#100 - Novelty Crap & Gag Gifts from the '90s and early 2000s

Episode 100:  Novelty Crap & gag gifts from the 1990s & early 2000s

I imagine there are a lot of people who would argue that the late decades of the 20th century were incredibly tacky.  The 70s had bellbottom jeans and leisure suits and the 80s were known for stonewashed jeans and shoulder pads.  However, the 90s and early 2000s had some of the tackiest crap that I can remember, especially when it came to novelties and gifts that were popular during this time period.  On today's show, we are going to take a deep dive into the backstory behind some of the most well-known novelty items and gifts from the 1990s and early 2000s that were corny, cheesy, and went from overnight smash hits to piling up at your local landfill in the blink of an eye. 

Thank you so very much for tuning in to the Pop Culture Retrospective Podcast. This show is dedicated to the memory of my big sister Rebecca, a fan of all things pop-culture, particularly of the people, places, and things that defined the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s.  Welcome aboard this pop culture time machine, I'm Amy Lewis. This is episode #100 - Novelty Crap & Gag gifts from the 1990s & early 2000s.  

Lets begin our journey with a discussion about the infamous newborn photographer Anne Geddes.  If that name doesn't ring a bell think about all of those popular baby photos where, for example, a newborn was dressed up like a sunflower and was photographed among an entire garden of greenery and blossoms.  These images proved to be incredibly popular at the time and at the peak of Gedde's popularity, she had 7 award winning coffee table books which were published in 84 countries and translated into 24 different languages.  Many of these books were New York Times best sellers.  Some of her notable books from the 90s include.

Down in the Garden

The Twelve Days of Christmas

ABC

123

and my personal favorite Miracle:  A Celebration of New Life which featured the incomparable Celion Dion. This book is from the early 2000s and one cannot speak about Anne Geddes books without speaking about this peculiar publication.  First of all, I’ve probably poked a lot of fun at Celine Dion over the years on this show, but I do have the utmost respect for Celine Dion and think she is a French-Canadian treasure.  That being said, this book is just odd.  Accompanied by a music CD of course, this book depicts our favorite songstress in various photos alongside adorable newborns. 

In one of the first images, Celine is dressed in what looks sort of like a ballerina outfit which includes a sleeveless green top attached to an impossibly long flower pedaled looking skirt, with two babies laying down on either side of her, one being in the palm of her hands that she is leaning over.  In another image, she is holding up what appears to be perhaps an oversized grapefruit but it's actually a baby smashed into a pinkish/purpleish colored pantyhose like material with a green rooted top?  In another shot, sans Celine, a baby is laying on top of what looks like an open rose bud, and one of the green leaves that must have “opened up” has been placed on it's head like an army helmet.  

Geddes has a pretty fascinating story prior to her fame.  She was born in 1956 in Australia.  She actually dropped out of school when she was 17 years old and soon after married a man named Kel Geddes.  They moved to Hong Kong for his work in the television industry.  During their time abroad, Geddes taught herself photography using her husband's camera. After a few years in HK, they moved back to Australia and Geddes continued her newfound love for photography.  She created a portfolio of sorts after taking photos of her own two daughters and received a lot of positive feedback.  She then started a studio in her garage and the rest is history.  In 2017, Geddes was inducted into the photography hall of fame.  In addition to her photography work, she is also an admirable philanthropist.  She does a lot of work around advocating for children who are the victims of abuse.  She works alongside the March of Dimes and United Nations.  To date, she has sold over 18 million books.  And she is still creating images of little ones which can be found on calendars, puzzles, and her books which are still widely available.  If you are wondering what to get your mother this holiday season, just know that CD's book and CD combo is still available on amazon.  Nothing says Merry Christmas more than an adorable little baby sleeping soundly on an oversized lily pad while Celine Dion looks over while sitting on a rock.    

Another book series (and other assorted crap)  that we couldn't get enough of in the 1990s were the magic eye books.  Remember those?  The books you had to stare at for several minutes and implement various techniques to see the 3-d images hidden inside?  Oh yes, I remember it well.  You can thank a man named Tom Baccei for the magic eye books.  He knew that his creation may be a fad, but he wanted to put it out for the world to see, no matter how long the popularity would last.  

