8 popular products that are turning 50 years old in 2020

The Flintstones and Ireland were all the rage.

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.

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1. 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

2. Shamrock Shake

McDonald's went green (not in the ecological sense) in 1970 with its minty St. Patrick's Day treat. 

Image: McDonald's

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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.

7. 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

8. 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

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41 Comments

SalIanni 49 months ago
Also turning 50 this year: The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Odd Couple, and one of my favorites, The Partridge Family!
JoeSHill 52 months ago
The "KING VITAMIN" cereal commercials were produced by Jay Ward ("BULLWINKLE") famous for the "CAPT. CRUNCH" commercials and the "QUISP" and "QUAKE" cereals from Quaker Oats. the "King Vitamin" character in the commercials was voiced by Joe Flynn ("McHALE'S NAVY")
RobCertSDSCascap JoeSHill 52 months ago
Well, crash my castle!
JuliaMiles43 52 months ago
Irish spring soap and Shamrock shakes...memories.
JDnHuntsvilleAL 52 months ago
"... just give me a block of peanuts held together with sugar."

Sigh. MeTV Millennial who apparently have never heard of PEANUT BRITTLE.
Easy_Goer 52 months ago
Steve McQueen, one of the most iconic, legendary actors of the 20th Century, passed away on November 7th, 1980. He was only 50 years old. Although the cause of death was from surgery, it was due to cancer from mesothelioma. In his case, this was due to a massive exposure to asbestos while in the US Marine Corps. As punishment for a minor infraction, he was ordered to clean the lagging from the hulls of old ships; lagging made with asbestos. With no breathing protection offered to him, he inhaled far too many particles of the now banned substance. He was only 20 years old when this occurred. It (typically) takes mesothelioma over 20 years to spread throughout someone's body, starting with the lungs. As such, he got sick when he was about 49 years old. Still he made a couple of films while (unknowingly) was sick; not until his final film about Tom Horn; the rogue lawman of the old west. He knew he was ill (having trouble breathing), but was not at all aware he had one of the very worst forms of cancer. He was not only the highest paid actor in the world, to his tens of millions of fans all over the world, it was a tragic loss; myself included. The great thing is we have a large tableaux of his work: All the way from a couple of bit parts and his hit TV Show, "Wanted: Dead or Alive" (1958-1961), all the way through "Tom Horn" (1980). This is who I think of.
Moody Easy_Goer 52 months ago
I always thought he was a great actor. Two of my favorite movies of his are The Great Escape & The Thomas Crown Affair. But he had so many other great movies like The Sand Pebbles, Bullitt (great car chase) & The Magnificent Seven. It's really tragic that he was gone so early.
idkwut2use 52 months ago
Never had heard of Otter Pops until Funko randomly decided to make figures of them...I just kinda call those things, like, push-up ice pops or something. No specific name. Loooove Pebbles, especially Fruity. And I MISS King Vitaman SOOOOOOOO much, it was so tasty...lightly sweet..."Cap'n Crunch with less sugar" is probably the best way to describe it.
MrsPhilHarris idkwut2use 52 months ago
Never heard of Otter Pops either. We called those things freezies.
idkwut2use MrsPhilHarris 52 months ago
Yeah, that's a good term.
I miss the Flintstones Push-Pops, too, actually...
Lacey idkwut2use 52 months ago
I loved Otter Pops. In the summer they were a staple in my neighborhood.
RobCertSDSCascap 52 months ago
#8- Did more than cut the sugar. Left it crunchy, but bland!
RobCertSDSCascap 52 months ago
#7- Great book. Margaret's friend gets her period first, leaving Margaret
nearly suicidal!
Why would you want that??!! Once you get it, you wish it would go away. Total nuisance and expense.
I agree, but it is one of the main parts of the book.
RobCertSDSCascap 52 months ago
#3
Utzaake RobCertSDSCascap 52 months ago
I am NOT taking a knife to my soap!
RobCertSDSCascap Utzaake 52 months ago
How will you know how many deodorants?
DS62 RobCertSDSCascap 52 months ago
My cousin used that soap in the 70's and I always knew when he had had a shower because the whole house smelled like a green shamrock monster had walked through the house. Pretty strong but it was kind of refreshing!
RobCertSDSCascap Michele 52 months ago
Cool! Coast wasn't bad either. Ah, when free samples found our door knobs.
Lacey RobCertSDSCascap 52 months ago
Manly yes, but I like it too !!
RobCertSDSCascap 52 months ago
#1- In 1984, Post chose to ditch the tasty fruit flavors. And my business.
harlow1313 52 months ago
I clearly recall myself as a lonely teenage bronkin’ buck, riding around in the backset of a Pinto while swilling beer and listening to The Edgar Winter Group's “Free Ride” through tinny speakers.
harlow1313 harlow1313 52 months ago
Additionally, I'm jonesing for a Louie Bloo Raspberry.
XmrpX harlow1313 52 months ago
LOL.., Otter Pops might he turning 50 y/o, but they're not dead and gone like all of us will be in 30 years, give or take. Certainly there must be a Wal-Mart near you, there's a Wal-Mart near everyone. They carry Otter Pops along with Family Dollar stores. Now go feed that craving! ;)
RobCertSDSCascap XmrpX 52 months ago
They are also the sole place to purchase Grapette.
Lantern 52 months ago
My first car was a 1978 Pinto. I and a group of my girlfriends had actually fallen in love with it (I suspect I liked its shape) back in 1970 when it was introduced. I was the only one of the group who ended up getting one. And despite all the bad press that car got, I was very happy with it.
Moody 52 months ago
My wife & I took a slightly (?) beat up Pinto with us to Turkey in the early 80s. As bad as it was & with all the problems we had with it, it was still better than the Murat, the Turkish version of the Fiat. I can still remember many mornings helping my neighbor push his Murat down the street trying to get it to start. He often rode with me to work in my crappy Pinto.
teire 52 months ago
Shamrock shake — yum.
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Wiseguy XmrpX 52 months ago
Not everybody does everything you do or goes to McDonald's.
MJN teire 52 months ago
Eight or nine years into the annual shamrock shake promotion, a local McDonald's one night apparently had a blunder by someone prepping the shake machine. The mint flavoring was put in at a ridiculously high concentration. A friend and I had shakes from that batch, and not only were they the mintiest things I'd ever eaten, but almost two days later each belch was still a blast of mint.
teire MJN 52 months ago
Great story, great memory!
XmrpX Wiseguy 21 days ago
Well of course not, duh, and not everyone does everything you do either! That was a dumb comment.
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