Once great brands ...... now junk.

whisky_galore

Huexotzingo wrote: »

Piat D'OR and Ernest Julio Gallo. Very popular wine in the 80's and 90's now regarded as swill.

(Think they named E&J to Gallo Family)

Zig and Zag used have a joke; "What do you call a Frenchman who's locked himself out?"

Huexotzingo

Amelie Brief Miner wrote: »

Remember Black Tower? It was either that or Blue Nun back in the 90's!

Blossom Hill appears to be going down the same route in people's minds now.

Jacob's Creek

Richard Hillman

RayM wrote: »

Formula 1. Not necessarily "junk", but becoming less and less visible as they hide it behind a paywall, thus making it much harder for potential new fans to casually stumble across it. Also, I love how it has so many high-end sponsors like Rolex, when its dwindling fanbase seems to consist mostly of lads who've worn the same unwashed anorak since 1996 and enjoy counting things.

One thing I have noticed about F1 of late is the downgrade on Sponsors. All the races used to have financial institutions and Rolex etc as the lead sponsor, now it's Heineken. Even the Winners Champagne is the cheaper stuff

Tayschren

Levi Strauss jeans, used to be everywhere, now you'd be lucky to find them in TK max

Vronsky

Kuva wrote: »

Wines are funny, my ould fella likes a Blue Nun sometimes with sunday dinner, could give him some wines 5 times the price and they'd be left there for ages.

Expert wine tasters on tv have shown how much of a joke it all is.

It's what you like, notes of this and scents of that, well, thats just rubbish talk....to try and justify the extra money it costs.

"I can actually taste the €100 this cost over that blue nun swill".

Just to see how full of **** most wine tasters are you should watch "Sour Grapes", it's on Netflix. Good documentary.

JohnBoy26

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

It's not though. Of course nothing is going to be shown once and id expect the odd repeat now and again but it's gone to the extreme these days, especially on discovery. For example I seen an old episode of wheeler dealers on one morning at 5am. It was repeated again at 11 am the same morning. This was not a new episode this was one from years back. I see the same happening all the time on it.

Most channels have done that for about 15 years that I know of. Dave would have the same Top Gear on twice in a day. Paramount would have 2 loops of a long-running sitcom on the go so in the morning they might show season 5 episodes 1 and 2 and in the evening show season 9 episodes 20 and 21. But in the afternoon or at 1am they'd have one of those pairs on again.

odyssey06

Kuva wrote: »

Wines are funny, my ould fella likes a Blue Nun sometimes with sunday dinner, could give him some wines 5 times the price and they'd be left there for ages.
Expert wine tasters on tv have shown how much of a joke it all is.
It's what you like, notes of this and scents of that, well, thats just rubbish talk....to try and justify the extra money it costs.
"I can actually taste the €100 this cost over that blue nun swill".

Well I don't know if I'd go quite that far... I think there is swill (i.e. badly produced wine) out there and you are more likely to encounter it in Ireland if you're going under €10 a bottle - not implying all wines under that price are swill, but you need to choose wisely.

Blue Nun, if you look at the grapes going into it today, shouldn't be swill, it just developed a bit of a naff reputation - I'm not sure if that was due to the contents of the bottle or some dodgy advertising.

Above that price range, a lot of it comes down to personal preference but you should at least be getting a properly made wine.

jmayo

Rawr wrote: »

As soon as Jordan F1 stopped racing back in 2005, F1 was pretty much "junk" in my mind. I couldn't give a flying fig-leaf about how Ferrari, or McClaren were doing, for me it was all about hoping for a win for Eddie Jordan's team, which were as close to a "Team Ireland" we had in the sport.

When they were gone, so was I. What's that? Lexis Hamilton is going for another race record? Well...behold the amount damns I have for that...for there are none!

IMHO F1 has been on a downward spiral since they let that German tosser walk all over it.
He was allowed bully other drivers even ramming them off the track and then allowed bully a team so that the driver in equally as good a car was basically a second string driver and not anyone that might actually compete with him.

