Professor Walter's History Lessons

Worst Award Ceremony - Ever!

In July of 1991, the Clio Awards were set to be presented in Manhattan.  The Clio is the advertising industries version of the "Oscar" with awards going to the best and brightest in bronze, silver and gold.  The best and brightest in advertising were there on that Balmy Thursday, in 86 degree heat to see if they had won.  Many of the guests were from other countries, and all were dressed as one would expect for such an event.  There was one problem, no one from the Clio awards was there.

As they would later find out, Bill Evans the owner of the Clio, was in serious financial difficulty and his staff had left after missing one too many paychecks in the month of May.  Evans was not there either.  After an hour of waiting outside the doors were opened and everyone finally found their seat only to see an unfamiliar face at the podium, that of the head caterer.  While he did quite a good job, considering the circumstances, he never had a script and when clips were played, often out of focus or upside down, he had to ask people in the audience who made each clip.  Not to mention that no one had the winners list so no Clios were handed out.  Eventually he was booed off the stage.  Then things got worse.

A PR representative decided to take to the stage and continue the presentation, after one too many trips to the bar.  His lackluster performance turned the event into more of a circus, especially when he unexpectedly broke out in song when the band played a familiar Irish tune.  Then, as suddenly as it started, it stopped.  The PR man mumbled something about being out of script and wondered off the stage.  The helpless band played Hello Dolly, for the fourth time that night.

The audience sat in stunned silence, the stage empty except for the microphone and the Clio awards.  Soon the audience, disgusted with the display, began to make their way toward the door when one man in a tuxedo broke away from the crowd and walked on stage and grabbed a Clio waving it in the air.  Some in the crowd gasped, others cheered, and more still ran up to get one for themselves.  In less than a minute the Clios were gone.

The Clio was purchased by an investment firm and sold to a Dutch firm now called the Nielsen Company which still puts on the ceremony every year.  But none so far have been as memorable as the one in 1991.

-Professor Walter

How do you name a soda?

In 1958 RC Cola released Diet Rite, their first Diet Soda to strong success.  Soon other companies followed suit.

In 1963 the Coca-Cola corporation had developed their first diet soda.  The marketing research department decided to utilize the IBM 1401 computer to accomplish the task.  The revolutionary IBM 1401 was a mainframe computer released by IBM in 1959 and stayed on the market until 1971 which had the capability to utilize punch cards or magnetic tape.  The marketing research department used the computer to create a list of over a quarter million four-letter works with one vowel and added names suggested by the company's staff.  All "inappropriate" words were removed and from a final list of about twenty names Tabb was chose.  During development it was shortened to Tab. 

Tab was a success in name and sales.  Unfortunately for Tab when the FDA banned cyclamate in 1969 the formula had to change, then again when 1977 when it looked like the FDA would ban saccharin more changes came.  In 1982 Diet Coke was released and Tab's sales declined.  To further impact sales, the formula never matched the original flavor and was changed repeatably over the next two decades.  The current Tab uses saccharin as the dominant sweetener and has a flavor that more closely matches the original.

-Professor Walter

Nikola Tesla, the enabler of the couch potato

According to Wikipedia

"A couch potato is a person who spends most of his or her free time sitting or lying on a couch. This stereotype often refers to a lazy and overweight person who watches a lot of television. Generally speaking, the term refers to a lifestyle in which children or adults don't get enough physical activity."

The tool of the couch potato is the remote control.  With this item a person may change channels without leaving their seat.  Millions of people use remote controls, yet few are aware that they are over 100 years old.

On July 1st 1898, Nikola Tesla applied for a patent for the first remote control.  The US Patent office issued him U.S. Patent 613,809 in November of that year for his invention.  That year he demonstrated it at Madison Square Garden by controlling a small boat he had dubbed a "teleautomaton".  Tesla's invention was enhanced and used to pilot planes in the years that followed and in 1939 the Philco Mystery Control was released as the first powered remote control for a consumer product.  In 1950 the Zenith "Lazy Bones" was the first television remote control, although it was wired.  In 1956 the Zenith Space Command became the first wireless remote control.

Today the remote control is a core component of every home entertainment system opening up a world of programming without ever needing to leave your seat.

