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TV, literature, and movies are full of fictional businesses and products. How well do you know these companies that don’t exist? Find out in today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. I didn’t know any of the answers, but scored 7/12 by educated guess! I bet you can do better. Link
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Over at Neatorama, our fridge only contains a bottle of crusty mustard, a half -eaten can of green olives and a few hard boiled eggs wrapped in bacon, then sausage and then more bacon. But at other websites, the fridges can actually say a lot about the companies themselves. The one above belongs to Nickelodeon. See if your favorite website is listed and if so, what they have to eat and drink in the office over at the link.
We’ve all heard of all-you-can-eat, but all-you-can-watch is a whole new concept. A new company is going to let people watch all the movies they can stand for only $50 a month. They’re starting out in San Francisco, but if things work out well, they’re hoping to expand nationally. What do you guys think, would you buy the pass?
IKEA is the world’s largest furniture store. In fact, the company is so big, it is estimated that around 10% of all Europeans alive today were conceived on an IKEA bed. Despite its success though, the company still has quite a few dark secrets, as well as a number of interesting trivia bits. Whether you love the flat-pack manufacturer or hate it, these 10 facts about the company are certain to spark your interest in the things that happen behind the scenes of IKEA.
Image via Calvin Teo [Wikipedia]
The Store Was Created By A Nazi Sympathizer. Founder Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA in 1943. He was only seventeen at the time. At the same time, he was also directly involved with fund-raising and recruitment for the New Swedish Movement, a pro-fascist, anti-Semitist group that emphasized Swedish Nationalism. When the matter came out in 1994, Kamprad claimed it was the biggest mistake of his life. He apologized for his involvement with the group and wrote a letter to every Jewish employee on his staff to personally apologize for his actions. Even so, the issue caused a minor controversy when IKEA opened its first store in Israel. In the end, the country seemed to forgive him and IKEA is now one of only a handful of companies to have stores in both Israel and other Muslim Middle Eastern countries.
Image via yassan-yukky [Flickr]
Image via DrJohnBullas [Flickr]
Their Catalog Is More Popular Than The Bible. Ok, maybe that’s a little misleading, but every year, there are almost three times more copies of the catalog printed than the bible. They started printing the catalog in 1951 and it has since taken on a life of its own, consuming a full 70% of the companies marketing budget every year and developing a devoted fan base of people who analyze the images looking for obscure books in the bookshelves, Mickey Mouse references and cats hiding in the fake households. There are now 55 editions printed in 27 languages every year.
Image via thekellyscope [Flickr]
Do you like the company or hate it? More to the point, have you changed your opinion after learning about Kamprad’s dirty secrets or about their progressive ads targeted to homosexuals?
Sources: Wikipedia and Mental Floss
While houses may look entirely different on the outside, most of them contain very similar products on the inside. Sink cleaners, microwaves, dishwashers, air fresheners and hand soaps can be found in all kinds of homes across the world. But just because something is a household name doesn’t mean it is boring. Here are some fascinating histories behind a few common household products.
Of course, if you don’t have any of these products or brand names in your house, then you’re probably either a hardcore hippie or you’re living in a log cabin in the middle of nowhere. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Admittedly, many homes find themselves without borax these days, but there was a time where it was one of the most common cleaning products around. Of all borax brands, 20 Mule Team Borax is most certainly the best known, in part due to their distinctive packaging depicting a mule team carrying a number of cargo containers.
The name was created all the way back in 1890 and the distinctive logo was created in 1891. In that time period, twenty-mule teams were actually used to carry borax from the desert where it was collected to the closest rail station.
To help promote their brand image, the company even sponsored a radio and television program called Death Valley Days. The program, which was broadcast on the radio between 1930 and 1945 and on television between 1952 and 1975, dramatized real stories of the Old West.
Source, Image via dok1 [Flickr]
I’m sure it won’t surprise you to learn that people have been covering up odors with pleasant fragrances since the beginning of time, but our modern concept of an air freshener is much more modern than that. In fact, the sprayable air fresheners we’re all familiar with weren’t introduced to the public until 1948. The original spray bottles used were based on military developments that were originally designed for dispensing insecticides.
Of course, this major technological advance used a chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) propellant, which was later discovered to wreak havoc on the ozone layer. Modern air fresheners all use different technology, but the concept is still the same.
Source, Image via Roadsidepictures [Flickr]
These days, Colgate is known for making toothpaste, which is why it just might surprise you that during the first 67 years the company was open, they didn’t touch the stuff. Instead, they sold soaps. It wasn’t until 1873 that the company introduced their first toothpaste, which was originally sold in jars. Tubes of Colgate weren’t released until 1908.
Source, Image via thelampnyc [Flickr]
more …
I’ve always thought that P.F.Chang would turn out to be something ridiculous like Pinkus Finkelstein Chang, or that DHL stood for Dag Hammarskjold Library (in the UN).
Apparently, neither of these are true. These, along with fourteen other abbreviated company names, have interesting origins.
AT&T and 3M are pretty well known, but do you know what IKEA, JBL, and CVS stand for?
Brothers Henry and Richard Bloch founding the tax preparation firm in Kansas City in 1955. Their only problem was their last name. The brothers worried that people would mispronounce their surname as “blotch,” hardly a term you want associated with your tax return. They decided to sidestep this problem by spelling the company’s name “Block” instead, so that nobody would miss the solid hard “k” sound.
From the Upcoming 
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The two sportswear companies Puma and Adidas, based in Herzogenaurach, Germany were founded by Adi and Rudolf Dassler. The two brothers made shoes together beginning in the 1920s but split apart during World War II, probably over politics. Sixty years later, the two companies on either side of the river will officially end the feud on September 21st.
When the brothers set up their separate companies in 1948 the town was also split, with residents loyal to one or other of the only major employers.
In a joint release, the two companies said they were making up to support the Peace One Day organisation, which has its annual non-violence day on Monday.
They say that the events will be the first joint activities held by the two companies since the brothers left their shared firm in 1948.
Adi and Rudolf Dassler went to their graves without settling their differences, and their descendants do not control either of the public companies. Link -via the Presurfer