In the early 1990s, Baccei worked for a company just outside of Boston named Pentica, they sold devices that could de-bug computers.  While working on a project at his job, Tom was introduced to 3-D photography enthusiast, and the rest is sort of, well, history.  This led to a series of ads for the company that utilized this technology, which were originally in black and white by the way.  In the company's ads, objects would appear sort of magically, if  you will, after staring at an image that essentially looked like TV static.   These ads started to reach larger audiences such as the employees and passengers aboard American Airlines flights.  Flight attendants would often call Baccei to ask for the answer to the visual puzzles.  They also gave out free champagne to the person who could see what was hidden in the picture.   Eventually, in 1991 they started working with a Japanese company named Tenyo who specialized in magic products and thus the Magic Eye line of merchandise was born, under one of Baccei’s businesses, NE Thing Enterprises.  It became an overnight sensation once the first 3 books were published.  I believe it was my sister who gifted me the Magic Eye book, probably for christmas or my birthday.  I remember staring at that book for extended periods of time.  And forget computers for ruining everyone’s eyes, I blame Magic Eye books.  Part of why these books were so successful is because, apparently, finding and looking at 3D objects increases your alpha waves and makes observers feel a sense of happiness.  I’ve been under a lot of stress lately so perhaps I should try to locate one of these books again and gets to starin’.  What are you doing?  It’s really quiet in here.  Leave me alone, I’m staring at my Magic Eye book.  The books sold out immediately when they were first released in 1993.  The original run was 30k copies, but that swelled to a demand of 500k.  Even companies like Disney, Warner Bros, etc. got into the fad through licensure.  When I was researching this company, I was reminded of this when I saw the Disney Magic Eye book cover, I know I had that, too.  On the inside of the books, you could find a bit of a history of the books as well as a bit of a pep talk about how to see the images.

At the peak of their popularity, over 20 million ME books were sold and the series was translated into 25 different languages.  There were even greeting cards and comic strips featuring the infamous 3D images.  To this day you can still purchase the ME books and you can get your 2025 ME calendar now on zazzle.com

The popularity of the ME books lasted for just about 2 years.  Eventually people moved on to other fads like Beanie Babies, Tomogachi, furbies, etc.  By the way, I have covered all of those topics in previous episodes of the podcast! 

Baccei was quoted once as saying: “Life is a real pinball machine,” he continued. “The most successful people understand that and they don’t try to force the game. They follow the bounces and try to keep ahead of them as much as they can.”  Amen Tom, Amen.  I will post a link to a very detailed article I found about Magic Eye in the shownotes, it’s a pretty fascinating story and very complicated to explain.  

For our next item, I have four words for you:  Big Mouth Billy Bass,one of the hottest Xmas gifts of:  2000.  The creation of probably the ultimate tacky gift BMBB is tied to a man named Joe Pellettier and his wife.  Pellettier worked for a company named Gemmy Industries, who developed novelty gift items.  He was actually responsible for the re-imagining of Sunny the singing flower, who was a POS and terrifying audio animatronic sunflower, yet was somehow incredibly successful. The “sunflower” I say that in air quotes, was creepy AF. The face looked like a burnt veggie burger, his mouth opened and closed, but it did not sync up well with the song, and his artificial leaves served as what I can only surmise were his hands that he waved back and forth.   His company was hoping he could strike gold again.

So, one day hot off the success of the murderous looking sunflower, Joe and his wife were driving through Texas where the company was based and decided to stop at a Bass Pro Shop store.  As the story goes, while there, his wife offered a suggestion for the next big novelty item:  “What about a singing fish?!  On a plaque?!”  Joe knew his wife was onto something.  

It wasn’t easy getting the fish on a plaque idea off of the ground.  His original proposal was rejected numerous times.  His superiors thought the fish didn’t have a “wow factor” which was essential for a novelty toy.  Joe kept revisiting his design and proposal and eventually came up with the concept of Big Mouth BB or BMBB as I like to call it that we all have come to know and love.  That design included the ability for the fish to rotate 90 degrees, pulling part of it’s head off of the plaque.  The mouth and tail both moved and did so in sync during his performance of 1 of 2 songs:  “Take me to the River” and “Don’t worry be happy.”  Further, the fish was made out of latex rubber and looked surprisingly real.  A motion sensor was installed inside each fish so that anytime someone walked by, the fish would start singing.  

In January of 2000, BMBB first appeared at a gift convention (aka a crap convention) in Atlanta, GA. At first the product sold for just 29.95 which is about $55 in today’s money.  

