Back in the 1930′s, as more and more folk had access to motorized transit, roadside attractions started popping up all over America.  Enterprising towns began littering the sides of the roads with billboards and signs, hoping  curious travelers would take a moment and divert off the beaten path, bringing their wallets in tow. Whether it [...]

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Sometimes it only takes one badly executed ad campaign to derail any momentum a business is enjoying. In some cases, they never manage to recover. Case in point: Soulvaki Hut in Australia.  Founded in 2005, it was the darling of top franchise lists down under for many years until this television commercial surfaced. Since then, the [...]

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Earlier this week, Huffington Post ran a story about a Florida woman who discovered a Goldfish cracker dotted with a supposed crown & cross. Immediately, before you could cry “production line error” it was deemed a sign of God. These days, there’s a better chance of discovering an image of Jesus on something you’re about [...]

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The common myth goats will consume just about anything (tin cans, garbage)  shouldn’t really work in favor of  an Ad Firm deciding to feature a  cranky, four legged garbage disposal in their client’s marketing campaign for a food or beverage.  However, there’s been a developing trend of late when it comes to utilizing these unholy [...]

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Back in 1888, the enterprising folks at the Thomas Adams Gum Company (Black Jack gum anyone?) rolled out their very first vending machines in the U.S.  Installed on the elevated subway platforms in New York they were stocked with the Tutti-Frutti brand.  The round, candy coated gumball and gumball vending machines which most of us [...]

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The Weird Al of product parodies, Wacky Packages made their debut in 1967, as a set of collectible stickers that gleefully lampooned popular household brands. An almost instant hit, they became a full blown fad in the early 70′s.  Kids would rabidly decimate candy store racks, in an attempt to complete their collection, while discarding [...]

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Horse meat is a hot topic right now and not because its become the next bacon.  Just ask a Public Relations executive at Burger King  or better yet any recently unemployed meat packing facility “Quality Control” supervisor in the UK. Personally, I’d  prefer a fighting chance when it comes to detecting an out of place [...]

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The next time you’re scraping off that top layer of jelly which accompanies every glistening block of  Spam, you can thank the French for providing your gag reflex a workout. During the first few years of the Napoleonic Wars,  France’s government offered a reward to whoever could invent a process for maintaining the shelf life [...]

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The mad scientists at Lays have released three new flavors to tantalize and perhaps in many cases, terrorize your tastebuds this week. There’s no denying, North American junk foodaholics get worked up into a salivating, frenzied mob when a new potato chip variety hits the retail racks. Heck, I stalked my local grocery store stock boy [...]

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After my first disastrous  tasting of  century eggs I received a lot of feedback. Outside of the people who were revolted, there was a large group of people who thought I either got a bad egg or that I was just eating it wrong. To the latter point, I say bah. If you have to bury an item in other [...]

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