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In 1967, food ads of the time began promoting “the greatest invention since the napkin.” Riding the wave of Italian-inspired convenience foods, that game-changing new product was a new spaghetti you could eat with a spoon which hit the markets with a perfectly descriptive brand name: SpaghettiOs. The canned product was a hit, quickly becoming a … Read more
The Coke vs. Pepsi battle has been a branding rivalry that has defined soda sales for the past hundred years. What you might not know is that for most of that time, coming in at a close third place was Dr. Pepper … until now. This year for the first time, the brand inched out … Read more
Just in time for the feast of Saint-Honoré, a day honoring the patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs, La Poste in France released a limited edition set of scratch-and-sniff stamps featuring a baguette wrapped in the national colors of the French flag. The effect was achieved through “microcapsules of fragrance embedded in ink” and … Read more
Have you noticed that the jalapeño pepper seems to be getting less and less spicy? For the longest time, I figured this was just a personal issue with my spice-adjusted Indian taste buds, but it turns out jalapeño peppers are indeed getting less spicy, because Americans are intentionally making them like that. This is the “great chili pepper … Read more
Tupperware parties were a thing; once so iconic that they symbolized an entire cultural movement of work-from-home (mostly) female entrepreneurs in a time when opportunities for women to run and own their own businesses were rare. Today the company is in rapid decline and the public shift away from plastic food containers is only one reason for it. A … Read more
Every few months there are new sustainability stories of the world’s largest brands trying to create less wasteful packaging. Coca-Cola announced a new lighter bottle design this week and a few months ago began a trial shipping label-free bottles of Sprite. These types of initiatives are common in the packaged food industry, but what if other industries could greenlight … Read more
Trader Joe’s doesn’t seem like an evil brand. Their personality-driven backstory offers an irresistible underdog mentality that drives rabid brand fans who celebrate every new product arrival. Unfortunately, a story released this week reveals that many of their ethnic private label products may be blatantly stolen knock-offs of product ideas from small brands who had been negotiating with TJs before … Read more
Pasta boxes are the perfect packaging to reuse. Pasta leaves no residue, and the boxes are generally large enough to fit other items. That’s clearly the inspiration for a new campaign from Barilla that promotes box reusability in time for Global Recycling Day. The campaign casts tidying guru Marie Kondo as the spokesperson and their campaign video starts … Read more
Everything is connected. That’s what you might start thinking after reading this fascinating story about why eggshells are chipping more. During the avian flu, many farmers lost a lot of their chicken population and so hens are being kept “in production” for longer. Usually, a chicken makes it until about age 2 but today there are … Read more
If you have ever been to another region of the world and been curious about how they ended up with the various flavors of crisps (chips to Americans) that are on store shelves, you’ll find this article very interesting. It asks and answers everything you’ve wondered about how various flavors get reduced to the flavored … Read more
Non-Obvious Thinking is my latest book about the 4 secrets of becoming a non-obvious thinker - relesaed 10/01/2024.
Rohit Bhargava is a trend curator, founder of the Non-Obvious Company and the 3-time Wall Street Journal bestselling author of ten books.
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In addition to Non-Obvious Thinking, Rohit is the author of 10 books on trends, the future of business, building a more human brand with storytelling and how to create a more diverse and inclusive world.
