Yesterday Fox announced that it would be cancelling its long-running crime-stopping series America’s Most Wanted. If you’re anything like me your reaction to the news will be sense of shock: “You mean, that’s still on the air?”
Indeed it is. Although the series which profiles wanted criminals has been on the air since 1988, I stopped watching it around 1990—and assumed it went off the air about a decade ago. But America’s Most Wanted is attempting to find a new home and become what Daniel Gross once dubbed a “zombie brand”—a dead or dormant brand that have been revived or trotted out for second or third chances.
Examples include the soft drink Tab (which I thought people stopped drinking in 1985) and Life magazine (which I assumed went out of print sometime in the 1970s). Zombie brands often leave us with a peculiar mix of nostalgia (“I remember that!”) and unease (“Why is that still around?”). For instance, I was shocked to find that Grit magazine—a staple of rural barber shops that my brother used to sell door to door—is still around, though in an all but unrecognizable form.
What zombie brands are you surprised still exist?
May 17th, 2011 | 9:33 am
GM? (No, sorry. That’s cheap.)
How about “Love Is…”, the curious little cartoon feature with a nude boy and girl that runs in newspapers, appearing next to Dear Abbey and Jumble. Does anybody actually read it? It was started in the late 1960s, and is based on the catch-phrase “Love is never having to say you’re sorry” from Love Story. I think it’s probably also related to “Happiness is…(a warm puppy)” from the Peanuts craze. This is seriously dated stuff.
May 17th, 2011 | 9:43 am
Oh, wait. My teenage daughter just read my comment and said, “Oh, I read Love Is… I think it’s cute.”
Never mind.
May 17th, 2011 | 9:54 am
Newt Gingrich.
May 17th, 2011 | 9:59 am
Not really a zombie but I’ve had an odd fascination with Harold Camping whose been on my cable system for a few years now…only when I bothered to wiki-him I learned he’s been at his Bible call-in thing for like 50 years giving him a longer run on TV than anyone else I can think of.
The fact that he is absolutely certain the world is going to end on May 21st has given him an odd sense of drama…for the last few months I’ve been asking will he make it to May 21st? Will the world make it to the 22nd and if so what will he say????
May 17th, 2011 | 9:59 am
@James Gibson
LOL!
May 17th, 2011 | 10:09 am
Fresca–which I rediscovered a couple of months ago and now actually like.
May 17th, 2011 | 11:28 am
A trip down the grocery aisle: Rice-A-Roni, Tang, Hamburger Helper.
May 17th, 2011 | 11:35 am
How’s Zoroastrianism for a zombie brand? Though usually assumed to be as dead as Mithraism and Dagon-worship, it survives in scattered Asian & African Parsee communities, whose most famous modern scion was … [drum roll] … MR. FREDDIE MERCURY!
So next time you hear “Another One Bites the Dust,” know that you are listening to one of our last available links to the bad guys from “300.”
May 17th, 2011 | 12:11 pm
There was a profile somewhere online recently about America’s Funniest Home Videos. I had thought the shows that still show up on tv were all reruns, but it is still in first-run production, and since it’s profitable will continue to be. The article said the show negotiates exclusive contracts for its clips, so it has an immense library for future shows and an online presence if they choose to cultivate it.
With the advent of Wegmans locally, I can now find Cheerwine, which I loved as a kid in south carolina and figured had been swept away in the Coca Cola/Pepsi tide.
I was also pleased to see that one location of Yogi Bear’s Honey Fried Chicken still exists, in my former hometown of Hartsville, SC. At one time there were multiple locations of this restaurant spread across the middle south. There’s still a Sambo’s open, in California. I remember eating pancakes there as a child, and finding the wall illustrations of indian children fascinating.
May 17th, 2011 | 12:25 pm
The Cars just put out an album.
May 17th, 2011 | 12:28 pm
Roy Rogers, the chain, still exists.
May 17th, 2011 | 3:37 pm
The Pullman Company still exists, although it hasn’t built sleeper coaches (or rail cars of any type) for years. It is now a division of Tenneco.
I often fantasize about life after the electromagnetic pulse, when great passenger trains of sleeper cars once again provide the main means of passenger transport, and the Pullman sleeper rises again…
May 17th, 2011 | 4:13 pm
Pan American Airlines
May 17th, 2011 | 4:51 pm
Atari. They’re not the same company, just the same name owned by somebody else. Same for Commodore Computers.
May 17th, 2011 | 5:23 pm
The newspaper comic Peanuts is a good example of a literal one, reprinting old strips over and over. You see a lot of zombie brands in kids television or toys: we have seen he-man, voltron, robotech, and soon will see thundercats revamped and repacked for modern kids.
May 17th, 2011 | 6:35 pm
Pinkerton
May 18th, 2011 | 2:44 am
[...] of the Zombie Brands! (HT) Poke around the vast consumer products marketplace, and it’s easy to find dead or dormant [...]
May 18th, 2011 | 6:40 am
Tuesday night I heard Henry Kissenger interviewed on NPR which his new book on China…..hmmmmm a zombie and zombie brand?
May 19th, 2011 | 3:10 am
Lawrence Welk videos are still getting hits on YouTube–and drawing recent comments comparing it favorably to the trashy Dancing With the Stars. For me as a GenXer, LW was synonymous with both mediocrity and a morbidly humorous absence of musical taste, yet as a clarinet player I always wanted it to be good (Benny Goodman). I must admit now though, there is a hypnotic and sweet charm to the black-and-white 1961 debut of contest-winners Bobby and Barbara dancing to Welk’s number one hit Calcutta. My parents and I got into a debate about succession regarding Garrison Keillor, and LW came up. Can such properties go on without their founder/leaders? LW was first cancelled in ’71 before my birth, found a new TV home, ended in ’82 but resurrected again and again in repackaged forms and apparently lives on somewhere in broadcast land–and YouTube. Check out the B&B/Calcutta 1961 for a diversion.
May 20th, 2011 | 11:18 pm
Commodore, now selling PCs in the old C64 case.
May 20th, 2011 | 11:21 pm
I often fantasize about life after the electromagnetic pulse, when great passenger trains of sleeper cars once again provide the main means of passenger transport, and the Pullman sleeper rises again…
Oddly enough, the most retro thing I’ve seen are the passenger cars for Norfolk & Southern line for their Virginia run. A train with them hitched on it passed by Dayton OH a few days ago, and I caught sight of the train when I passed by South Dixie to I75.
May 21st, 2011 | 8:45 pm
Ponderosa restaurants and KMart.
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