BrandlandUSA

America’s authority on legacy brands. News and comment on classic brands and advertising.

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Entries from August 2010

China Brings Back Mao Limo; Sign of Ascendant Chinese Brand Leadership

August 31st, 2010 · 2 Comments

It is assumed that China will take us to the cleaners because of their manufacturing prowess. And yes, that is true. I recall hearing the noted Chinese scholar Arthur Waldron speaking of export China in Britain in the 18th century. Even then, the ships came to England packed with these plates and dishware, and went [...]

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Tags: Brandicide · Cars

Pontiac: No More Room For Middle Brands

August 27th, 2010 · No Comments

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A BrandlandUSA reader laments the missed opportunity in Pontiac: It may be that Pontiac is gone and erased from the accounting books of GM, and it may be that the heritage of Pontiac lives in the memoirs of Americana – but the fact of the matter remains that Pontiac outsold Lincoln, Mercury, Dodge, Chrysler, and [...]

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Tags: Cars

Warren: Let’s Roll With Life Savers Manufacturing, Not Charity

August 24th, 2010 · 1 Comment

Vi-O-Let Life Savers

Early this month, many in the billionaire club signed a pledge to give away at least half their fortunes to charity, all led by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. And who can argue with that? It’s their cash and their right. But the story sort of struck me wrong after I looked up the ownership [...]

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Tags: Candy

What’s Wrong With Life Savers?

August 23rd, 2010 · 1 Comment

Life Saver Vintage Package

SARASOTA – One night last week, I helped melt Life Savers in the oven. For my wife’s vacation bible school class, they made the week’s theme the stained glass windows in Church of the Redeemer. After seeing the windows of this Sarasota Bay church, the kids took cookies and topped them with “stained glass” chips [...]

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Tags: Candy

Reviving a Brand: Eight Tips from Hawaii Five-O

August 9th, 2010 · 2 Comments

HONOLULU – Bringing back something as iconic as Hawaii Five-O is a major challenge. There is enormous love for the old, so you don’t want to change it up too much. But you don’t want to mimic the old too closely, which would desecrate the original, and obviate the reason for doing the redux in [...]

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Tags: Media

No Sink Smog With Bab-O

August 8th, 2010 · No Comments

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Babo Cleanser 1951 Uploaded by DwightFrye. – Watch feature films and entire TV shows. CHICAGO – Back in the 1950s, Bab-O was one of the top bathroom and kitchen cleansers. Today, the cleanser is distributed by Fitzpatrick Brothers of Chicago. The brand shows up at assorted variety and specialty stores. Just below, the current packaging, [...]

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Tags: News

Old South Watermelon Rind Pickle. Sweet.

August 6th, 2010 · 2 Comments

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ALMA, Arkansas – Each summer, my grandmother in Somers, Virginia would save the watermelon rinds after we ate watermelon on the patio of the farmhouse. I never could understand it; you want to eat the flesh, but the rind? Bitter! That was until I tasted watermelon rind pickle. Yes, they were watermelon rinds, and they [...]

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Tags: Grocery · Regional Brands

Tame Conditioner Returns As Frizz Tamer

August 4th, 2010 · 6 Comments

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The original conditioner, Tame, is back on the shelves as a house brand at Dollar Tree. On the back, it has “Distributed by Dollar Tree” so you know its an exclusive. The use of Tame as a store brand is part of a recent trend of retailers licensing old lower-tier brands that have some shelf [...]

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Tags: Health and Beauty

Amoco In Australia

August 3rd, 2010 · No Comments

With all the discussion of whether the Amoco brand might come back in the States, we thought it would be good to remind folks that the brand was much larger than the U.S. A bit of news. If you plug Amoco into Google, it seems that BP is now calling itself BP Amoco in a [...]

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Tags: Advertising

Seven Seas Search Is Over

August 3rd, 2010 · 2 Comments

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Kraft apparently has some new versions of their Seven Seas sub-brand on the shelves. On a recent visit to Publix, we spied these new shelf entries for Seven Seas. The logo makes the familiar Kraft oval less prominent than the “Seven Seas” triangle. A fairly nice approach to preserving the legacy and goodwill of an [...]

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Tags: Grocery