iFact #20 - Interesting Facts About Products, Advertising and Inventions - Part 2

Dismal First Year Sales of Famous Products
VW Beetle: Sold 330 first year in the U.S.
Liquid Paper: Sold 1,200 bottles first year
Cuisinart: Sold 200 first year.
Remington Typewriter: Sold 8 first year.
Scrabble: Sold 532 first year.
Coca-Cola: Sold 25 bottles first year. (For total of $50; supplies and advertising ran $70.)

For two years, during the 1970s, Mattel marketed a doll called "Growing Up Skipper." Her breasts grew when her arm was turned.

G.I. Joe was introduced at the annual American International Toy Fair in New York on Feb. 9, 1964.

Gatorade was named for the University of Florida Gators where it was first developed.

Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt.

Hungarian brothers George and L"szlo Biro invented the ball point pen in 1938.

IBM's motto is 'Think.'

If you put a raisin in a glass of champagne, it will keep floating to the top and sinking to the bottom.

In 1965, LBJ enacted a law requiring cigarette manufacturers to put health warnings on their packages.

In 1984, a Canadian farmer began renting advertising space on his cows.

In 1991 Procter & Gamble won a $75,000 lawsuit against James & Linda Newton who were found responsible for spreading rumors that the company supported the Church of Satan. The two were distributors of Amway Products, a competitor of Proctor & Gamble.

In 4000 BC Egypt, men and women wore glitter eye shadow made from the crushed shells of beetles.

In M&M candies, the letters stand for Mars and Murrie, the developers of the candy in 1941.