I recently bought an individual size package of Blue Bunny Ice Cream.  I noticed the little QR code on the top and it seemed a little small to me.  Being the curious graphic designer that I am, I decided to try to scan it with my QR code reader on my phone.  As I suspected, the tiny QR code would not read on the scanner.  QR Code Fail.

Let me back up for a second and explain QR codes for those of you who are wondering what in the world I am talking about here…

QR Code (abbreviated from Quick Response Code) is the trademark for a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code) first designed for the automotive industry. More recently, the system has become popular outside the industry due to its fast readability and large storage capacity compared to standard UPC barcodes. The code consists of black modules (square dots) arranged in a square pattern on a white background.  In recent years QR Codes have become common in consumer advertising and packaging, because the dissemination of smartphones “has put a barcode reader in everyone’s pocket” for the first time. As a result, the QR code has become a focus of advertising strategy, since it provides quick and effortless access to the brand’s website.

Blue Bunny is not the first company to make a QR Code Mistake.  Here are some other examples…

It’s a bird. It’s a plane.  It’s a QR Code that you can’t scan.

Please don’t drive and try to scan in a QR Code.  This is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

How do you scan in a QR Code that is on your phone screen?  That is impossible.

Crazy, right? Check out this video about bad QR Code behavior from Scott at UnMarketing.com.  Guaranteed to make you laugh!

[Thank you Wikipedia, Mashable, and TechBurgh for content and images above. Oh, and Blue Bunny for inspiring this post.]