But the card is missing any connection to the Barclays brand, and the bank’s iconic eagle has disappeared in favor of a sort of Blue Snake Orb (see image in collage at far right.) The snake orb is placed on a dreary gray backdrop that looks far more like some sort of TSA checkpoint badge than a smart, hip credit card for world travelers.

The problem is that the card’s whole graphic program makes it look like one of those cheapie banks from somewhere you’ve never heard of high borrowing rates, lots of tricks with fees and an awful logo, all wrapped up in an ugly graphic package that screams Community College InDesign project. That’s a shame, because the credit card is usually the most visible part of a bank. Even if it made little money for the back, the card is what everybody sees. The merchant, the cashier, the customer; they all have to handle the piece of plastic.

The card and the logo they are pushing looks nothing like what a Barclaycard should look like (see front of card here). In the states, we don’t have the history of Barclays like the U.K. and Commonwealth. Nevertheless, amongst people who travel (a target market for Barclaycard Arrival), that market does know Barclays, including that iconic eagle, and the Barclays Center is of course known to Brooklynites and sports fans. Barclaycard comes from the same vintage and era as James Bond, John Player Specials, Aston Martin and the Austin Mini Metro.

Such a missed opportunity. Even worse, the card is a MasterCard, and the Barclaycard was always associated with Visa, hence the blue and burnt yellow stripes. Questions. Why can’t a signature be on the front? Why not the eagle? Why not the stripes? Above all, why make it look like it is something right out of the Left Behind movie series? Of course, part of the issue with the previous version colors is that they are the old BankAmericard colors, but the issue is the orb, not the coloring.

Financially, this new version will do fine; credit cards are all about usury these days anyway. What is being missed is an opportunity to improve the overall Barclays brand, which has been tarnished severely. This is unfortunate, as the ONE think folks trust(ed) the British for is their banking.

Back in the late 80s, I remember an American who loved all things British. Somehow, and through some sort of banking relationship and extended trip, he scored a British Barclaycard, and was quite proud to pop it out in the U.S. to impress folks as he paid lunch checks. And it did impress. Just as snazzy as a B.A. Concorde, a Range Rover or a Barbour jacket, the Barclaycard spoke British, but was even more impressive because it spoke upper middle class (not nouveaux) British, so there was a bit of reverse snob appeal in the appeal.

That certainly wouldn’t be the case today.

The social theorist and urban planner Andres Duany a few years ago gave a talk on “male” space in the American household. Male space has pretty much disappeared; the den, once male, became a family room, and then became housebroken. Homeowners associations will fine you for leaving the garage door open in some subdivisions. In many new build houses, garages are trimmed out with drywall, closing up the framing. This means that walls, which were once studded and could be easily turned into workshops, instead become sanitized.

Above is a Youtube of the talk; the beginning is slightly faded but the video quality gets better as it moves along.

Of course, since that talk, the so-called “man cave” has blossomed, but the man-cave is really about a male caricature, and is centered on consumption, namely beer and sports, rather than doing, building, repairing and yard work. A man cave is a far cry from dad’s workshop, where one might actually have the freedom to build something, get dirty and create.

During the talk, Duany remarked on the popularity of the Harley Davidson. Many Japanese brands, all packaged, come with all the parts, closed in. There is nothing to do with them. Contrast that with Harley. “There is a constant need to take it apart,” says Duany. “That’s where the magic of the Harley comes in.”

Some brands do specialize in add-on parts. The biggest brand of “parts” is perhaps Lego, which has a following among boys, more than girls. For girls, American Girl and Barbie are the biggest sellers of “parts” even though there is little that you do with them that is practical.

Of the adult brands, Apple is sort of all about “parts” as its products allow different add-ons and apps, which can change the nature of the product and make it fit the individuals needs. That’s ironic because there is very little you can do inside an Apple iPhone; it pretty much is what it is. Camera makers also encourage add-ons, with new lenses and the like as important part of the brand experience. Some furniture makers also encourage modularity; for instance Ethan Allen was known for selling furniture that you could add to as you went along.

What other brands could specialize in parts, pieces and add ons? Certainly, most car manufacturers cater to customizers, some like GM more than others, though Jeep is very high on the list. Tool brands are also purchased in pieces. And women’s craft brands, such as Dritz and Singer, capitalize on the fact that once you have started with a basic product, you might want to keep adding onto it. You can get a start with an inexpensive starter item, and keep adding as you become proficient in the skill.