-Professor Walter

From blood plasma to the breakfast table

The ancient Peruvian Incas from the Andes developed a basic process of freeze-drying with is the removal of water content from frozen food.  The freezing temperatures of the mountains combined with the high altitudes made this possible.  With the advent of World War II this technique was considered as a solution to the problem of storing and preserving blood plasma and penicillin.

In 1940 Richard Stetson Morse founded The National Research Corporation in Boston, MA. to research vacuum packing and freeze-drying.  The US Army had a request for 500,000 lb powdered orange juice.  Under the leadership of John M. Fox NRC's new branch, Florida Foods Corporation won a contract to provide the powder for $750,000.  However, the war ended before the factory could be built.  The company chose to proceed forward despite the end of the contract, but decided against powered orange juice.  Instead they developed a procedure to remove 80% of the water from the orange juice and invented the first concentrate frozen juice product on the market.  From a slow start, going door to door, the product quickly became a hit with the name of Minute Maid.

In 1949 the company changed its name to Minute Maid and in 1960 it was purchased by Coca-Cola.  As of today Coca-Cola is the worlds largest producer of fruit juices.

-Professor Walter

With each improvement comes greater success

In 1950 Jackie Gleason took over as the host of Cavalcade of Stars on the DuMont Television Network.  The comedy variety show had a collection of shorts, including one about a bus driver named Ralph Kramden called The Honeymooners.  The show was an attempt to capture the life of a married poor couple living in Brooklyn.  The success of the segment led to the creation of a new family sitcom in 1951.  Initial high ratings gave way to competition and the show ended as a stand alone production.  Although it returned as a sketch show until 1957 when Art Carney left.  Many credit this show with being one of the founders of the modern day sitcom. Three years after the end of the Honeymooners a new show would take off using many themes similar to the Honeymooners. 

In 1960 Hanna-Barbera produced a new show called The Flintstones.  The show was a prehistoric Honeymooners and ran from 1960 to 1966 on ABC.  In addition it spawned numerous specials and a few spin off shows.  The concept borrowed from The Honeymooners created the first primetime animated show which would hold the title of the only animated prime time show until 1989.

In 1987 The Tracey Ullman show on the Fox Network was looking for content and was pitched a dysfunctional animated family sketch by Matt Groening.  Groening conceived for the concept with James L. Brooks and The Simpsons were born.  Feeding off the same base that was built by The Honeymooners and refined by The Flintstones, The Simpsons was a distorted view of the family structure that existed previously.  Now in its 21st season with 423 episodes under its belt, The Simpsons has become a staple of Sunday night programming across the United States achieving a level of success never dreamed of by its predecessors.

With each iteration of the core concept there were successes and failures.  Each time refining the concept so that each success would be as enduring as possible.

-Professor Walter

Break me off a piece of that... Hershey bar?

In the early 1930's a worker at a Rowntree's confectionery factory in York they they develop a product that would be a snack that a man could have in hit lunchbox for work.  The resulting product was a chocolate covered biscuit known today as the Kit Kat launched in 1935.  The name is believed to have been derived from the Kit-Cat Club, witch was an eighteenth century political club for artists.

In 1969 the company merged with Mackintosh and became Rowntree Mackintosh.  In 1987, the company went public, and in 1988 was acquired by Nestle.  Throughout the world the Kit Kat remains one of Nestle's most popular products, except in the United States.  Rowntree Mackintosh had an agreement with Hershey, where Hershey would sell the Kit Kat under license.  Despite the fact that Nestle is well established in the US, the agreement is still in place, and as such any Kit Kat purchased in the United States is a Hershey product.

-Professor Walter

Burning bright for a short time is better than never suceeding at all

In the 1970's Dan Bricklin watched a professor at Harvard Business School create a financial model on a blackboard.  When the professor made an error he had to erase and re-write a series of sequential numbers.  Bricklin noticed this and thought that it could be automated via a computer.

The idea was refined by Bob Frankston and together they developed a product for their company Software Arts called VisiCalc, the world's first spreadsheet.  In 1979 they released it for the Apple II and the Apple transformed from hobbyist's toy to a useful financial tool for business.  The enormous success of VisiCalc spawned imitators and soon VisiCalc lost favor as newer applications worked better.  At the time there had never been a patent for an application so the VisiCalc team never received royalties from the successes of the VisiCalc's clones.  

