Latest / Ridiculous History / Vitamin Donuts Were A Real Thing

Transcript

Vitamin Donuts Were A Real Thing · Ridiculous History

0:24
Speaker 1: What a busy dave friends and neighbors. Right before we
0:27
Speaker 1: started recording, we both accidentally hung out in the studio
0:31
Speaker 1: together to eat. My name is Ben, h my name
0:35
Speaker 1: is Noel, And hey, hey, you um, you're losing. You're losing.
0:39
Speaker 1: You're losing, You're losing your vitamin C donuts. It's true,
0:43
Speaker 1: it's true, And at the end of this episode, we
0:46
Speaker 1: hope that you can let us know whether it's a
0:49
Speaker 1: good or bad thing to have lost them. Of course,
0:52
Speaker 1: where would we be without our super producer, Casey Pegram
0:58
Speaker 1: And I want to ask where would we be without donuts?
1:03
Speaker 1: We'd probably be leading happier, healthier lives, have lower blood pressure,
1:09
Speaker 1: less diabetes, obesity would probably be diminished. Uh, I don't know.
1:14
Speaker 1: I think it'd be a pretty beautiful world without donuts. Yeah,
1:17
Speaker 1: are you a fan of donuts? I just think, sure,
1:20
Speaker 1: they're good, they're they're delicious, but they're just so decadent.
1:24
Speaker 1: It's like, can you think of a more decadent treat?
1:26
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure you're good if you tried, but
1:28
Speaker 1: it would probably involve slathering a donut with some kind
1:30
Speaker 1: of pudding. I'm just not you know, I've never been
1:34
Speaker 1: a donut person, I don't have crown no, just not
1:39
Speaker 1: a not not croissant would be a little bit more
1:44
Speaker 1: on the savory end. But it's strange because here in Atlanta,
1:47
Speaker 1: you know, our office is down the street from a
1:50
Speaker 1: pretty well known Crispy cream outlet, which rumor has it
1:53
Speaker 1: that Shack actually owns now the one with the sign
1:56
Speaker 1: like with the one with the old school. Yeah, apparently
2:00
Speaker 1: that is one of the many things in the city owns.
2:02
Speaker 1: And then also you and Casey and I have witnessed
2:06
Speaker 1: over the past few years the rise of the artisan
2:10
Speaker 1: doughnuts here in Atlanta, along with cupcakes. I mean it's great.
2:14
Speaker 1: There's a place called Revolution Donuts that is fantastic. They
2:17
Speaker 1: actually have a savory donut that I like that's got
2:19
Speaker 1: like gre air and like ham and it and it's
2:22
Speaker 1: really good. Um, I honestly am more inclined to eat
2:25
Speaker 1: something like that. I think I've lost my sweet tooth
2:28
Speaker 1: in addition to my vitamin C donuts. Oh really, Yeah,
2:32
Speaker 1: So it's it's something that I think will on balance,
2:36
Speaker 1: be better for both of us. Multiple studies indicate that
2:41
Speaker 1: the average American eats way too much sugar, right, and
2:45
Speaker 1: it's it's in so many foods that we consume. We
2:48
Speaker 1: should point out that none of us, none of the
2:51
Speaker 1: three of us, are professional nutritionists, right, so whatever we
2:56
Speaker 1: say is should not be taken as nutrition advice. I'm
3:00
Speaker 1: sort of an armchair nutritionist. I just sort of fling
3:04
Speaker 1: these whatever pops through my head and just just just
3:07
Speaker 1: willy nilly because I think you need to eat more
3:11
Speaker 1: Riboflavan band. Just looking at you look a little peak
3:13
Speaker 1: and I think Ribo flavor is what you need. And
3:16
Speaker 1: so everybody knows. Nol is pointing in the old in
3:20
Speaker 1: the style of the old World War two Uncle Sam poster,
3:24
Speaker 1: but instead the caption instead of we need you for
3:27
Speaker 1: the U. S. Army, it would be you need Ribo Flavor.
3:29
Speaker 1: And I'm also wearing a big, tall American flag hat
3:32
Speaker 1: right now, which I think is cool. And I'm really
3:34
Speaker 1: proud of you for stretching your wings and these new things.
3:37
Speaker 1: I think this could be big. I don't know if
3:39
Speaker 1: it's an everyday hat, because you want to be special.
3:41
Speaker 1: I did it for this episode. I was just trying
3:43
Speaker 1: something out. But what is this episode about. I'm so
3:45
Speaker 1: glad you asked, because this episode is about donuts. A
3:49
Speaker 1: very specific type of doughnuts, and before we get into that,
3:55
Speaker 1: we should just give a brief history of doughnuts, pretty common.
