Product not used for intended purpose - biggest marketing hit?

[Exapno_Mapcase]

@Krokodil

The motion picture camera was invented for scientific research purposes, and the Slinky was originally intended to stabilize instruments on Navy ships.

No to both, technically.

Many people invented motion picture cameras over the years, so its hard to know which of them you’re thinking of. But both Lumiere and Edison, who are usually given priority for workable cameras, intended it for commercial purposes.You might be thinking of Eadweard J. Muybridge but he didn’t really invent a motion picture camera in the modern definition.

The slinky was inspired by a tension spring, but was invented and marketed as a toy from the beginning.

In 1943, Richard James was a naval engineer trying to develop a meter designed to monitor horsepower on naval battleships. Richard was working with tension springs when one of the springs fell to the ground. He saw how the spring kept moving after it hit the ground and an idea for a toy was born.

Richard James told his wife Betty, “I think I can make a toy out of this” and then spent the next two years figuring out the best steel gauge and coil to use for the toy. Betty James found a name for the new toy after discovering in the dictionary that the word “Slinky” is a Swedish word meaning traespiral - sleek or sinuous.

I nominate Kleenex.

In 1924, the Kleenex brand of facial tissue was first introduced. Kleenex tissue was invented as a means to remove cold cream. Early advertisements linked Kleenex to Hollywood makeup departments and sometimes included endorsements from movie stars (Helen Hayes and Jean Harlow) who used Kleenex to remove their theatrical make-up with cold cream.

By 1926, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, the manufacturer of Kleenex, became intrigued by the number of letters from customers stating that they used their product as a disposable handkerchief.

A test was conducted in the Peoria, Illinois newspaper. Ads were run depicting the two main uses of Kleenex; either as a means to remove cold cream or as disposable handkerchief for blowing noses. The readers were asked to respond. Results showed that 60% used Kleenex tissue for blowing their nose. By 1930, Kimberly-Clark had changed the way they advertised Kleenex and sales doubled proving that the customer is always right.

[Ferret_Herder]

@KellyCriterion

One thing, I am looking for examples where the product actually made it on to the shelf but some other use was then discovered for it. Having not yet looked in to the back story of viagra, was it ever marketed and sold as something other than a… what do you call it… “sexual stimulant”?

Viagra is used for certain kinds of pulmonary hypertension and in prevention of edema associated with altitude sickness. However, as stated before, it was originally tested for angina and failed that testing, but showed definite beneficial side effects in improving erectile capacity.

[FatBaldGuy]

I came in to mention Q-tips, but it looks like bienville beat me to the punch.

Another one I can think of is the story of the technician working at a microwave transmitter site who noticed that the chocolate bar in his pocket melted when he was near the transmitter. Voila! Microwave oven!

[astro]

Duct tape as an effective wart remover.

The Internet began as research into a military network that could survive interruptions.

[janeslogin]

Pharmaceuticals cannot legally be marketed for “off label” use but they may be the biggest money makers.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-label_use#Examples_of_off-label_use_.28and_non-use.29 for some well known examples.

I personally knew of a woman who was payed $4000 a week for about 16 weeks for off label use of REMICADE® - it worked researchers hoped it would. I don’t know if the new use was ever approved.

[billfish678]

@Harmonious_Discord

That would be if we say it was only intended for sealing duct work and not just as a tape. It’s still used mostly for it’s intended purpose as tape. Most of the examples given so far are not far from their intended use just their intended market niche.

The real irony here is duct tape sucks for actually sealing ducts, its original function. And its not so good for taping ducks together either.

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

@janeslogin

Pharmaceuticals cannot legally be marketed for “off label” use but they may be the biggest money makers.

There’s an article in today’s Washington Post spelling out that something like 94% of Pfizer’s revenue from Neurontin came from off-label use; other such drugs are likewise noted. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/03/21

[Clothahump]

Methotrexate. Originally developed as a cancer drug, they found that it was also effective in reducing symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.

[choie]

Monistat Chafing Relief Powder Gel, a silicone-enhanced lotion intended to be used between the thighs to soothe the aforementioned chafing, is very popular for use by women as a makeup primer.

Primers, for anyone not up on this sorta thing, are used on faces to coat the skin prior to adding makeup, much like a paint primer, so there’s an even base and your face looks nice and smooth. “Official” primers cost $12 - $30, while the Monistat stuff runs about $8. Not all women use primers (I’d say most of us don’t), but for those who do, an increasing number swear by Monistat. Here’s a good comparison on a beauty blog, and an eHow article too.

Note: don’t mistakenly use the Monistat vaginal cream for this purpose! They are very very different!

[quedefuk]

@DanBlather

Arm and Hammer Baking Soda boxes stuck in refrigerators.

Microplane wood rasps found a place in the kitchen as great graters. Now they make some explicitly for the kitchen.

Also Arm and Hammer’s has probably sold millions of boxes after druggies realized that it could be used to make freebase cocaine.

[Kent_Clark]

Coca-Cola and 7-Up were both originally sold as patent medicines. Among other things, Coke was said to cure both morphine addiction and impotence.

[aceplace57]

Home PC’s emerged from the gaming consoles. Commodore and Atari are early examples.

