Sale into the 90s--a 1980s/1990s history Tumblr

83. Cappio (1992-1996)

We take iced coffee for granted these days, its everywhere you go. However, in the early 1990s, iced coffee was a weird novelty. I don’t even remember seeing iced coffee in bottles until I went to Anchorage to visit family the Summer of 1996, and I saw the Starbucks bottled Frappuchino drinks for the first time. 

(See, I brought the bottle back to Virginia with me, I had mocha and coffee too, but I don’t know where they are right now.) 

It wasn’t until YouTube did I know that there was a bottled iced coffee way before the bottled Frappucnino drinks. In the fall of 1992, Maxwell House bottled an iced coffee named Cappio ^1. 

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The flavors were coffee, cinnamon, and mocha. The product was aimed at younger college aged coffee drinkers. Check out the low low prices on ‘dat Cappio:

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I love the Andy Rooney-esque title for that article, “Doesn’t Anybody Drink Coffee Black Anymore?”

“Maxwell House introduces Cappio iced cappuchino.”Hudson Valley News, June 24, 1992. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=jehFAAAAIBAJ&sjid=tR0NAAAAIBAJ&dq=maxwell house cappio&pg=5230,2615667 (accessed June 4, 2013).

Maxwell House created Cappio as an easier way to drink cappuccino, without the expensive maker, and also as a response to people who were tired of drinking the same boring cup of coffee every day: 

Coffee has the potential to be a small luxury in a time when bigger luxuries aren’t affordable, said Margery Schelling, senior product manager for Maxwell House, the industry leader in coffee innovations for the supermarket shelf.

She added, “People still are drinking coffee. But today, it can be in many different forms and flavors.”

Her own daily regimen includes regular coffee in the morning, a bottle of Cappio (the company’s new flavored cappuccino that’s meant to be served chilled or over ice) at lunch time or in the afternoon and a cup of Maxwell House Cappuccino (a new, instant beverage that comes in the same flavors as Cappio — coffee, mocha and cinnamon) sometime in the evening. 

Although Schelling conceded that freshly brewed espresso and cappuccino are the ideals, she said, “Our studies have shown that less than 10 percent of American households have a $200 or more machine to turn out these specialty beverages. We’re providing alternatives.

“Cappio can be poured over ice or chilled and drunk straight from the bottle. All a person has to do to our Maxwell House Cappuccino is pour the contents of the envelope into a cup, add hot water and stir to get good flavor and the familiar cap of froth that’s expected from cappuccino.” ³

(source [Flickr member “Pete’s Old Food”])

Cappio was at least around long enough to enjoy a brief moment at the White House:

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., March 19 /PRNewswire/ — According to the March 22 edition U.S. News and World Report, officials at the White House have “maxed out” on the coffee budget due to working late hours on the economic plan. Everyone is obliged to operate under the BYOC budget rule: “Bring Your Own Coffee.” Maxwell House Coffee Company, a division of Kraft General Foods, Inc., is coming to the rescue and sending Clinton officials 20 cases of Maxwell House coffee, just in time for more long hours of work on the nation’s pressing issues. “At Maxwell House, we have found that behind every great idea, there’s a cup of coffee,” said Chuck Phillips, president of Maxwell House. “We hope that this coffee will help spark the imaginations of Clinton and his staff, and spark the American economy, at the same time.” The coffee, which includes Maxwell House Colombian Supreme coffee, Sanka decaffeinated coffee and Cappio iced cappuccino, is due to arrive at the White House next week. Maxwell House, Cappio and Sanka are registered trademarks of Kraft General Foods, Inc. -0- 3/19/93

Kraft Foods discontinued Cappio in early 1996, citing that the product only made $11 million the few years it was on the market. ³ 

Related links:

Cappio t-shirt

Maxwell House Ready to Drink Brewed Coffee  - a product that constantly comes up on “what were they thinking?” lists. Back in 1990 when this was introduced, people didn’t really phantom drinking this straight from the carton, it was only to be heated up in the microwave (but you couldn’t heat the carton up in the microwave!), which was a total time waster, when you could just make a cup of coffee. 

“Starbucks Does Not Live By Coffee Alone” 1996 Businessweek article about the launch of the Frappuchino drinks. 

81. Ice Cube’s documentary on the Los Angeles Raiders, “Straight Outta L.A.”

link

Nobody other than Ice Cube could put together such an eloquent tribute about the Oakland Raiders’ short lived ten year move to Los Angeles. The move also intertwines with his emerging rap career, and the impact the Raiders had on hiphop music and culture in the late 1980s and early 1990s. 

80. When Gina got her head stuck in the headboard (1995)

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Never forget. 

79. “National Nothing Day” at Memphis McDonalds (January 16, 1989)

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A McDonald’s franchise published a calendar for managers to remind them of sales promotions. On January 16, a copywriter put “National Nothing Day” as a “holiday intended to mock all others”. This calendar was distributed in Memphis. The town where  Martin Luther King was assassinated. January 16th is Martin Luther King’s birthday. 

^1. “McDonald’s calendar ignites blacks’ anger.” Eugene Register-Guard , January 15, 1989.

^2. Matthew Dennis, Red, White, And Blue Letter Days: An American Calendar, (Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2005), 278.

75. Look how amazing Taco Bell food looked back then:

I mean: 

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73. Horse Shampoo

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I remember during the Summer of 1994 watching that old Discovery Channel show “Home Matters” with this woman named Susan who won Miss America back in the 80s. There was a segment about how to have healthy looking hair, and the hair expert was telling Susan about how some women are using horse shampoo, and the woman showed her this giant bottle of Mane & Tail Shampoo. I recognized the bottle from from my niece’s bedroom whenever I’d come over (we were the same age) because a few months earlier, she got a horse, Breeze for Christmas. Every time I spent the night that Summer, I wanted to wash my hair with Breeze’s shampoo. My niece lever let me. 

