PODCAST · business
Brought to you by...
by Business Insider
Surprising stories about how the biggest, household name brands affect our lives and culture — for better or worse. Host Charlie Herman finds tales of tragedy, love, strange histories, unintended consequences, and accidental success. More information at www.businessinsider.com/household-name
Episodes
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62: This was Brought to you by...
For the last episode of our show, you told us stories about a first love, fitting in, family trips, and how brands played an unexpected role in all of it. Plus, the team who made Brought to you by… takes a minute to say goodbye. Thank you for listening. See Privacy Policy at...
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61: Kellogg v. Kellogg
John Harvey Kellogg was a famous American physician. His brother Will was an ingenious businessman. Together, they invented flaked cereal and revolutionized American breakfast. But John Harvey and Will were bitter rivals, and they waged war over the very food that made them famous. So which…
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60: The Levi's That Came In From the Cold
At the start of the Cold War, Levi’s jeans represented everything communist governments were trying to stamp out. But Levi’s kept finding their way behind the Iron Curtain, especially into East Germany. There, people could see what they were missing just over the wall that separated them from the...
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59: The Pepski Generation
In 1990, PepsiCo made a deal with the Soviet Union for submarines, a cruiser, a frigate, and a destroyer. It was the largest agreement ever made between an American company and the USSR. But it wasn’t Pepsi’s first deal with the Soviets. For decades, one executive had been flying to the Soviet...
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58: The House That Sears Built
A few months ago, a listener in our Facebook group suggested we look into Sears mail-order homes for a potential episode. We loved the idea, and it turns out there’s already a fantastic story about these houses from the podcast 99% Invisible. Today, we’re sharing that episode with you. 99%...
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57: Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba
Since its founding nearly 160 years ago in Cuba, one family has run Bacardi. They fought for Cuba’s freedom, fostered an artistic community in the country, and rebuilt their business after fleeing the country because of Fidel Castro. Even today, they continue the struggle for Cuban identity from...
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56: Pan Am in Vietnam
During the Vietnam War, Pan Am flew troops in and out of an active war zone on rest and recuperation trips. The flight attendants on those planes didn’t get any special training or preparation to deal with some of the horrors they would witness, and when the war was over, they didn’t receive...
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Trailer: The Final Season
On October 21, we’re back for a final season. With episodes that take us behind the Iron Curtain, 35,000 feet over the Vietnam War, and through two Cuban revolutions, we’ll hear brands ask the question: Is politics any of our business? See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and…
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Send us your "Product Misplacement" stories!
We’re working on a special episode for next season and want to hear about how a household name brand played a pivotal role in your life. Maybe you and your dad took a wild road trip in the family Volkswagen on your way to be dropped off at college? Did you make the heart-wrenching call to sell…
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55: The Polaroid Revolutionary Workers Movement
When two employees at Polaroid discovered their company’s technology was being used by the South African government to help enforce apartheid, they protested and called for an international boycott of their employer until it withdrew from that country. It was one of the first anti-apartheid...
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54: Will The Real Mr. Oreo Please Stand Up?
This week, we’re teaming up with the podcast Proof from America’s Test Kitchen to bring you an Oreo story with three delicious parts. First, the longstanding rivalry between two biscuit makers that gave birth to the world’s favorite cookie. Then, one little girl’s brave choice (risking divine...
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53: An Essential Oils Investigation
Young Living was one of the first major essential oils companies on the market, helping to launch an industry that is worth billions of dollars today. The company is built on the myth of its founder, whose miraculous medical recovery inspired him to devote his life to alternative medicine. But…
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52: The Republic of Samsung
Samsung’s founder, his son, and his grandson turned a vegetable and dried fish shop into a global superpower and a symbol of South Korean success. But their fight to keep the company in the family has also landed it at the center of some of South Korea’s biggest corruption investigations. Now,...
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51: Not All Fun and Board Games
The original Game of Life was about reaching happy old age, not "Millionaire Acres." And Monopoly was invented by an anti-capitalist who wanted to make a point about landowning and economic inequality. How did these games become the versions we play today? This is the story of how two iconic…
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50: Let’s Talk About Tampax
How do you advertise a product that's taboo? When Tampax became the first commercially-produced tampon in 1933, no one wanted to talk about menstruation. So the company embraced education as advertising. It’s a strategy that grew from door-to-door sales campaigns to middle school sex ed classes...
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49: Making Nathan’s Famous
Nathan’s Famous turned the hot dog into a symbol of July 4th. But the story of how that happened says a lot more about America than just its love of a good BBQ. It’s immigrants striving for the American dream, hucksters spinning tall tales, underdogs fighting against the odds. The good, the bad,...
