Wednesday, December 12, 2012

10 Brands From My Childhood That Faded Away

10 brands I grew up with that faded away (10 that come to mind now - sure there are more!)

1) Thril: Cannot forget this Thums Up equivalent, a cola drink manufactured by God knows which company. It had a nice logo and maybe a nice ad too then in the early eighties. But I remember drinking it at the Bhagyalaxmi store near ESI hospital many times - in its rather short life.

2) Apsa: This was a mango soft drink that the AP Beverages Corporation manufactured and marketed. i remember how they used the double decker buses that the APSRTC used to ply those days to advertise this drink. It was a slightly sweeter and perhaps a tad less tastier than Maaza but it was an option.

3) Dyanora: The television boom was begun with the reliable and solid EC television perhaps but Dyanora was soon to take over a large part of the market share. At least as a brand it was more noisier with ads etc and some new features.

4) Cavenders: Loved seeing the ads in the movie theatres of a green mountainside and a model shooting clay pigeons. The ad had a fine sense of adventure and something nice and relaxing about it. Perhaps one of the better cigarette ads I saw. As a brand I remember it well, though I never saw anyone smoke it.

5) Binaca: I'll never forget Binaca because there was a sales campaign that they did which had a small plastic animal toy in each Binaca toothpaste box. I bought so many Binaca toothpastes even after they discontinued the campaign. I loved the few animals I got and will forever be grateful to Binaca for that little magic they added in my life. As for the toothpaste, I don't remember much except people saying 'Binaca smile' and later 'Binaca Geetmala'.

6) Forhans: Another toothpaste brand. I don't know if it is still around but it had a slightly clinical and formidable air about it. Anyway my parents seemed to be convinced about it so Forhans it was for us.

7) Signal: Another toothpaste brand and one I won't forget because the Signal chaps did a quiz and free dental check up campaign at our All Saints School. I was surprised I did not win the quiz because I was sure I did well. But I remember that they gave us all one small toothpaste box. Signal was unique with its red stripes on white - I never figured out how the stripes cam on the toothpaste.

8) Luna: I don't know if it's still around but I remember that it seemed like a Bullet to my twelve year old mind. It was the first motorised two wheeler I ever rode too and one that I almost crashed.

9) Cheetah Fight: This was an interesting brand of matches that had a picture of a man fighting with a cheetah if I remember right. Another match brand was Three mangoes which was simple enough - three mangoes. Life was rather boring until Ship came along in this market. But I remember people would collect match box covers.

10) Allwyn Pushpak: One of the many brands that Allwyn launched - this was a scooter. It looked similar to the Vijay Super or a slimmer Lambretta and was manufactured and marketed by the AP Government's AP Scooters Ltd. I cannot forget it as my eldest brother-in-law owned one and this was the one where I learned to ride a geared two wheeler. It was stable as a house, but the gears were tough and sometimes needed two hands to operate it.

And some more that are on the fringe of the mind somewhere.


2 comments:

Rajendra said...

Allwyn had a fridge that was noisy as hell..and watches too, for a while.
HMT bulbs, some brand of iced tea or lemon tea-was it by McDowell's or Lipton, maybe the latter.

HMT watches had an unfogettable tagline- If you have the inclination, we have the Time.

Harimohan said...

I remember the noisy Allwyn fridge too. (If I am not wrong they tried to advertise it as noiseless for a while.) Wonderful line by the HMT watch guys.