Mane & Tail Shampoo was made by the Straight Arrow company, which saw profits go to $30 million in 1993. ² The owner of the company, Roger Dunavant even went as far as suing copycats trying to capitalize on Mane & Tail’s popularity. ³ 

Celebrities praised Dunavant’s products:

 ”My hair has never been so shiny!” raves Tammy Faye Bakker Messner. ²

Terry Bradshaw, Fox’s football commentator, confided that the equine rinse had grown hair atop his bare dome, a renaissance thus far undetectable to the TV-watching eye.³

See. Celebrities.

Oh, oh oh, so Dunavant wasn’t this honest businessman who claimed he had no debt. ⁴  By 1996, Straight Arrow’s net worth crashed to a negative net worth of $316,100. Dunavant was rewarding himself with millions in excessive bonuses. He also used the same lie Terry Bradshaw said about excessive hair growth while using Mane & Tail, claiming that hair growth was so amazing while using the product, doctors were recommending the shampoo to chemotherapy patients.  By 1996 though, the horse shampoo thread was over:

Wal-Mart, for one, has moved Mane ‘n Tail off
its beauty shelves and into its pet department. “The trend didn’t last,”explains Wal-Mart spokesman Keith Morris. “The horse-shampoo fad is over,” agrees Robert Albert, national sales manager of Rio Vista, a line of horse shampoo launched in 1993 by legendary hair-care entrepreneur Jheri Redding. ⁵

Even 19 or so years after the initial horse shampoo craze, some drugstores and even my local Dollar General still sells Mane & Tail. For the nine people who are still buying horse shampoo. 

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Speaking of horse hair, does anybody remember this furniture refurbishing show that was on TLC in the late 90s called the Furniture Guys? Thy were these two loveable odd looking guys who refurbished furniture, and made jokes while doing it? It was like Good Eats, but with furniture? All I remember now is how obsessed they were with horse hair paintbrushes, and the way one of them would say it: “horse hayyyr”. Someone, thankfully has uploaded videos of this show to youtube. 

1. “Beauty Bulletin,” Mademoiselle Magazine, August, 1994. 

5. “King Lear? (Roger Dunavant appeared to be a good business man, but was found to have been an embezzler),” Forbes Magazine, September 23, 1996.

71. “A little around the ears” (4-13-1995)

I found this a few years ago among my dad’s newspapers. I wish I had a better copy of it, I just took it with my original iPhone way back in 2009. 

70. When Matt Lauer had hair (1997)

Source

69. Daily Press (Newport News, VA) news clippings from the Summer of 1994 (part 1)

I decided to go locally for this series, unlike the Reading Eagle series I did a few months ago. 1994 was around the time I began to become a regular reader of the newspaper, and that Summer was the Summer before I began middle school, and you know, everything changes once you hit middle school. 

Oh, sidenote. When I was gathering these materials back in October, I got the flu from this guy who was beside me at the microfilms who hacking a lung. So, you better appreciate this. 

Heh, I remember this lady’s giant Gumby being stolen! 

There was another section the paper used to do called, “She said it”, and this is what the lady said about her Gumby:

“He has his own room in the house. We bring him outside for special occasions.” 

I remember the stupid phone card craze, and at Spenser’s there would have a display of phone cards with every TV show that was popular at the time on them. 

I loved to read the personal ads in the paper when I was a kid. Hey, it was the closest thing to trashy romance novels or pay per view us kids had back then.  We didn’t have the “casual encounters” section of Craigslist to read then. (click to see larger)

heh. ~~**the FUTURE**~~ :

• “virtual VCR’s” that can stop, pause, and rewind movies. 
• “illustrated radio”
• “the information highway is really a super-hype way” 

I believe this is part of a CompUSA sales ad, due to the Apple Quadra for sale. Check out that weird tablet thingy Compaq made. 

I love this article about an energy drink Gatorade test marketed that summer in some areas, even if the product was about 10 years too early. For modern reference, an 8.5 oz can of Red Bull has 80mg of caffeine ¹. 

Heh, sometimes you get your hands on a really derpy microfilm printer, and it prints awesome artwork like these men in their underwear.

I only scanned this, because I mean … when was the last time you saw a coupon for Jean Naté? 

I don’t think it should be a crowning achievement to look like the Big Boy. Sorry. 

Honesty time here. I always thought Les in Funky Winkerbean back then looked cute. Yeah, I know a character in a pretty terrible comic strip.

Les looks all creepy now that the strip jumped 10 years back in 2007. 

Also, the Luann Flag Girl strip. Precursor to Meg on Family Guy.

…now you’ll be somewhere else when the boys don’t call.

“Lawyer wins his messy case” in a “Messiest Office in America” contest. ‘Dude looks like if Costanza kept his hair, and was an amazing success instead of a horrible failure. 

GUMBY WAS REUNITED WITH HIS MOMMY AND DADDY. 

68. George Costanza’s baseball bedding

Seinfeld was one of my favorite shows to watch growing up, but man, even as a kid, I always thought it was so creepy that George had baseball bedcovers that were clearly for a kid’s bedroom.

I was like, 12, and I just remember being really weirded out that George brought women over and had sex (whatever that was) with them on his baseball bedcovers. 

I know this isn’t a technical “historical” entry, but if there was a 1990s time capsule, George’s baseball bedding would have to be included. 

Screencap source

Related links:

THIS GIRL’S GEORGE COSTANZA DRESS.  

This painting of George based on the episode “The Fire”