Yep he has loads of titles but he has never ever been in the same team man for man against another world title driver, bar Piquet who was tooling away in retirement mode in 91.

Greyfox

jmayo wrote: »

IMHO F1 has been on a downward spiral since they let that German tosser walk all over it.
He was allowed bully other drivers even ramming them off the track and then allowed bully a team so that the driver in equally as good a car was basically a second string driver and not anyone that might actually compete with him.

Yep he has loads of titles but he has never ever been in the same team man for man against another world title driver, bar Piquet who was tooling away in retirement mode in 91.

Thats no way to speak about the greatest driver to ever walk the earth, you need to show some respect. It's not his fault that he was THAT AMAZING, his team knew Irvine, Massa and Barachello were no where near at talented so it made sense to leave them as always no.2. He was an interesting character who was good for the sport, F1 has gone downhill as a brand because the current drivers arent very interesting and the changes to the rules in the last few years have made it a little boring

MarcusP12

Greyfox wrote: »

Thats no way to speak about the greatest driver to ever walk the earth, you need to show some respect. It's not his fault that he was THAT AMAZING, his team knew Irvine, Massa and Barachello were no where near at talented so it made sense to leave them as always no.2. He was an interesting character who was good for the sport, F1 has gone downhill as a brand because the current drivers arent very interesting and the changes to the rules in the last few years have made it a little boring

Yeah i'd agree with the above. I used to follow F1 as a young fella but kinda drifted away from it later in say the early noughties.....my recollection was that Schumacker came about at a time when you could put any ol dip$hit in a Williams and he'd win you a championship. I know that's an exaggeration but they were by far the best most reliable car. Then Schumacker came along and started winning championships in inferior cars. I'm not sure Ferrari were as hot as they ended up being when schmacker joined first so I would say it was a combination of his brilliance and his technical input in raising standards in Ferrari that resulted in their dominance during that period and which ultimately gave the likes of Irvine a shot when Schmacker got injured and you actually had an interesting championship that time.....i'm no fan of him per say but you can't deny his brilliance....he had a dark side no doubt but so did the likes of senna....

ThisRegard

storker wrote: »

the History Channel which seems to have developed a bit of an aversion to...er...history.

Doltanian wrote: »

The History Channel hasn't shown anything Historical in around 10 years.

The History Channel has had a slight return to form lately, they've had a few good historical documentaries lately, their 3 part Road to 9/11 was well made

jmayo

Greyfox wrote: »

Thats no way to speak about the greatest driver to ever walk the earth, you need to show some respect. It's not his fault that he was THAT AMAZING, his team knew Irvine, Massa and Barachello were no where near at talented so it made sense to leave them as always no.2. He was an interesting character who was good for the sport, F1 has gone downhill as a brand because the current drivers arent very interesting and the changes to the rules in the last few years have made it a little boring

Greatest driver in terms of WC wins.
But in terms of truly gifted drivers he is not at the top.

And as for interesting in comparison to some of the older guys he was the consumate boring professional, an era that Luada helped usher in.

Also he and all the guys that have followed have driven at a time when you didn't need to worry about getting splashed all over the track or being burned alive unlike the likes of Clark, Fangio, Moss, G Hill, Brabham, Stewart even in later years with the likes of Piquet, G Villeneuve, Luada, Senna, Prost.

In the 50s, 60s and 70s the chance of survival for a F1 driver was nearly 50/50.
Now there were less races, but drivers were involved in lots of different types of racing and not just F1, but all types of racing was more dangerous in those days.
Actually F1 drivers owe a hue amount to Jackie Stewart for his efforts in improving safety.

In the time Schumacker was driving there were two fatalities one of them being Senna in 94 and he is the last driver to die in a race.

Jim Clark remains one of the few guys to have won at Indy and at F1, not to mention winning in touring cars and doing well in rallying.

I would highly rate Gilles Villeneuve and he is highly rated by ex F1 drivers and yet he never won a championship and only won 6 of his 67 races.
But by christ could he race, was never a dirty racer, had a personality and could turn a "sh*tbox" Ferrari (his own words to one Enzo Ferrari) into something challenging the awesome Renault turbos.
Check out his battle against Rene Arnoux in Dijon French GP 1979.