3:59
Speaker 1: I would be surprised if you have not ever heard
4:02
Speaker 1: of a donut and still somehow are listening to podcasts
4:05
Speaker 1: on the internet. Food like donuts has been around for
4:09
Speaker 1: centuries and centuries and centuries, and people tell you the
4:13
Speaker 1: American version of the donut traces back to Dutch settlers
4:19
Speaker 1: Dutch columns, right, and they didn't have that familiar ring shape.
4:26
Speaker 1: You can find and mention of donut in a book
4:29
Speaker 1: by Washington Irvine in eighteen o nine, a History of
4:32
Speaker 1: New York from the Beginning of the World to the
4:34
Speaker 1: end of the Dutch Dynasty. But over time they became
4:38
Speaker 1: a super convenient snack for Americans right on both coasts.
4:44
Speaker 1: And our story takes place in the world of donuts,
4:48
Speaker 1: but also in the world of crazy advertising, which is
4:51
Speaker 1: one of our favorite things. We're talking about the moment
4:55
Speaker 1: where before the six million dollar man happened. Uh, some
4:59
Speaker 1: food manu factors said, all right, donuts are great, but
5:02
Speaker 1: what if we could also make them healthy? What if
5:04
Speaker 1: we could build them stronger, faster. I can't remember the
5:08
Speaker 1: rest of the six million dollar man thing faster? Do
5:12
Speaker 1: you deeper? I don't know you are? I think I
5:15
Speaker 1: am to That's all that comes to mind. Yeah, but
5:17
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, it's it's it's it's utter flam flam,
5:21
Speaker 1: you know, And we're gonna get to that. But uh,
5:23
Speaker 1: what if Ben, you know, what if you could do that,
5:27
Speaker 1: that'd be cool, But you can't. So the next best
5:30
Speaker 1: thing is just to figure out a way to convince
5:31
Speaker 1: people that it's a thing, and then you know, it
5:35
Speaker 1: takes the burden of guilt off of them for eating
5:37
Speaker 1: this trash food. Basically right right exactly. Back in the
5:42
Speaker 1: early nineteen forties, the biggest donut maker of the time,
5:47
Speaker 1: an outfit named, in a burst of creativity, the Donut
5:50
Speaker 1: Corporation of America changes a little on the nose. Someoneuld say,
5:55
Speaker 1: but we're fans. Uh. They tried pushing this product, They
5:59
Speaker 1: try to do this thing, and they created something called
6:03
Speaker 1: vitamin donuts. But what what what the heck? Man? What's
6:07
Speaker 1: a vitamin donut? It's a donut um that is fortified.
6:13
Speaker 1: It is made with flower that is enriched with various vitamins,
6:19
Speaker 1: um synthesized vitamins and It was a popular trend in
6:24
Speaker 1: general at the time. Kellogg's even had a cereal called
6:28
Speaker 1: Pep Cereal, and uh, companies like Libbies and Bird's Eye,
6:33
Speaker 1: which are still around today and they still like frozen
6:35
Speaker 1: pot pies and stuff. We're all about this language of
6:38
Speaker 1: it being enriched, vitamin infused or whatever. There are different
6:42
Speaker 1: ways of putting it, and there was a golden age
6:46
Speaker 1: for this nonsense. Absolutely, Vitamin Donuts specifically had diamine and
6:53
Speaker 1: vitamin B three and iron. No ribo flavoring fortification that
6:58
Speaker 1: I can find, which is a crime. That twitch I'm
7:00
Speaker 1: seeing in your eye, I feel like magnesium maybe it
7:03
Speaker 1: would be the maybe it's magnesium and nol is absolutely correct.
7:09
Speaker 1: There was a there was an advertising craze to make
7:13
Speaker 1: you think that product A was healthier or a smarter
7:18
Speaker 1: investment due to this extra nutritional bang you got for
7:23
Speaker 1: your buck. You know what I thought of when we
7:26
Speaker 1: were looking at some of this stuff off air was
7:29
Speaker 1: the cycle of language in advertising again the nineties. Remember
7:34
Speaker 1: everything was what was it? Was it digital in the nineties, Yeah,
7:38
Speaker 1: like the the indie glow watches and stuff like that,
7:42
Speaker 1: or like organic in the early two thousand's and so
7:46
Speaker 1: maybe fortified was one of the buzz terms of the forties. So,
7:52
Speaker 1: you know one from today I get too up far
7:54
Speaker 1: off topic that I heard the other the other day
7:55
Speaker 1: that really, I think it's totally accurate. Is things that
7:58
Speaker 1: are like recyclable or like made from supposedly made from
8:02
Speaker 1: recycled material, like water bottles they say up to and uh.