Perhaps the greatest impact of VisiCalc was the high probability that it was the motivating factor that moved IBM into the personal computer market.  With IBM's entry came Microsoft's success and the dominant computer platform still in operation today. 

All because a Professor at Harvard made a mistake.

-Professor Walter

Excuse me, but you look a little yellow

In 1964 Doric Foods of Mount Dora, Florida created a new drink called Sunny Delight.  The drink enjoyed much success in the United States and in 1999 was launched in the UK.  Within a year it became the third best selling soft drink behind Pepsi and Coke, based on the claims that it was a healthier alternative.  The Sunny Delight in the UK was very similar to the Sunny Delight in the US, however it used beta carotene for the coloring and additional vitamin A.

Since Sunny Delight was primarily water, high fructose corn syrup, and less than 2% juice, its heath properties were brought into question by the press and authorities.  Just as the negative backlash was reaching a peak something would happen that would cause Sunny Delight change their name and image to try and put the past behind them.

In 1999 Dr Duncan Cameron from Glan Clywd hospital had a patient who was a four year old girl whose hands and face had turned yellow and orange.  Further investigation found the beta carotene to be the cause.  The child had been consuming too much in the form of 1.5 liters of Sunny Delight a day.  Fortunately the condition disappears within a few weeks of not consuming Sunny Delight.  While the same affliction can occur from the consumption of too many carrots, the damage to Sunny Delight's reputation was severe.  By 2001 sales had more than halved.

In 2003 Sunny Delight disappeared from store shelves.  In its place was SunnyD, which contained 5% juice in the US and 70% juice in the UK.  Sales have not recovered to previous levels, but no one has turned yellow.

-Professor Walter

It's not east being first in the cola business

Introduced in 1958 Diet Rite cola was the first no-calorie soft drink on the marked.  It was distributed by the RC Cola company as a dietetic, healthy product due to it's lack of sugar.  The key to it's no sugar formula was the use of cyclamate and saccharin for sweetening.  Imitators came soon including products such as Patio which eventually became Diet Pepsi.  Problems arose for Diet Rite in 1969 when the FDA banned cyclamate (for things such as testicular atrophy).  Quick to react the RC Cola corporation reformulated the drink to use saccharin exclusively.  In the strive to stay innovators Diet Rite was reformulated again in 1983 to eliminate sodium (the fist commercial diet drink to do so).  And, in 1987 it was changed again replacing saccharin with aspartame and removing the caffeine.  Then again in 2000 Diet Rite was changed to eliminate aspartame with the introduction on sucralose and acesulfame potassium as the sweeteners.  With this new change Diet Rite was the first major diet drink to not use aspartame or saccharin.  

As an early innovator Diet Rite has struggled to reach the kind of success held by it's followers.  Only by continuing innovation has the brand survived and held on to it;s market share.  As of today Diet Rite is part of the Dr Pepper Snapple Group as is one of their core diet soda offerings.

-Professor Walter

Margarine, constant foe of the butter industry

In 1869 Emperor Louis Napolean III of France offered a prize to whomever could create a substitute for butter that could be used for the armed forces and lower classes.  The French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriés created a substance called oleomargarine.  His initial attempts ar marketing margarine met limited commercial success and in 1871 he sold his patent to the Dutch company Jurgens.  As early as 1877 laws began to be enforced that would prevent the spread of margarine.  

The butter industry was concerned about the new artificial butter and took significant steps to prevent its success.  Their tactics involved the use of tariffs, and taxes.  Then they went further, attacking one of margarine's biggest problems.  Margarine is naturally white, or near white.  Manufacturers wanted to add yellow food coloring to make it look better, but that was banned in many countries.  In the United States legislators went a step further and, in some states, enforced a rule that margarine had to have pink food coloring so that it would appear unappealing.  This coloring law was stopped buy the Supreme Court, but the ban of other coloring remained strong.

In the 1960s the laws banning color were finally dropped, and margarine, as you know it, was now on the store shelves.  Today the battle between butter and margarine continues, with butter pulling ahead thanks to concerns with trans-fats and consumers determination that taste of more important than saturated fat content.

-Professor Walter