1902-1999

Lyons Tea is one of Ireland’s biggest and best-loved brands. Anyone on the island of Ireland over the last few decades knows the jingle ‘Extra quality, Extra flavour, Lyons the Quality Tea’ unless you were hiding under a rock.

Our other claim to fame is introducing Ireland to the first ever pyramid-shaped tea bag! Generations of Irish families have grown up with Lyons Tea. For them it will always be entwined with their memories of home and homecoming

How it all began:

In 1902 the Lyons family started their little tea business at High Street in Dublin, near Christchurch Cathedral.

In 1932, Lyons moved to Marlborough Street, behind the Gresham hotel.

1963 saw Lyons move up in the world, to a state-of-the-art factory in Goldenbridge, Dublin 8.

The very first on-pack promotion by Lyons Tea was in 1963. When people bought a pack of Lyons Tea, they could hope to find a voucher for between 10 shillings and £10 inside.

Iconic campaigns, such as the Minstrels and the very popular car giveaway would become a vital part of the Lyons Tea brand over the next 25 years.

In the late 1970s, Lyons reinvented the wheel by going round. The change to round tea bags was so successful that Lyons managed to capture over 65% of the Irish tea market.

The famous “Lyons Tea jingle” played an important role in the Lyons success story, and is still one of the first things people remember today.

Lyons Tea became a part of the Unilever family in 1996.

Another milestone was the development of the tea-caddy style pack. People loved it for its sleek good looks and practicality.

The move from round to pyramid bags in 2004 was another major leap forward for the brand.

2004 also saw the creation of our famous feathered friends, the Lyons Tea birds: Maggie, Niamh, Pete and Tom.

In 2007, Lyons launched a new campaign to celebrate the health benefits of Lyons Tea, as a 100% natural product.

Coca Cola Christmas Hilltop “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” TV Commercial.

Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke (a registered trademark of The Coca-Cola Company in the United States since March 27, 1944). Originally intended as a patent medicine when it was invented in the late 19th century by John Pemberton, Coca-Cola was bought out by businessman Asa Griggs Candler, whose marketing tactics led Coke to its dominance of the world soft-drink market throughout the 20th century.

info gleaned from Wikipedia

Monster Munch is a baked corn snack available in the United Kingdom and Poland, produced by Prime Enterprises trading as Walkers.

Although the snack is largely aimed at children, it is enjoyed widely by people of all ages.

Monster Munch was launched in Britain in 1977 by Smiths. Originally called “The Prime Monster” (a play on “The Prime Minister”, and as part of a wider campaign), the decision was taken to rename the snack “Monster Munch” in 1978. Advertised as “The Biggest Snack Pennies Can Buy” – in reference to the large size of the crisps – each pack featured a different monster on the front of the packet. There was even a “Monster Munch Club” available, whose members received a “Monster Munch Munchers” membership pack which included a membership card, pen, several story books, and a story tape which included six “tall stories” and accompanying songs.

Info gleaned from Wikipedia

1978 Revels commercial

Originally, Revels had orange creme, coconut, toffee, or peanut centres, along with Galaxy Counters (Minstrels minus exterior shell) and Maltesers. However, the coconut centres were later replaced with coffee creme, and the peanuts with raisins.

Galaxy Counters were initially available as a product in their own right, but since their discontinuation they were only sold as part of the Revels selection. In 2010, however, Galaxy Counters were relaunched under the Galaxy brand.

Info gleaned from Wikipedia

In the 1930s Arthur Brooke of Brooke Bond launched PG Tips in the UK tea market under the name of Pre-Gest-Tee. The name implied that the tea could be drunk prior to food being digested. Grocers abbreviated it to PG. After the Second World War, labelling regulations ruled out describing tea as aiding digestion—a property previously attributed to tea—and by 1950/1 the PG name was officially adopted. The company added “Tips” referring to the fact that only the tips (the top two leaves and bud) of the tea plants are used in the blend.

Info gleaned from Wikipedia

Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo. Invented in 1898 and introduced as “Brad’s Drink”, it was later renamed as Pepsi-Cola on June 16, 1903.

Pepsi was first introduced as “Brad’s Drink” in New Bern, North Carolina in 1898 by Caleb Bradham, who made it at his home where the drink was sold. It was later named Pepsi Cola, possibly due to the digestive enzyme pepsin and kola nuts used in the recipe. Bradham sought to create a fountain drink that was delicious and would aid in digestion and boost energy.

info gleaned from Wikipedia

1978 Libbys Orange Juice.

The company was founded as Libby, McNeill & Libby in Chicago, Illinois, by Archibald McNeill and the brothers Arthur and Charles Libby. The business began with a canned meat product, beef in brine, or corned beef. It became well-known when it began to package the meat in a trapezoid-shaped can starting in 1875.

Libby’s UK operations were based in Milnthorpe, Cumbria, a decision mainly driven by the significant dairy farming community in the South Lakes area, who supplied Libby’s with milk, the basic ingredient of evaporated milk that was the mainstay of the factory’s operations. The factory went on to make tinned rice pudding, tomato ketchup and fruit juice, both canned and bottled. The Milnthorpe factory had its own R&D labs and eventually the plant produced Libby’s Orange ‘c’, a best seller even though it was berated by a national newspaper for its high water content. Orange ‘c’ is still on sale today under the Libby’s brand. The Milnthorpe operation gradually declined, following acquisition by Nestle, who moved production to various other Nestle plants in the UK, prior to closure of the Milnthorpe factory.

Info gleaned from Wikipedia

KFC, founded and also known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, is a chain of fast food restaurants based in Louisville, Kentucky, in the United States. KFC has been a brand and operating segment, termed a concept of Yum! Brands since 1997 when that company was spun off from PepsiCo as Tricon Global Restaurants Inc.

KFC primarily sells chicken pieces, wraps, salads and sandwiches. While its primary focus is fried chicken, KFC also offers a line of grilled and roasted chicken products, side dishes and desserts. Outside the USA, KFC offers beef based products such as hamburgers or kebabs, poutine, pork based products such as ribs and other regional fare.

1978 Birds Eye Fish Fingers

In the United Kingdom in the 1930s, most of the herring catch was pickled and exported to other Northern European countries. In an attempt to make herring more appealing on the home market, companies tried to present it in a new way, creating herring fish fingers called “herring savouries” and were tested on the market against a bland control product of cod sticks, sold as “fish fingers.” Shoppers in Southampton and South Wales, where the test was conducted, confounded expectations by showing an overwhelming preference for the cod. Cod fish fingers were first produced in Great Yarmouth,^[1] and introduced in Britain on 26 September 1955.

In 1953, the American company Gorton-Pew Fisheries, now known as Gorton’s, was the first company to introduce a frozen ready-to-cook fish finger, named Gorton’s Fish Sticks, which won the Parents Magazine Seal of Approval.

Info gleaned from Wikipedia

1989 Wimpy Ghostbusters Promo.

Wimpy is the brand name of a chain of fast-food hamburger restaurants based in the UK. It is well known for its burger known as the Bender, which is actually a frankfurter sausage and not a hamburger patty. The restaurants were originally called Wimpy Bars, but the name was shortened to “Wimpy” many years ago. The current owners of the Wimpy brand operate in several countries under the name of Wimpy International.