Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

March 18, 1893: Wilfred Edward Salter Owen was born. An English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was much influenced by his mentor Siegfried Sassoon and stood in contrast to the public perception of war at the time and to the confidently patriotic verse written by earlier war poets such as Rupert Brooke. Among his best-known works – most of which were published posthumously – are "Dulce et Decorum est", "Insensibility", "Anthem for Doomed Youth", "Futility", "Spring Offensive" and "Strange Meeting". Owen was killed in action on 4 November 1918, a week before the war's end, at the age of 25.





March 18, 1957: "In Phoenix or anywhere else in the U.S., it was hard to detect much worry about falling last week. The week’s two long-awaited banner-headline events, Israel’s pullback from Gaza and Sharm el Sheikh, and congressional approval of the Eisenhower Doctrine, brought no deep, nationwide sighs of relief because few Americans ever really got tensed up much about either issue. The economy showed scattered patches of anemia—layoffs in the home-appliances industry in Ohio, four-day weeks in West Coast plywood mills—but even people in the patches seemed confident of its basic health."

"The U.S. seemed to feel that peace, however fitful, and prosperity, however spotted, would last. And with that mood prevailing, reported TIME correspondents across the nation, Americans were devoting their time, their energies and their conversation primarily to affairs domestic and local."

MIDDLE EAST: Mother Goose & Propaganda

"In Mother Goose’s story of bringing home the bacon, the cat, as soon as it got its saucer of milk, began to kill the rat, which began to gnaw the rope, which began to hang the butcher, who began to kill the ox, which began to drink the water, which began to quench the fire, which began to burn the stick, which began to beat the dog, which began to bite the little pig—which then in fright jumped over the stile so that the old woman brought it home from market that night after all."

"It was not possible to bring home the bacon in the Middle East last week, but when the Arab cat tasted the milk of Israeli withdrawal, the process at least got started. The Syrians let the Iraq Petroleum Go. start repairing the pipeline pumping stations which Syrian soldiers blew up during the Suez-Sinai invasion last November. In ten days, by laying temporary pipes around the blasted stations, the oil company plans to begin pumping oil at 44% capacity—enough to replace nearly all of the crude oil that Western Europe has had to buy from the U.S. since the Suez landings."




Sucaryl ad in TIME, March 18, 1957


Sodium cyclamate (Sucaryl) was discovered in 1937 at the University of Illinois by graduate student Michael Sveda, with help from a cigarette. Cyclamate, an artificial sweetener 30–50 times sweeter than sugar.

In 1937, Illinois graduate student Michael Sveda was working on trying to synthesize an anti-fever medication. Like all health-conscious individuals of the era, he was having a smoke whilst working. Laying it on the table for a bit, he picked it up and was surprised that the tip tasted quite sweet. That taste prompted him to do more research and seek a patent.

Eventually, he sold the patent to DuPont, which sold it to Abbott Laboratories. Abbott saw commercial potential to using the product as a low-calorie sweetener. So they went through the laborious process of getting FDA approval, and obtained said certification in 1950.

Initially, Cyclamate was prescribed as a drug for the obese. In 1958, it received approval as a food additive. By 1960, a sweetener called Sweet*10 was a big hit in the US. It would make food, drinks, etc. sugary sweet with practically no calories!

What’s not to love?

Soon, Cyclamate was used for sweetening a host of products. Canned fruit, Jell-O, Funny Face drink mixes, and sugar-free candy were among the plethora of products that weight-conscious consumers, each having a sweet tooth, purchased by the boatload.

Moms loved it. The sugar rush that THEIR moms had long put up with from their children was now a thing of the past! Kids could drink a whole pitcher of sugar-free Kool-Aid and not be wired to the moon!

Not only that, but those same moms could enjoy a very sweet cup of coffee or glass of tea and not worry about the pounds that were being added to their frames. In 1963, Coca-Cola introduced a Cyclamate-sweetened drink called Fresca. Again, what’s not to love?

Enter FDA scientist Jacqueline Verrett. In 1969, she appeared on NBC’s Huntley-Brinkley Report with photographs of malformed chicks who had been injected with large quantities of Cyclamate. The images were shocking, and viewers were immediately filled with doubts about the safety of the low-calorie foods that they had been scarfing down.

