The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe - 48: An Unmistakable Sound

Episode Date: March 28, 2017

Bob was a Mad Man who could sell anything - but this new product gave him a terrible headache.  

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Yes, the same Monday.com. This is the way I heard it. For Bob Stanford, the moment of inspiration was accompanied by the unmistakable sound of a loud and noisy fart. A humbling and unexpected reverberation that made his secretary snap her head around and blushed with embarrassment on his behalf. The year was 1966, and the legendary advertising executive had been at his desk all morning fighting off a splitting headache, brought on by an old product that needed a new name, a name that Bob Stanford was floundering to find. Perhaps he should call it the ice pick

in honor of his biggest client and the stabbing sensation behind his right eye. Bob chuckled at the irony. Uncle Johnny would have appreciated that. Back in the days before everyone had a refrigerator, Uncle Johnny sold ice to the working stiffs in Dallas. Customers counted on them. Uncle Johnny to be there when they needed him. So Uncle Johnny opened early and closed late.

Customers loved him for that because back then, grocery stores were only open from nine to five. Not much good for the blue collar types who got up early and came home late. So it was only a matter of time until people started asking Uncle Johnny to stock more than ice. They wanted milk and eggs and cheese and vegetables. So, Uncle Johnny obliged them. Keeping produce cold was no big deal for a man who sold ice. And besides, he was open anyway. Thirty years later and 300 miles north of Dallas, another shopkeeper was trying to appease another group of demanding customers. Unfortunately, Omar Needlick had himself a busted soda fountain. Bad news for the sweaty kids of Coffeyville, Kansas, who lined up every day for ice cream sodas.

Worst news for Omar Needlick, who resigned himself on that hot summer morning to mixing the sodas by hand. Omar shoved a case of pop into the back of his deep freeze, hoping to cool them down in time for the lunch rush. Then he got distracted, as shopkeepers often do, until little Nathan Anderson wandered in and requested a nice cold Coke.

Uh-oh, Omar ran back to his first. freezer, hoping the bottles hadn't exploded. They hadn't. But when little Nathan took a sip of Omar's ice-cold soda, he got more than he bargained for. After that, things happened fast. Nathan told his best friend Max about the weird colas over at Needlick shop. Max told his big sister, Clara, and before long, the sweaty kids of Coffeyville, Kansas, were lined up on the sidewalk, demanding a soda from Omar's magical freezer. Omar, sensing something akin to an opportunity, quickly packed all his soda pop into the deep freeze and prayed for more hot weather. He got it, but he also got a hell of a mess when his pop bottles started exploding. There was just no way to properly time their removal. So Omar,

in what can only be called an homage to his inner McGuiver, removed an air conditioner from an old Ford, along with a tumbler, a fan belt, and a few other odds and ends. It took him three years of tinkering to perfect his device, but when it finally came together, Omar knew he was on to something big. So, he took his proprietary machine to Uncle Johnny's little store and asked a very reasonable question. Do you want one? The short answer was yes, so Uncle Johnny's people quickly licensed the rights to Omar Needlick's newfangled machine, but they didn't license its name, or the name of the product it made. And that brings us back to Bob Stanford's office in 1966, his splitting headache, and his desperate search for a new name. Bob rubbed his temples and

racked his brain for something fun, something whimsical, something unexpected. The legendary ad man regarded the nameless product now sweating all over his mahogany desk. Then, in the time-honored tradition of Madison Avenue, Bob Stanford picked up the product, put it into his mouth, and started sucking. Hard. Bob sucked hard enough to create an unmistakable sound, a sound that snapped his secretary's head around and caused her to blush, a sound that many believe inspired the greatest name in the history of modern advertising.

The rest, as they say, is history. Thanks to a few bottles of exploded soda pop and the slushy mess they left behind, Omar Needlick was inspired to create a brand new form of refreshment. And thanks to Uncle Johnny, a man who opened early and closed late, his former ice house would become the permanent home of Omar's great and lasting contribution to Western civilization. Today, Uncle Johnny's is still called 7-Eleven, even though they're open 24 hours. And there, kids of all ages still stand in line to risk a brain freeze. The very same headache that plagued Bob Stanford as he enjoyed a product Omar had christened,

The icy. Sure, he could have renamed it, the farty, in honor of the unmistakable sound it made when he slurped the contents from the bottom of the cup. But Bob Stanford, being a legendary ad man, wisely concluded that the farty probably wouldn't lead to $20 billion in gross sales.

The slurpy, however. Now, that was a name that didn't suck. Anyway, that's the way I heard it. The ocean moves us, whether that's surfing a wave or taken in an inspiring view. The ocean feeds us. Sustainable seafood practices

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