Episode Transcript
Don Mock 0:20
Episode 131 Rob, we’re back.
Rob Broadfoot 0:23
131 it’s been a minute. We took a little bit of a breather. In all honesty.
Don Mock 0:27
but none of our listeners would know, because we have a consistent schedule, baby, yeah
Rob Broadfoot 0:31
yeah, but I like to be transparent with our audience. A little behind the scenes.
Don Mock 0:36
Honesty is the best policy that’s what we teach our kids, right?
Rob Broadfoot 0:40
Little behind the scenes,
Don Mock 0:41
yeah, well, if we want to do behind the scenes, then we have a holiday coming up, yeah, where zombies come back from the dead? Right? Yeah, All Hallows Eve, all that good stuff, right? And I think that kind of leads us into today’s topic, right? If we’re talking about zombies coming back, yeah, we were thinking about brands that come back from the dead, which is kind of fun. And I think this, this was inspired by, and I saw the commercial actually live on TV.
Rob Broadfoot 1:10
Oh, really
Don Mock 1:11
I believe it was during the World Series. Was either the World Series or one of the Sunday night, Monday night footballs, something I don’t know. This is terrible. I’m an ad guy. I don’t even, I can’t even tell you one of the media played, or whatever, but the old car brand Scout, right? Is back. Scout. We have relaunched scout. It’s been dormant for decades, right? And it’s coming back as a bitch in electric. It’s an SUV and a truck, two models, I believe
Rob Broadfoot 1:37
Yes And I think is it? Is it backed by VW this time around? Well,
Don Mock 1:43
I think VW owns, like every car brand on Earth, yeah. Whether, even if you don’t think VW owns it, they probably they own it, right? Because I think scout was an old international brand, wasn’t it or something,
Rob Broadfoot 1:54
I think so. But I think the reason that that’s important, that they’re backed by VW, potentially, is because of what we’ve talked about over the past couple of weeks. It’s come up a couple times. Anyway, the trouble with getting some of these newer car brands serviced,
Don Mock 2:10
oh yeah, right.
Rob Broadfoot 2:11
I mean, Tesla, you and I, you and I each know a friend or two that have had just nightmare scenarios getting anything fixed on a tesla.
Don Mock 2:20
Yeah, easy to buy. But then all of a sudden, oh, no, there’s no, not National Network for service or any place to take your cars, right, right? And then it’s like, oh, I have to, like, use an app to, like, schedule my thing. Yeah, God, you got to do all these different things to try to get someone and schedule an appointment to come, and then they ding you for every step away, right? So, yeah, I think that is important. I think you’re right. I think it is VW, but, but, yeah, they had a little bit of a teaser campaign going like, Oh, it’s coming back, and good things are happening.
Rob Broadfoot 2:49
They were awesome. They were cool. I mean, the old ones were cool. They were just had a lot of character. Like the old Land Cruisers. It’s kind of in that old Land Cruiser, old Ronco, old, you know, kind of style
Don Mock 3:00
Super cool, 60s, 70s, awesome design, right? So scout is back, and, you know, there’s probably, which is interesting, because I think the older generation who has potentially more disposable income would recognize the brand and be like, Oh yeah, Scout, kick ass, you know? But it’s all these super cool, sleek, modern, you know, Jeep ish kind of looking things, right? But it’s like a reintroduction. And there’s, you know, there’s a whole new, I mean, it’s been 30 years, I think, yeah, like, there’s a whole new group of people that are just interested in EVs and this, and that the scout brand is new to them. They have no idea what it is
Rob Broadfoot 3:35
And looking at just some of the quick branding. I mean, they’ve kept the type and all that, right? They’ve kept the old type, and it’s all logos and it looks super cool so that, yeah, they’ve kept a lot of that character.
Don Mock 3:46
What do you think of the cars themselves and people We’re in audio format, so people will have to look up pictures.
Rob Broadfoot 3:51
I actually like the truck a lot better than I do the to me. The SUV looks like it could just be a Toyota. And not to knock on Toyota. But to me, it’s very plain looking. Yeah, I think the truck looks a lot cooler than the, than the than the SUV.
Don Mock 4:07
I’m gonna say, I don’t know you. You may disagree with this. It’s got kind of a rivian vibe to it. Absolutely. Rivians got the truck, and then the the hatch, you know, the SUV version, and then scouts got kind of the same like, yeah, the SUV kind of looks like a rivian
Rob Broadfoot 4:23
No, it does, but, but I will say, though, and I’m gonna, I’m gonna counteract that with I actually like the rivian SUV better than I like the rivian truck. That’s weird to me. It’s the opposite, okay? And it could just be the model that they show on the sleek news Scout website, matt black. It’s their satin, really cool looking.