A few days later, a study was released (from Abbott Laboratories themselves) that showed that eight out of 240 rats that had been fed the equivalent of 350 cans of soda a day had developed bladder cancer.

Interestingly, the study involved feeding the rats both Cyclamate AND saccharine. The results weren’t blamed on one sweetener over the other. Anyways, the FDA reacted with a ban on Cyclamate on October 18, 1969. It completely caught the food industry off-guard.

Soft drink manufacturers scrambled to come up with another sugar-free solution. The most obvious, saccharine, left a horrible bitter aftertaste that turned many life-long Fresca drinkers into a Squirt fans.

Squirt was created by Herb Bishop in 1938 and was manufactured in the Beet Sugar Factory in Glendale, Arizona until 1981.

In 1983, Diet Squirt, the first soft drink in the United States to be sweetened with aspartame, was introduced.

Some added sugar (in smaller quantities) to their formerly Cyclamate-sweetened products. One bizarre example of spin was done by Coke with Tab. A TV commercial used a song to inform the public that Tab used sugar in order to taste better than it would have with saccharine. The tag line? "Tab tastes good enough for GUYS!"

Nowadays, we have Splenda (and whatever else is on today's artificial market) to sweeten our diet drinks with no discernable aftertaste in the US. Note, I don't drink diet anything. But in many industrialized nations, Cyclamate is still used. And no, bladder cancer rates (or any other of the other bad stuff that Cyclamate was accused of causing) aren’t any higher than over here. The Cyclamate ban probably hurt the process of the banning of dangerous substances as a whole, simply because of the backlash that came from the raging public after learning of the truly astronomical amounts of the substance that test animals were given. I bet Dr. Verrett’s baby chicks would have looked like crap if they had been force-fed that much WATER!


Michael Sveda, the Inventor Of Cyclamates, Dies at 87 NY Times, LESLIE KAUFMAN, AUG. 21, 1999

In the Philippines, cyclamate was banned until the Philippine FDA lifted the ban in 2013, declaring it safe for consumption. Cyclamate remains banned in the United States since 1969, including South Korea, and Bangladesh. We are told that sweeteners produced by Sweet'n Low and Sugar Twin for Canada contain cyclamate, though not those produced for the United States.

In 2000, a paper was published describing the results of a 24-year-long experiment in which 16 monkeys were fed a normal diet and 21 monkeys were fed either 100 or 500 mg/kg cyclamate per day; the higher dose corresponds to about 30 cans of a diet beverage. Two of the high-dosed monkeys and one of the lower-dosed monkeys were found to have malignant cancer, each with a different kind of cancer, and three benign tumors were found. The authors concluded that the study failed to demonstrate that cyclamate was carcinogenic because the cancers were all different and there was no way to link cyclamate to each of them. The substance did not show any DNA-damaging properties in DNA repair assays.

Common sense says, too much of anything ingested by any biological life form will eventually attract death.


Since I'm on a soda kick of Gone, but Not Forgotten...

The carbonated soft drink industry has been largely consolidated into two big players: Coca-Cola and Pepsi. These two brands have absorbed most of the competition, either continuing to market brands like Dr. Pepper and 7Up, or merely letting other brands disappear. Royal Crown continues to battle gamely, a distant third place contender.

A favorite back in the 60’s (according to my dad) was Grapette. “Thirsty or not!” Grapette was started in Camden, Arkansas in 1939. It became a national seller by the 1950’s. Grapette was absorbed by rival Nu-Grape in the 70’s and disappeared. It’s back now as Sam’s Grapette in Wal-Mart stores. The flavor is supposed to be the same, but I guarantee you it’s not in those cool bottles any more.

Speaking of Nu-Grape, it too was an option. Founded in Atlanta in 1921, it too disappeared in the recessions of the 70’s. Visit your local Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, they may have this brand, as well as other mostly forgotten sodas.

Nehi started in 1924. It became so popular that its producers, the Chero-Cola/Union Bottle Works, officially changed their name to the Nehi Corporation. In 1955, they changed their name again to Royal Crown Cola. You could find all sorts of flavors of Nehi all over the country. While RC Cola can still be found everywhere, albeit in an obscure corner of the soft drink section of the supermarket, I believe Nehi died out after the 70’s.