One of the most notable modular products was the Sears Jon Boat, pictured at right in the 1986 Centennial catalog. In its smallest form, it could be purchased for $379. It was a classic entry level product that parents could afford for their boys, and it had practical uses for dads, as well as an all around knockaround boat.

In its basic form, it had oarlocks, so you didn’t even have to have an engine. If you purchased the boat, all of a sudden there were dozens of extras that had to be purchased, but happily, it could still be used on its own. The Jon boat also promoted the outdoors, and fit with the Boy Scouts supplier business that Sears was once famous for. Other lines like Sears Yachtsman, Gamefisher and Die Hard were promoted with the boat, the latter being an electric motor sold for $129.

Sometime after 1986, the Jon boat was discontinued; today a version of it is still made by Alumacraft, the ultra basic model 1036.

Today, Sears has VAST acres of empty space at their stores, particularly in the areas that were once reserved for tools and such. A few boats might jazz up the scene, and fit with their Lands End franchise. Or perhaps Sears might think of what other modular products might help them in their search to reinvent themselves?

Educational institutions, too, have the issue of what to do with old versions of their brand.

The Collegiate School, a Richmond private day school, has done an innovative thing with a 1920s version of their old logo. They have brought it back and used it as the graphic identity for their Centennial Campaign.

The logo was used by the girls school when it was on Richmond’s historic Monument Avenue back in the 1920s. The old logo, seen at right, has a Deco feel, and looks amazingly hip for something 100 years old. Today, it looks fresh and new. The logo uses the school’s green and gold colors, so it appears to fit with the current look quite well. Even better, it will probably sell well at the gift shop.

It’s a smart move by V/P of Advancement Amanda Surgner and Director of Communications Elizabeth Cogar Batty.

The  Centennial Campaign will revamp the campus, a happy suburban mix of 1950s modernism and Virginia colonial materials, courtesy of the late Virginia architect Alan McCullough. The campaign graphic mailers pay homage to that history with an archival photos of the school construction.

The issue contrasts with Virginia Commonwealth University, also of Richmond, which recently dumped its early 1970s logo only a few years after it obliterated the name of Medical College of Virginia. MCV was one of Virginia’s most esteemed institutions, and it continued the use of the name by calling it the “MCV Campus” of VCU and calling it “MCV Hospitals and Physicians” when it does billing and collections. How nice. At least it kept the brand around.

Miami Dolphins will also have an old version of the logo, if they go ahead with changing their famed logo around.

The question for legacy institutions? What sort of old graphic ideas do you have in your attic, ready to be dusted off, to raise money and interest with donors?

Swim Buoy, founded in 1955 by Jack L. Brasington, Sr., was not a maker of life preservers. Instead, they were to help a child float and learn to swim.

In the last few decades, other methods became popular, including the floation devices that you remove strips from the side gradually as the child learns to swim. There is also the gruesome “throw in the water” immersion method, which somehow seems about as charming as water childbirth.

But the best was the Swim Buoy bubble float. It was best because it made the child swim and move about to keep its head above water, in a sense training the child to swim without knowing it.

Today, the Swim Buoy is still made, and by a small company in Miami. On their website, they show archival photos of children with the Swim Buoy. It’s still a fashion statement, and comes in clever, snazzy patterns, so that parents can feel hip about it.

We found a 1955 advertisement for a Swim Buoy. The item then was described as a “kapok” Swim Buoy, kapok being the tropical cotton type fabric used in life preservers. Kapok, which is derived from the kapok or ceiba tree, is native to South America, and is a waterproof silky cotton substance that was often used for pillows and flotation before petrochemicals.
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Launched in the 1920′s, the Weekly Reader name is synonymous with America, education and a sort of wholesome, fair account of the day’s news. Weekly Reader fits a sort of Americana of nice, peaceful schools with desks lined up in rows and students discussing the news events of the day in an unbiased, thoughtful way.

Weekly Reader comes from an era when educators took students seriously; throught the 20th century there were very intelligent publications for children including National Geographic’s School Bulletin and Junior Scholastic, also published by Scholastic. But by the 1970s, things got jiggy, including Scholastic’s Dynamite, which really was mostly a slick promotion for ABC television shows like Welcome Back Kotter.