8:08
Speaker 1: And in an interview on NPR that I heard, the
8:10
Speaker 1: question was posed to like a recycling expert, like, does
8:14
Speaker 1: that mean it could be Like my answer is yes,
8:18
Speaker 1: oh boy, yeah, we have to be careful with that language.
8:21
Speaker 1: I had thought of that with recycling. I'm familiar with that.
8:26
Speaker 1: It's similar to like a portion of the proceeds from
8:29
Speaker 1: this will be donated to you know, this amazing charity.
8:32
Speaker 1: But speaking of the ads you're talking about, these campaigns
8:34
Speaker 1: were everywhere and the poster for Vitamin Donuts is delightful
8:39
Speaker 1: and horrifying. Uh. It says vitamin big red letters surrounded
8:43
Speaker 1: by these like hashtags of sparkling energy and then donuts
8:47
Speaker 1: and then um on either side are the most rosy
8:51
Speaker 1: cheeked you know, uh, just up and atom little tykes
8:55
Speaker 1: that he could ever imagine, one of them holding a
8:57
Speaker 1: donut with a bite taken out of it. Their cheeks
9:00
Speaker 1: are blood red. And I think that was meant to
9:02
Speaker 1: imply health and vitality. And what's the catchphrase, ben oh
9:07
Speaker 1: gosh for pep and vigor. Each donut fortified with a
9:11
Speaker 1: minimum of twenty five units of vitamin B one vitamin
9:14
Speaker 1: donuts gorge your way to health. Yeah, right, Look at
9:19
Speaker 1: the way that poor little girl in the bottom left
9:23
Speaker 1: of the posters staring at those wants them. She wants them.
9:27
Speaker 1: And the size is all wrong too. The scale is
9:29
Speaker 1: really this perspective is very strange because the donuts are
9:31
Speaker 1: kind of on the four and the girl is sort
9:33
Speaker 1: of on the same visual plane, but the donuts are
9:35
Speaker 1: like the size of her head. Uh, it's it's it's
9:38
Speaker 1: it's a very odd ad um. This was a failure
9:42
Speaker 1: not just from the donut contingent um, but from other
9:46
Speaker 1: companies that tried it as well. And that's because of
9:49
Speaker 1: the Nutrition Division of the U. S Government's War Food Administration.
9:53
Speaker 1: Right then, absolutely, right now. So the Nutrition Division of
9:57
Speaker 1: the War Food Administration had a lout and it awarded
10:02
Speaker 1: a seal of approval to companies when it approved their
10:06
Speaker 1: nutrition claims. But The problem with the donuts was this.
10:11
Speaker 1: The donuts were made with as as you had mentioned earlier,
10:14
Speaker 1: and enriched white flower, and this meant, according to the
10:19
Speaker 1: boffins at the Nutrition division, this meant that the donuts
10:22
Speaker 1: themselves were not enriched with vitamins, only the flower they
10:26
Speaker 1: were made from was enriched. See I picture them like
10:29
Speaker 1: instead of sprinkles, you have horse pills with all your
10:35
Speaker 1: vitamins are just like, you know, with a nice cream
10:38
Speaker 1: filling intermixed with you know, flintstones chewables, which that doesn't
10:44
Speaker 1: sound half bad. I do a lot of people who
10:46
Speaker 1: ate flintstone stewables like candy, just for for the taste.
10:49
Speaker 1: They're the lifefull. I'm not a fan of chalky things,
10:52
Speaker 1: but I like gummy vitamins. Actually, of the those for
10:56
Speaker 1: fun once ode on Vitamin C. It was not a
10:59
Speaker 1: pretty Really how old were you? It was like last week?
