# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/41 "2019-03-16T06:42:16Z")
actually, jif and skippy try flavored PB every so often … one of the better attempts was an apple cinnamon one i remember when Reese’s PB in a jar first came out …every kid who tried it was pissed there wasn’t chocolate in it … ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/42 "2019-03-16T13:21:02Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > 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) Are you talking about Tang? Why would you not name it? And while it might coincidentally look like the metal piece “tang” I don’t think it was “named after” it. It’s from “tangy,” referring to a sour fruity flavor. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/43 "2019-03-16T22:47:12Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > 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) Only in the U.S. They sell many other flavors in other countries. I really want to try the mango sometime. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/44 "2019-03-17T00:13:39Z")
> [@dwyr](#): > > Only in the U.S. They sell many other flavors in other countries. [Also in the US](https://www.walmart.com/search/?cat_id=0&query=tang). ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/45 "2019-03-17T07:42:28Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Yamaha makes motorcycles AND musical instruments. That’s also quite a stretch. The large Japanese conglomerates have been making widely diverse products from before WWII. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/46 "2019-03-17T13:57:13Z")
> [@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 Except the PTB thought ‘old’ Coke _was_ [broken](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/knew-coke/). > [@Snopes](#): > > The early 1980s found Coke teetering on the edge of losing the cola war to Pepsi. The previous fifteen years saw Coca-Cola‘s market share remain flat while Pepsi’s continued to climb. Pepsi was winning in the supermarkets (where shoppers had free rein to choose either beverage), and it was only Coke’s greater availability in restricted markets (such as soda vending machines and fast food outlets) that was keeping its numbers ahead of Pepsi’s. (Coke’s market share had been shrinking for decades, from 60% just after World War II to under 24% in 1983.) In blind taste tests people preferred the taste of the new Coke formula (Basically Diet Coke with HFCS replacing the artificial sweeteners) over the traditional formula _and_ the hated rival. What they then discovered was that advertising works; generations of building brand loyalty overcame what people really liked. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/47 "2019-03-17T14:59:04Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > At least the examples you cite are variations on the original product. John Deere (you may have seen their green farm equipment) has a line of [toys.](https://www.johndeerestore.com/jdb2cstorefront/JohnDeereStore/en/John-Deere-products/Toys/c/Toys) John Deere has made toy tractors for a heck of a long time. Dennis ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/48 "2019-03-17T15:15:46Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Marketers have long realized the “power” of extending a product line by adding new flavours, healthier versions, or making other minor changes. This gives the product more shelf space and presumably increases sales. > > I used to like to grocery shop in the US. Occasionally you would see a WTF item like bubble gum flavoured dog chews. > > But it can be taken to extremes. I like plain flavoured Triscuits. Nice with cheese. Few ingredients. Even slightly more fibre than some crackers. > > Then they came out with “ThinCrisps” and “Organic Triscuit” ($2 more) which are essentially similar to the original. Then one chemically-tasting flavour after another - Gouda, avocado, black pepper, rosemary… I think they have at least 10 flavours. They take up lots of space and only the original ones seem to be perpetually sold out or have just a few boxes left. … and the one and only flavor that is heads & shoulders _better_ than the original (and vastly superior to all those echemical-tasting flavours) is RYE Triscuits. And they’re annoyingly hard to find. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/49 "2019-03-17T16:08:55Z")
> [@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 [All She Called About](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NnzV-2DzxTU) If you are unfamiliar with Negativland’s brilliant _Dispepsi_ recording, an entire album searing of marketing and consumerism all based on soda/Pepsi/Coke commercials and the idiocy surrounding them, then look it up. Possibly their finest work. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/50 "2019-03-17T16:30:49Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > But in addition to chocolate milk syrup — there was a time when strawberry and banana milks were popular. I’ve seen strawberry and banana liquid yoghurt (which ok, if they say it’s yoghurt I’ll believe it) all over Western Europe, most recently this morning in Normandy. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/51 "2019-03-17T16:47:55Z")
I collect breakfast cereals, and the number of bizarre variations is incredible. Most recently for National Cereal Day (March 7), Honey Bunches of Oats came out with two special edition limited flavors: Maple Bacon Donut and Chicken & Waffles. Reviewers were generally in agreement that meat and cereal don’t mix. There’s also the other way around, where a non-cereal product is converted into cereal. The Peeps cereal is very bland, but the new Hostess Donettes cereal is delicious, and does taste like eating little powdered donuts. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/52 "2019-03-17T16:56:51Z")
