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From Zippo Cars to the Peepmobile: 7 Bizarre Marketing Vehicles

Erica Palan — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:20:30 +0000

If your college was anything like mine, a day didn’t go by without some company giving out free samples in wacky cars. The Red Bull car even had its own parking space down the street from the dorms. (Trying to resist the temptation when walking past a giant can of Red Bull before an early class is absolute torture.) Here are seven examples of even weirder promotional vehicles.

1. The Zippo Car

Built in 1947 for $25,000, the Zippo Car was a Chrysler Saratoga with two gigantic lighters sporting neon flames. The Zippo Car was used for fairs, expos and parades between 1948 and 1949, but mysteriously disappeared sometime in the 1950’s when it was left at a Pittsburgh dealership for reconstruction and never returned. In 1996, Zippo commissioned a replica of the original Zippo car, and in 1998 the second Chrysler Saratoga—New Yorker was unveiled at the Zippo/Case Visitors Center.

2. Chock Full o’ Nuts Truck

The Chock Full o’ Nuts novelty truck first appeared publicly in the late 1930s shortly after the coffee company originated in New York City. The vehicle was designed to resemble a comfortable cabin with a screened in porch—just the kind of place where you’d want to enjoy your morning java. The Chock Full o’ Nuts brand has been owned by dessert queen Sara Lee since the year 2000. Image via JAMD.

3. The Children’s Shoemaker Car

This shoe may look a little like something out of a nursery rhyme, but it is actually a promotional vehicle created for Daniel Neal, The Children’s Shoemaker, a business that originated in 1837 in London. The shoe was built on a 1921 Ford Model T with coachwork done by Riverside Motor Works. Presumably the message on the wheels is a brand of shoes.

4. Oscar Mayer Weinermobile

Invented in 1936 by Carl G. Mayer (nephew of namesake Oscar), the Weinermobile has evolved over the years and the massive hot dog can currently be seen atop many different vehicles. Gas rationing kept the promotional car off the road during World War II, but in the 1950s, Oscar Mayer and the Gerstenslager Company created several new vehicles using Dodge and Jeep chassis. These vehicle were driven by “Little Oscar” who would frequent festivals and parades as well as visiting schools and children’s hospitals. In 1988, Oscar Mayer launched its Hotdogger program, where recent college graduates were hired to drive the Wienermobile through various parts of the nation and abroad. There are currently six Wienermobiles in existence.

5. The Voxmobile

In 1967, Warren Hampton of the musical equipment manufacturer Vox approached famous car customizer George Barris to build a Voxmobile guitar auto. His idea was to fabricate a custom roadster that would function both as a car and as a mobile amplifier, designed to be used for promotional purposes. The Voxmobile, released in 1968, features a Vox guitar silhouette that serves as a functioning amp capable of supporting up to 32 guitars as well as featuring a working Vox organ in the rear deck. In all, there are two main drive speakers mounted atop the intake manifold, five 12-inch speakers, one 18-inch bass speaker and four tweeters. The entire vehicle is worth $30,000 and is drivable.

6. The Spammobile

This giant blue trolley drives all over the country giving out free samples of delicious Spam products. Inside, the vehicle only seats two passengers to accommodate mass quantities of canned ham and the electric griddle necessary for cooking Spamburgers. The license plate of the Spammobile reads “Spam37,” the number 37 being a reference to 1937, the year Spam was invented.

7. The Peepster

Much like the Spammobile, Just Born, the company responsible for marshmallow Peeps as well as Mike and Ikes and Peanut Chews, has a large bus that tours the nation. However, the Bethlehem, Pa-based candy company also has a smaller promotional vehicle—the Peepster. A bright yellow Volkswagen Beetle with a five-foot tall yellow marshmallow chick on top, the car can often be seen cruising around the tri-state area.

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Jesus Spotted in Pancake (and 6 other places)

Erica Palan — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 04:40:50 +0000

My favorite things about Slow News Days are the wealth of religious sightings that seem to crop up. Whether it’s Jesus making an appearance on a snack food, or other religious figures spotted in knots of wood, local news crews are always there to get the scoop. Here are seven of the my favorite recent religious sightings.

1. In a potato

This past January, Pastor Renee Brewster of Florida’s Marion County found something sacred in her starches. Feeling reluctant about making potato salad for her church because it wasn’t her normal task, Brewster asked God for a sign that she should continue making the dish. A few moments later, while slicing potatoes, she discovered what she thought was a rotten spot. Her 10-year-old granddaughter saw something else: the image of Jesus on the cross. Brewster keeps the sacred spud on ice to preserve the memory.