Some disappeared brands were made by the Big Boys. Fanta was Coca-Cola’s answer to Nehi, coming in various flavors. Coke’s Sprite has survived to our day, Pepsi’s Teem has not. Coke also made a diet drink called Like, and another vanished brand called Simba in the 70’s.

Tip Corporation further refined the original 1940 Mountain Dew formula, launching that version of Mountain Dew in 1961. In August 1964, the Mountain Dew brand and production rights were acquired from Tip by the Pepsi-Cola company. When Mountain Dew was introduced by them in 1965, it was marketed as a hillbilly drink. “It’ll tickle yor innards!” was its claim. A rival soon arose, Kickapoo Joy Juice, produced by Monarch Beverages, which still exists. Kickapoo was named after a potent concoction that moonshiners brewed up in the Li’l Abner comic strip. They still make the citrus soda, but only market it overseas. Monarch also produced Bubble Up, Dad’s Root Beer, and Moxie, which continues to have a huge New England following, but which never made it down to Oklahoma.

Another long-gone brand was Whistle (1919), produced by the Vess company. “Thirsty? Just whistle!”


From the Li'l Abner comic strip trivia: When a batch "needs more body", the formidable pair simply goes out and clubs "a body" (often a moose), and tosses it in. Over the years, the "recipe" has called for live grizzly bears, panthers, kerosene, horseshoes and anvils, among other ingredients. Sounds like a favorite drink of Ninurta.

The Rivingtons - Kickapoo Joy Juice (1962)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVUsmeObsTg


Once Pepsi got all the hillbillies addicted to the Dew it was time to branch out to other demographics. In early 1968 they launched a new campaign which was "Get That Barefoot Feeling – Mountain Dew." The television commercial included a song called San Francisco Bay Blues, but with different lyrics. They belief was that the song would help portray a folk-rock, country-western image. The commercial consisted of a group of men sitting in a corporate boardroom. The camera then panned below the conference table to show that all the men were barefoot. While entertaining, the commercial did not quite reach their intended audience.



In 1973, Mountain Dew decided to create new advertising campaigns and promotions to help expand their market. They wanted to re-create the excitement and fun that was tied in with the old campaign but have more “Ya-hoo!” and less hillbilly. With that goal in mind, they launched their “Put a Little Yahoo in Your Life” campaign. Unfortunately, that campaign was less than successful and was dropped after one year.

They decided that the only way to get Mountain Dew out of the hillbilly box was to create a campaign that would redefine Mountain Dew completely in the minds of the consumers.

So, a year later in 1974 they launched the "Hello Sunshine, Hello Mountain Dew" advertising campaign. This campaign aimed to embody young people having fun, enjoying life and sunshine. The idea was included a new catchy theme song. Mountain Dew had finally struck gold! This new advertising was an instant success reaching the precise demographic they desired to reach. The success of this advertising paid off immediately and the sales hit an all time record.

In 1978 the Hello Sunshine ad was still going strong.



By 1979, Mountain Dew was the fastest growing soft drink in America with sales surpassing 137 million cases. The hardest part of the campaign was attempting to describe the unique flavor of Mountain Dew. They used phrases such as "sparkling fresh, lemon, lime and orange," "the lemony taste of sunshine," and "miles beyond refreshment... just this side of joy." In 1979, they wanted to brighten things up and extend the new brand aesthetic. They soon changed "Hello Sunshine, Hello Mountain Dew" to "Reach for the Sun". The new slogan carried with it the same look and feel, and ended up being just as successful as the last slogan.

In 1980, the new advertising campaign was "Taste the Sunshine". The advertising was similar to what had been done in the previous sunshine-themed campaigns, including a song with lyrics targeted at a youth market. Unfortunately, “Taste the Sunshine” did not connect with the consumers as well as Pepsi had hoped. Halfway through the year, a new advertising campaign was in the works. Pepsi decided that sampling Mountain Dew had to be a vital part of their marketing because it was impossible to describe the flavor through words. Its flavor was one-of-a-kind and they had to give their consumers an opportunity to fall in love with it. The samplings were held at grocery stores, civic events, and any other place where large numbers of consumers congregated.