Don Mock 4:47
with all these EVs, it’s all about the little micro details. To a certain extent, there’s a lot of like body design choices that are very similar across a lot of these things, like even your pole star to your top. I mean, people. They’re gonna freak out and they say, but there’s a lot of similarity, because they’re not the same. I mean, I get it, they’re designed differently, but like, the truck and the SUV and the this and, you know, and like the Hyundai SUV with the scout, like, there’s a lot of similar design choices, and I think part of that’s because you don’t need the air flow for radiator. Like, there’s all these different things. Yeah, that’s why, like, the Teslas looked so weird when they came out, because there was no grill, because you don’t need a grill, you know, the very, the very early ones had that simulated grill just so it looks like esthetics, yeah. But now you have the model three, and it’s like, just a giant plastic front end duck lip kind of thing. Like, there’s no you don’t need the airflow. You don’t need the grill. You know, even the BMW electrics, you know, the BMW look is the split grill. I mean, that’s their jam. That’s like, every BMW, right? It’s like, okay, well, you don’t really need that for electric. It’s not practical. But anyway, but the scout thing, so it kind of looks like others, but, but it’s cool. I mean, it’s cool, yeah, I mean, they’re looking and I kind of agree with, I like the truck, the truck looks bitchin,
Rob Broadfoot 5:55
the truck looks bitchin in my whole, again, personal preference. But like, I mean, you know, I drive a big old gas guzzling Toyota Tundra, that’s like, four years old. It’s got dents all over it, it’s dirty, it’s horrible. But to me, that’s like, a truck, yeah? Like, that’s what I use. I mean, it’s very practical for me. I use it all the time, all the time for me to spend $100,000 on one of these electric truck
Don Mock 6:23
and then beat the hell out, like
Rob Broadfoot 6:25
there’s a disconnect for me there, there’s something, there’s a disconnect. And a buddy of mine has one of the the lightning. He’s got the lightning, yeah, he’s got, like, the platinum lightning, like the the highest and electric Ford, f1 50,
Don Mock 6:38
not to publicly shame him. But does he haul stuff?
Rob Broadfoot 6:42
Yes he got a bass boat, a mini hauls a bass boat around. He absolutely uses it. Now, I think he’s the kind of guy who, after he uses it, he’s at the car wash, like, 30 seconds later. I mean, the thing is pristine, but it’s still, I’m still kind of like, it’s always so clean that I’m like, is this a truck? even though I know he uses that, but that’s just a me thing.
Don Mock 7:07
I love cars and new things. Whatever my Achilles heel is, I don’t wash them. Like, I mean, I haven’t washed mine
Rob Broadfoot 7:15
I parked under some sap filled tree the other day
Don Mock 7:17
I haven’t washed my Bronco in like, months now. My wife is like, what the like, Can I drive your car just so I can run through And I’m like, don’t take it through the thing… That’s the only wash it’s ever gonna get.
Rob Broadfoot 7:28
I’m, admittedly, I’m, like, never been like, Oh, I’m just not a car guy
Don Mock 7:35
It’s a utilitarian thing to get from that so. But anyway, so back to the topic the brand.
Rob Broadfoot 7:42
Bring us back. Bring us back.
Don Mock 7:43
Reel it back in. You know, it’s interesting that the scout brand is back. Yeah. I mean, and kind of brands back from the dead? It reminds me. I think one of the first case studies that I remember for kind of brands that are back from the dead was kind of got going when I got going in my career and everything in the in the mid to late 90s was hush puppies, when, all of a sudden, out of No, I remember, there’s no cell phones, there’s no internet, you know, but suddenly hush puppies, which was like your dad, your dad’s old, bad leather, yeah, it’s horrible brand, horrible product, you know,
Rob Broadfoot 8:18
nothing cool about it.
Don Mock 8:19
Cool factor zero, yeah. All of a sudden it was like, oh, hipsters are starting to wear Hush you know. And it became this weird. And then you had, like, Swingers and this whole Zoot Suit. But all of a sudden, hush puppies, the brand was suddenly back, and it was like, Oh, they’re at, like, department stores now, and people are wearing hush puppies to work and, you know? And it was like, hush puppies, like they had the little remember, the dog was
Rob Broadfoot 8:46
brown and white
Don Mock 8:48
And it was like, oh, you know. And I remember, like, Ad Week and ad all the thing, you know, in our industry, it was like, Man, what a great case study of like, you know. And, of course, advertising agencies are the number one, you know, clients to pat ourselves on the back and give ourselves awards and say
Rob Broadfoot 9:04
Oh yeah, look how awesome we are.