2. On a pancake

Brewster’s sighting was not the first time people have claimed to see Jesus in Florida. Just a few months earlier, in November 2007, a Southern woman got a surprise while frying up pancakes one Sunday morning. Marilyn Smith, from Port St. Lucie, says she was about to put chocolate chips in her pancake, when she saw an outline of Jesus and the Virgin Mary in her food. Whether or not God was asking Smith to post the holy hotcake on eBay is debatable. But within two day it had sold for $338, with over 3,200 online visitors dropping by to gawk at it.

3. In a sonogram

When 23-year-old Amanda Skelding (now Amanda McLean) discovered her pregnancy in March 2007, she did what most women with child do: she scheduled an ultrasound. At her appointment, she was shocked to see the face of Jesus staring back at her from her womb. McLean suffers from the womb complaint endometriosis and has had two miscarriages. Doctors in her hometown of Glasgow, Scotland, had told her she had less than a one in 10 chance of giving birth to a healthy child, but she was now pregnant with a daughter. For McLean, the sighting came as total reassurance and she claimed that she felt someone was looking out for her child before it was born.

4. On a kitten

This summer in South Bend, Indiana, Lori Johnson took in two small kittens that she found abandoned by her home. The Johnsons dubbed the kittens, presumably siblings, Sissy and Bubby. One afternoon, while Lori’s husband was petting Sissy, he noticed a mysterious face in the cat’s fur. The Johnsons believe it is the face of Jesus covered by the Shroud of Turin.

5. In spumoni

In early July of this year, customers at Hatch Family Chocolates say they caught a glimpse of the image of Christ in the swirls of spumoni, a kind of ice cream. There was a bit of discrepancy about whether this sighting was actually Jesus—some thought the image more closely resembled a Beatle or William Shakespeare. In any case, the staff agreed it was special. Instead of selling the ice cream, the owners decided to save it for a few days and then throw a party to dig in to the delicious—and perhaps divine—treat.

6. On a tree

California is known for its long lasting, destructive wildfires during the dry season. However, last year, something beautiful came from the ashes. Residents of the area claimed to see an outline of the Holy Mother in this tree’s charred trunk on the side of the Sierra Highway in Los Angeles. Hundreds visited the tree and created a makeshift altar by leaving flowers, candles and other offerings. Some people even left notes asking for special blessings. The tree was cut down and saved be county road crews.

7. On a grilled cheese sandwich

Perhaps the most famous religious sighting is the image of the Virgin Mary on a grilled cheese sandwich. In 1994, Diane Duyser saw the image of the Holy Mother just as she was about to take a bite. The Florida resident claims that she did nothing to preserve the sandwich and just placed it in a box for the 10 years, yet it never crumbled or grew mold. In 2004, she placed the sacred sandwich on eBay and it eventually sold for a whopping $28,000. By the time the sandwich auction closed, the sale had received over 1.7 million hits on the auction site. The sandwich was purchased by Goldenpalace.com, an internet casino. They claimed they would take the sandwich on tour so that people all over the world could view the image and then donate the money earned through ticket sales to charity. The item briefly inspired sellers to place dozens of spin-off items on the online auction site, including attempts at replica burnt toast, T-shirts, ornamental plates, and domain names.

From Zippo Cars to the Peepmobile: 7 Bizarre Marketing Vehicles

Erica Palan — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:31:22 +0000

1. The Zippo Car

2. Chock Full o’ Nuts Truck

3. The Children’s Shoemaker Car

4. Oscar Mayer Weinermobile

5. The Voxmobile

6. The Spammobile

7. The Peepster

11 Things we just learned about Prince

Erica Palan — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:43:18 +0000

Pretty much everyone alive in the ‘90s knows about Prince’s infamous name change. Here’s 11 things you might not have known about the artist currently known as Prince.

1. He’s a Jehovah’s Witness.

Baptized in 2001, the Purple Rain star is a devout Jehovah’s Witness. And he even goes door-to-door! In October 2003, a woman in Eden Prairie, Minnesota opened her door to discover the famously shy artist standing in front of her home. He introduced himself as Prince Nelson and came inside along with his bassist, former Sly and the Family Stone member Larry Graham.

2. Prince is his real name.

Born to two musical parents on June 7, 1958 in Minneapolis, Prince Rogers Nelson was named after his father’s jazz combo.

3. He’s written a lot of hit songs for other artists.

In addition to penning several hundred songs for himself, Prince also composed music for other artists, including “Manic Monday” for the Bangles, “I Feel For You” for Chaka Khan, and “Nothing Compares 2 U” covered by Sinead O’Connor.

4. His symbol actually had a name.

Even though the whole world referred to him as either The Artist or The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, that weird symbol Prince used was actually known as “Love Symbol #2.” It was copyrighted in 1997, but when Prince’s contract expired at midnight on December 31, 1999, he announced that he was reclaiming his given name.

5. His sister sued him.

In 1989, Prince’s half-sister, Lorna Nelson, sued him, claiming that she’d written the lyrics to “U Got the Look,” a song from his ninth studio album that features the voice of pop artist Sheena Easton. After a long court battle, a judge finally sided with Prince.