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48: The Fight for the McDonald’s Franchise
In 1969, Cleveland’s Black residents boycotted McDonald’s. For weeks, the company’s leadership had been locked in a stalemate with Black activists over who should own and operate the local franchises. It was all part of a bigger movement, whose goal was to build economic power in Black…
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Trailer: BTYB returns on June 24
What happens when businesses try to do more than just sell you things? On June 24, we’re kicking off a new season of stories: about Polaroid confronting racism, Tampax taking on education, and The Game of Life telling you how to live your life. Sign up for our newsletter:...
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INTRODUCING: “Twenty Thousand Hertz” and THX
While we finish up our new season, check out this episode from Twenty Thousand Hertz. It’s a podcast that tells the stories behind the world’s most recognizable sounds. This episode is about THX, that deep, swelling effect you hear right before a movie starts. Turns out, we might never have heard...
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BONUS: Where is Hidden Valley Ranch?
In this bonus episode, we open up our customer service lines to answer a burning question from one of our listeners: Is there really a Hidden Valley? And does it have a ranch? See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at...
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BONUS: Brand Aid
What’s the right way to sell people hamburgers, cars, or anything, really, during a global pandemic? In this bonus episode, Charlie talks to Business Insider’s Tanya Dua and Meredith Haggerty from “The Goods” by Vox about the state of pandemic advertising and what it can tell us about the role of...
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INTRODUCING: "Proof" and the Miracle Berry
While we work on a new season of episodes, here’s another podcast to check out: Proof, from America’s Test Kitchen. The Proof team tackles big questions about what we eat and explores the hidden stories behind the foods we love. In this episode, we learn who killed the "Miracle Berry." In the...
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47: Drinking Buddies: Jack Daniel and Nearest Green
Jack Daniel’s is the top-selling whiskey in the world. For more than 150 years, it’s been made using time-honored methods that go back to when Jack Daniel made the whiskey himself. (Yes, he was a real person.) But who taught “Mr. Jack” how to make that whiskey? Nearest Green, a formerly enslaved...
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46: Makin' Whoopee Cushion
April Fools' pranks come and go, but one joke item that’s stood the test of time is the whoopee cushion. Today, we trace its history from ancient Rome to now. Where did it come from? Why is it funny? Will it stay popular? And if everyone knows its name, why does no one company get the credit for...
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45: Heard It Through the Grapevine
The 1980’s TV commercials for California raisins have been called some of the best ads ever made. The claymation raisins singing and dancing to Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” became a kids TV show, recorded an album that went platinum, launched a range of toys and costumes, and...
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44: All That Jazzercise
Since Jazzercise started over 50 years ago, hundreds of thousands of (mostly) women have come together to exercise and get fit. But if you think Jazzercise is just jazz hands and shoulder rolls, you’re missing out on the bigger story, one about women becoming entrepreneurs and running their own...
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43: A Tale of Two Spams
In Hawaii, Spam is served at grandma’s house and in high-end restaurants. It’s beloved. But in the continental U.S., the canned pork product is often the punchline of jokes. Why does Spam have such different meanings in different places? The answer involves World War II, Monty Python, and a…
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42: The Widow Clicquot
More than two hundred years ago in Napoleonic France, the business world was walled off to women, and champagne was a luxury reserved for the ruling class. So then how did a young widow take over her husband’s struggling wine business and turn champagne into an international phenomenon? And how...
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41: The Red (M&M) Scare
From the mid 1970s to the mid ‘80s, red M&M’s disappeared. American consumers had become worried about the safety of red food coloring after some questionable Russian studies prompted the FDA to look into whether one particular dye might be causing cancer in rats. But years later, the red M&M…
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40: The Marlboro Woman
Marlboro cigarettes are synonymous with the rugged figure who sells them: the Marlboro Man. But the cigarette he smokes was originally marketed to women, and its journey from the lips of debutantes to the hands of cowboys takes us from first-wave feminism to the frontier of advertising. PLUS: Did...
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Trailer: We're back!
Starting February 19, we’re back with new stories about the brands you *think* you know. Tune in this season to learn about the women who paved the way for Marlboro’s most famous mascot, the red scare that changed M&M’s history, Spam’s double life in the U.S., and more! See Privacy Policy at...
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39: Scoot Over?
About two years ago, companies like Bird and Lime deposited thousands of dockless electric scooters in San Diego. Some people loved them… and some people hated them. While city officials considered what to do, two guys decided they’d had enough and took matters into their own hands. What followed...
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38: The Coed Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) caused a stir when it reversed its “no girls allowed” rule for the Boy Scouts last year. But it turns out, this isn’t the first time the BSA has gone coed. We take a closer look at what happened, and one Sea Scout reflects on how gender affected her experience in…
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37: Battle of the Brands: Leo Fender vs Les Paul
When Leo Fender and Les Paul met, they didn’t have much in common — one was an introverted tinkerer, the other a rising star. But their electric guitars defined the sound of rock ‘n’ roll. Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix brought Fender and Paul’s rivalry alive onstage in…
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Trailer: Household Name becomes Brought To You By...
