May 2009 – Commercial Heaven

Dos Equis’ The Most Interesting Man in the World’s Nuts

Dos Equis is a pale lager that was originally brewed by the German brewer Wilhelm Hasse in 1897. The brand was named “Siglo XX” (“20th century”) to commemorate the arrival of the new century, and the bottles were marked with the Roman numerals “XX”, or “Dos Equis” (two Xs).

In 2007, Dos Equis inaugurated its current advertising campaign, “The Most Interesting Man in the World.” The advertisements feature a semi-bearded, debonair, American or Spanish gentleman roughly in his 50s, portrayed by actor Jonathan Goldsmith.

Mixed nuts are a snack food consisting of any mixture of mechanically or manually combined nuts. Peanuts (actually a legume), almonds, walnuts, Brazil nuts, cashews, filberts, hazelnuts, and pecans are common constituents of mixed nuts. Mixed nuts may be salted, roasted, cooked, or blanched.

You don’t say ham, you say Spam

Introduced on July 5, 1937, the name “Spam” was chosen when the product, whose original name was far less memorable (Hormel Spiced Ham), began to lose market share. The name was chosen from multiple entries in a naming contest. A Hormel official once stated that the original meaning of the name “Spam” was “Shoulder of Pork and Ham”. According to writer Marguerite Patten in Spam – The Cookbook, the name was suggested by Kenneth Daigneau, an actor and the brother of a Hormel vice president, who was given a $100 prize for coming up with the name. At one time, the official explanation was that the name was a syllabic abbreviation of “Spiced Ham”.

A potted meat food product or potted meat is a method of food preservation, consisting of cooked, canned meat, often creamed, minced, or chipped (as in chipped beef). Various meats such as beef, pork, chicken and turkey are used. It is produced internationally. Its long shelf life and precooking make it suitable for emergency food supplies, and for military and camping uses.

Ajay Bhatt, Co-Inventor of USB, is an Intel Rock Star

A rock star or rockstar is a member of a rock and roll band, or only an artist in the genre (the term usually implies celebrity status, or ‘stardom’).

In information technology, Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a serial bus standard to connect devices to a host computer. USB was designed to allow many peripherals to be connected using a single standardized interface socket and to improve plug and play capabilities by allowing hot swapping; that is, by allowing devices to be connected and disconnected without rebooting the computer or turning off the device.

The USB 1.0 specification was introduced in 1994. USB was created by the core group of companies that consisted of Intel, Compaq, Microsoft, Digital, IBM, and Northern Telecom.

At its founding, Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce wanted to name their new company Moore Noyce. The name, however, sounded remarkably similar to more noise — an ill-suited name for an electronics company, since noise is typically associated with bad interference. They then used the name NM Electronics for almost a year, before deciding to call their company INTegrated ELectronics or Intel for short. However, Intel was already trademarked by a hotel chain, so they had to buy the rights for that name at the beginning.