6. He ticked off the Vice President’s wife.

After purchasing the Purple Rain soundtrack for her 11-year-old daughter, Tipper Gore—wife of Clinton vice president Al Gore—became enraged over the explicit lyrics of “Darling Nikki,” a song that references masturbation and other graphic sex acts. Gore felt that there should be some sort of warning on the label and formed the Parents Music Resource Center, which pressured the recording industry to adopt a ratings system similar to the one employed in the movies. To Prince’s credit, he didn’t oppose the label system and became one of the first artists to release a “clean” version of explicit albums.

7. He lost a child.

Prince’s son, Gregory, was born in November of 1996. Tragically, he died just one week later from a rare genetic condition called Pfieffer Syndrome, which affects to growth of the skull. Prince and his then-wife, Mayte Garcia, refused to discuss the incident publicly and divorced in August of 2000.

8. He’s a little like Willy Wonka.

In 2006, Universal hid 14 purple tickets—seven in the US and seven internationally—inside Prince’s latest album, 3121. Fans who found a purple ticket were invited to attend a private performance at Prince’s Los Angeles home.

9. He simultaneously held the number 1 spots for film, single and album.

During the week of July 27, 1984, Prince’s film Purple Rain hit number one at the box office. At the same time, “When Doves Cry,” was holding the top spot as both an album and a single. Talk about the best week ever.

10. He effed up SNL.

During Prince’s first appearance on Saturday Night Live, he performed the song “Party Up” and sang the lyric, “Fightin’ war is a such a f*ing bore.” It went unnoticed at the time, but in the closing segment, Charles Rocket clearly said, “I’d like to know who the f* did it.” This was the only episode of SNL where the F-bomb was dropped twice.

11. He had a spiritual epiphany.

In 1987, Prince was due to release “The Black Album.” However, mere days before it was scheduled to drop, Prince scrapped the whole thing, calling it “dark and immortal.” (It’s supposedly also really terrible.) The musician claims to have reached this decision following “a spiritual epiphany.” Some reports say that it was actually an early experience with drug ecstasy, but maybe The Artist just knew it would flop.

7 People Fired For Blogging

Erica Palan — Thu, 29 May 2008 21:13:18 +0000

Sharing your thoughts and interests online is becoming a societal norm. But before you jump on WordPress to start your own blog, check out these cautionary tales of a few writers who shared too much.

Heather Armstrong, Dooce.com

Arguably the first person fired for blogging and probably the most successful, Heather B. Armstrong began her hilarious blog Dooce in 2001 while “making a lot of money as a web designer in Los Angeles.” Dooce contained quirky narratives as well as regular features such as “How to Charm Me” and “How to Annoy Me.” [Personal favorite: August 8, 2001.] The latter is what caused problems. Highlighting amusing, albeit thinly veiled, references to her office and specific co-workers, Armstrong regularly posted until late February 2002, when she was approached by her bosses and told that an anonymous coworker had emailed every VP in her company to complain about the unsavory remarks on Dooce. She was fired. Six years later, Armstrong is still blogging on Dooce and it’s become the sole source of income for her family. The site has won numerous awards, including a Bloggie in 2008 for Best Weblog in the United States, and was named one of the World’s 50 Most Powerful Blogs by the Guardian. Not too shabby for a blog that started with a poem about Carnation milk.

Joyce Park, Troutgirl

Way back before MySpace and Facebook dominated the social networking stratosphere, there was Friendster. Developed in Mountain View, California, in the heart of the Silicon Valley, the site featured most of the components we’re used to seeing on social networking sites—sections for personal information, photos and, of course, blogging. Joyce Park worked for Friendster as a web developer, but was also a recreational user of the site. Park, known in the blogosphere as Troutgirl, wrote only three times about her company’s upgrade to PHP/MySQL programming before getting canned in August 2004 by CEO Scott Sassa for “stepping over the line.”

Backlash toward the company soon followed as people wondered how a site that promoted the sharing of personal information could react so harshly to one of their employees doing just that. Popular blogger—and Yahoo! employee—Jeremy Zawodny publicly canceled his Friendster account and encouraged others to follow suit. Though the site saw no considerable decrease in subscribers, Friendster’s popularity has waned in recent years. Park is still blogging as Troutgirl, but has understandbly switched to WordPress.

