# Most ridiculous brand extension **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 15, 2019, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163 "2019-03-15T02:29:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/21 "2019-03-15T18:11:31Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Back in the mid 1970s, Kraft had a line of flavored peanut butters that bombed, terribly. > > Except at our house. The at-time stepmother was an executive assistant @ Kraft and she brought home the worst peanut butter ever conceived by the hand of man, and refused to buy more until we at all of it. The banana-flavored PB. The chocolate-flavored PB. The strawberry-flavored PB. > > Ugh. ‘Koogle’, wasn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/22 "2019-03-15T18:18:15Z")
Coke (and Pepsi for that matter) with cherry coke, vanilla coke, lemon coke, lime coke and perhaps some other oddballs. Not that any one was really that good, but carried the coke name, so get placement. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/23 "2019-03-15T18:20:22Z")
> [@VOW](#): > > “Improving” is often a gigantic bust! > > The idiotic idea that Coca-Cola needed “improving” has got to be the worst-ever marketing decision! After weeks of screaming by consumers, the Powers That Be firmly clamped their tails between their legs and brought back original Coke. > > There was a brief period of schizophrenia with “New Coke” and “Classic Coke.” > > I want to stand on my soapbox and scream, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” > ~VOW I don’t disagree, but in the end, I wonder if this wasn’t a net gain for them. “Coca-Cola Classic” is a phrase that was entered into the American Lexicon because of this and a rather clever marketing campaign. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/24 "2019-03-15T18:21:04Z")
Holy shit, that’s it! Yeah, they stopped making it pretty soon (a few years) after launch, and Betty 2 (stepmom) brought cases of the shit home one day. I took to making PB sandwiches and immediately throwing them away, my only goal to make it through that shit as fast as possible. Took months. God, it was just crap. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/25 "2019-03-15T18:23:30Z")
The most extreme one that I know of is that my mom’s canning jars were made by the same company as the Hubble Space Telescope’s optics. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/26 "2019-03-15T18:38:40Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Maybe not, but I know a few farmers, and there’s quite a bit of brand loyalty for farming equipment. I figure that the toys are there to start building brand loyalty among potential future farmers. Indeed. My first 11 years were in a tiny farming community in Illinois, where some kids wanted toy versions of the equipment they saw every day. One of my friends had a John Deere pedal tractor. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/27 "2019-03-15T19:42:09Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Back in the mid 1970s, Kraft had a line of flavored peanut butters that bombed, terribly. > > Except at our house. The at-time stepmother was an executive assistant @ Kraft and she brought home the worst peanut butter ever conceived by the hand of man, and refused to buy more until we at all of it. The banana-flavored PB. The chocolate-flavored PB. The strawberry-flavored PB. > > Ugh. Remember the alternative-colored margarine from a few years ago? Pink, blue, that kind of thing, allegedly to appeal to children? Nope, that didn’t work. Food pantries and homeless shelters said they wouldn’t take it either, so IIRC the companies ended up using it as animal feed. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/28 "2019-03-15T20:41:14Z")
Jim Beam has come out with a line of bourbon-flavored barbecue sauces and promotes them to the extent that I have seen them listed on restaurant menus. I like a good tangy or (to a limited extent) hot barbecue sauce, but don’t really crave “a lick of bourbon” in it. > [@VOW](#): > > “Improving” is often a gigantic bust!..I want to stand on my soapbox and scream, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” Obviously you have no future in computer software. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/29 "2019-03-15T21:45:18Z")
> [@Dag\_Otto](#): > > This phenomenon is what bought us the pretzel M&M, so I am all for it. Those things are so good. Speaking of M&Ms… I saw a commercial the other day for an M&M _candy bar_ – a chocolate bar with (chunks of) M&Ms embedded in it. Wasn’t the whole idea behind M&Ms in the first place that you wouldn’t get chocolate all over your hands from eating a chocolate bar? I guess that ship has sailed. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/30 "2019-03-15T23:32:46Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The most extreme one that I know of is that my mom’s canning jars were made by the same company as the Hubble Space Telescope’s optics. “Goodness gracious, but this lid just will _not_ fit on here!” ---