This heralded the current era, when Scholastic is now selling all sorts of Hollywood-branded gifts and books to kids, most of which have little educational value except that they get kids to sit down in read. I guess it could be worse. I believe a Hannah Montana or Miley Cyrus book that came home one day from the Scholastic bookstore was a sort of low.

By middle school, educators began offering student subscriptions to national magazines like Newsweek, which had special teacher programs.

Looking back, Dynamite was great fun (my favorite, along with the intellectual Cricket), but it was not great educator. National Geographic dumbed down their approach in the 1970s, from the intelligent School Bulletin to World, which better reflected the times, but was a much lower appoach. World recently disappeared, as well, I believe replaced by the publication National Geographic Kids.

But back to Weekly Reader. After a long string of owners including Xerox, it fell into the inept hands of the management of Reader’s Digest, where it withered.

Last year, the operation was shut down, and the goodwill and name were purchased by Scholastic.

There was some discussion that Weekly Reader had disappeared, and indeed the staff was let go. But great brands do not die, and Scholastic keeps using the Weekly Reader brand.

Scholastic would do well to emphasize Weekly Reader, and de-emphasize Scholastic, making Scholastic the corporate brand, and Weekly Reader the product brand. The Scholastic brand gets plenty of exposure elsewhere. With the internet, and separated from Scholastic ever so slightly but still under the Scholastic umbrella, it could become a credible force in bringing a new sense of current events to a new generation of children. Plus, to keep the brand truly valuable, Scholastic must actually use it.

Let’s hope they do more with the brand than stick it at the top of their old products, and then wait for a day when a graphic designer needs some extra room, and suddenly, the Weekly Reader brand disappears.

One of the best-known toothpaste brands of the 20th century is still around, sort of.

The toothpaste brand, which in Turkey is as well-known as Colgate or Crest, is a forgotten footnote, and has been on and off the market in the U.S. for decades. Today, it is still hard to find, though a version is still made in Canada. Currently, the brand is owned by the Canadian medical supply company Maxill, which purchased the brand from Chicago’s River West Brands in October, 2009.

Ipana dates from 1901, and was one of the first products of Bristol-Myers, along with the mineral laxative Sal-Hepetica.

Ipana was one of the early products sold on radio, where the Ipana Troubadors were a fixture on the NBC Red and Blue networks. The band was led by Lester Lanin’s brother , Sam. In the 1940s, it was a sponsor of the radio show Time to Smile, which helped to restart Eddie Cantor’s career after he denounced the anti-semitic Catholic priest Father Charles Coughlin. The group included Dave Grupp, who apparently played xylophones and trumpet, according to old Billboard magazines. Laura Lee’s book Name’s Familiar says the brand was a best-seller from 1936 to 1945.

Heavily advertised, baby boomers remember the brand’s television era and its Bucky the Beaver ads, which were apparently animated by Disney. The brand was advertised as being “ammoniated to reduce tooth decay” and containing chlorophyll. Bucky was chased around by DK-1, an evil decay germ. Both were very well done characters and quite entertaining.

In 1961, the brand, still owned by Bristol-Myers, introduced a version with “Hexa-Flouride” but pressure from Crest and Colgate helped to doom it. In 1968, Bristol-Myers stopped producing. However, in late 1969, two enterprising Minnesotans named Elliott Royce and John Howe picked up the abandoned trademark and started producing it again. But it went fallow yet again. In 2002, River West Brands of Chicago filed for the trademark; the USPTO has the revived brand’s first use in commerce in October of 2005. Even today, it is not on U.S. grocery shelves, though it is available on Amazon and at other specialty stores.

It’s actually pretty tasty; the current Canadian manufacturer Maxill sells to dentists mostly so the wintergreen taste very much makes you feel as if you have been to the dentist when you use it.

Simply titled “I Am Not a Brand,” the post, also in audio, appears on his blog Ben Luckinblog. It asks the question that doesn’t get asked very often, namely if we really need “any more crap.”

I wonder how many others feel that way?