Mark Jen, Ninetyninezeros

When it comes to awesome workplaces, it seems that Google tops almost everyone’s lists. That’s what Mark Jen thought in 2005 when he was hired by the online superpower. After his first day, Jen started blogging. He wrote his impressions of the company, both positive and negative, on his nerdily named Ninetyninezeros (a reference to the mathematical term “googol”), including a comprehensive breakdown of the health benefits provided by Google and those allocated by his former employer, Microsoft. (He concluded that Microsoft’s were better.) Eleven days later, Jen was fired. Though Google never officially confirmed that blogging was behind Jen’s departure, Jen himself wrote, “I goofed and put some stuff on my blog that’s not supposed to be there. I’m learning that Google is understandably careful about disclosing sensitive information, even vague financial-related things. The quickest way for me to fix the situation at the time was to take it all down. Now I’m back up.” He continued blogging at Plaxoed and later rose & snail. Lesson learned: Don’t mess with the Internet’s most powerful search engine.

Jessica Cutler, The Washingtonienne

In the spring of 2004, Jessica Cutler was working as an assistant for Ohio Senator Republican Mike DeWine. In addition to her swank job on the Hill, she was also engaging in some Lewinsky-like extracurriculars outside the office. Cutler chronicled these affairs on her blog, The Washingtonienne, naming her lovers by initials. The posts were short, sweet and contained all the salacious details any gossip-fiend could ever crave. A few weeks after she began the blog, the folks at snarky D.C. gossip blog Wonkette discovered the site and reposted it—in its entirety—on their own pages. Within hours, Washington was abuzz with Cutler’s torrid tales. That afternoon, coincidentally Cutler’s birthday, she was fired for “misuse of staff computers.” For the next several weeks, both media professionals and government representatives harshly criticized Cutler, calling her names and condemning her acts. Don’t feel too bad for her, though. A few months later, she posed for Playboy.com and in 2005 she published The Washingtonienne: A Novel. Cutler is currently still blogging at Jessica Cutler Online, but the original posts from The Washingtonienne can be found in Wonkette’s archives.

Ellen Simonetti, Queen of Sky

Ellen Simonetti had worked as a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines for eight years before starting her blog Queen of Sky. Created to help her deal with the grief of losing her mother, Simonette began writing about her day-to-day life, including her travels with the airline. Like with most of her other posts, her travel writing was snarky and irreverent and caught the attention of readers. Including her bosses at Delta Air Lines. After seeing supposedly risque photos of Simonette in her uniform on the blog, Simonetti was suspended and then fired on October 29, 2004. Since then, she’s been appealing to the airline company to get her job back, but the case has been postponed until Delta deals with their current financial woes. Simonetti maintains that her dismissal violated her right to free expression and was an act of sexual discrimination. She’s spent the last four years fighting this cause and has set up The International Bloggers Bill of Rights. Simonetti stills blogs at Queen of Sky and has adapted her blog into a book. She has also appeared on various talk shows, including The Montel Williams Show.

Michael Tunison, Kissing Suzy Kolber

The Washington Post is one of those newspapers that prides itself on being a bastion of old-school journalism. And they do not take kindly to being disrespected. Just ask former employee Michael Tunison. He was fired from his position as an editorial aide this past April after his superiors discovered that he was blogging under the name Christmas Ape (an obscure Simpsons reference) at Kissing Suzy Kolber. KSK is a cheeky blog about the NFL where just about anything goes in terms of language and content. Tunison’s posts, like many of the others on the site, were riddled with profanity. On April 14, 2008, he identified himself as an employee of the Post and later told industry insider mag Editor & Publisher that he believed that this work was “safe” under the paper’s freelance policy. The Post disagreed, and he was fired for “bringing discredit to the paper.” Tunison was outraged by his dismissal, claiming “the core spirit of The Washington Post [is] full disclosure.” Since his firing, Tunison has become a full-time blogger, contributing to Deadspin and SportsbyBrooks. Here’s a recent interview that appeared in Gelf Magazine.

Erica Palan, Fear and Loathing in Franklin Mills

[Full disclosure: This is me.] In college, I worked for a company that owned two different stores in the same mall—one sold baby clothes, the other sold plus-size fetish lingerie. Take a moment to fully grasp that concept.

I also interned at Philadelphia Weekly, where I befriended the paper’s hilarious blogger and would often tell him the crazy things that would happen at the mall. (Co-workers having phone sex, for example.) One day he asked me to write these stories for his blog and it seemed too hilarious an opportunity to pass up. A few weeks later, while working in the baby store, a customer mentioned the blog to one of my coworkers, who then reported it to the manager. The manager then asked me to track down the posts, because I was “the most into the Internet.” Two days later I told her that I hadn’t been able to find anything. When I arrived at work the next weekend, I was called into the backroom where every other store employee was waiting to confront me. They’d not only found my blog posts—admittedly easy to locate with minimal Googling—but they’d printed them and hung them on the walls. One by one, they told me how hurt they were that I’d divulged their idiosyncrasies and “exploited their trust.” I was fired on the spot. Fortunately, PW had just hired me as listings editor, where I still work a year later. So far, no one has had phone sex in my presence.

Erica Palan is an occasional contributor to mental_floss. We hope this doesn’t get her canned.