Pepsi, still thirsty ($$$) for a change, gave their new sampling campaign a catchy name: "Give me a Dew." The most important element of this campaign was showing their consumers that they no longer had to use the full ‘Mountain Dew’ name when ordering – they could simply call it ‘Dew.’ From that point forward, a nickname for loyal drinkers was created.

After the success of the "Give me a Dew", Pepsi decided to incorporate that theme with their new advertising and created "Dew It, To It." The new campaign included two television commercials, "Football" and "Hat Chase." These spots were filled with the classic, fun-in-the-sun imagery and action-packed scenes further targeting their young demographic. Soon after, "Dew It, Country Cool" was created and it demonstrated how kids more in country locations kept "cool". Mountain Dew had finally found their niche market and realized that casual changes in their overall campaign were the right way to increase their success.

It was in the 1980’s when Pepsi-Cola Company officially became a part of NASCAR. In 1981, Mountain Dew sponsored a NASCAR vehicle owned by Junior Johnson and driven by Darrell Darrel and JuniorWaltrip. As a team, they won many races with Mountain Dew graphics covering their number 11 car. The pit crew was even given a clever name, “Dew Crew.” In 1982, Mountain Dew produced a NASCAR themed commercial. The lyrics to the classic “Give Me a Dew” theme song used in other Mountain Dew ads also changed to incorporate the racing theme. Some of the new song lyrics were, “Give me a fast track and fans that are true, give me a hot car, give me a Dew.” Darrell Waltrip and his number 11 Mountain Dew car were also featured in the commercial.

The lost cartoon episode straight out of 1981, Darrell Waltrip | Mountain Dew. Best Dew ad from the 80s!



In the latter half of the 80s there was also an emerging desire for sugar-free drinks in the market. For that reason, Diet Mountain Dew was introduced in 1988. The first advertising campaign for Diet Mountain Dew was incorporated into the Mountain Dew "Country Cool" advertising program. At the end of diet Mt Dew "Country Cool" commercials, an image of the diet soda appeared and a voiceover announced: "Introducing the great taste of the new Diet Mountain Dew."

In 1986 "Dew It Country Cool" becomes the new slogan for Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew is now the sixth-largest brand in the industry, supporting double-digit growth annually for the past eight years. Pepsi broadens Mountain Dew popularity with the introduction of Diet Mountain Dew.

1992: Mountain Dew growth continues, supported by the antics of an outrageous new Dew Crew whose claim to fame is that, except for the unique great taste of Dew, they've "Been there, done that, tried that."

Mountain Dew’s success kept growing and growing. By 1983 it had become the 8th largest selling soft drink in the United States. The industry was in shock at how effective the repositioning of the Mountain Dew brand was. Sales by 1992 reached 526 million gallons, making it the 6th best selling soft drink in the USA.

Also in 1992, it was time again to recreate their advertising program. They began to get question... What’s hot? What are the young people of America doing? What sports are popular? These questions would lead Mountain Dew to decide they would capture the spirit of adventure by attracting surfers, bikers, skydivers, essentially the fun-seekers of the generation! Their new slogan became "Get Vertical", which showcased young daredevils defying gravity and doing everything from windsurfing to jumping out of air planes on mountain bikes. Extreme sports became mainstream in the 1990’s, and it was believed that extreme sports enthusiasts were exactly the type of people that drank Mountain Dew. The soft drink became the fuel any extreme sports addict. Almost all Mountain Dew commercials in the 90’s had a mix of humor and extreme sports, where fans would be anxious to watch what sport would be featured next!

1993: "Do the Dew" tag line is introduced. Video:A guy head butts a Ram

1995: Mountain Dew became the first sponsor of, what is now known as, the X Games. The brand’s legendary slogan “Do the Dew” was more than just a slogan, it represented the attitude of their loyal Dew drinkers who wanted to push the boundaries in sports and in culture.

Beginning in the early 21st century, Mountain Dew ended up being the fourth best-selling soft drink in the United States, becoming a hard competitor in the beverage world. The Coca-Cola corporation soon realized that they needed to create a drink that could compete with Mountain Dew. The company soon released a drink they called "Mello Yello." Soon after its introduction, Mello Yello saw no significant gain in the market share. Coca-Cola then tried again with the creation of "Surge." Striking out again, Surge also was pulled from the marketplace. It was evident that brand was unstoppable. During the 50 years that Pepsi-Cola owned Mountain Dew, none of their competitors had been able to beat them. Mountain Dew always dominated in their market.