Don Mock 9:05
We single handedly brought hush puppies back from the dead, you know, that type of thing, right? When it’s probably like a bunch of hipsters and, you know, New York City or whatever, that started wearing hush puppies because they were like, fire somehow, yeah, they were like the cheap shoes or whatever, you know. But hush puppies was an interesting one that kind of rose back from the dead, pre internet. You know what I mean
Rob Broadfoot 9:25
Well, that was definitely, like, a like, it caught fire on thrift stores, remember how hot. I mean, that was the thing. I was like, let’s go find our dad’s little shit in the thrift store, vintage stuff, yeah.
Don Mock 9:38
I think, you know, there’s been, you know, brands that have come back from the dead, more from a financial ruin perspective, that have risen again. That’s not as interesting. Like Apple was on the brink of total devastation. You know, Marvel was on bankruptcy
Rob Broadfoot 9:53
Apple they’ve come back and single handedly destroyed the world, this device, this cell phone, right here, I can make a very strong. Case that the cell phone, single handedly is going to be the downfall of society
Don Mock 10:05
well, it is instant communication that literally, as my cell phones ringing right now. I mean, you know, the rot our kids brain, the mental health aspect of cell phones
Rob Broadfoot 10:19
Anyway, that’s a whole different conversation.
Don Mock 10:20
Yeah, but, but, you know, I don’t, I don’t really consider those brands back from the No, I mean, I mean, Apple was in the dumper, and then they did bring Steve Jobs back, and they relaunched iMac and all that. I mean, that you could make an argument.
Don Mock 10:37
is that Old Spice? Yeah, okay,
Rob Broadfoot 10:39
yeah, that’s a good one, right?
Don Mock 10:41
Yeah, okay. Old Spice not dissimilar to hush puppies, right? It was your dad’s, it’s your dad’s disgusting aftershave
Rob Broadfoot 10:50
Yeah, that’s what you that’s what you rated. Yeah, in your dad’s closet if you ran out of your own, God, I can’t stink today.
Don Mock 10:56
Yeah? And then it’s a great case study for comedy with a brand. Yeah, you know, when that thing came back, it really was, hey, we’re gonna inject life into this dusty old your dad’s, you know
Rob Broadfoot 11:09
What was great about that was they had like, I feel like, and I don’t, I wasn’t there. But it feels like, you know, a lot of times brands will be irreverent just for the sake of being irreverent,
Don Mock 11:21
You know What’s the worst case study on that? It was Quiznos. Remember Quiznos that had those little puppets, and that not puppets, but it was like, Oh, that was a horrible failure, trying to be funny, and it was so bad.
Rob Broadfoot 11:34
Well, Skittles did it and got away with it.
Don Mock 11:36
Taste the rainbow,
Rob Broadfoot 11:37
they got away with it. Yeah, yeah. But, but it feels like, with Old Spice, it was like, we have nothing to lose our brand is dead.
Don Mock 11:46
Yeah, we’re on Dust. I think they, they kept, maybe they freshened up the logo a little bit, but they kept a lot of the old school, like, boat, like, on all this other and then just had really funny naming with their products too. They like renamed, the whole thing, you know, the, I don’t, I was gonna say flavors, but you don’t eat Old Spice, you know, whatever the different scents were, and the different things, you know. And then it’s like, oh yeah, they had a guy that’s a centaur.
Rob Broadfoot 12:13
well, they had Terry Crews, Terry Crews, yeah, he’s awesome.
Don Mock 12:17
But then they’re running on the beach. They’re in bathtubs. I mean, it was men’s, like, covered in in, you know, bubbles and stuff. You know, they had all that good stuff. So I think wasn’t that Crispin, or am I totally making that up right now, way back in the day,
Rob Broadfoot 12:29
I think it might have been, I think that might have been in their heyday, yeah, shout out to Crispin. Apologies if we got it wrong.
Don Mock 12:36
Yeah, no. Old Spice is a good one.
Rob Broadfoot 12:38
Yeah, that’s a good one I like, we mentioned this before, but, but Converse shoes you know, you think about back in the day. I mean, the fact that people used to actually play basketball in this canvas. zero ankle support excuse for a high top, yeah.
Don Mock 12:54
And like, amazing basketball, like, your Jerry West’s and all the good, like, oh, wow, you guys are, like, the beginning
Rob Broadfoot 13:01
I think Larry Bird in his early days, may have, may have still been in converse.
Don Mock 13:05
I think you’re right.