**Author:** ![Caldris\_bal\_Comar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce7236/32.png) [@Caldris\_bal\_Comar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caldris_bal_Comar)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/31 "2019-03-16T00:04:13Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > A new combine can cost $250,000 and up, while a heavy duty tractor can run $100,000. Ain’t no toy that’s going to convince a farmer to choose Deere over Case. Sure, but the toys are more likely to convince the suburban parents to buy John Deere lawn tractors for their lawns. And I’m sure Deere gets a cut of price of the toy anyway in licensing, so they win all around. Also I think your estimates of equipment costs are out of date; used machines will go for at least those prices these days. The biggest tractors have broken the half-million dollar mark new. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/32 "2019-03-16T00:42:12Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The most extreme one that I know of is that my mom’s canning jars were made by the same company as the Hubble Space Telescope’s optics. The primary mirror for the Hubble telescope was made by Perkin-Elmer, which was, at the time, owned by Hughes Aircraft, which was in turn owned by General Motors. So one joke was the mirror was made by a company whose main products included mirrors with, “Warning: Objects in mirror are closer than they appear” (referring of course to the side view mirrors in GM vehicles). ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/33 "2019-03-16T01:55:16Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > The primary mirror for the Hubble telescope was made by Perkin-Elmer, which was, at the time, owned by Hughes Aircraft, which was in turn owned by General Motors. Some 40 years ago, Armour & Company (you know, the hot dog & Hormel chili people) was owned by Greyhound. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/34 "2019-03-16T02:08:30Z")
I do remember one summer when Jello went crazy and came out with cotton candy, root beer, and some flavour full of blue dye that turned stool green. I don’t recall (thankfully) flavoured peanut butter. But in addition to chocolate milk syrup — there was a time when strawberry and banana milks were popular. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/35 "2019-03-16T02:14:46Z")
Didn’t Heinz ketchup come in weird colors a few years ago? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/36 "2019-03-16T02:19:01Z")
Remember green catsup? I mean, it kind of made sense, inasmuch as people have been known to do things with green tomatoes (we has a fantastic spicy pickled green tomato appetizer at a cajun place in Shreveport). Then they decided, _why stop at green, let’s go **purple**!_ Now there is only red. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/37 "2019-03-16T03:31:46Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > — there was a time when strawberry and banana milks were popular. I have never seen banana milk – that sounds like it might be good – but you can get strawberry milk in the usual convenience-store places in Toronto. I do remember seeing blueberry milk briefly. It didn’t last. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/38 "2019-03-16T04:04:56Z")
> [@VOW](#): > > “Improving” is often a gigantic bust!..I want to stand on my soapbox and scream, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” The market geniuses will shout right back: “If it ain’t broke, fix it 'til it is!” ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/39 "2019-03-16T04:21:23Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > I do remember one summer when Jello went crazy and came out with cotton candy, root beer, and some flavour full of blue dye that turned stool green. > > I don’t recall (thankfully) flavoured peanut butter. But in addition to chocolate milk syrup — there was a time when strawberry and banana milks were popular. I’ve seen strawberry- and banana-flavored milks recently. I’ve ever seen “Chocolate Mint Eggnog” which I heard was very good. My brother and his wife tried those fruit-flavored milks on their younger daughter until they finally realized that she just plain old doesn’t like milk. Yamaha makes motorcycles AND musical instruments. That’s also quite a stretch. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/40 "2019-03-16T05:24:42Z")
There was this beverage, years ago, named after the part of a blade that fits inside the handle. They started out with the orange flavor and marketed it using astronauts. Then they added grape and grapefruit flavors. I think the orange flavor is still around, but the others are long gone. (For some reason, when I was a teenager, I would buy the grape flavor and eat the powder right out of the jar. I did not like the grape beverage, but the powder was addictive) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163.md?page=3)