Brought to you by...
Kanal-Details
Brought to you by...
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
Neueste Episoden
73 Episoden62: 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...
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 revoluti...
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 be...
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 betwe...
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 tu...
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 cou...
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...
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 Cu...
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...
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 pr...
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 longs...
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....
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...
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 mak...
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 menstruati...
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...
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 ove...
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 confronti...
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 re...
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?...
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...
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 questio...
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 Da...
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...
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...
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 Jazze...
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...
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 c...
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 ques...
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 wom...
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 wa...
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 peo...
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...
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 guita...
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 se...
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. Comed...
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 w...
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...
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 c...
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...