+3
Level 82
Dec 4, 2019
The Wikipedia article mostly suggests the same.
+2
Level 63
Dec 17, 2019
I was actually thinking of the other Toyota scandal around that time where breaks didn't work properly or delayed in Prius hybrid models. Way less cars were affected but I remember it clearly.
+2
Level 80
Jan 20, 2020
I listened to a podcast that explained it was probably bit flipping due to cosmic rays
+9
Level 88
Dec 4, 2019
Doesn't Fox pretty much do that same deed as Facebook almost daily?
+21
Level ∞
Dec 5, 2019
Spreads news which leads to atrocities against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar? Almost certainly not.

In the future, please don't interject American politics into the comments section.

+7
Level 89
Dec 7, 2019
There are many users who bring up politics in many other quizzes.
+12
Level 65
Jan 20, 2020
Yea so singling out germany (2nd comment) is fine? But naming another company (which happens to be american) is not?
+2
Level 78
Feb 15, 2022
Indeed, what a strange comment QM.
+3
Level 82
Jan 21, 2020
Have an original thought.
+1
Level 67
Dec 20, 2023
IsleDeHaute is correct, QM is not. I think it's strange that a quiz about American scandals cannot have discussions of related topics without being labeled 'political'. This quiz is political by that definition. I was surprised QM was the author.
+3
Level 71
Dec 5, 2019
There were a few of these I hadn't heard of, but it says a lot about companies' reputations when I guessed every single one on the first try.
+2
Level 72
Dec 5, 2019
Agreed, never heard of the Yoga pants or thongs scandals. But i don't fit the demographic to have been affected by either, plus they may have been US scandals that didn't make it across the pond.
+2
Level 70
Dec 5, 2019
BMG should be excepted for the CD one. The company name was Sony BMG.
+3
Level 72
Jan 20, 2020
Man, I feel like Purdue should also be on here for the opioid epidemic. Also, how did Monsanto not make it anywhere on this list? I literally typed them first before I read any questions just to get it out of the way, but it wasn't in there at all.
+2
Level 59
Jan 20, 2020
Purdue is a good one. Makers of OxyContin that lied to everyone about it's addictive properties and effectiveness.
+4
Level 65
Jan 20, 2020
Missing Monsanto and DuPond here...
+5
Level 78
Jan 20, 2020
*DuPont According to Google, DuPond is a hotel is Paris.
+3
Level 67
Jan 20, 2020
Lululemon lmao
+5
Level 67
Jan 20, 2020
Their CEO didn't even back down. It's a guy, and his response was something very close to "We make pants for hot girls. We don't want fat girls wearing our stuff. If the right kind of girls wore our stuff, the pants wouldn't stretch and they wouldn't be see-through." It was really gross, but he also stands out as the only CEO to just shrug and say "Yeah, we're terrible. So what?" And he was kind of right. That brand is still really popular. Most people don't have the willpower to be inconvenienced for more than one purchasing cycle.
+3
Level 66
Jan 21, 2020
There's a very good doco about Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Also, it is very disappointing that there are no Australian banks on here. Westpac not complying with international money transfer regulations, and subsequently enabling some its customers to wire money internationally to known child sex traffickers and paedophiles is particularly disgusting. When the wire transfers became public, the banks' CEO Brian Hartzer reportedly told a board meeting that people wouldn't care, and to forget about it. I would have thought Fannie Mae would have got a mention here. Also, I think it's worth noting that Monsanto was bought in 2018 by...you guessed it, Bayer. Nestle too, probably deserve to be here.
+2
Level 66
Jan 21, 2020
It didnt accept my answer of Abercrombie and Fitch, spelling out the "and".
+6
Level 75
Jan 23, 2020
Agree with Stubart that Nestle should be here. Their infant formula scandal caused deaths of babies in third world nations in the 1970s.
+1
Level 82
Aug 8, 2022
Yeah, kinda amazed a quiz like this wouldn't feature Nestle.
+1
Level 71
Sep 12, 2023
Union Carbamide? No. Bauer? No. :|
+1
Level 88
Oct 3, 2023
Nestle should be up here too
+1
Level 21
Jan 26, 2024
I was in a corporate scandal once, it was at my uncle's tackle shop, you can put the pieces together. He was out "fishing" a lot, and would bring some "big catches" home, and they would stay in my "pond." He's been away on "business" for 40 years so I don't think he's coming back. LOL.