Colgate Kitchen Entrees
One of the classic brand-extension blunders of all time has to be when toothpaste-maker Colgate decided to come out with a line of frozen dinners. The story is told in many places, and it's usually described as having occurred in 1982. For instance, here's the HuffPost's take on it:
Lots of other sites refer to this as having happened in 1982, such as here, here, and here. But when I took a closer look at the story I couldn't find any primary sources from 1982 about it. But there are several 1960s-era sources (Washington Food Report, Weekly Digest) that refer to Colgate having test-marketed a line of frozen dinners in Madison, Wisconsin in 1964. A 1966 article in Television Age magazine offered some insight into what inspired the company to do this:
So, unless someone can find some primary sources that indicate otherwise, I'm going to assume that the Colgate Kitchen debacle actually happened in 1964, not 1982. And it was only a test-marketing trial run, not a full product roll-out. It would definitely be bizarre if, after the 1964 failure, Colgate tried the same thing again in 1982.
There's a couple of images of Colgate Kitchen entrees floating around the Internet, but I think they're all photoshops or mock-ups. For instance, the one below is a recent mock-up created by the Museum of Failure in Sweden.
We suppose the idea behind Colgate Kitchen Entrees was the fact that you’d eat the Colgate frozen dinner and then brush your teeth with Colgate toothpaste, but this one just simply didn’t work. The frozen food market was already pretty saturated when these dinners were released in 1982, and when people think of Colgate they tend to think of clean teeth, not frozen Swedish meatballs.
Lots of other sites refer to this as having happened in 1982, such as here, here, and here. But when I took a closer look at the story I couldn't find any primary sources from 1982 about it. But there are several 1960s-era sources (Washington Food Report, Weekly Digest) that refer to Colgate having test-marketed a line of frozen dinners in Madison, Wisconsin in 1964. A 1966 article in Television Age magazine offered some insight into what inspired the company to do this:
To enlarge its business, now dependent almost entirely on soaps and toiletries against the P&G and Lever competition, Colgate has long wanted to get into the $4.2-billion convenience food field. Its efforts here have been fruitless. A line of dried chicken and crabmeat entrees under a Colgate Kitchen label was introduced and quickly withdrawn. An apple-chip called Snapples has been tested off-and-on over a two-year period, and one or two other food items are in various stages. The company has specialty foods operations in France and Italy, but evidently is finding it hard to duplicate their success here.
So, unless someone can find some primary sources that indicate otherwise, I'm going to assume that the Colgate Kitchen debacle actually happened in 1964, not 1982. And it was only a test-marketing trial run, not a full product roll-out. It would definitely be bizarre if, after the 1964 failure, Colgate tried the same thing again in 1982.
There's a couple of images of Colgate Kitchen entrees floating around the Internet, but I think they're all photoshops or mock-ups. For instance, the one below is a recent mock-up created by the Museum of Failure in Sweden.
Comments
Minty fresh flavoured Lasagna! I would try it once.
agent j
agent j
Posted by agent j on 07/08/19 at 10:09 AM
Lasagne-flavored toothpaste! A much better idea.
Posted by Virtual in Carnate on 07/08/19 at 01:00 PM
Remember Bambeanos? They were Colgate's answer to: "Why don't we have tasty snacks that make us fart for hours?" Sadly for the company, no one was really asking that.
Posted by Phideaux on 07/08/19 at 01:50 PM
During my travels through France and Great Britain over the last thirty years I cannot recall seeing any products with the Colgate logo on the package. The company may have a subsidiary under another name, so I can't say that they do not have a presence in the markets. During a search to replace toothpaste because of delayed luggage on one trip, I came across strawberry flavored toothpaste for kids - it was delicious and made me want to brush my teeth for the longest time.
Posted by KDP on 07/08/19 at 07:03 PM
Every picture I can find on the internet uses a 2000s-era colgate logo, so I'm going to agree that they're mock-ups. Which is unfortunate, because Colgate has pretty consistently changed their logo pretty much once a decade, so a real picture of one would date it pretty tightly.
Posted by Ross on 07/08/19 at 07:11 PM
For a while Colgate didn't use the term toothpaste. They called it dental cream.
Posted by ges on 07/08/19 at 10:46 PM
KDP: In the 40 some years I´ve lived in Sweden I´ve found Colgate in every country I´ve been to in Europé.
Posted by F.U.D. in Stockholm on 07/09/19 at 12:44 AM
When I was in Lisbon I could not find any Colgate toothpaste. It was the only brand I could recall so that is the one I was hunting. I settled on something tooth cleaning related, the name of which I do not recall at the moment.
agent j
agent j
Posted by agent j on 07/09/19 at 07:35 AM
When I turn that around I come up with Kraft Mac & Cheese Toothpaste, and it's just not working for me.
Posted by R'Chard on 07/11/19 at 06:11 PM
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Category: Business | Products | 1960s