Terry O'Reilly (10:01)
Novelty product vehicles have been around longer than you think. Way back in 1892, a Scottish scientist named Sir James Dewar needed a way to keep a chemical at a stable temperature when placed in a flask. So he put a glass bottle inside a bigger glass bottle and evacuated the air between the Two that kept the chemical at a constant temperature. And in doing so, Dewar had invented the first vacuum flask. The remarkable feature of the flask was that it could keep a chemical hot or cold. Then Dewar hired a German glassblowing company to make a sturdier flask. That company then developed a commercial version in 1903 and held a contest to name the product. The winning entry was Thermos, which was derived from the Greek word thermae, meaning heat. Next, an American businessman bought the rights to the Thermos brand and brought it to the US then in 1909, long before public relations became a big business, he created what was one of the very first marketing mobiles. It looked like a giant silver thermos bottle on a Model T frame. The words Thermos the bottle were written on the side of the truck. The hubcap said, keeps hot, keeps cold. The truck's thermos, like bodywork, was made out of aluminum. Even the threads on the spin off top situated on the nose of the vehicle were carefully reproduced. The truck drove around the country promoting the brand's unique thermal qualities. In 1912, a man named Clarence Crane invented a round candy with a hole in the middle. He had previously been in the chocolate business, but found chocolates sold poorly in the summer because they melted in the heat. One day, he saw a machine pharmacists used to make round pills that could also punch holes in the center. That gave Crane an idea. Why not make mints instead of chocolate? The resulting mints looked like life preservers, so Crane named them Lifesavers. He eventually sold the formula to a man named Edward Noble in 1913, who started the Peppelmint Lifesavers Company five years later. In 1918, the Peppelmint Lifesaver Company created a marketing mobile to promote its candy. Similar in shape to the thermos truck. It looked like a giant roll of lifesavers on wheels. The driver sat in the middle of the vehicle looking out two round side windows where the O in the Peppelmint logo was located. I can only assume the driver then had to look down the long barrel of the giant Lifesaver's roll in order to see where he was going. That marketing mobile and the brand's unique advertising helped Lifesavers thrive for more than 100 years. Not all marketing mobiles are on terra firma. The first Goodyear blimp took to the sky in June of 1925. The airship was essentially a balloon filled with non flammable helium. Propelled by an engine, it is said that someone at Goodyear flicked his finger against the airship's surface one day, and it made a sound that he pronounced as a blimp. The word stuck. The car or compartment that hung below the original blimp was small but luxurious. The inside was appointed with polished mahogany, and the seating was covered in blue mohair velour upholstery. There was one seat for the pilot, two seats for passengers, and a small cockpit at the rear for a mechanic who attended to the engine. Goodyear had big hopes for their blimps. The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company firmly believed blimps could be sold as air yachts. In other words, that blimps could serve as yachts for wealthy people who lived inland, just as seagoing yachts did for rich folks living on the coast. Goodyear imagined airships mooring at country clubs and private estates, and even saw a future for airship regattas. By the 1930s, the Goodyear Blimps had three main to develop technology for the military, to build public awareness and confidence in the Goodyear brand, and, interestingly, to arouse public and government support for transoceanic travel. At the time, Goodyear also believed blimps were a more viable option for overseas travel than airplanes. By the time the first blimp was retired in 1931, it had made 4700 flights, carrying over 5300 people. Since then, many Goodyear blimps have come and gone as technology progressed. In 1955, NBC approached Goodyear to ask if a camera could be installed on the blimp to provide aerial shots of the Rose bowl parade. From that point on, Goodyear blimps have soared high above many sporting events, including the Super Bowl. By the way, TV networks provide no compensation to Goodyear for aerial coverage of sporting events. In return, networks show the Goodyear blimp on camera, make verbal references to it during the broadcast, and pop an animated Goodyear logo on the screen. Here's some blimp trivia. The original blimps were about 192ft long. They typically flew 1500ft above the ground. They moved very slowly, about 56 kilometers, or 35 miles per hour. That means it sometimes took two days for a blimp to reach its destination. In 2014, Goodyear produced newer blimps that are much faster. They cost over $20 million to build and contain a lavatory. For the first time. Thousands of LED lights on the blimps create signage that can display words or animated images that can be seen up to 1 mile. If a blimp is punctured. The worst that will happen is that it will just slowly lose altitude, which is good since Goodyear says a blimp is shot at about 20 times a year. And yes, Goodyear Blimps have two tires. It is estimated that 60 million people see a Goodyear blimp every year. It has become one of the most recognizable marketing mobiles and in the world. And so has a certain Wiener Mobile. Did I talk too much? Can't I just let it go? I wish I would stop thinking so much.