Writes Luckinbill:

“I’m not an event-driven out-of-box experience for the aspirational ages. I’m not a product to be placed, pushed, soft launched, hard launched, or focus-grouped after a power lunch. I’m more than the sum of my metrics, my likes, my rates of converting, bouncing, clicking-through, or my number of $%^&$ “followers”.

I’m not some multiple hyphenate jingoistic bit of chintz pushed by the Middle Man Class onto the perceived-to-be irrational great unwashed mass who don’t need any more crap in their tiny apartments; let alone another dollar they owe racking up 100% interest on a mountain of debt unlikely to be climbed or collected, only leveraged to buy food and pay the electric, and maybe buy a few Snuggies™ off the TV for when they shut off the heat.”

Notice it’s not a critique of things, just dumb things.

While I don’t hate capitalism or consumerism (they both just are facts of life, in my book), his critique about the way we are running our culture I think makes a point, and the bit about Snuggies and high-usury credit cards is quite devastating.

The subhead to the blog mentions “the fact that we live in the future and it’s insane.”

Ouch.

Yes we do, and yes it is. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BenLuckinbill.

As the next century arrived, calendars and rulers were distributed to remind customers of business. The real push for the promotional industry, however, came in the late 19th century from printer owner Jasper Meek. He approached local store Cantwell Shoes with a terrific idea to boost awareness and sales for his brand. Meek suggested imprinting the message “Buy Cantwell Shoes” on school bags and distributing them among students. The idea was a big hit and several other American firms began to imprint their logo and message on items to highlight their brand.

Today, American companies cannot do without promotional products that feature their logo or brand. Whether it is corporate gifts, tradeshow giveaways or customer appreciation items, promotional products is the way to go.

Among the top promotional product firms in the USA is Promo Direct, which has been around for more than 20 years. Promo Direct has developed a long-standing relationship with hundreds of American business owners, delivery quality giveaways comprising apparel, electronics, educational, stationery, bags and outdoor products.

Head over to www.promodirect.com to explore the variety of giveaways on offer – you will be surprised with their quality and prices. Call them at 1-800-748-6150 or email info@promodirect.com

About Promo Direct: 

Promo Direct was founded in 1991 by Dave Sarro, an internet-based entrepreneur. Over the past two decades, Dave has led ably to bring Promo Direct to the forefront of the promotional industry. Today, Dave is a distinguished personality in the world of promotional products – his insights and knowledge on the industry are second to none. Originally based in Torrance, California, Promo Direct is currently based in Henderson, Nevada. At Promo Direct, 931 American Pacific Dr. Suite 100 Henderson, NV 89014. Visit them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PromoDirect or Twitter at https://twitter.com/PromoDirect.

In 1985, when I took out my first (and only) credit card, – I spent the entire $1,000 limit on the same day, in a Carroll Reed store in northern New Hampshire. I had a new job and needed clothes, and what a beautiful, classic wardrobe I bought — two jackets (one tweed), three skirts, two slacks, two sweater vests, two sweaters, two blouses, in particular — beautiful shades of grey and muted light and darker seafoam and teal.

The words I would use to describe their merchandise are conservative, fine fabrics and tailoring, classic, beautiful. All qualities that have been intentionally thrown out in today’s utterly debauched America.

It illustrates a couple of points. First, that consumer credit isn’t bad, if you get something good. Secondly, it shows up the value of fine tailoring and classic looks. The question now is where are the brands and retailers that illustrate these old principles?

I wanted to ask the question afresh…I am not sure, and I am hoping some readers can help.

For brands in 2013, change it up, but don’t change it at all. Keep your brand the same, but switch it up a bit to keep it fresh.

That is easier said than done, as to one person, “change” is good and to another, you ruin the product by changing anything.

So many brands miss it here. The Miami Dolphins are considering changing their logo. Why oh why? Campbell’s changes its soup labels. Why oh why?

One way to think about this issue is to look at music. Above, and through the wonder of Facebook, I found a just posted blurry piano rendition of Andy Connell of Swing Out Sister playing “Auld Lang Syne.” Frankly, the song has become too much of a cliche; even thought its great, you sort of associate it with having to be near drunk people you don’t like. But the above version is pretty nifty, and that is to be expected from a musician like Connell. It’s actually got me liking the old song again.