There were electronics hobbyist building home computers in the 1970’s (Altair used the Intel 8080). But, that was a very small market.

Commodore and Atari got into the family living rooms.

[Slithy_Tove]

As noted, the Slinky was originally developed for the navy in WWII, then adapted into a toy. Later in Vietnam, US soldiers would sling them over tree limbs for radio antennae

[Superfluous_Parentheses]

@GSV_Consolation_of_Dreams

WD-40

Oooh. That’s interesting.

[GreasyJack]

My vote is for the Hitachi Magic Wand “massager”-- one of the most popular vibrators of all time, but as far as I know Hitachi has never actually marketed it as a sex toy. They’ve sold zillions of them over the years and I doubt many of them actually get used on people’s backs.

[YogSothoth]

Microwaves for blowing up fun and exciting things

[MitzeKatze]

@Der_Trihs

I’m not sure how big it actually is, but I gather that the use of the Wartenberg wheel as a sex toy has equaled or exceeded its original use as a medical diagnostic tool. Certainly, googling with “safe search” off, especially for pictures gives a very NSFW result.

It is taking every ounce of willpower to not google this! What a mean thing to do to me. Why must I be compelled to google things I should not?

I am sure that I would have thousands of examples if I wasn’t trying to think of them…but right now all that come to mind are pharmaceuticals. Does that still count even though it has been addressed?

Wellbutrin was meant as an anti-depressant but had the serendipitous side effect of reducing nicotine cravings, so also became Zyban as a quit-smoking aid.
Trileptol is an anti-seizure medication, which has mood stabilization effects, so it is often being used for that purpose.
Aspirin is a pain/fever reducer but has blood thinning properties, so now many people are on an aspirin regimen for this.
Motrin is an anti-inflammatory pain/fever reducer which can also slow bleeding, so many women take prescription strength Motrin on a schedule to treat heavy periods.
Mifepristone and misoprostol are (I believe) cancer medications, but they are being used to induce abortion (called medical abortion or the abortion pill).

And really the list goes on and on…

[WarmNPrickly]

@DanBlather

Arm and Hammer Baking Soda boxes stuck in refrigerators.

Of course any belief that this actually reduces smell in a fridge is purely psychological. It can only kill acidic smells, and only the ones that come in contact with a fresh surface. Unless your circulating air through your baking soda, it’s pretty much just sitting their taking up space.

[Cisco]

Vibram Fivefingers were released to yawns as “yachthing” footwear (no fucking clue why someone needed specialized footwear for that), but really exploded in popularity when the barefoot running community discovered them. They’re not nearly as big as some of the other things mentioned here, but they’re huge right now for a niche product.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

@kunilou

Coca-Cola and 7-Up were both originally sold as patent medicines. Among other things, Coke was said to cure both morphine addiction and impotence.

Again, not quite.

HISTORY COCA COLA JOHN PEMBERTON

In May, 1886, Coca Cola was invented by Doctor John Pemberton a pharmacist from Atlanta, Georgia. John Pemberton concocted the Coca Cola formula in a three legged brass kettle in his backyard. The name was a suggestion given by John Pemberton’s book keeper Frank Robinson.

It was a prohibition law, enacted in Atlanta in 1886, that persuaded physician and chemist Dr. John Stith Pemberton to rename and rewrite the formula for his popular nerve tonic, stimulant and headache remedy, “Pemberton’s French Wine Coca,” sold at that time by most, if not all, of the city’s druggists.

So when the new Coca-Cola debuted later that year - still possessing “the valuable tonic and nerve stimulant properties of the coca plant and cola nuts,” yet sweetened with sugar instead of wine - Pemberton advertised it not only as a “delicious, exhilarating, refreshing and invigorating” soda-fountain beverage but also as the ideal “temperance drink.” It is said coke was discovered when DeLuise, a 19th century American soda jerk accidentally hit the soda water spigot, adding carbonated water to the syrup in the glass. The result was a “happy accident”: the invention of Coca-Cola.

http://www.historyhappenshere.org/archives/640

Two weeks before the stock market crash of 1929, a St. Louis ad man named Charles L. Grigg introduced a new beverage with a not-so-catchy name: “Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda.” “Bib-label” referred to the use of paper labels resembling bibs that would be placed over the tops of unlabeled bottles, and “lithiated” advertised the ingredient lithium citrate, a mood-enhancing drug. Although the drink was pricy compared to the other 600 lemon-lime sodas on the market, it still managed to draw strong sales.

Perhaps as the Depression wore on, Grigg thought he needed to be more economical in his verbiage; he changed the name of his caramel-colored drink to the more memorable “7Up” and renamed his Howdy Corporation (which also manufactured the popular Howdy Orange drink) the Seven-Up Company. After being bought and later sold by Philip Morris, the company moved to Dallas in 1987 as a subsidiary of Cadbury Schweppes. A manufacturing plant remains in St. Louis on Page Avenue.

Most carbonated beverages were sold as tonics (From the original tonic water, a carbonated water with added quinine against malaria, a mild version of which can still be found at supermarkets, ) but that’s not at all the same as patent medicines. Both Coke and 7Up were primarily refreshing drinks. Some advertising may have claimed other qualities for them, but neither started out really any differently from what they are today.