11:03
Speaker 1: Is that why you have that kind of I didn't
11:05
Speaker 1: want to say anything to Okay, that's what they say
11:08
Speaker 1: about me. It's a glow. Okay, Well, I'm glad you're
11:11
Speaker 1: I'm glad you're all right. Uh it's so it looks
11:14
Speaker 1: like I'm a riboflavan vampire and you are the citruacy
11:19
Speaker 1: door of vitamin C death. Well, yeah, it's like that
11:22
Speaker 1: character and and Superman movie with the nukes and stuff
11:26
Speaker 1: who kind of was birthed from the sun and all
11:28
Speaker 1: of a sudden sort of growing creepy fingernails and could
11:30
Speaker 1: shoot fireballs out of his eye. That was me when
11:32
Speaker 1: I ate the whole jar of vitamin C gummies. I'm
11:35
Speaker 1: not gonna do that again. Yeah. Yeah, we have to
11:37
Speaker 1: be careful because even though we are taught often to
11:41
Speaker 1: associate vitamins with health and good decisions, medically speaking, it
11:47
Speaker 1: is absolutely possible to have too much of a good thing,
11:50
Speaker 1: and there are consequences to that. But here's another thing
11:54
Speaker 1: about this enriched white flower. It sounds great, and even
11:59
Speaker 1: today in twenty eighteens, we record this. If you're in
12:02
Speaker 1: the United States and you go to your average grocery store,
12:05
Speaker 1: you're going to see that quite a few food products
12:09
Speaker 1: that use flower use enriched white flower. It's just the
12:14
Speaker 1: most common thing. But it's not a superfood. No. It's
12:17
Speaker 1: sort of like, uh, figuring out how to turn pig
12:20
Speaker 1: parts into gelatin, you know. It's sort of like making
12:24
Speaker 1: lemons into lemonade. It's just taking a unpleasant byproduct or
12:27
Speaker 1: just something that was just happening anyway, and figuring out
12:29
Speaker 1: how to sell it, you know, put a bow on it.
12:31
Speaker 1: That's what this whole. Hey, we've got this stuff, we
12:34
Speaker 1: already used and it's the cheapest product available in the
12:36
Speaker 1: easiest natural path to making this stuff. Let's let's call
12:39
Speaker 1: it something cool as people think they're buying something different, right,
12:43
Speaker 1: So what do dietitians think of this snol? Like? What what?
12:47
Speaker 1: What are the experts saying about enriched flower? Yes, Sarah Glime,
12:52
Speaker 1: who is a palle of oars in the office, wrote
12:54
Speaker 1: this article for How Stuff Works. Vitamin donuts were a
12:56
Speaker 1: thing question of mark question mark added the second question
12:59
Speaker 1: mark um. But she spoke to a dietitian from Birmingham,
13:03
Speaker 1: Alabama at the Health and Wellness Center St. Vincent's One
13:07
Speaker 1: Night Team, and she asked her about the efficacy of
13:12
Speaker 1: enriched flower and that's how she responded. As much as
13:15
Speaker 1: I would love for them to be healthy, she says,
13:17
Speaker 1: I really wouldn't consider donuts made with enriched white flower
13:20
Speaker 1: a healthy source of nutrients. Donuts are made using only
13:24
Speaker 1: refined white flower, and these refined carbohydrates have been shown
13:28
Speaker 1: to be worse for your health than saturated fats ouch oh.
13:32
Speaker 1: Also an editorial correction here on my part. The enriched
13:38
Speaker 1: flower did contain ribo flavor as well as full of acid,
13:43
Speaker 1: so rest rest assured everybody who was about to throw
13:46
Speaker 1: away their collection of Vantage vitamin donuts. So the Nutrition
13:51
Speaker 1: Division wanted the Donut Corporation to call them not vitamin donuts,
13:58
Speaker 1: but to call this product in itched flower donuts, which
14:02
Speaker 1: is just not a sexiest name. What do you think,
14:05
Speaker 1: absolutely not. I mean, it certainly does not fill my
14:08
Speaker 1: heart with them vigor and pep. Right. And so even
14:17
Speaker 1: though the Donut Corporation lost the battle regarding vitamin donuts
14:22
Speaker 1: with the Nutrition Division, the donut Corporation went on to
14:27
Speaker 1: do decades of business as donut advocates. It's probably the
14:32
Speaker 1: best way to say it, almost like a donut lobby.
14:36
Speaker 1: I don't want to get close to calling them big donut,
14:39
Speaker 1: but I think that's a hilarious phrase when you say
14:41
Speaker 1: big done, and it makes me think of that donut
14:43
Speaker 1: shop in l A near the airport with the big
14:45
Speaker 1: giant donut on top. Yeah, I feel like I just
14:51
Speaker 1: gonna spend every trip to l A. I have seen
14:55
Speaker 1: that donut shop and never going in because I'm aways
14:57
Speaker 1: in a hurry to go from the airport. I mean,
14:59
Speaker 1: you're lucky if you get a chance to stop it.
15:01
Speaker 1: In and Out Burger. That's true. That's true. And this
15:04
Speaker 1: is not related to anything. Did I tell you I
15:07
Speaker 1: went to an in and out Burger for the first time?