Auld Lang Syne is a perfect metaphor for the old brand name; it’s long, long since its prime and it’s filled with memory and history, but little else.

This relates directly to brands. Below, a few ways to freshen brands without ruining the original, taking inspiration from Connell’s version.

1. Keep the melody the same. Always keep the product aligned with the original writer and composer’s instructions. You don’t have to follow things exactly, but you need to stay within the parameters of the original author, and what people expect. You need to deliver the old melody.
2. Add riffs. In the above version, Connell adds some jazz flourishes that bridge verses. This is a way to make a new brand fresh, adding new features, but keeping the original “tune” intact so the reference point doesn’t get lost.
3. Change up the key. While the melody is the same, playing the song in a new key helps to make the song sound fresher without alienating fans. So perhaps a temporary tweak of packaging, then back to the original? That makes the product look fresh, but then lets the consumer back into the comfort zone.
4. Keep the words the same. Be careful when you mess with any new wording. That’s a danger area. In this case, there was no singing, and that made it new.
5. Find new chords: The melody, the structure, always has to stay the same for people to enjoy a classic product. But new chords added to a song allow you to experience the product in a new way. In the case of a consumer brand, perhaps you add products that relate to the original, but don’t change it.
6. Consider a tempo change. Part of the genius of the above version is that the tempo gives it some variety. In the case of a consumer product brand, the parallel might be in delivery and distribution. Maybe the product doesn’t change at all, but the method or speed of delivery does? That makes a brand “new” without making a change to it.
7. Strip it down. Here, the song gets taken back to a simple piano version. No words, no other instruments, just a piano. When a brand gets cluttered and annoying, perhaps taking it back to the original allows consumers to see the brand fresh again?

Just some thoughts for the New Year. Meantime, don’t screw up your brand in 2013.

LONDON

Or so said the guy on the Chevy Malibu commercial, part of the long pop legacy of that quintessentially 1980s band Spandau Ballet. This month, the British band launched a “Fan Archive Appeal” to dig into attics and closets for historic audio and visual content related to it.

Writing on the Spandau website spandauballet.com, the band said it is “trawling our archives” for photos, interviews, video and audio, including radio interviews, video clips and other materials for the history of the group. It’s sort of an obvious move, but its surprising how few bands actually do it in such an open way.

Almost all musical acts go through ups and downs in their careers; gathering up the history is a way to make the past current. Particularly for pre-digital artists, archives are harder to come by as photos and recording was far more difficult. Because of YouTube, many of these bands are actually “current” as they have songs on YouTube with millions of views, though probably not as many as Rick Astley.

But with the price of a URL, free WordPress and cheap hosting, they can easily begin to gather the information in one central place. This has the effect of allowing the music brand to control its story, rather than Wikipedia or fan sites. Entertainers in particular should not rely on record labels for this work; very often a musician has switched labels over the years and material is often scattered in many places. In addition, older acts on backlist don’t have large marketing budgets, so little gets done.

The Grateful Dead were the first to utilize a fan-centric, bottom-up strategy, allowing “tapers” to bring their cassette recorders to concerts to preserve each version of the performance. Tapers would trade versions of concerts; because the Dead played different sets and riffs at each performance, each one was unique. This approach helped the Dead weather the 1970s, when they were out of fashion but fans continued to flock to performances. In fact, the Dead never really had hits, but instead succeeded by staying close to customers. Dave Matthews and others continued it, though in both cases fans are only allowed to trade and cannot sell recordings.

Part of U.K. Pop History

Spandau was one of the “Blitz Kids” or “New Romantic” bands that came out of Britain’s punk scene, re-interpreting classic British and movie looks for a post-punk era. Inspired by David Bowie and Bryan Ferry, they flourished as British culture careened from Mod to Futurism to Glam to Punk. British social critic Peter York (of Sloane Ranger fame) says one genesis for the trend was an Essex County, England nightclub called Goldmine on Canvey Island that had punk kids dressing up and dancing to Glenn Miller, Earth Wind & Fire and Ohio Players. (Sidenote: Lead singer Tony Hadley, still a singer and now a brewer, is apparently actually an admirer of Thatcher.)

