'The Worst Company In America' Contest Is Back (Comcast won last year)

[onehandle]

Hey everyone, it's March Madness time! You know what that means, right? First of all, it's the time of year where you loathe yourself for picking Duke, Ohio State, Notre Dame and BYU for your Final Four pool. Because, what? That's crazy. Happily, it's also a time where you can work out all of your frustrations with corporate America, as the good people at The Consumerist have once again rolled out their perennial March feature, the Worst Company In America brackets, now in its sixth year.

Consumerist reports that this year was the best year ever for user submissions -- thousands of companies were nominated, but only 32 were selected. Six slots were taken by banks, including bailout babies Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Chase. Reigning champion Comcast is also back in the mix, and your health care industry is well represented by United Health Group and Wellpoint. (One preexisting condition is that they will face one another in the first round.)

Consumerist highlights some newcomers, including one very obvious one:
Among the businesses new to this year's tournament is BP, whose public image was tainted by its troubles in the Gulf of Mexico. And then there's newcomer Johnson & Johnson, whose McNeill division must have set some kind of record for the sheer number and variety of brands recalled from store shelves in a single year.

Voting begins tomorrow, so be sure to get in on the action. And, as always, it is recommended that you make The Consumerist one of your daily reads. Their self-described mission is to "highlight the persistent, shameless gaffes of modern consumerism - and the latest scams, rip-offs, hot deals and freebies." And if you ever find yourself getting ground up in the gears of "modern consumerism," their contributors -- and their readership -- can be your saving grace.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/14/the-consumerist-returns-f_n_835665.html

Direct link to the contest for those who want to avoid HuffPo:
http://consumerist.com/2011/03/wcia2011-bracket-announcement.html

[LiberalEsto]

1. MonSATAN, hands down.

The GM seeds, Roundup, lawsuits against farmers whose crops were contaminated by the company's GM pollen...

[marmar]

2. +1000

Pure concentrated corporate evil.

[Orrex]

3. I'm inclined to vote for AOL in honor of HuffPo

[SpiralHawk]

5. HuffBlow-AOL is cranking up the propaganda catapult

Ptoooey on dat.

[NYC_SKP]

4. Original (non Huff-Post) Link and Graphic Here:

K and R but I detest the slow loading Huffington Post web interface.

Story here: http://consumerist.com/2011/03/wcia2011-bracket-announcement.html

Graphic (note MS v Mac, lower right, lol):



:kick:

[jtrockville]

6. It's so hard to rank the evilness. They all are deserving.

[Ian David]

7. Koch Industries isn't on the list. :( n/t

[JoeyT]

8. Yay.

Lots of heavyweight contenders this year, but a lot of the first rounders are pretty one-sided. Sure Gamestop is a pain, but pitting them against Wal-Mart? That's like making a toy poodle fight a bear.

I think it'll come down to British Petroleum vs. Bank of America. My money is on BoA coming out ahead.