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Here’s another fantastic item from an unlikely source — the DukeMedAlumniNews bulletin. A scary percentage of flossers are Duke grads, but this should interest Tar Heels and others as well…
Did you know that Durham is home to the world’s most famous trademark?
John Green of the Blackwell Tobacco Company [editor’s note: not to be confused with this John Green, the beloved mental_floss writer] named his product “Bull” Durham Tobacco after Coleman’s Mustard, which used a bull in its logo and which Green mistakenly thought was produced in Durham, England. By the time James B. Duke of the American Tobacco Company purchased the Blackwell Tobacco Company in 1898, Bull Durham was the most famous trademark in the world. It sparked such popular phrases as “bullpen” (from a Bull Durham ad painted behind the Yankees’ dugout) and “shooting the bull” (most likely from spitting chewing tobacco). The famous bull’s image was painted all over the world, including on the Great Pyramid of Egypt! Duke also was the first to put cigarette cards, predecesssors of modern baseball cards, into each pack of tobacco.
And let’s not even get into what a fabulous movie “Bull Durham” is.
Comments (2)
Comment
“Did you know that Durham is home to the world’s most famous trademark?”
Actually no, and no one else in the office did either. If most people don’t know it, then it’s probably no longer the world’s most famous. Less than 20 years later, Coca-Cola took that title and has held it ever since. Now it’s estimated that 94% of the world recognizes the Coke trademark, certainly more coverage than Bull Durham ever had.
Most likely someone forgot what the definition of ‘is’ is.
posted by Ted Pilewski on 9-29-2006 at 9:41 am
Ted — I tend to agree with you! But that’s the language the original article used…
posted by Mary on 9-29-2006 at 11:52 am