Rob Broadfoot 13:05
I think Chuck Taylor’s Yeah, and they were always in growing up as kids, we all wore them, yeah. And they were like, 20 bucks, yeah, absolutely. And it was amazing. But they, they’ve taken that and just turned that into a crazy cool, I don’t want to say hipster, because it’s not really hipster, but just a relevant brand. It’s relevant. It’s not relevant for performance, they took it from what it was an athletic shoe
Don Mock 13:29
And now its more fashion. It’s all fashion, Well, I think like they got supplanted by all the brands, and even the brands that don’t exist anymore, like LA gear, yeah, Fila and all, you know, in the 80s and 90s, like, remember, really, maybe more late 80s, early 90s, Adidas was like, Yeah, they just destroyed that business unit, right? And then, yeah, it’s come back. What’s interesting about converse, too, I think, is that it has spawned a lot of look alikes. There’s a lot, oh yeah, copycat, you know, in terms of that style of shoe, that approach, you know, the what, the design of the shoe, and some of those, what’s the I’m gonna totally Gack, this the brand that the, is it golden goose or whatever? They’re like, $600 distressed chuck, chuck Taylor, look alikes. But, yeah, copycat approach to that thing, you know. But, you know how they’re still hanging in there, but that’s what kind of like vans, you know, just still hanging in there, yeah, doing their thing.
Rob Broadfoot 14:26
So Converse. And I actually bought a pair probably two months ago of the original black low top Converse shoes. And what’s amazing about them is, well, a they didn’t cost me $20 I can tell you that.
Don Mock 14:39
What is it? 54 bucks now?
Rob Broadfoot 14:41
Oh, at least. I mean, they may have been close to 70. May have been approached to 70. Oh, I have to go back and look, but, but not 20 bucks, but inflation, whatever, and, but they’re exactly the same. The design is exactly the same. Why fuss with it. They’re awesome.
Don Mock 14:58
they went away and then came back. You know, I don’t know if they came back from the dead, like Scout, for example, but they were definitely like they hit the lull, you know, for a number of years, so with their miraculous health recovery, that’s right, any brands that you kind of wish would come back? I mean, I’ve got one that I wish would come back that’s dead.
Rob Broadfoot 15:21
I don’t know the only one I wrote down, and maybe I’m wrong about this, but I had a big and I’ve been seeing a lot on Instagram too lately, old BMX bikes and a lot of just like the good old, like GT and Haro and Hutch and red line and mongoose, all those, like 80s BMX brands. I used to love all that stuff, so I would love to see some of that.
Don Mock 15:44
Are any of those still around?
Rob Broadfoot 15:46
I mean, yeah, no, no, they are. They are, but, but a lot of them started to do mountain bikes and started to do some other things now they do now, put out a whole retro line of vijara freestylers, you know?
Don Mock 16:01
Well, I think Santa Cruz skateboards and Rob Roscoe and what’s the hand with the tongue sticking out, you know? I think vision and all, yeah, that stuff’s kind of always been back, you know what? I mean, you can still get those kind of nostalgic things. I was never really a big skater, I wanted to be, but I, but I couldn’t, yeah, I get it, yeah, I wanted to be so bad, but my parents made me wear a helmet, which was so not cool in like, the mid 80s, right? Nobody wore helmets back then, right? And it was like, Oh no, my parents absolutely not. It was a guardian captain, football, yeah, it was, like, this huge bell, giant whatever. And I totally get it. The backstory from probably sharing too much is my dad was in a really bad accident riding his bike, right? I mean, like, and he was in the hospital for a long time, and a helmet
Rob Broadfoot 16:57
your parents are smart, we all should have helmets
Don Mock 16:59
no and it absolutely saved his life. He fractured his skull, and he had all this crazy surgery and all this crazy stuff, you know. So, like, I totally get it. Now, the helmets are cool, you like, put stickers all over them, and they got Mohawks and got all the different things. But, like, in 1983 it was like, I just wanted a skateboard and fit in with everybody. And it’s like, little Donald is not gonna not rocking that. It’s like, I’m out. I’ll go do this other thing, yeah, anyway, the brand, I wish would come back, because it was such a cool brand, and so nostalgic to me, is Toys R Us, you know,
Rob Broadfoot 17:31
I’m a Toys R Us kid, yeah,
Don Mock 17:33
Toys R Us. I mean, they got a giraffe, Jeffrey the giraffe, you know? But it was just, well, the experience
Rob Broadfoot 17:39
Walking through a toy store was awesome. You hit the GI Joe aisle and you’re just like, Oh,
Don Mock 17:45
what was amazing too, is you just knew where to go, you go into the toy store. You got this zone over here, you got that action figures over there, dolls over here, board games over here, bikes, yeah. I mean, it was, you know, I mean, my oldest, my oldest kid remembers going to Toys R Us on a Saturday morning, you know, just to look around. Oh, yeah, but Toys R Us. I mean, nobody has that. It’s kind of like no one has the kids these days. I sound like an old man now, you know they’re not gonna sit on the floor right looking through 1000 page Sears catalog, making a Christmas
Rob Broadfoot 18:22
circling your favorite items Sears merchandise. Yeah, Service Merchandise. We used to go to
Don Mock 18:29
so, yeah, that I don’t need that brand back. Absolutely not.