> [@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. This. The general public has no use for a John Deere farming equipment, but many can and do buy John Deere riding mowers. Hey, if they make multi $100k farm equipment, they must make quality stuff! After all: “Nothing runs like a Deere”. In the 80’s Beatrice Foods Co., who was the parent company for multiple name brands ran commercials telling customers to look for the company’s name on their product’s labels as a way of associating themselves as a parent company of quality brands. ---
**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 17, 2019, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/53 "2019-03-17T17:22:58Z")
I didn’t know they still made rye Triscuits, but they were the only ones as good as the original. The other flavours sound like they would be delicious, but somehow aren’t. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/54 "2019-03-17T17:45:11Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > … The Peeps cereal is very bland… Be afraid. Be very afraid: [https://www.marshmallowpeeps.com/product/pancakes-syrup-chicks/](https://www.marshmallowpeeps.com/product/pancakes-syrup-chicks/) ---
**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 17, 2019, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/55 "2019-03-17T18:06:42Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > I collect breakfast cereals, and the number of bizarre variations is incredible. 1. There’s a National Cereal Day? 2. I recently discovered banana-flavoured Shreddies. I was cautiously optimistic, but they turned out to be revolting. They had that sharp overrripe banana oil flavour. Ugh. I wonder whether they were too old? ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/56 "2019-03-17T19:52:12Z")
I nominate Sensodyne toothpaste and Mucinex cold remedies. The Sensodyne brand grew around toothpaste that contained potassium nitrate to desensitize sensitive teeth. The Mucinex brand grew around OTC guaifenesin, an expectorant that loosens phlegm. Now they’re putting these brands on all kinds of products for treating various cold symptoms or all kinds of toothpaste. I’m supposed to use guaifenesin for my bronchitis and potassium nitrate for my painful teeth, but when I shop for them there’ll be 20 branded versions of each, many of which contain things I want to avoid and many of which do not contain the active I needed in the first place. It’s a great deal of effort to read through all the fine print to find the damn product I’m trying to get. We don’t need dozens of different versions of pseudoephedrine or hydrogen peroxide toothpaste anyway. This stupidity is driving the simple active ingredient preparations out of the marketplace. And my dentist didn’t even know that “Sensodyne” toothpastes don’t usually have the potassium nitrate anymore; she’s still telling sensitive tooth patients to buy them. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/57 "2019-03-17T20:57:20Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > But in addition to chocolate milk syrup — there was a time when strawberry and banana milks were popular. They’re ubiquitous in the UK, multiple brands. The most ridiculous company extension I’ve personally seen was somewhere I worked. I was only there a few months, but the place was a public aquarium, and it had recently been bought by a company that, until then, has specialised in furniture manufacture, then had branched out into jewellery, before taking the logical next step of buying an aquarium (nearly 100 miles from anything else they owned as well, it wasn’t like it was next door). They then moved a manager over from one of the furniture factories, and started insisting all new enclosures (there were some small mammals as well) and tanks were to be bought from the people who made jewellery display cases for them. This… wasn’t a great success. The [del]jewellery displays[/del] enclosures had tiny doors, presumably for security, but they were next to impossible to clean out, got bad condensation and the opening was front centre, in the most distracting place. The manager they brought in was even worse; obviously her way of fixing problems in the furniture factory was to find anyone who wasn’t doing anything and yell at and threaten them. This… may have worked there (though I bet they hated her too), but when someone’s sole job is to give public talks and there are no members of the public in the centre, it doesn’t. She yelled at staff for ‘Not talking to visitors’ in front of the visitors who had just told said staff member that thanks, but they’re happy looking, or in extreme cases, spoke no English. When faced with the only visitors being German, she once demanded I ‘follow them round and point at things’. I was also yelled at for not giving a talk to a totally empty room, because the talk was on the timetable, so it had to happen; me being present in case anyone showed was not acceptable, I had to _talk_ dammit, and she’d hide behind doors to check everyone did. Especially hilarious when a visitor did walk in halfway through… ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/58 "2019-03-17T22:44:30Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Some 40 years ago, Armour & Company (you know, the hot dog & Hormel chili people) was owned by Greyhound. Not Just a Bus Line Anymore! Now, Greyhound is Meat! ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/59 "2019-03-17T22:49:26Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > … and the one and only flavor that is heads & shoulders _better_ than the original (and vastly superior to all those echemical-tasting flavours) is RYE Triscuits. And they’re annoyingly hard to find. Head & Shoulders Snack Crackers Now THAT would be a ridiculous brand extension. ---
**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 18, 2019, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163/60 "2019-03-18T03:35:35Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > Not Just a Bus Line Anymore! You laugh. But Greyhound in Canada once owned [an airline](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greyhound_Air). Then Greyhound got bought by Laidlaw, the airline was cancelled, and Greyhound in Canada has been going to pieces ever since. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculous-brand-extension/831163.md?page=4)