15:09
Speaker 1: What do you think? I? You know, I at first
15:13
Speaker 1: I was a little bit let down because there's been
15:16
Speaker 1: so much hype about it. And then I tried the
15:18
Speaker 1: burger Burger is solid. It's really good. It's really good.
15:21
Speaker 1: It's good. It's got like a almost like a cinnamon
15:23
Speaker 1: e vibe to it. There's something they put in the
15:25
Speaker 1: patties that like really has an interesting, robust flavor. I'm
15:29
Speaker 1: a fan. Did you get an Animal Style? I did not.
15:32
Speaker 1: That's the way to go. That's what I should have done.
15:34
Speaker 1: I think double double, double double Animal Style. Hopefully I'll
15:38
Speaker 1: be back there again sometime. And I'm all about Nolan
15:41
Speaker 1: and I are both all about exploring not just fast food,
15:45
Speaker 1: but any different local food that we run across in
15:48
Speaker 1: our travels. Trash food the world over, world over. So
15:54
Speaker 1: for instance, this includes things like Crown Burger and Utah
15:57
Speaker 1: Pals in East Tennessee, which is thought that take you
16:00
Speaker 1: two if we ever get get up around that way
16:03
Speaker 1: in the hollers and the cricks. I know we're off
16:05
Speaker 1: topic a little bit, but I saw an article on
16:07
Speaker 1: Mental philost today that was a map showing what the
16:09
Speaker 1: most popular burger is in every state, and you know
16:12
Speaker 1: what it is in most states, five guys, they really
16:18
Speaker 1: really did. Only one was Burger King and then obviously
16:21
Speaker 1: the West coast is all in and out and what
16:23
Speaker 1: a burger reigned supreme in Texas and I think a
16:26
Speaker 1: couple of the surrounding states. But five guys was the
16:30
Speaker 1: champion time. I was surprised. It's pretty good, but I
16:34
Speaker 1: didn't know it was such a force and good burger.
16:38
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's it's a good quality burger. We
16:40
Speaker 1: have around here a thing called cookout, which I think
16:42
Speaker 1: is sort of a southern regional thing. It's pretty cool
16:46
Speaker 1: because you can you get a combo and for your sides,
16:49
Speaker 1: you get to choose two sides. You can choose chicken
16:52
Speaker 1: cause sodilla and chicken nuggets or double chicken nuggets like
16:55
Speaker 1: a corn dog, or two chicken cadillas or two corn dogs.
16:58
Speaker 1: It's really really good for your health. I have no
17:00
Speaker 1: idea how they make money. You got to order the trade.
17:03
Speaker 1: It's like four dollars to anyway, we digress, Ben, What's
17:06
Speaker 1: say we wrapped this episode up with a fun hodgepodge
17:10
Speaker 1: of some other abysmal food failures uh and or misleading
17:15
Speaker 1: ad campaigns. I completely agree. How about you kick us off?
17:19
Speaker 1: Only because Casey mentioned it. McDonald's has had some pretty
17:23
Speaker 1: hilarious food fails over the years. One was called the
17:28
Speaker 1: Mike Africa uh. And this was a confection that was
17:34
Speaker 1: only available in southern Africa and in a pr nightmare,
17:40
Speaker 1: um Max pulled that product because apparently calling something Mick
17:46
Speaker 1: and the whole country is in bad form. Yeah, it
17:49
Speaker 1: looks like it's made with just flat bread, and it
17:51
Speaker 1: looks like a like a big Mac, but with like
17:53
Speaker 1: two pieces of flatbread. It doesn't look particularly appetizing. But
17:57
Speaker 1: the Mike Africa I always think of it. We're talking
17:59
Speaker 1: about the old food products from fast food. I always
18:02
Speaker 1: thinking the Hula Burger. The Hula Burger was also from McDonald's,
18:08
Speaker 1: made by Ray Kroc himself, the driving force behind McDonald's
18:13
Speaker 1: success who always had a million ideas. He was just
18:18
Speaker 1: throwing ideas left and right. They wanted to make a
18:21
Speaker 1: burger for Catholics who didn't eat meat on Fridays, so
18:25
Speaker 1: instead of be for a chicken patty, it had a
18:27
Speaker 1: grilled pineapple slice topped with cheese. People hated it. Yeah,
18:31
Speaker 1: the picture of it that I see here, it's obviously
18:33
Speaker 1: not a professional shot, but it looks. It looks like something.