The band is looking for anything relating to its “unique story and history” (though we hope the annoying P.M. Dawn remix gets left out). They write on their site:

Have you got any interesting or rare photos, videos or audio of the band? It can be from any stage of the band’s career, but the older the better! For example, maybe you filmed a live show that you attended from the Parade tour in 1984 or made a VHS recording of the band backstage at a TV show or at a fan signing session in 1982? Do you have any audio interviews taken from the radio on cassette? Did you snap the guys without them knowing in the studio or in a public place?

Spandau will be posting the found archives, and crediting fans with what they have collected. All folks have to to is send their info to Gary Kemp, Martin Kemp, Steve Norman (saxophone), John Keeble and lead singer Tony Hadley at spandauarchiveappeal@gmail.com.

In the meantime, take a listen to this happy new version of True from 2009. Nice to see a band that dresses and acts its age.

]]> http://www.brandlandusa.com/2012/12/31/deadhead-spin-on-spandau-ballet-music-history/feed/ 0 http://www.brandlandusa.com/2012/12/14/brands-this-u-s-a-christmas/ http://www.brandlandusa.com/2012/12/14/brands-this-u-s-a-christmas/#comments Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:59:32 +0000 Garland Pollard http://www.brandlandusa.com/?p=3567 Nearly every consumer brand gets some play around Christmas, yet some brands are more distinctly associated with Christmas than others. Below, some posts from BrandlandUSA directly relating to Christmas, which is both a religious holiday and a secular consumer tradition. Below, some of the stories in no particular order. Christmas List of Surviving Downtown Department [...]]]> Nearly every consumer brand gets some play around Christmas, yet some brands are more distinctly associated with Christmas than others. Below, some posts from BrandlandUSA directly relating to Christmas, which is both a religious holiday and a secular consumer tradition.

Below, some of the stories in no particular order.

1. Christmas List of Surviving Downtown Department Stores: Our roundup of top downtown department stores keeps a running list of the places in the U.S. where people can visit a true downtown department store. Please help us keep this up to date.
2. History of GE Christmas lights. While no longer made by GE and no longer made in the U.S., the inventor of classics like Merry Brites played an important role in our Christmas tradition.
3. Ann Page Fruitcake: People want this brand from A&P, and have loved these cakes for generations.
4. Top Christmas Brands: Connecting your brand to Christmas with Christmas trinkets and promos. Have a Lexus, please, or a Remington Shaver.
5. Coca-Cola: Merry Christmas from Coke, in that famous Hillside Singers commercial. Wonderful Lorri Hafer singing!
6. Regional candy, including Barton’s Candy and Chocolate and Sevigny’s Christmas Ribbon Candy.
7. Shiny Brite Ornaments History. The brand disappeared, but is now back.
8. Heat Miser Returns on ABC Family. Oh so scary from Rankin-Bass. Glenn Beck even said he freaked him out as a kid.
9. Life Savers Sweet Storybook, one of the classics that appear only at Christmas.
10. Rebirth of the FAO Schwarz catalog.
11. CBS, Bring back the Lou Dorfsman Special Intro. A CBS holiday special just isn’t the same without this classic intro.
12. Folger’s: Each year, we get thousands of hits looking for the original Peter in the Folger’s Coffee commercial from the mid-1980s starring Greg Wrangler. See True story of the Folgers “Peter is Home” Commercial

