Great Moments in Unintended Consequences (Vol. 10)

Great moments in unintended consequences—when something that sounds like a great idea goes horribly wrong. Watch the whole series.

Part One: See Shores 

The year: 2003

The problem: There’s a photo of Barbra Streisand’s house on the internet! 

The solution: Sue the photographer for $50 million, and demand the photo be removed. 

Sounds like a great idea, with the best of intentions. What could possibly go wrong?

It turns out that when you try and hide something, people get interested. The aerial image—part of a larger project to document coastal erosion—had only been downloaded six times before Streisand got upset. But in the month following the lawsuit, over 400,000 people clicked on the image of Streisand’s house. Babs lost her case and was forced to pay $177,000 in legal fees, and the Streisand Effect is now shorthand for bringing unwanted attention to the very thing being suppressed.

Maybe next time, don’t mansion it!

Part Two: Open Sesame 

The year: 2022

The problem: Over a million Americans are allergic to sesame seeds!

The solution: Add them to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s major allergens list, which requires food manufacturers and restaurants to disclose if products either contain or might have come into contact with the seeds. 

Sounds like a great idea, with the best of intentions. What could possibly go wrong?

Turns out sesame seeds are small and a bit hard to keep track of, making it frustrating and expensive to guarantee seeds will not cross-contaminate other foods. Under the stringent FDA rules, it’s not good enough to simply state that a food “may contain” or is “produced in a facility” t