18:37
Speaker 1: It looks like a dead thing. Yeah, it looks. It
18:40
Speaker 1: looks bad. I mean, you can't blame the folks for trying,
18:43
Speaker 1: But what about market research? You know, did they just
18:47
Speaker 1: not have that at that time? Well, you know, it
18:49
Speaker 1: probably wasn't as easy to conduct as it is today.
18:51
Speaker 1: You had to go like door to door or or
18:53
Speaker 1: get people to fill stuff out, and no one wants
18:55
Speaker 1: to do that. Um, we're not gonna harp on McDonald's
18:57
Speaker 1: and fast, but I just wanted to mention those those
18:59
Speaker 1: are on. But let's talk about some more campaigns. Remember
19:02
Speaker 1: ovaltine Oh yeah yeah yeah, also uh fortified right. Yeah,
19:06
Speaker 1: it's like you know, malted powder drink you mix with
19:10
Speaker 1: your milk and it, you know, to be fair, contains
19:13
Speaker 1: quite a bit of fortification in the form of calcium,
19:16
Speaker 1: folic acid, iron, zinc, are pal riboflavan, viamin, vitamin B six,
19:21
Speaker 1: vitamin B twelve, vitamin C, and vitamin A. And it
19:24
Speaker 1: is a legacy product in that same period that we
19:28
Speaker 1: were talking about, but they seem to have managed to
19:30
Speaker 1: uh continue to promote it as kind of a healthful
19:35
Speaker 1: supplement type drink. And people love the stuff. It is delicious,
19:38
Speaker 1: People love it. It is Its status is a healthy
19:42
Speaker 1: beverage is controversial, but I think a lot of people
19:46
Speaker 1: get it for nostalgic reasons as well, you know, like
19:50
Speaker 1: Grandma always made oval tine. It's an immediate like blast
19:53
Speaker 1: to your childhood when you take a sip of it,
19:55
Speaker 1: and then you know, not to mention more oval team please,
19:57
Speaker 1: you know, like it's pretty interesting when the companies build
20:01
Speaker 1: such strong pr that goes so far back and they're
20:04
Speaker 1: able to just kind of ride that snake to like
20:06
Speaker 1: perpetual ubiquity in the public consciousness. Even though a team
20:10
Speaker 1: you don't hear about it too much. They don't like
20:11
Speaker 1: have ads all over the place, you know, but it's
20:14
Speaker 1: definitely a thing. Also not to mention ben. I don't
20:16
Speaker 1: know if you've heard about this, but there are studies
20:18
Speaker 1: that are saying that vitamin supplements not this is big
20:21
Speaker 1: of a thing. Is we maybe used to think absolutely absolutely,
20:25
Speaker 1: because there's there are questions about how much benefit they
20:30
Speaker 1: actually convey to your body, depending upon the manner in
20:33
Speaker 1: which they are ingested or the manner in which they
20:36
Speaker 1: are included in the manufacturing process. Like vitamin water is
20:40
Speaker 1: a perfect example exactly. And again I think they are
20:43
Speaker 1: able to get away with calling the product vitamin water
20:46
Speaker 1: because on the side, it does list a crap ton
20:49
Speaker 1: of additives that are, you know, things you would find
20:52
Speaker 1: in multi vitamin supplements. But I think a lot of
20:55
Speaker 1: it has to do with like, if you're deficient in something,
20:57
Speaker 1: your doctor can prescribe you to take something that like,
21:00
Speaker 1: you know, gets you to the levels you need to be.
21:02
Speaker 1: But if you're not and you're just like loading yourself
21:05
Speaker 1: up with all these different vitamins, is there benefit there?
21:08
Speaker 1: And there are studies out there that that seem to
21:10
Speaker 1: think there may even be harm, right, especially when consider
21:13
Speaker 1: how much sugar comes along with the deal. There's you know,
21:17
Speaker 1: there's a world of foods and drinks that skirt just
21:21
Speaker 1: beneath the threshold of being legally culpable for their claims,
21:25
Speaker 1: and advertisers do spend a lot of time figuring out
21:29
Speaker 1: language that sounds good but does not really promise something right,
21:35
Speaker 1: like is there a definition of natural? What is natural
21:39
Speaker 1: other than something that sounds good on a box in
21:42
Speaker 1: the grocery store, and even beyond that. This makes me
21:46
Speaker 1: wonder if vitamin water is gonna seem as silly in
21:51
Speaker 1: a few years as vitamin donuts seem today, you know
21:56
Speaker 1: what I mean? Like, I can see future historians going,
21:59
Speaker 1: why don't you just water and get a doctor to
22:02
Speaker 1: give you vitamins because it doesn't taste like dragon fruit.