• Big House POS Display of Nabisco: Nabisco, a brand of the oddly named Mondelez International,  is receiving a major Christmas push. For this Christmas season, Mondelez has invested in large point of sale displays that push cocktail time crackers such as Wheat Thins and Sociables. This is a good signal that they understand the need for the Nabisco connected with brands such as Wheat Thins; a few years ago they actually sold a bag of Wheat Thins without the familiar Nabisco red triangle. However, the split does present some problems as Kraft Easy Cheese is branded with the name of the company that was split off.
• Success at A&P: Jane Parker Fruitcakes continue to be a successful holiday promotion for A&P, the struggling grocery retailer. It is proof that older store brands can have some value. The A&P Website now leads visitors to a JaneParker.com website. The success of Jane Parker, which found a big renewed push online in 2009, has shown that the once-great company can succeed by mining its history and repackaging those traditions for a new audience. Can A&P be like Holiday Inn, which went from the market leader to the bottom, and then back up? Yet to be seen. But in the meantime, you can order some Jane Parker cakes online by looking below or visiting our BrandlandUSA history page here. 
• Hostess Replacements:Tastykake and Entenmann’s have quickly moved into and grabbed the shelf space of Hostess as desperate grocers try to find replacements for favorites.
  • Tastykake is selling their own version of Hostess Cupcakes, except that they are frosted upside down, in the style of Richmond’s Sally Bell’s Bakery. This is actually better.
  • Hostess Ho Ho’s already had a replacement in a Little Debbie version.
  • Hostess’ Sweet Sixteen mini white doughnut brand has been replaced by an Entenmann version. Sadly, that brand had been ruined by Hostess when it modernized the package and deleted the Merita brand.
  • We don’t know what’s happening to the storied Drake’s Cakes brand, which is less known nationally but beloved in the Northeast. Oh what has happened to Devil Dogs this Christmas season?
  • And Hostess’ Fruit Pies have also not resurfaced, though they no longer had the store presence of products like Twinkies and Ho Hos.
• Virginia Classic: Dan River, which was once one of the nation’s great textile companies before shutting down, has now resurfaced as a cheap licensed good sold at Big Lots. Pictured here is an inexpensive Fleece Throw. Mercifully, it does say “Since 1876″ to indicate that there is some history there. Sad to see such a great brand reduced to this, but at least the brand is being used and kept alive. This is analogous to Seward Trunks of Petersburg, which was once America’s Louis Vuitton but is now only sold in national retailers, mostly discount.

National Airlines was one of the best-run airlines in the nation, and when it merged into Pan Am in 1980, one of the great airline brands disappeared. If we are making comparisons, it was the Apple Computer of the airline industry; each piece of the airline was designed to the nth detail, and every function of the airline’s graphics and design added up to a consistent whole that was greater than the sum of its parts.

It needed to be a slick operation; it billed itself as the Airline of the Stars and ran routes between California, Florida and the Atlantic Coast.

The airline, when it was purchased, was completely debt free, if I recall properly.

Thankfully, a half-hour video of the airline has surfaced that shows what the airline looked like. While the color is faded and the upload is with a freebie app (words appear on the screen), the film shows the complete operations of National across the U.S. Even more interesting, it has each person mentioned in the film introduce themselves. Unless you worked for National, you wouldn’t know them, though some were slightly well known in their time, such as pilot Skeeter Royal, who did stunts at airshows and was best known for flying a 747 across Miami for the Miami Air Show. Royal was National’s Chief Pilot, and he is midway in the video in half glasses. (Frankly, it’s a cool idea that airlines used to promote individual pilots.)

Back to the video. Quite illuminating is the introduction of the London staff of National. National flew DC-10′s to Europe, and a number of the staff there are introduced. It also show’s the airline’s first flight to Paris in 1977. It also shows the marketing construction of the “Watch us Shine” campaign.

The airline brand resurfaced, but it went bankrupt. The airline’s Sun King logo was also brought back by a charter carrier named Key; I have not seen it used for decades.

The Sun King was designed by Tom Courtos in 1968 and created by the firm Papert, Koenig and Lois, the ad firm that made Maypo famous. Courtos was the designer of the Mello Yello package, and apparently worked for Tom Golden of CBS during the legendary years. The airline’s JFK Terminal, the Sundrome, is seen in the video. The Sundrome, designed by I.M. Pei, was destroyed by the Port Authority. It sat next door to the TWA Flight Center, and two terminals down from the Pan Am WorldPort, which is under threat of demolition.

Do you identify anyone in the video?

To many, the special scent of Sea  & Ski reminds them of wonderful summers, and its absence from the market has saddened many BrandlandUSA readers, who have read about it on the History of Sea & Ski page on the website.

Happily (sort of) the brand, which has been off the market for the last few years, has now resurfaced as a lib balm, sold in counter packages. However, it is just petroleum jelly and some scent. We smelled it and it did not evoke the same nostalgic smell, though we may be missing something and are curious what others think.

The trademark is alive, renewed in 2009. The current version is made under license by Navajo Manufacturing of Denver; Navajo makes small portion health and beauty aids.

To find out about ordering a box from Amazon, click on the Amazon image below. Navajo even makes a cherry version, but a cherry scent defeats the point, right?

If anyone else has found it, please comment below on the smell. I don’t think it is it.