4 ms·

I can't remember off the top of my head, but it's amazing how many of our american "traditions" are a result of marketing. While there is nothing inherently ba

by gxs 13y ago

I can't remember off the top of my head, but it's amazing how many of our american "traditions" are a result of marketing. While there is nothing inherently bad about this, it definitely gives me a sense that something is not authentic when I come to learn it was the result of a marketing campaign. This bacon and eggs breakfast is just one example. Grilled cheese and tomato soup is another. Can anyone recall any others?

Anechoic 13y ago
Can anyone recall any others? Diamonds, and the various "Hallmark" holidays come to mind.
- 404error 13y ago
  Rudolph the red nosed reindeer was part of a marketing campaign for Montgomery Ward. http://theweek.com/article/index/237421/the-origin-story-of-rudolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer http://theweek.com/article/index/237421/the-origin-story-of-...
teh_klev 13y ago
"Grilled cheese and tomato soup" - at first I thought you were having a laugh. Then I googled. I like to think of myself as widely eaten (hence being widely sized), but that's a new one on me. I do vaguely remember in British "bistros" seeing soups topped with cheese (and sometimes with pastry) then salamandered until the bowl (or glazed pot as was the vogue back then) was so bloody hot it removed your fingerprints, and you daren't eat a mouthful until it cooled, lest it blistered your tastebuds. This was in the 70's and 80's, but never with tomato soup, usually some nasty fish bisque type of thing.
- sp332 13y ago
  Just to be clear - GP is referring to a grilled cheese sandwich, served with tomato soup.
- gohrt 13y ago
  You are describing how French onion soup is prepared today in the USA
jonnathanson 13y ago
Ex) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deoderant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deoderant Ex) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listerine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listerine Ex) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallmark http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallmark Ex) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ploughman%27s_lunch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ploughman%27s_lunch (UK example)
- hfsktr 13y ago
  The first two are fine by me. Sadly a lot of the teens I meet (younger siblings) think that soaking themselves in Axe means they don't smell. With a history like Listerine's I'm surprised I've never come across a chain email about it [1 (the margarine section)]. [1] http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/butter.asp http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/butter.asp
  - jonnathanson 13y ago
    Listerine makes for a great business case study, as does the history of deodorant and antiperspirant. In both cases, these were examples of "building something people want" by way of manufacturing the "problems" the products were solving. And yet, I still use Listerine and antiperspirant every day. Because we live in a society where these things are normal, and not using them would feel weird (and cause offense). We've been thoroughly convinced that the natural state of the human body is disgusting and offensive -- but we can't go back. It's kind of fascinating.
    - gohrt 13y ago
      That's a ridiculous claim. That's like saying that Alice Parker didn't invent a furnace, she invented feeling cold. Listerine didn't invent bad breath, they invented a solution.
      - jonnathanson 13y ago
        "Listerine didn't invent bad breath, they invented a solution." I think you're misreading me slightly. I didn't say Listerine "invented bad breath." I said, by way of linking the article, that they made "chronic halitosis" into something more than what it really was. They took what had been a relatively obscure medical condition and convinced everyone that they had it, thereby convincing consumers of a need for mouthwash that hadn't really existed before. For the vast majority of the population, bad breath can be solved by brushing one's teeth and staying hydrated. Listerine, through an admittedly brilliant marketing campaign, convinced people that they needed to take things a step further -- that oral hygiene was somehow incomplete without mouthwash.
philbarr 13y ago
I was going to say Santa and Coca Cola, but then googled to see if I was wrong and found this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7152054.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7152054.stm
R_Edward 13y ago
The lavish white wedding dress and all the Bridezilla-esque trappings?
- JPKab 13y ago
  This. The best decision my wife and I ever made was to go to a Justice of the Peace and the courthouse instead of the bullshit charade that is a modern wedding. While my version was rather extreme, my two sisters are better examples. Sister 1 had a large, expensive, lavish wedding. Sister 2 chose my father's rural backyard in the woods overlooking coastline. My father and I erected a gateway made of driftwood, and covered it in leaves and flowers. No money was spent, other than my sister's cheap, plain white dress and the groom's simple suit. It was a beautiful, simple ceremony. The groom's great grandmother remarked on how the wedding was "the way weddings were before everyone went crazy."
Yhippa 13y ago
Cotton: http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/making-cotton-fabric-our-lives http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/making-cotton-fab...
joe_the_user 13y ago
"Country" Music is an amalgam no more traditional than rock and roll - it's worth mentioning mostly because it gives much more of an impression of being traditional.
- debacle 13y ago
  I would say less so. Rock and Roll is the result of American sound moving east to Europe, then back to the US, and then back to Europe again, over the course of about 20 years. Rock evolved. Modern country music is closer to hiphop than rock these days.
- atwebb 13y ago
  Which country music are you talking about? The country genre itself was born at the Bristol Sessions correct? It was a gathering of traditional musicians from all over Appalachia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. I guess that music got marketed but the songs and players themselves were about as authentic as anything I can think of.
xi 13y ago
Orange juice? ...The Florida industry’s aggressive marketing of oranges and orange juice is a key feature of orange juice history, as it slowly developed demand for the product. In 1907 oranges became the first perishable fruit “ever” to be advertised. As crops expanded quickly, marketing became crucial to avoid overproduction. The growth of farmer cooperatives came largely out of a need to market the products. The Florida Citrus Exchange was organized in 1910 to market fresh citrus and also to do research on processing citrus. It created advertising programs and “built national and international sales organizations.” http://shkrobius.livejournal.com/312073.html http://shkrobius.livejournal.com/312073.html

by gxs 13y ago

Anechoic 13y ago

Can anyone recall any others? Diamonds, and the various "Hallmark" holidays come to mind.

