Collateral Damage's Constantine Von Hoffman has compiled a roundup of the top marketing blunders of 2008, and notes, "It was a very good year for very bad things." It's only fitting that the year's two biggest stories—the presidential election and the global economic crisis—inform his tie for the top pick: John McCain's presidential campaign and the travails of General Motors. From the Democrats' POV, of course, McCain's image implosion was a marketing triumph. And GM will get a portion of that mega-bucks federal bailout even if it never sells another Hummer, which most of us hope it doesn't. Other notable blunders include an anti-shark device that attracted sharks; an ID protection device that failed to secure the identity of the company's CEO; and McDonald's efforts to compare Ray Kroc to Martin Luther King Jr. For the freakiest ads of the past year, however, keep watching this space (that's AdFreak, Einstein) and get ready to vote when our annual wrapup begins next week.

—Posted by David Gianatasio