Paul Earle bought the brand name for a discontinued line of ibuprofen painkillers and sold it to CVS, which is why it's the only place you can still find ("Nupe it") Nuprin. And convinced drugstore.com to buy (and sell) Salon Selectives.
He recently acquired (America Show Us Your) Underalls and the game maker Coleco. And Brim, a coffee that hasn't been sold in twenty years, yet retains an astonishing 92 percent awareness in people over 25, thanks to millions General Foods spent on it in its heyday. Curiously, what people forget is that Brim was decaff, even though they remembered the tagline "Fill it to the rim with Brim."
"Consumers remember the kind of high-level essence of the brand. They tend to forget the product specifics," Earle says. Which is why dead brands can be brought back to life in entirely new incarnations. Like the staid company that once outfitted gentlemen for travel is now controversial teen fashion purveyor Abercrombie + Fitch.
As interesting to me as the article itself are the comments online urging the revival of brands I haven't thought of in years:
Lemon Up, a shampoo with a cap shaped like a real lemon.
1-2-3 which was a faux Bavarian dessert that settled into three layers as it jelled.
Heaven Sent fragrance.
Gleem toothpaste.
Agree shampoo--They're selling old, gummy bottles of it for $50 a pop on eBay.
Another memorably-named shampoo--Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific
O-So-Grape (softdrink from the 50s)
Sunshine cookies
Orowheat Bread
Pine Bros. Cough Drops
Lifebuoy
Spoolies (hair curlers)
Fluffo - a solid vegetable oil shortening like Crisco - it came in reusable decorator cans with plastic tops.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pudding Pies (originally made by Hostess)
