Loads of companies use online voting competitions to help build the popularity of a brand or a service. It makes sense, you kind of give the wider world a stake in whatever it is you’re banging on about. Unfortunately for sensible businesses and organisations the vast majority of humans on the internet are cantankerous little gits.

Here are some examples of online competitions completely ruined by people who think they’re funny (many of whom actually are funny). You might remember the online voting competition where “Rake Ali” almost won the opportunity to become the face of JD sports – what an accolade.

Below are five other examples of general humanity ruining marketing fella’s plans. It is a vacant but awesome display of people power in the modern era.

(Use your arrow keys/slide on mobile to view the images.)

1) Greenpeace Whale Naming

Greenpeace tagged a pod of whales in a bid to deflect some Japanese hunting harpoons. To further raise the profile of these soon-to-be-sushi mammals they held an online competition to name the creatures.

One of the most popular names was Kaimana, meaning “power of the ocean” in Hawaiian, another effort was Shanti which means “tranquility” in Sanskrit. All good so far, those are the kinds of names Greenpeace were hoping for I reckon. Unfortunately, there was a third contender in the race – Mr Splashy Pants which is English for “bed-wetter”.

Reddit and Boing Boing couldn’t let such an opportunity pass and managed to secure Mr Splashy Pants 78% of the votes. IN YOUR FACE WHALERS.