Meet our new host, Charlie Herman, and hear what’s in store next week, when we return with a brand new episode of Brought To You By… Coming up this season: a decades-long guitar battle, the first time the Boy Scouts of America went coed, and an electric scooter uprising in San Diego. Sign up for...
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Introducing: Lost at the Smithsonian
Household Name will be back with brand new episodes soon! But in the meantime, check out "Lost at the Smithsonian," a new podcast from Stitcher. Comedian and pop culture fanatic Aasif Mandvi gets up close and personal with the most iconic artifacts at the National Museum of American History. Sign...
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36: A town called DISH
When a small town in Texas changed its name to DISH, the satellite TV company gave its residents free TV for a decade. What DISH Network didn’t know was that the name change was a way for one local politician to get revenge on another. PLUS: we take to the phones and answer your questions on our...
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35: You've got Enron mail!
Enron collapsed nearly 20 years ago, but chances are something you use today was affected by emails sent by 150 of the company’s top employees. These emails — about meetings and energy markets but also affairs, divorces, and fraud — have helped create new technologies, fight terrorism, and added…
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34: The Legend of the Atari Burial
Was Atari’s E.T. video game the worst of all time? Did it sink the entire video game industry in the early 1980s? Did Atari really bury thousands of copies in a New Mexico desert to cover it up? We dig into the old legend and uncover some answers. Sign up for our newsletter:...
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33: Muzak listening, and Alexa eavesdropping
We have two stories this week: first, the surprising history "elevator music." Turns out, Muzak was a real company. And then we reveal how much Amazon's Alexa and other smart speakers are really listening — and remembering what we do and say. Sign up for our newsletter:...
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32: Who owns the Oakland A's?
In the 1970s, the Oakland A’s were the most bonkers team in baseball. They had bright yellow and green uniforms, iconic handlebar mustaches, and a live donkey for a mascot. It was an eccentric owner's way of getting attention. But those gimmicks didn't win fans in Oakland. Instead, they started a...
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31: Bill Nye the GMO Guy
Back in 2014, Bill Nye The Science Guy was skeptical of genetically modified foods, or GMOs. It raised some eyebrows when he abruptly changed his mind after visiting Monsanto - the huge biochemical agriculture company that was acquired by Bayer. What changed his mind on the trip? Are GMOs good or...
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30: What does a brand sound like?
Companies spend a lot of time and effort perfecting the look of their brands. But now what a brand sounds like matters just as much. We trace the history from songs to jingles to what's called sonic branding, following the creative process that led to AT&T’s iconic four-note sound logo. And we'll...
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29: LaCroix, Canada Goose, and Carhartt are cool. Why?
Some brands aren’t cool no matter how hard they try. Others start out cool, but lose their cachet over time. Then there are the brands that somehow, surprisingly turn cool. Without really changing their products, LaCroix, Canada Goose, and Carhartt became the hottest things around. How did that...
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28: Victoria's Secret is Out
For decades, two men at Victoria's Secret have had immense power. One built the chain into a powerhouse. The other ran the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, handpicking the models called "angels." Then many started to question its standards of beauty. So what happens when the company won't change?...
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27: Harley-Davidson Rides to Live
Harley-Davidson spent more than a century branding its motorcycles as the bikes for rebels and macho cowboys. They’re made in America, for Americans. But Harley’s core customers are aging and before long will die out. Younger generations aren't stepping up to take their place. If it wants to keep...
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26: The Best a Woman Can Gillette
Cristen Conger and Caroline Ervin always figured razor companies convinced women to start shaving. But when they looked into it, they discovered the question of why women shave is much more complicated than they thought. The answer involves painted on nylons, some deadly rat poison, and a war…
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25: The VW Beetle's Dark Past
The Volkswagen Beetle is a symbol of peace, love, and harmony. It’s also a product of Nazi Germany. The story of how the Beetle transformed from Hitler’s car to the Love Bug involves a British army major and a surprising team of advertisers. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and...
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24: An International Amazon Mystery
Danielle wanted a copy of "Pride and Prejudice," so she clicked the top result on Amazon. The book that came in the mail was too big with type that was too small. The introduction was laughable. The story of how this book came to be took us halfway around the world. See Privacy Policy at...
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23: Apple 1984
In the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII, Apple ran a commercial that changed the Super Bowl and Apple forever. But it almost never aired. Featuring original interviews with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, former CEO John Sculley, and the ad's creators, this is the story of Steve Jobs vs the…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Surprising stories about how the biggest, household name brands affect our lives and culture — for better or worse. Host Charlie Herman finds tales of tragedy, love, strange histories, unintended consequences, and accidental success.
More information at www.businessinsider.com/household-name
HOSTED BY
Business Insider
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