Okay, I can’t look at the ads for Lipton’s BRISK without feeling a sort of weird cognitive dissonance.
They’re going for a “tough,” and “cool” thing, I guess. “Dear Thirst: BITE ME!” “Dear Thirst: GO SUCK A LEMON!”) It’s like they product should be called BRUSQUE. Whatever.
The thing is, I can’t see Lipton’s BRISK without thinking of Mary, the Lipton Tea Lady, from the sponsorship moments on the old Inner Sanctum radio series. In case you’re not an OTR type, the Lipton Tea Lady was a surrealisticly exaggerated Generic Homemaker, deliberately set as a humorous counterpoint to the morbid “Crypt-keeper” styled host. “Brisk” was her watchword:
Anyway, those old ads are so ingrained in my brain that I can’t quite get my head around the new direction in which Lipton’s is trying to take “BRISK.” Well, that and that the product is sweetened tea for crying out loud. All the macho posturing and rough angular fonts in the world can do little to change the fact that it’s a little bit sissy.
“It’s Brisk!” Hee hee.
Anyway, anyone know of any other marketing histories that stand out for the distance between the original and current concepts? I mean besides LUX/Lever 2000 – heh heh.
Lands’ End began as a sailing-gear catalog, with clothing being a small part of their line. They became a huge seller of sportswear and housewares. Now, they’re a subsidiary of Sears. The misplaced apostrophe was a printer’s error in the first catalog. It was a lucky break, as there were 5 other firms called Land’s End. So, they kept the mistake.
Radio Shack was a hobbyist’s store, where you could buy resistors and transistors, so you could make your own gee-whiz electronic doodads. If you didn’t know a microfarrad from a thermistor, you had never heard of Radio Shack. Now, it’s a leading purveyor of cell phones, monster car speakers and zoomy toys.
There’s a bit in Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley where he’s outfitting his little camper and he sings the praises to everybody of his clever little camp stove that he got from Abercrombie and Fitch. Makes me snicker every time.
My mom said that back in her day, Camel cigarettes were marketed as THE toughest, roughest, knock-you-on-your-butt cigarette. So she was surprised that in the 90’s, they’d managed to morph into the weenie teenie cigarette of choice (due to their infuriatingly youth-oriented Joe Camel campaign) and gained the reputation amongst the smokin’-after-school set for being a smoother, milder cigarette.
Bayer aspirin - trusted, non-generic Bayer Aspirin, just like mother took for her headache. Oh, by the way, they make a good bug killer, too. Complete with the famous “Bayer” in a cross within a circle trademark.
What about Volkswagen. They used to be cheap affordable cars. Now they’re making the Phaeton, a sixty-four thousand dollar VeeDub! Do they really think someone shopping for a Mercedes or BMW will cross-shop a Volkswagen?
Yeah, and they’re rapidly moving away from their hobby store roots in favor of cell phones/internet/home theater stuff. Just try getting components there these days. Where once there were walls covered with blister packs of resistors, capacitors, and op-amps, they now have a much reduced stock in disceet little drawers.
The Radio Shacks I’ve been to around T.O. still have the Walls O’ Components.
When I was in electronics school, though, we quickly learned to buy our components at real electronics stores, like Active Components and Electrosonic, and pay much better prices.
RS was good though for those emergency resistor needs on Saturday afternoon before a project deadline though… though we always said of RS: “When they’re good, they’re great, and when they’re bad, they’re terrible.”
For obvious reasons VW is a lot more visible here and they ceased to be “cheap” long ago. Within the same company that niche is filled by Skoda and Seat. Those cars often share a common platform with more expensive VW models. While VW still sells huge numbers they have become the brand for people who are willing to pay for quality.
Another German car maker who changed in recent years is Audi. The used to make the most boring age-65-and-over cars on the market but some years ago they decided to get a “dynamic” premium image and started to make cars like the TT.
That reminds me – Tandy became associated with 'em because they were trying to appeal to a broader spectrum of hobbyists. (They used to be strictly leathercraft supplies, no ghetto electronics.) The late lamented Coleco also had its roots in leather goods (COlorado LEather COmpany,) then specialized in leather toys, and naturally shifted over to electronic toys when they became the going thing.