404error 13y ago
Rudolph the red nosed reindeer was part of a marketing campaign for Montgomery Ward. http://theweek.com/article/index/237421/the-origin-story-of-rudolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer http://theweek.com/article/index/237421/the-origin-story-of-...

teh_klev 13y ago

"Grilled cheese and tomato soup" - at first I thought you were having a laugh. Then I googled. I like to think of myself as widely eaten (hence being widely sized), but that's a new one on me. I do vaguely remember in British "bistros" seeing soups topped with cheese (and sometimes with pastry) then salamandered until the bowl (or glazed pot as was the vogue back then) was so bloody hot it removed your fingerprints, and you daren't eat a mouthful until it cooled, lest it blistered your tastebuds. This was in the 70's and 80's, but never with tomato soup, usually some nasty fish bisque type of thing.

sp332 13y ago
Just to be clear - GP is referring to a grilled cheese sandwich, served with tomato soup.
gohrt 13y ago
You are describing how French onion soup is prepared today in the USA

jonnathanson 13y ago

Ex) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deoderant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deoderant Ex) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listerine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listerine Ex) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallmark http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallmark Ex) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ploughman%27s_lunch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ploughman%27s_lunch (UK example)

hfsktr 13y ago
The first two are fine by me. Sadly a lot of the teens I meet (younger siblings) think that soaking themselves in Axe means they don't smell. With a history like Listerine's I'm surprised I've never come across a chain email about it [1 (the margarine section)]. [1] http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/butter.asp http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/butter.asp
- jonnathanson 13y ago
  Listerine makes for a great business case study, as does the history of deodorant and antiperspirant. In both cases, these were examples of "building something people want" by way of manufacturing the "problems" the products were solving. And yet, I still use Listerine and antiperspirant every day. Because we live in a society where these things are normal, and not using them would feel weird (and cause offense). We've been thoroughly convinced that the natural state of the human body is disgusting and offensive -- but we can't go back. It's kind of fascinating.
  - gohrt 13y ago
    That's a ridiculous claim. That's like saying that Alice Parker didn't invent a furnace, she invented feeling cold. Listerine didn't invent bad breath, they invented a solution.
    - jonnathanson 13y ago
      "Listerine didn't invent bad breath, they invented a solution." I think you're misreading me slightly. I didn't say Listerine "invented bad breath." I said, by way of linking the article, that they made "chronic halitosis" into something more than what it really was. They took what had been a relatively obscure medical condition and convinced everyone that they had it, thereby convincing consumers of a need for mouthwash that hadn't really existed before. For the vast majority of the population, bad breath can be solved by brushing one's teeth and staying hydrated. Listerine, through an admittedly brilliant marketing campaign, convinced people that they needed to take things a step further -- that oral hygiene was somehow incomplete without mouthwash.

philbarr 13y ago

I was going to say Santa and Coca Cola, but then googled to see if I was wrong and found this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7152054.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7152054.stm

R_Edward 13y ago

The lavish white wedding dress and all the Bridezilla-esque trappings?

JPKab 13y ago
This. The best decision my wife and I ever made was to go to a Justice of the Peace and the courthouse instead of the bullshit charade that is a modern wedding. While my version was rather extreme, my two sisters are better examples. Sister 1 had a large, expensive, lavish wedding. Sister 2 chose my father's rural backyard in the woods overlooking coastline. My father and I erected a gateway made of driftwood, and covered it in leaves and flowers. No money was spent, other than my sister's cheap, plain white dress and the groom's simple suit. It was a beautiful, simple ceremony. The groom's great grandmother remarked on how the wedding was "the way weddings were before everyone went crazy."

Yhippa 13y ago

Cotton: http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/making-cotton-fabric-our-lives http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/making-cotton-fab...

joe_the_user 13y ago

"Country" Music is an amalgam no more traditional than rock and roll - it's worth mentioning mostly because it gives much more of an impression of being traditional.

debacle 13y ago
I would say less so. Rock and Roll is the result of American sound moving east to Europe, then back to the US, and then back to Europe again, over the course of about 20 years. Rock evolved. Modern country music is closer to hiphop than rock these days.
atwebb 13y ago
Which country music are you talking about? The country genre itself was born at the Bristol Sessions correct? It was a gathering of traditional musicians from all over Appalachia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. I guess that music got marketed but the songs and players themselves were about as authentic as anything I can think of.

xi 13y ago

Orange juice? ...The Florida industry’s aggressive marketing of oranges and orange juice is a key feature of orange juice history, as it slowly developed demand for the product. In 1907 oranges became the first perishable fruit “ever” to be advertised. As crops expanded quickly, marketing became crucial to avoid overproduction. The growth of farmer cooperatives came largely out of a need to market the products. The Florida Citrus Exchange was organized in 1910 to market fresh citrus and also to do research on processing citrus. It created advertising programs and “built national and international sales organizations.” http://shkrobius.livejournal.com/312073.html http://shkrobius.livejournal.com/312073.html