Rob Broadfoot 18:32
No one does. But if you needed a boom box
Don Mock 18:36
for sure, that conveyor belt, the whole deal. Yeah, it was nuts. I don’t know. I mean, just that joy of, like, the toy catalog, yeah, you know. And then also just Toys R Us. I think it’s still north of the border. Canada still has them But we don’t have here.
Rob Broadfoot 18:52
I mean, in New York, obviously still has an FAO Schwartz, I’m trying to think of, like, brick and mortar toy store.
Don Mock 18:59
It’s just Target or Walmart. Or you have the specialty learning stores, which has, like, the wood toys or whatever, right? You know, fancy, fancy stuff like that. You know, nobody wants that. You want, like, the action figure aisle. You want a giant ass.
Rob Broadfoot 19:12
You want the models. You want all this stuff,
Don Mock 19:14
Yeah, yeah. I mean, now you just interface through Amazon. It sucks, you know, like, yeah, you know, it’s just the, you know, as far as I’m concerned. So anyway, that’s the one brand I think would be cool to sort of come back around again. I mean, other brand, you know, my dad was a photographer. I mean, I always think about Kodak and Polaroid. Kodak just, I mean, digital, digital just killed, killed it. I mean, polaroids back. I mean, polaroids cool because you still have the shake it like a polaroid
Rob Broadfoot 19:40
You still got the camera, yeah, yeah. The instant camera, yeah.
Don Mock 19:45
That’s still a cool thing, Kodak, like, No one’s buying film anymore, you know, those days are done, you know. So I don’t know what that
Rob Broadfoot 19:51
I don’t know what the status of Kodak is anymore.
Don Mock 19:54
Now, they had something with, I’m gonna totally forget or Gack this whole thing too. They had something with the PDF, you know, they were somehow in something with PDF and Adobe and things like, we’re kind of hanging on that way. Like, this was 10 years in
Rob Broadfoot 20:10
Adobe. Like, wait, we don’t need,
Don Mock 20:11
yeah, there was some, you know, but I don’t know, really know what Kodak is up toyeah, I don’t know. If you think about, you know, actual cameras. It’s really going to be more polaroid, I think, or digital. I mean, right, all of your digital stuff, right? But, but, yeah, I think, anyway, yeah, interesting little tour
Rob Broadfoot 20:31
Trip down memory lane, yeah, yeah. I think there’ll be more. I think that’ll, you’ll keep seeing. I mean, it’s just like, unfortunately, movies in this horrible cycle we’re in of remakes. It’s just really awful.
Don Mock 20:45
Well, brands, to a certain extent, are not dissimilar to fashion, right, in that there is a cycle to nostalgia and things, and there’s a, there can be a cycle to, you know, bringing a, bringing a brand back from the dead now, right? The designer in me would always say that fashion is inherently stupid, because it’s meant to self destruct, right? I mean, it’s a seasonal thing, right? Design should be ubiquitous and it should be timeless. You know, you should? You know, if you do a great brand design, it should, it should not follow fashion trends, but I think sometimes the world is against brands, timing XYZ and a brand dies, and then maybe you get that 30 year cycle, you know, just like bell bottoms are in. Bell bottoms are out. High waist or whatever
Rob Broadfoot 21:38
the best, and we’ve talked about it for when brands think they need to change and they get smacked down, like, Tropicana, everybody was like, Whoa, yeah. Who would have thought that people would have revolted over that orange juice? Like, orange But anyway, I think it’ll keep happening. We’re gonna see and some will make it and some won’t. And hard to hard to predict what’s gonna catch on sometimes,
Don Mock 22:00
Yeah, for sure, for sure, but you can predict where people can find us
Rob Broadfoot 22:06
Yes, and this is one brand that’s not going anywhere. You can find us online at www.mocktheagency.com and of course, on the socials, you can track us down. We’re not hard to find. @mocktheagency Just type, just Google search for handsome advertising dudes
Don Mock 22:21
Yes, it’s our Wikipedia page.
Rob Broadfoot 22:23
We’ve spent a lot of money on SEO.
Don Mock 22:26
All right, everybody talk to you next time.
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