The Tech Industry's 10 Most Annoying Fictional Characters

In this slideshow, we'll examine the very worst fictional characters that marketing departments have unleashed on the general public over the years, ranging from smarmy wireless salesmen to dotcom-promoting sock puppets to annoying graphics of paperclips that SIMPLY REFUSE TO GO AWAY not matter what you do.

The Pets.com Puppet: Wrapping up our pet-related relics from the late '90s is the sock puppet from Pets.com, a company that is widely regarded as one of the most spectacular financial flameouts of the dotcom era. Consider that the company raised US$66 million in venture capital in 1999 before completely closing up shop just over one year later. But in between Pets.com's glorious rise and tragic descent, the company unleashed a series of high-priced advertisements featuring a loud-mouthed dog puppet that went into peoples' homes and annoyed their animals. The height of this insanity came when the Pets.com sock puppet got its own float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, less than a year before the company went completely belly up. Roll over and play dead, boy! Good dog!

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