Senna is probably the greatest and he was in the same car as one of the other greats Prost.
Prost had been teammates of both Senna and Lauda.
These guys had serious teammates not journey men.


Look at the list of schumackers teammates FFS.

Yes he helped perfect the Ferrari but they had some great backroom guys at the team like Ross Brawn and Jean Todt that build a proper professional well run outfit.

patrickbrophy18

Not too sure if it has been mentioned. But, Filofax?

Xtravision was also a great brand, albeit a national one!

Chartbusters was a close second. However, it was an obvious knockoff brand to the now defunct multinational Blockbuster Video brand (which was a temporary parent to the aforementioned Xtravision).

Gino Ginelli Pizza disappeared off the face of the map.

Not too sure if these were great brands. However, they were enough to stick in my memory!

Hotblack Desiato

jmayo wrote: »

Jim Clark remains one of the few guys to have won at Indy and at F1, not to mention winning in touring cars and doing well in rallying.

Graham Hill won motor racing's Triple Crown - F1 WC, Indy 500 and Le Mans. That'll never be equalled, modern F1 drivers don't have the balls to race competitively at Indy...

I would highly rate Gilles Villeneuve and he is highly rated by ex F1 drivers and yet he never won a championship and only won 6 of his 67 races.

Back in those days opportunities to see Gilles doing his thing were limited, but he was breathtaking.

I'll never forget the first F1 race I saw, the 1979 Dutch GP, Gilles got a puncture and spun out. Race over? But no, he restarted and got back on track with a COMPLETELY flat rear tyre. He didn't limp around, he RACED back to the pits on the edge of control with the opposite front wheel in the air. Before the lap was over, the punctured wheel rim was worn down, the suspension had fractured and the underside was sparking off the track - but he kept going. Got it into the pits - and admittedly it was fcuked and they just got him out of the car and threw a tarp over it - but it epitomised his never give up spirit.


Schumacher was a cheating b*stard, a very talented cheating b*stard but so was Lance Armstrong.

LA was a cnut of the worst order but I'm not aware of any instance where he rammed a rival off the course, never mind doing it in a championship decider TWICE.

That was the beginning of the end, when it stopped being a sport. I was a huge F1 fan in the 80s and early 90s but wouldn't watch it now if I was paid €100 per hour.

Nekarsulm

Were Woolworths ever a great brand?
Or is it just that as a kid it seemed magical?
There was a branch in Cavan town until l about 83 or 84, and at the time nowhere else stocked Marvel or DC comics.
It's now the Credit Union.
There was a branch in Enniskillen untill fairly recently, but it seemed pretty shoddy inside.

Hotblack Desiato

No it was sh!te

My dad used to work in the GPO in the early 80s, there used to be a Woolworths in the arcade. He'd come home with pick'n'mix and the occasional sh!te Pickwick cassette Roger Whittaker's whistling, or some such. (no I didn't make that one up it was real)

Edit: there was another one, military marching tunes played on a fairground steam organ. A whole cassette of that.

JupiterKid

Woolworths was cheap & cheerful. Great for kids and the pick n’ mix sweets. I remember my auntie taking me and my sisters there in the early 80s - the one on Henry Street.

There’s a new shop in the Blanch Centre from Denmark called Tiger - it’s a bit like Woolies and seems to be doing really well. Cheap bits and bobs. There’s loads of shops like that in Holland.

Hotblack Desiato

Except the brand Tiger is now junk because for some reason fcuk knows why, they're renaming them Flying Tiger :rolleyes:

fryup

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

its like Ikea without the furniture

Vic_08

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

Graham Hill won motor racing's Triple Crown - F1 WC, Indy 500 and Le Mans. That'll never be equalled, modern F1 drivers don't have the balls to race competitively at Indy...

