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Americans may love their junk food, but that doesn’t mean they’ll scarf down just any old snack. That’s why the big name brands have so many failed flavors, even after spending thousands on marketing and development for said flavors. Here are some of the many flops created by some of the biggest names in junk food.
Perhaps the most documented failure of any American company was Coke II, aka “New Coke.” Humorously, despite the massive reaction against the beverage, Coke II actually smoked both Pepsi and original Coke in taste tests. While most people did prefer it, the idea of losing a beloved American classic was too much for some people, who protested and called the company headquarters until the old version was reintroduced three months later. Coke II continued to be sold until 2002 when it was pulled due to poor sales.
Of course, Coke II wasn’t the brand’s only failure, there was also Coca Cola with Lemon, Coca Cola Black Cherry Vanilla, Coca Cola Black (a coffee-flavored cola) and Coca Cola C2 (a low-carb version).
Image Via akeg [Flickr]
When you think of failed Pepsi flavors, let’s face it, one variety seems to come to mind before all others –Crystal Pepsi. While it might not have been the marketing disaster that Coke II was, it was still a huge failure and ended up being discontinued in the US only a year after its introduction. A little while later, Pepsi tried again with a citrus-flavored version called Clear from Pepsi, but that flavor also bombed and was quickly discontinued.
A few other Pepsi failures include Pepsi Kona (a coffee-flavored Pepsi that was only sold on the East Coast before it was discontinued), Pepsi Vanilla, Pepsi AM (Pepsi’s attempt to compete with coffee as the morning beverage of choice, this one contained far more caffeine than the average Pepsi), Pepsi Blue (a berry-flavored, non-cola beverage).
Image Via Roadsidepictures [Flickr]
Hershey’s flops may not be as well-known as Coke or Pepsi, but they have far more discontinued flavors than either of those cola brands. You may remember some of these flavors but there are so many, at least a few will probably be new to you.
A few original products they discontinued included Bar None (a chocolate bar with two wafers and peanuts), Hershey’s S’mores (a chocolate bar with graham crackers and marshmallows), Swoops (chocolate slices shaped like potato chips) and Hershey’s Sticks (chocolate sticks individually wrapped and sold together in boxes).
They’ve also discontinued quite a few variations on their popular products, such as Hershey’s Cookies and Mint, Hershey’s Kissables (Hershey’s Kisses with candy shells) and Hershey’s Bites, which were bite-sized versions of their classic candies sold in bags.
Additionally, the company also experimented with beverages, discontinuing a premade bottled milk drink called Hershey’s Milkshake and their Hershey’s Chocolate Milk Mix.
Image Via theimpulsivebuy [Flickr]
Every year, we announce the results of Danielle Spencer’s Jell-O Turkey Mold Competition and for those of you who have been waiting to see the results this year, they’re finally up. Here’s the #2 winner, entitled School Lunch. Just look at that delicious vegetable serving.
If you love Jell-O and Harry Potter, these might just be the ultimate adult party treat. The recipe sounds delicious, as it includes amaretto, vanilla ice cream, Bailey’s and chocolate liquor. If that’s not enough for you, they also have a link to a butter beer Jell-O shot recipe with cream soda and butterscotch schnapps.
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Photo: @CanalMercer
Ranjit Bhatnagar, Astrida Valijorsky, Mimi Hui and Catarina Mota must not have listened to their mothers telling them not to play with their food ... and that's a good thing. They won top prize in creativity for the piece above, a playable (yes, playable) piano made from Jell-O called "The Resistor Jeltone," at the 2011 Cooper-Hewitt Design Scholars/Jell-O Mold Workshop.
Previously on Neatorama: Lifelike Gelatin Creations | Jell-O Cartridges
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The annual Jell-O Mold Competition was held in Brooklyn about a week ago, and the winning works are even more impressive than those from the 2010 competition. Take a look at amazing gelatinous versions of dentures, cups of espresso, a pancake breakfast, and more. Link -via New Jovian Thunderbolt | Photo: Francesca Signori
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Jelly Shots: The Jell-O Mold Competition is organised by an artists’ collective in Brooklyn. A group of chefs, artists and designers produced some amazingly realistic looking creations using gelatin as their medium.
Dentures (pictured above) by Kyla Blakney and Suzan Akpinar (Cooper-Hewitt Design Scholars), an even too-realistic set of dentures in strawberry and coconut gelatine was the Winner for Structural Integrity.
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G&T Jelly is British for Gin & Tonic Jell-o. What’s special about this recipe is that it glows under a black light (UV light to you young folks)! The active ingredient is the quinine in the tonic water -or the gin, depending on your goals for the recipe. Find it at Instructables, with US conversions and some variations in the comments. Link -via Nag on the Lake
Jell-o, is it a solid or a liquid? Watch it being dropped on a hard surface in slow motion and you’ll see it is both. And hypnotically entertaining, too. -via The Mary Sue
Bompas and Parr: Return of the Jelly Knights from Gestalten on Vimeo.
