{"id":6095,"date":"2020-07-09T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/plainenglish.com\/?post_type=expressions&p=6095"},"modified":"2024-11-20T23:16:37","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T05:16:37","slug":"flop","status":"publish","type":"expressions","link":"https:\/\/plainenglish.com\/expressions\/flop\/","title":{"rendered":"A flop"},"content":{"rendered":"

A flop<\/h3>\n

A flop is something that was supposed to be great, but was actually terrible.<\/p>\n

Now before you protest that I\u2019m being unfair to the Segway, here\u2019s what I said. I said, the Segway is not a total flop. To be sure, \u201cnot a total flop\u201d isn\u2019t exactly a compliment <\/span>. It just means the Segway was not a total failure, even though it didn\u2019t live up to its founder\u2019s lofty vision <\/span>. The inventor <\/span> was rich before he even started Segway, and he probably made a lot of money when he sold the company to the ill-fated <\/span> British entrepreneur. It\u2019s just that Segway didn\u2019t even come close to living up to the hype <\/span> at its release. Most people would describe the Segway as a flop, but I\u2019m being nice by saying it was not a total flop.<\/p>\n

Can you think of any other revolutionary products <\/span> that were a flop? I\u2019ve got a good one. How about Google Glass? Wasn\u2019t that a flop? This was Google\u2019s creepy <\/span> set of glasses that were basically a Google search engine built into your lenses. That came out right around the same time as facial recognition <\/span> and it led to privacy concerns <\/span>. Google eventually discontinued <\/span> Google Glass.<\/p>\n

Facebook and Amazon have both made phones. Did you know that? It\u2019s okay if you didn\u2019t know that, because they were both flops. The Amazon phone did little more than <\/span> let you buy things on Amazon; talk about a lack of imagination <\/span>! The Facebook phone was a good value. It cost just 99 cents in the US\u2014less than a bag of chips\u2014and was great if all you wanted was to browse Facebook.<\/p>\n

Tata Motors, a carmaker in India, introduced a car that cost $2,500 in 2008. It was supposed to be a vehicle that the middle class could afford <\/span> in India. To get the price that low, Tata had to cut a lot of corners <\/span> with quality and safety <\/span>; some original models burst into flames <\/span>. It discontinued the Nano after selling only 8,000 of them.<\/p>\n

MoviePass was a flop. We talked about that in Lesson 192. Crystal Pepsi was a flop. Oh boy, I remember this. This was 1992. I was eleven years old, this is prime soda-drinking years, eleven years old. Pepsi came out with a clear version <\/span> of its cola. The idea was, it was supposed to taste just like Pepsi, only instead of <\/span> being dark brown, it was clear. Unfortunately, despite being marketed as similar to normal Pepsi, it tasted different. It was\u2014and I\u2019m not making this up\u2014 intended to communicate <\/span> a message of purity <\/span> and health, by being transparent <\/span>. Crystal Pepsi was a flop.<\/p>\n

