Mamtech

Gruesome pop-art soda distinguished by colored balls suspended in its clear, viscous liquid. Introduced in 1996 by nearly bankrupt Clearly Canadian Beverage Co., the “texturally enhanced” Orbitz tastes and feels like Gummi Bears in spittle.

Concoctions include Raspberry Citrus, Blueberry Melon Strawberry, Vanilla Orange, and the even more adventurous-sounding Pineapple Banana Cherry Coconut. Black Currant Berry was introduced in 1997.

While the elixir inside was not likely to win any culinary competitions, the packaging concept received both the 1996 Glass Packaging Institute Clear Choice Award and the 1996 Mobius International Award. Continue reading…

Bible of vegetarian cooking. Originally distributed in 1977 as a stack of mimeographs, The Moosewood Cookbook collected recipes from the kitchen of the Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca, New York.

Hand-lettered and illustrated by author Mollie Katzen (b. 1950), the book captured the crunchy back-to-basics spirit of the vegetarian movement, inspiring millions to live on hummus and tofu. The restaurant, in turn, became a model for co-operatively owned and run college-town veggie enclaves. Continue reading…

Tiny cotton backpack from the junior line (founded 1984) of French designer label Agnè s B. (founded 1976); named after the prepubescent temptress in Vladimir Nabokov’s classic, once-banned novel.

Its $25 price means that the Lolita bag-a precursor of the mini-backpack-achieved high visibility on the backs of young women who wouldn’t have been seen dead in Agnes B.’s regular, pricier garments. Continue reading…

Leader (founded 1978) in the newly vibrant industry of marketing to children during school. “Kids spend 40 percent of each day in the classroom where traditional advertising can’t reach them,” complained a late-’80s Lifetime brochure. “Now you can enter the classroom through custom-made learning materials created with your specific marketing objectives in mind.”

Along with Modern Talking Pictures, Scholastic, and other kid-marketing outfits, Lifetime specializes in disguising advertising as educational texts, filmstrips, and videos for the classroom. Continue reading…