22:08
Speaker 1: Remember he had a big stick in virotmin water and
22:10
Speaker 1: there was that formula fifty flavor. Someone someone told me
22:14
Speaker 1: that they thought that tasted like the way you would
22:16
Speaker 1: think grape sweat would taste. That's so gross, Just leave
22:20
Speaker 1: that right there. Oh, speaking of drinks, we found some
22:23
Speaker 1: other failed, like spectacularly failed beverages. Did you ever hear
22:30
Speaker 1: of pepsi a m because like breakfast pepsi? Yeah, I
22:33
Speaker 1: had never heard of this. So they thought, you know what,
22:38
Speaker 1: people aren't really drinking soda in the morning, So let's
22:40
Speaker 1: do exactly what you're describing. Let's get some breakfast soda drinkers.
22:46
Speaker 1: And they introduced this thing in the late eighties called
22:49
Speaker 1: Pepsi a m It had all the sugar and twice
22:51
Speaker 1: the caffeine of regular pepsi. Finally, right, Uh, it lasted
22:56
Speaker 1: about a year. Well, speaking of soda, let's have some
22:58
Speaker 1: more fun. Uh, we're talking about like more current things
23:03
Speaker 1: that that fit in this fail model. But let's let's
23:05
Speaker 1: go back back back to the nineteen fifties where there
23:07
Speaker 1: was a campaign for seven Up that shows an infant
23:12
Speaker 1: downing a seven up. It says why we have the
23:15
Speaker 1: youngest customers in the business. And I think the capture
23:20
Speaker 1: there or the motto is like seven up for babies exactly,
23:24
Speaker 1: and it says nothing doesn't like seven up. And then
23:27
Speaker 1: it has a nice little recipe on the side here,
23:29
Speaker 1: you know, for kids, a little trick that makes a
23:31
Speaker 1: treat seven up in milk mix mixed chilled seven up
23:36
Speaker 1: and cold milk and equal parts. By pouring the seven
23:39
Speaker 1: up gently into the milk, do not stir. The seven
23:42
Speaker 1: up adds a light and delicate flavor, making the delicious
23:46
Speaker 1: blended food drink food drink, the villa food drink, I
23:55
Speaker 1: don't know what that is. Food drink sounds like a
23:58
Speaker 1: terrible translation of a traditional beverage Somewhere. It's like, oh, welcome,
24:04
Speaker 1: thank you for coming. Now we will have the ritual
24:07
Speaker 1: exchange of food drink. So we we found so many
24:15
Speaker 1: strange advertisements that that clearly would be illegal today, and
24:20
Speaker 1: then also food products that even if we allow for hindsight,
24:25
Speaker 1: they still sound like just horrifically bad ideas. And props
24:28
Speaker 1: to Hunter Oatman Stanford over at Collectors Weekly. He made
24:32
Speaker 1: a list over there that we are pulling from for
24:34
Speaker 1: some of these, and and they're delightful. I want to
24:37
Speaker 1: point out that, uh, to go back to fast food,
24:42
Speaker 1: just briefly, I want to point out that Taco Bell
24:45
Speaker 1: had deserves a metal for all the strange things they've
24:48
Speaker 1: tried over the years. There was most notably I remember
24:53
Speaker 1: the Taco Bell seafood salad, which just sounds like a
24:56
Speaker 1: terrible idea. Any notion of seafood from a fast food
25:00
Speaker 1: restaurant typically is a red flag for me. Although I
25:03
Speaker 1: will occasionally do a Captain Dee's, you know, under under duress.
25:08
Speaker 1: At least that's all they do. It's not just an afterthought,
25:11
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, like the mclobster back picking
25:15
Speaker 1: on the Yeah, they had a mc lobster that was
25:17
Speaker 1: only available in the main area. But do you remember
25:21
Speaker 1: that I Love Lucy episode where she gets the commercial
25:24
Speaker 1: for this thing called Vita Meat of vegamin it's very
25:27
Speaker 1: very popular, and she's trying to do it, and as
25:30
Speaker 1: it turns out, it's just chock full of alcohol and
25:32
Speaker 1: every time, like she takes a swig of it, she
25:34
Speaker 1: just gets more and more plastered. And their slogan to
25:37
Speaker 1: spoon your way to health, and it's like totally clearly
25:41
Speaker 1: just chock full of of straight booze um. This one
25:44
Speaker 1: I found here from the American Meat Institute from the fifties. Uh.