Anyone can slap some Jell-0 in a decorative mold and serve it up for dessert. But Sam Bompas and Harry Parr (AKA Jellymongers) have taken gelatin design to a whole new level. Using the jiggly, edible medium, Bompas and Parr sculpt intricate models of really complicated architecture like St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Gherkin in London. This video doesn’t reveal their secrets entirely, but it does give a better look at their process and some of their other fascinating work.
Zombie Brain Gelatin Mold – $6.95
If you’re hosting a Halloween party for zombies this year, this will your party a drop dead success – behold the Zombie Brain Gelatin Mold from the NeatoShop. The mold will produce a jiggly left hemisphere of the brain (the yummiest part, btw).
Link | More Fun Halloween Stuff
I love the motto on the poster for this year’s Jell-O Mold Competition from the Gowanus Studio Space: “Keep Calm and Wobble On.” The 2010 winners have been selected! The grand prize was awarded to sculptor Shelly Sabel for her creation Aspic Ascension–Tastes Like Heaven. See all the winners at the contest site. Link -via Nag on the Lake
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From Davis Dainty Dishes (1948) by Davis Gelatine [Photo: Shelf Life Taste Test]
Unlike the bacon pancake post that Miss Cellania wrote last week, certain things that are delicious really don’t belong together. Case in point, this lobster relish creation above, which combines lobster and gelatine (Jell-O). Now, I like lobster and I love Jell-O, but the thought of them combining is giving me the ooies.
Matt Stopera of BuzzFeed has a list of 12 terrifying culinary creations made with Jell-O. Each one is more horrifying than the last. Read at your own risk: Link – Thanks Eric!
This post at The Future of the Cookbook tells how Jell-O became “America’s Most Famous Dessert,” before it was even familiar! Jell-O’s early promotional advertising included recipes, recommendations from doctors, and adorable kewpies. Link -via Everlasting Blort
Bill Cosby, the comedian and one time Jell-O pitchman, is the subject of an art show by Andrew Salomone. He created a photo of Bill Cosby out of 745 Jell-O shots and invited the participants to consume it as the show progressed:
Once the portrait was finished and open for consumption things took an unexpected turn as participants in the exhibition started to rearrange the JELL-O shots to see how Bill Cosby would look if, for instance, he had a doobie in his mouth and a ponytail or if he spontaneously turned into pacman.
With a kick-ass video clip: Link – via Craftzine
Image: Liz Hickok
Our favorite Jell-O artist Liz Hickok wrote to us about her latest project – and yes, it does have a distinct political message:
The piece is called "The First 100 Days: The White House in Jell-O". The White House starts out as Obama inherited it on day one of his administration: a bit old and moldy. Set to the tune of “America the Beautiful,” the iconic structure slowly transforms into a fresh, glowing, and proud symbol of hope.
Whether you agree with Liz’s politics or not, it’s spiffy to see the White House sculpted out of Jell-O (and here I thought that jiggliness went out with Bill Clinton oh so many years ago!): Link [with embedded YouTube clip] – Thanks Liz!
By the way, if you’re in San Francisco this weekend (April 25 – 26), be sure to attend the Mission Open Studios (or the Mission Studio Stroll) – a neighborhood crawl to visit 8 artists’ groups including more than 100 working artists in the Mission District of San Francisco: 1890 Bryant St. at the corner of Mariposa (Liz is in Studio #211 – say hello to her
for me if you’re there). More info: 1890 Bryant | Mission Artists United
As I’m sure you’ve noticed, there are some pretty universal state symbol categories: the state bird, the state flag, the state flower, even the state gemstones. But since those declarations are left up to the individual state, the categories can be as obscure as any state will allow them to be (check out the official state neckwear category). Here are some of the stranger ones – and if your state has something particularly interesting that I missed, share it in the comments.
Similarly, 19 states have declared milk as the official state beverage. How original. However, in addition to milk, Nebraska has Kool-Aid because the beverage was invented in its town of Hastings in 1927. Oh yeah!! (Sorry, couldn’t resist.) Florida’s orange juice should come as no surprise, but what about Rhode Island’s coffee milk? Yeah – not coffee, not milk – coffee milk. It’s like chocolate milk, but instead of chocolate syrup, coffee-flavored syrup is used. Umm… yes, please. Why hasn’t this caught on across the country? We’re not sure if it originated in R.I. or not, but Rhode Islanders definitely have a special affinity for the drink. One of the major producers of coffee syrup is located in Rhode Island, and I’ve read you’ll find it on tap in the Brown dining halls (true, Bears??). Another quick fact: the drink was invented because back when diners were all the rage, owners were always introducing new drinks and dishes to try to differentiate themselves from the many competitors. Photo from Kraft Foods.
