Marketing Fads

I think we all know that fads come and go. In marketing we've had the "send something tangible with your direct mail piece" fad, which was based on the idea that people would be less likely to throw your message away if it came accompanied by a promo item of some kind. Then there was the whole "put your brochure on something other than paper" fad, which led to a lot of brochures which were had to read. There's also been the QR code fad, where companies were putting QR codes everywhere, even places where it made no sense to have one.

What marketing fads do you think were the stupidest ones ever? Have you ever gotten caught up in a marketing fad?