8 popular products that are turning 50 years old in 2020
Sweet cereals, groovy hatchbacks, Irish-inspired soaps and milkshakes the year 1970 introduced some interesting new products.
Here are some of the ones that either still around today — or infamous symbols of the Seventies.
Pebbles Cereal
A decade after The Flintstones premiered, Fred and Barney were as popular as ever. Flintstones vitamins had been introduced in 1968, giving kids a fun way to fortify in the morning. Two years later, another Stone Age morning ritual was born when Post launched Pebbles cereal nationwide. You certainly know the two varieties — Cocoa and Fruity. The commercials helped keep the cartoon characters in the front of children's minds for decades.
Image: Post
Shamrock Shake
McDonald's went green (not in the ecological sense) in 1970 with its minty St. Patrick's Day treat.
Image: McDonald's
Irish Spring
The Emerald Isle was hot in branding in 1970, huh? Irish Spring soap — labeled a "manly deodorant soap" in its early years — promised to keep you "clean as a whistle" in commercials. A "Sunshine Yellow" version was available at one point, too, to make it seem even more Seventies.
Image: Irish Spring
Ford Pinto / AMC Gremlin
Two notorious hatchbacks rolled onto American roads in 1970. The Ford Pinto and AMC Gremlin were quite alike, down to the affordable sticker prices. Due to some dubious construction, the Pinto went down in automotive history as a lemon. With its blunt rear end, the Gremlin became a symbol of the decade, along with pet rocks, shag carpeting and platform shoes.
Image: Ford / AMC
Otter Pops
Jel Sert launched its freezable Fla-Vor-Ice in 1969. A year later, National Pax trotted out some competition, Otter Pops. Today, both brands are owned by Jel Sert. In some parts of the country, the term "Otter Pop" has come to mean any brand of the fruity tube treat.
Image: The Jel Sert Company
Snickers Munch
Have you ever been eating a Snickers bar and thought, "This is good, but I could do without the chocolate and the nougat… and the caramel, for that matter… actually, just give me a block of peanuts held together with sugar." Well, someone somewhere had the brainstorm, because the Munch bar boiled down the candy bar to its nutty essence in 1970.
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
With her third book, Judy Blume became the voice of a young generation. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. captured the struggles of passing through one's middle-school years. It was a theme the author would continue to perfect in beloved titles like Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Superfudge. Time magazine once hailed it one of the top 100 fiction books written in English since 1923.
Image: Bradbury Press
King Vitamin
King Vitamin is an underrated cereal. If you've never had a bowl, imagine Cap'n Crunch with less sugar. A sort of gateway to more adult breakfasts, King Vitamin always seemed to be found on the top shelf of the cereal aisle, way down at the end.
Image: Quaker