Oklahoma really went all out – they declared 11 “state menu items,” plus a state fruit and a state vegetable. In case you ever want to have yourself an official Oklahoma state buffet, here are the menu items: barbequed pork, chicken fried steak, sausage, biscuits and gravy, fried okra, squash, grits, corn, black-eyed peas, cornbread and pecan pie. Sounds like a veritable feast to me, but I’d probably need the official state medical apparatus after that: the stomach pump. (Note: There isn’t really an official state medical apparatus. I don’t think.) Massachusetts and Pennsylvania both declared the chocolate chip cookie as the official state cookie, but the official state snack food of Utah makes me a little urpy: Jell-O. I can’t stomach Jell-O; it’s the texture. This was unbeknownst to me, but apparently it’s a popular stereotype that Mormons adore Jell-O – the Mormon Corridor is sometimes even referred to as the “Jell-O Belt.” Photo from Flickr’s Stu_Spivack.
D.C.’s official state dinosaur and official state fossil is the Capitalsaurus. This dino was found in downtown D.C. in the late 1800s while ground was being excavated for sewer lines. However, despite the fact that it holds two official state categories, there’s a problem: the Capitalsaurus isn’t scientifically recognized, according to the Smithsonian. http://paleobiology.si.edu/dinosaurs/collection/nmnh_collections/speci men_c12.html Because only a bit of vertebra was found, there’s not really enough to declare a whole new genus, which is what “Capitalsaurus” would be. But this hasn’t stopped the Capitalsaurus craze in D.C. – the street where it was discovered has even been renamed “Capitalsaurus Court” and January 28 marks Capitalsaurus Day.
Twenty-one states call the square dance their official state dance; some states get greedy and declare it the official folk dance and then claim other dances as well. South Carolina claims three dances – the square dance as its folk dance, the Richardson waltz as its waltz, and the Shag as… the Shag. As you might suspect, Hawaii has the Hula. New York has staked the Lindy Hop, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania both take the polka, and Texas has the Texas Two-Step.
Only a handful of states have declared official state theaters, and fittingly, one of them is California. I thought it was perhaps El Capitan, the theater on Hollywood Boulevard in L.A. It has been around since 1926 and Citizen Kane had its premiere there. But nope – the state theater is the Pasadena Playhouse. It’s nine years older than El Capitan. A theatre arts school was founded there in the late ’20s and it has definitely churned out its share of stars – in fact, the Playhouse is sometimes called “The Star Factory” in Hollywood circles. Notable graduates include Eve Arden, Charles Bronson, Raymond Burr, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, William Holden, George Reeves, Sally Struthers, Gloria Stuart and Robert Young. Photo from the California State Library.
Of all places, Alabama has declared a state Renaissance Fair. But it’s not as strange as it sounds – the city that plays host to it is Florence, Alabama, which is known as the Renaissance City. They also have an official outdoor drama – The Miracle Worker – and an official outdoor musical drama – The Incident at Looney’s Tavern.
Maybe it’s no surprise that Arizona has called the bolo tie their official state neckwear since 1971, but as of 2007, Texas and New Mexico do too. I had no idea any state had declared official state neckwear at all, so this is all very surprising to me. Although the bolo tie is said to be a pioneer creation, Arizona silversmith Victor Cedarstaff claimed that he invented the tie (he did patent the slide on the tie) in the late 40s. Photo from StevieRay.com (it’s Stevie Ray Vaughan’s bolo).
Maryland has two official state sports – individual and team. They’re jousting and lacrosse, respectively. Alaska’s official state sport is dog mushing, which makes sense but is definitely unique to the state. South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming all call rodeo their state individual sport. Hawaii has surfing as their individual sport, of course, and outrigger canoeing as their team sport.
Some state dogs are named simply because they bear the name of the state. But I like the story of North Carolina’s Plott Hound. The story goes something like this: Johannes Plott of Germany (or possibly Bohemia) settled in present-day Cabarrus County, N.C., with a group of big-game hunting dogs he brought with him from Europe. They quickly became known for their courage and tenacity and would hunt big game – even bear – for days at a time. Johannes bred them, and so have his descendants ever since. Other states with official dogs: Texas (the Blue Lacy) and Wisconsin (the American water spaniel). Photo from PuppyDogWeb.
Just a few other incredibly specific state insignia – Georgia has a State Peanut Monument (it’s in Ashburn on the west side of I-75, if you’re road tripping), Kentucky has an official state tug-o-war contest (it’s in Fordville), Massachusetts’ official Glee Club song is The Great State of Massachusetts, North Carolina’s state carnivorous plant is the Venus Flytrap, Ohio has an official state groundhog named Buckeye Chuck and Oregon has official state parents (mother: pioneer Tabitha Moffatt Brown, father: Dr. John McLoughlin who helped early settlement of the state).
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Juggling with Bowling Ball I kid: that's not a bowling ball, but it sure does look like one! Link |
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Dog Hates the Happy Birthday Song! |
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Physics Fun: Jell-O + Electricity = FIRE! Link (Includes the phrase "electrically active Jell-O mound" that is PURE WIN) |
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Cell Phone Reunion From the geniuses over at CollegeHumor: Link (NSFW language - the ending makes it all worth the wait) |
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The Crazy PS3 Kid Banned From Playing PS3 His range of emotion is amazing! Christian Bale, watch out! Link |
For more the web's most interesting videos, check out: VideoSift.