2001: Code Red and AMP Energy Drink are released.
Prior to 2000, extensions to the Mountain Dew brand were extremely rare.
The first of the line extensions occurred in 2001 and one of their major hits was Mountain Dew Code Red. With the release of their new flavor extensions, some became “limited time” beverages and some became so popular they continue to be a part of the Mountain Dew portfolio today.

Around this era, energy drinks began to gain momentum. Mountain Dew knew they had to keep up with the trends, so in 2001, "Mountain Dew Amp Energy" drink was born. The Mountain Dew brand has always had a strong love for sports, and they decided to make NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. a spokesperson for Amp in 2007. In addition, Amp became a sponsor for Earnhardt’s NASCAR stock car. Not too long after, Amp was removed from the Mountain Dew group and became its own entity, "Amp Energy Drink". Earnhardt decided to keep his loyalty with the Mountain Dew brand and signed on with Diet Mountain Dew.

2003: Dew Livewire - Mountain Dews Orange ignited pop with caffeine. Baja Blast, a lime-flavored Dew available only at Taco Bell

2004: Pitch Black - A limited time grape product for Halloween 2004

2005: Pitch Black II - The "sequel" and limited edition sour grape product.

2007: Mountain Dew released "Game Fuel", a promotion created especially for gamers. It consisted of new Mountain Dew flavors created to correspond with the new release of popular video games. The initial “Halo 3” release was followed by several limited time Game Fuel flavors.

Another significant promotion for Mountain Dew in 2007 was DEWmocracy. This promotion gave the consumers the chance to vote on new flavors, colors, names and packaging. Three flavors were selected as finalists: Supernova (a strawberry-melon flavor), Revolution (a berry flavor) and Voltage (a raspberry-citrus flavor). In August of 2008, Voltage was declared the winner.

Another interactive promotion was Mountain Dew Green Label Art which was introduced in 2007. The promotion was designed as a way for Mountain Dew to expand beyond extreme sports, and into art and other types of youth culture. Six artists were chosen to create original works of art using a 16 ounce aluminum bottle as their canvas. The limited edition Green Label bottles were released by Mountain Dew in 2008. The promotion was so successful that it was repeated several times with new artists and new bottles.

In the same year, a major upgrade of logos and packing of Pepsi products occurred. The logo and graphics of Mountain Dew changed on all the bottles and cans, and the name was shortened to "Mtn Dew."

Mountain Dew was taking full advantage of technology in their marketing efforts. For example, since DEWmocracy was such a success they spawned a second promotion called DEWmocracy 2. This time around the winner was “Whiteout.” In addition, they also took advantage of major motion picture releases. When the Dark Knight Rises was released they also created a flavor for the film called Dark Berry.


In 2012 Mountain Dew created the advertising campaign, “This is How We Dew.” The goal of this campaign was to reach the urban market. For that reason they asked Lil Wayne, Mac Miller and skateboarder Paul Rodriguez to join the campaign. To increase diversity, country singer Jason Aldean and race car driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. also merged with the campaign.

In 2013, Mountain Dew launched Mountain Dew Kickstart, a drink that was created as a morning drink. The success of that drink spawned two more flavors in 2014- Limeade and Black Cherry. In addition, one of Pepsi’s most popular line extensions in the past ten years was the release of the Mountain Dew Baja Blast.

Without a doubt, over the last few decades Mountain Dew has become infused with the youth culture and has embodied the millennial generation generating a cult-like following. Mountain Dew will continue to create unique and exciting promotions involving sports, art, music and entertainment. Although advertising, marketing and distribution greatly contributed to Mountain Dew’s success, inevitably it would have not been possible without the signature, iconic Mountain Dew flavor.

That's a wrap for the DEW story.


Looks like a huge dump of files...


JFK Assassination Records - 2025 Documents Release


The original Bob Roberts has died.


Anthony Dolan, Speechwriter Who Gave Reagan ‘Evil Empire,’ Dies at 76


Conservative folksinger, celebrity brawler, Pulitzer winner, Reagan speechwriter, Tony Dolan had an interesting life.