25:49
Speaker 1: It's it's just a big old meat platter featured in
25:51
Speaker 1: the center and then like nine hot dogs kind of
25:54
Speaker 1: like raining down from the sky and it says two
25:56
Speaker 1: delicious ways to help keep yourself trim. And the be
26:00
Speaker 1: here is very similar to what they're making fun of
26:02
Speaker 1: in that Lucy sketch. In this hot weather, do you
26:05
Speaker 1: feel tired, listless, all washed out? Don't blame it all
26:09
Speaker 1: on the heath. Look at your diet too. Scientific studies
26:12
Speaker 1: show it might well be due to a lack of
26:14
Speaker 1: high quality protein, the kind you get in meat. And
26:18
Speaker 1: for long time listeners, you've you've got to check out
26:21
Speaker 1: the visuals on this ad because they have what looks
26:24
Speaker 1: like an aspect or meat jelly in the center of
26:27
Speaker 1: the platter. I think you're right. I thought, you know what,
26:29
Speaker 1: that's exactly what it is. At first, I thought it
26:31
Speaker 1: was like a cheese uh, you know, like a Pimento
26:34
Speaker 1: cheese mountain or something like that. I think it is
26:36
Speaker 1: exactly that. Ben uh. We We also found an ad
26:41
Speaker 1: that was for sugar, just sugar. It says sugar might
26:46
Speaker 1: just be the willpower you need to curb your appetite.
26:49
Speaker 1: Sugar's quick energy can be the willpower you need to
26:52
Speaker 1: eat less. And it has close up shots of people
26:56
Speaker 1: drinking soda and eating candy. And this was part of
27:01
Speaker 1: a very large cover up that we only recently learned about.
27:05
Speaker 1: And the woman in this picture on the left, she
27:07
Speaker 1: looks terrifying and is drinking this soda in the most
27:10
Speaker 1: unnatural way. It's like cocked off in this weird canted angle,
27:14
Speaker 1: and it's like one of those paper straws and she
27:16
Speaker 1: is absolutely just chewing it. It's just clamped between her teeth,
27:20
Speaker 1: and she's got this kind of wandering I thing going on,
27:22
Speaker 1: like she is just jacked on sugar. It's a very
27:25
Speaker 1: troubling image. Yeah, and check out how sketchy this one
27:29
Speaker 1: is too, because these ads come from nineteen sixty nine
27:32
Speaker 1: and they include advice like have a soft drink before
27:35
Speaker 1: your main meal, or snack on some candy an hour
27:38
Speaker 1: before lunch. And there's not a company name you can
27:43
Speaker 1: follow up by mailing someone named sugar Information. Also, sugar
27:48
Speaker 1: Information sounds like a pretty cool code name. I'm sure
27:50
Speaker 1: it's like the sugar lobby, right that it has to be.
27:55
Speaker 1: Is it weird enough for you? I'm feeling weirded out? Man,
27:59
Speaker 1: if I'm feeling like we have we have not yet
28:03
Speaker 1: reached peak ridiculous advertising and failed food campaigns. But I
28:09
Speaker 1: think this, I think we should save the rest for
28:11
Speaker 1: another day. What do you say? I think that's why
28:14
Speaker 1: has been so Thank you so much for tuning in.
28:17
Speaker 1: If you or someone you know had the fortune to
28:20
Speaker 1: try a vitamin doughnut, we'd like to hear about the taste.
28:24
Speaker 1: Was it different from a regular donut? And what are
28:27
Speaker 1: your favorite failed food crazes. We'd also, of course like
28:31
Speaker 1: to thank our author Sarah Glme and our superproducer Casey
28:36
Speaker 1: Pe andF I'm not mistaken, man, most of the flower
28:39
Speaker 1: you buy today of the store is enriched flower. It's like,
28:43
Speaker 1: there's nothing special about it. It's not magic vitamin flower.
28:46
Speaker 1: It's true, it's true, it's pretty much regular flower. Now
28:51
Speaker 1: let us know any bakers out there and let us
28:53
Speaker 1: know how you feel about this stuff. Um, is it
28:56
Speaker 1: possible to make healthy baked goods? We're interested, right too,
29:00
Speaker 1: said ridiculous at how stuff works dot com. You can
29:02
Speaker 1: check us out on all the social media's Again, I
29:04
Speaker 1: second my co host Ben and thanking our super producer Casey,
29:07
Speaker 1: and also Alex Williams who composed Arthy, and most importantly you,
29:12
Speaker 1: So goodbye for now. We'll talk to you very soon,
29:15
Speaker 1: and in the meantime, send us all the weird ads
29:17
Speaker 1: who can find. Please do