These logos are imprinted in our minds. This series examines where they came from and why they work.

Brand: Wonder Bread

Designer: Drew Miller

Year: 1921

Bread on arrival: In 1921, Indianapolis’s Taggart Baking Company had something big cooking.

Taggart was going to introduce a new recipe for white bread, and unlike commercial bakeries that typically sold one-pound loaves, its loaf would be a pound and a half. The company planned to launch a new brand around this loaf—but hadn’t come up with a name.

Enter Elmer Cline, deputy manager of merchandising development at Taggart. Cline had attended a hot-air balloon race at the Indianapolis Speedway, and seeing those colorful balloons overhead, he was awestruck by the “wonder,” as Wonder Bread puts it on its website.

Having settled on Wonder Bread, Taggart hired Drew Miller, a Chicago commercial artist, to design the logo. Against a white background, Miller added red, blue, and yellow circles, some overlapping, to represent balloons.

Wonder Bread launched on May 21, 1921. In 1925, Continental Baking Company purchased Taggart and set about its plan to make Wonder Bread a national brand.

Why it works: Mary Zalla, global president of consumer brands at Landor & Fitch, noted that when Wonder Bread was introduced, store-bought bread was still somewhat novel, making the brand name more descriptive than it may seem today.

“The wonder was that you didn’t have to bake your own bread anymore,” Zalla told us. “It was going to come to you prepackaged.”

She thinks the logo strikes a festive note.

“It’s got that red, blue, yellow—the primary colors,” Zalla said. “It looks like a county fair.”

Flour power: Introduced only nine years after the first self-service grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, opened in Memphis in 1916, Wonder Bread, with its eye-popping logo, was ready to grow along with the fledgling bread aisle.

Keep reading here.—AAN

TikTok subculture DermTok has given makeovers a makeover, ditching frizzy hair-straightening and bushy eyebrow-plucking for the clearing of severe acne, wrinkles, or eczema.

Murad, the over 30-year-old Unilever-owned skin care brand, has found a new life on TikTok by leaning into this “real explosion and interest in dermatologist-based services,” according to CEO Paul Schiraldi, a beauty industry vet who spent 17+ years at L’Oréal and joined Murad from fellow Unilever brand Dermalogica in 2021.

• The company was founded in 1989 by pharmacist and board-certified dermatologist Dr. Howard Murad.

Its recent product launches have lent themselves to a more visual before-and-after experience that its previous skin care products didn’t always offer. Its Targeted Wrinkle Corrector (TWC)—an “instant filler” for wrinkles that the company claims creates an effect similar to Botox “without being so invasive,” according to Schiraldi, debuted in December—followed by a cystic acne treatment called Deep Relief Acne Treatment in July.

• TikToks featuring TWC garnered 17.2 million views, including 2.5 million from a paid partnership with influencer @EdwardZO in March, while Deep Relief videos scored 21.3 million views, with 7 million of those from an organic @LaLaLuvBeauty video chronicling her experience with the Deep Relief product.

“We had an opportunity to think about how to bring some of those most popular derm services to consumers in a more accessible way,” Schiraldi told us. “When [TWC] went viral…we also realized the importance of ensuring that we had product innovation that also could come to life, visually and on video.”

Under the skin: Murad works on new product concepts about three years before they debut, with three to five products scheduled per year, Schiraldi said. But it always keeps an eye on what’s trending throughout the process, both on social media and through Google Analytics, and can tweak products about 15–18 months pre-launch.

Keep reading here.—EC

“Taco Bell’s parent company, Yum Brands, exceeded quarterly earnings expectations [this week], and the fast-food giant’s CEO David Gibbs credited a big chunk of that success to the guy whose dating history inspired a million Instagram graphics,” writes Morning Brew’s Matty Merritt:

It’s thanks to a commercial…that featured [Pete] Davidson apologizing on behalf of Taco Bell for going a li’l wild on its past breakfast offerings and announcing simpler fare. After the commercial aired in October, breakfast sales at the chain jumped. This bump helped carry Taco Bell past Wall Street’s expected 6.5% increase in same-store sales to 11%. That pushed Yum Brands, which also owns Pizza Hut and KFC, to hit $2 billion in revenue in Q4.

Read the whole story here on Morning Brew.

Today’s top retail reads.

Back in the day: 100 years ago, a local hatchery in Delaware accidentally delivered too many chickens to a farm—an error that became the genesis of the $30 billion chicken industry that exists today. (Vox)

Ahead of the game: Everyone wants the attention of Gen Z. But Ralph Lauren and Coach parent Tapestry are forging ahead, with its growing revenue, adopting a digital-first strategy targeting its younger consumers. (Modern Retail)

Big splash: With Fashion Week in full force, designers are in a race to put together theatrical displays to create that one viral fashion moment. (Vogue Business)

Matter of time: What if you could escape the confines of your work calendar? Our latest toolkit can help you do just that. You’ll learn how to set up the systems to control your day-to-day and have time to do the work that needs to get done. Get the toolkit here.

Shopper shift: Consumers are a-changing—so you’re gonna need new retail strategies. Fortunately, our upcoming virtual event can help. We’re sitting down with Bolt to discuss new shopper personas, seamless checkouts, and more. Register here.*

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Three of the stories below are real...and one is most definitely not. Can you spot the fake?

1. Doritos is giving out a lifetime supply of free chips to 50 Super Bowl fans who can recall and recite every single Super Bowl ad that was ever made.
2. Panera has debuted a limited-edition baguette purse that’s sized to fit one of its sandwiches perfectly.
3. McDonald’s has been crowned the second-worst place for a first date.
4. A suspected Italian mob member was found posing as a chef at a top Italian restaurant in France for over a decade.

Keep reading for the answer.

Catch up on the Retail Brew stories you may have missed.

• Are retailers benching the metaverse for the Super Bowl?
• Hermès won its lawsuit against Mason Rothschild. Now what?
• Robots offer retailers cheaper and more sustainable delivery