But this all pales in comparison <\/span> to perhaps the biggest flop in all of consumer history. The year was 1985. I was not yet in my prime soda-drinking years. I was still drinking apple juice in 1985. On April 23, 1985 at a ceremony at New York City\u2019s Lincoln Center, Coca-Cola announced it had re-formulated its recipe <\/span>. In the words of Coke\u2019s CEO, the new cola recipe was \u201cbolder\u201d and \u201crounder\u201d and \u201c more harmonious <\/span>\u201d\u2014whatever that means. It was to be called \u201cNew Coke.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a success at first; many people did prefer <\/span> the new taste. But others hated the new recipe and resented <\/span> the company for taking away their favorite soft drink. Soon after the old recipe was retired, Coke began getting thousands of phone calls per day from people saying they felt they had been robbed of something important <\/span>. Coca-Cola hired a psychologist <\/span> to listen in on these calls, to better help the company understand why emotions were running so high <\/span>. The psychologist said people were talking about losing the original Coca-Cola the same way they talk about experiencing a death in the family <\/span>. Soon, the nation was in open revolt <\/span> against New Coke.<\/p>\n Pepsi delighted in Coca-Cola\u2019s misfortune <\/span>. Pepsi gave all its employees a day off to celebrate their rival\u2019s epic misstep <\/span>. Seventy-nine days later, Coca-Cola reversed course <\/span>. They announced it would reintroduce <\/span> its original formula under the brand, Coca-Cola Classic. The most popular television news presenter of the day, Peter Jennings, broke into <\/span> a popular daytime soap opera to announce to an anxious nation <\/span> that the original Coca-Cola would be back. A United States Senator\u2014on the floor of the US Senate\u2014called the return of the original recipe \u201ca meaningful moment <\/span> in US history.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Coke was a flop\u2014a flop of epic proportions <\/span>, one of the biggest flops in all of business history. Or was it? Some people maintain that <\/span> this was all a publicity stunt <\/span>. Prior to New Coke, Coca-Cola had been losing market share <\/span> to Pepsi. After New Coke\u2014and after reintroducing its old recipe as \u201cCoca-Cola Classic\u201d\u2014Coke experienced a resurgence <\/span>. It kept producing New Coke\u2014I tasted it, but preferred the original\u2014until the early 1990s. Coca-Cola cemented its position <\/span> above its rival <\/span> Pepsi, and has never looked back. Some people think that Coca-Cola purposely engineered the whole thing <\/span> to attract attention and to revitalize the brand. Coca-Cola denies it. So you be the judge: was New Coke really a flop?<\/p>\n

JR\u2019s song of the week<\/h3>\n

I nominated today\u2019s song. It\u2019s by Bruce Springsteen and it\u2019s called \u201cThunder Road.\u201d It\u2019s my favorite Bruce Springsteen song. I always like songs that find a way to mix in instruments <\/span> that are not traditionally part of a pop song. My favorite part is after all the lyrics are over, the combination of the saxophone <\/span> and keyboards. It is number 86 on Rolling Stone\u2019s list of the 500 greatest songs of all time and has been covered by a lot of other musicians in its time. So listen to the original Bruce version; if you like it, then look for the country version by Eric Church or the version by the Brazilian singer Renato Russo. \u201cThunder Road\u201d by Bruce Springsteen is the song of the week.<\/p>\n

See you next time!<\/h3>\n

We made it to the end of another lesson; thanks for coming along with us. I hope you enjoyed this one. <\/p>\n

If only we had a time machine and we could go back to the days where the biggest national scandal was New Coke. Wouldn\u2019t that be nice? By the way, Coca-Cola reintroduced New Coke as part of a promotion with Netflix\u2014the last season of \u201cStranger Things\u201d takes place in 1985. A limited run of New Coke was sold online\u2014and the web site crashed from all the demand.<\/p>\n

All right, enough about New Coke. We\u2019ll be back on Monday. But remember about the webinar: the best technology tools for learning English in 2020, coming up next week. You can register at PlainEnglish.com on the home page or on your dashboard if you\u2019re a free member.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A \u201cflop\u201d is something that was supposed to be great, but was actually terrible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":6096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"terminology_category":[124],"lesson_number":[788],"keywords":[790],"content_tag":[],"level":[],"class_list":["post-6095","expressions","type-expressions","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","terminology_category-vocabulary","lesson_number-788","keywords-flop"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFlop | Meaning in English | Free lesson with examples and pronunciation<\/title>\n <!-- Mirrored from plainenglish.com/wp-json/wp/v2/expressions/6095 by HTTrack Website Copier/3.x [XR&CO'2014], Tue, 11 Nov 2025 11:28:08 GMT --> <!-- Added by HTTrack --><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /><!-- /Added by HTTrack --> <meta name=\"description\" content=\"A "flop\u201d is something that was supposed to be great, but was actually terrible. 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