Eh, you might want to google Fernando Alonso. Current F1 racer, 2x F1 Champ, was a frontrunner in this years Indy 500 until his engine blew and he is attempting to race in nest years LeMans 24h.

fryup

tedpan wrote: »

Mitsubishi black diamond were never good, in the same league as Alba or Bush. Mitsubishi TVs were pretty solid though. The black diamond's were never made by Mitsubishi.

yes thats right, Black Diamond was the name adopted by vestel when they started manufacturing them back in the late 80s

it was the Blue Diamond telly that mitsubishi made and that was a super telly back in the day

Cookie_Monster

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

Graham Hill won motor racing's Triple Crown - F1 WC, Indy 500 and Le Mans. That'll never be equalled, modern F1 drivers don't have the balls to race competitively at Indy...

Alonso raced it this year

ohnonotgmail

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Alonso raced it this year

did he win?

Rumpy Pumpy

fryup wrote: »

yes thats right, Black Diamond was the name adopted by vestel when they started manufacturing them back in the late 80s

it was the Blue Diamond telly that mitsubishi made and that was a super telly back in the day

My Granny has a spare portable telly made by Mitsubishi. She won it in a bank draw in 1985. It was still going strong in 2014 when she died.

jmayo

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

Graham Hill won motor racing's Triple Crown - F1 WC, Indy 500 and Le Mans. That'll never be equalled, modern F1 drivers don't have the balls to race competitively at Indy...

It might but it is the only the odd one.
Jacques Villeneuve was one of the last that really drove in both Indy/Cart and F1.

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

Back in those days opportunities to see Gilles doing his thing were limited, but he was breathtaking.

I'll never forget the first F1 race I saw, the 1979 Dutch GP, Gilles got a puncture and spun out. Race over? But no, he restarted and got back on track with a COMPLETELY flat rear tyre. He didn't limp around, he RACED back to the pits on the edge of control with the opposite front wheel in the air. Before the lap was over, the punctured wheel rim was worn down, the suspension had fractured and the underside was sparking off the track - but he kept going. Got it into the pits - and admittedly it was fcuked and they just got him out of the car and threw a tarp over it - but it epitomised his never give up spirit.

Giles was special.
Remember his race to second in Montreal with the broken front fin in the lashing rain ?

I would have loved to have seen footage of his Watkins Glen practice where he went out in the downpour and was 10 secs quicker than Jody Scheckter his teamate in second.
Jacques Laffite sitting on the pit wall commented ' “Look at him,” he said, as the Ferrari skittered by at 160mph. “He’s different from the rest of us. On a separate level…”'

Senna came closest to this with his Donnington lap years later.


Anyway just came back to this thread to reiterate.
Cadbury's chocolate is now really really muck and tastes like oily shyte.

Oh and speaking of motors.

Discovery Channel / Velocity Channel have fooking ruined Wheeler Dealer by cutting the amount of time actually showing the cars being fixed up because they reckoned it was costing to much to film and thus have forced Ed China off the show.

Why fook with a winning formula, just to save an extra few quid?

Capt'n Midnight

jmayo wrote: »

Oh and speaking of motors.

Discovery Channel / Velocity Channel have fooking ruined Wheeler Dealer by cutting the amount of time actually showing the cars being fixed up because they reckoned it was costing to much to film and thus have forced Ed China off the show.

Why fook with a winning formula, just to save an extra few quid?

Without Edd fixing the cars it might as well be another Bargain Hunt / Cash in the Attic type program where it's about a middleman buying low and selling high.

Watching him was an education.

somefeen

Gibson guitars apparently.

Widely slated for going to pure crap over the last ten years.

And Dunlop clothes, but for some reason their wellys are still top class.

kurtainsider

Changed the battery in our digital "Salter" weighing scales this evening. I had to get a pliers to pull the contacts into a position where they would make contact with the battery terminals. Absolute garbage. I'm sure that the craftsmen who turned out the proper Salter scales back in the day would be appalled if they could see the cheap tacky plasticky rubbish bearing the Salter name nowadays.

The name and the price tag suggest that you are buying a bit of quality but the actual product has come from some Chinese sweatshop. It's a depressing thought really.

flaneur

It seems Salter us owned by HoMedics