They were an instant hit, and by the end of that first year, BMBB was worth over 100 million dollars.  The fish flew off the shelves in places like Cracker Barrell and Spencer’s Gifts which was incredible given that the only marketing done for this was word of mouth or should I say word of a big mouth.  One CB in particular sold out of 400 fish in just 3 days.  Bass Pro Shops, the inspiration for our finned friend, sold 500 units in just 1 hour.  A manager at that particular store said that her family and friends kept contacting her, begging her to snag a fish or two for them and hide them in a safe spot.  Excuse me Susan, did you put all of these damn BB fish plaques in the gun safe? So popular was this dang fish that Bill Clinton and Queen Elizabeth both had one.  Clinton gifted one to Al Gore.   BMBB also appeared on TV shows like the Sopranos, the Rosie O’Donnell show, and George Lopez.

You can still purchase BMBB online and I think the original version has been re-incarnated, but in a cheaper form.  I found some funny reviews on amazon:  First review is named:  not the one I wanted, and the customer wrote:  i ordered the one that the head moves as well as the tail, i plan to return to you to send me the correct Big Mouth Billy Bass. will you be able to switch for the correct one? I WANT THE ONE THAT HEAD & TAIL MOVE, second review is named:  product was advertised as a new product meaning new unopened unused!!!, customer wrote:  So excited about this product for our Nephew as he has waited a long time for it!!! It was sold to us as new from the store Opening box to find that fish was not secured and had been clearly taken out and was not attached to the zip ties and also when put batteries in it ‘no !!!motion!!! no movement, no flip at the tail !!very disappointed!!! asking for a refund !!returning product!! unsatisfied customer!!!!!!!  This new BMBB really sounds like a fish out of water.

Chicken Soup for the Soul was yet another novelty which came to fruition in 1993 by motivational speakers Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. Canfield was previously a teacher in an inner-city high school and had learned a lot about how to encourage individuals to reach their potential. Hansen on the other hand, was born to parents who only had a 6th and 8th grade education, respectively.  They worked incredibly hard despite their lack of education, opening a bakery and teaching their son the value of hard work.  

After some trying times as a young adult (he never had a desire to take over the bakery but tried and failed as an entrepreneur), Hansen was inspired to help other people and decided he wanted to speak in front of large crowds so he formed a company to do just that.  Eventually Canfield and Hansen crossed paths and they started doing speaking engagements together. 

They would share inspiring stories during these talks and they were consistently asked if said stories were in a book they could purchase.  At some point, Canfield and Victor decided to run with this idea and put hopeful stories onto paper.  They had a simple idea - people could help each other by sharing stories about their lives.  They worked together to compile 101 stories into a book.  They called it Chicken Soup for the soul as they wanted it to provide comfort to people like their grandmother’s soup.  Good lord my Gma made delicious chix noodle soup.  After putting together the book, they went to NY hoping to strike a deal with one of the publishers located there, but they were turned down several times. And by several, I mean 144 times to be exact. Thankfully, they did meet a small health book publishing company located in Florida named HCI.  The owner read some of the stories and loved them so he said yes.  Despite the initial challenges and setbacks, the original Chicken Soup for the Soul book has now sold over 11 million copies.  They have gone on to publish 250 CSFTS, and to date it is one of the best selling trade paperback books of all time.  They expanded beyond just their own stories and have included submitted ones in other volumes of CSFTS such as:   Chicken Soup for the Soul Presents Teens Talkin' Faith, Chicken Soup for the Woman Golfer's Soul, Chicken Soup for the Scrapbooker's Soul, Chicken Soup for the Horse Lover's Soul and finally, Chicken Soup for the Teacher's Soul: Stories to Open the Hearts and Rekindle the Spirits of Educators.  I remember purchasing this book for my sister and I gave it to her as a gift.  I was so proud of myself for locating this book and figured she would love it as she had always dreamed about being a teacher and did become one.  I’m pretty sure she didn’t read it, not even a page, but it’s the thought that counts, doesn’t it?  Amazon described the book this way, quote:  You'll laugh and cry along with these stories from educators of all ages - about the kids who affected them most deeply, their personal ups and downs as teachers, their funniest moments, their most heartwarming experiences, and lots of great tips for the classroom.  And guess what is on the cover of the book?  That’s right, the stereotypical teacher schwag of the 90s and early 2000s including a red apple, a ruler, a pair of scissors, a compass (as in the one you attach a pencil to) and a crayon.  Eventually in 2008, Canfield and Victor decided to sell the business, to 3 individuals: Bill) Rouhana, Amy Newmark and Robert Jacobs, but the mission of the books remains the same.  That being said, the books have really expanded into other retail divisions.  

For example, did you know that there is Chicken Soup for the Soul Dog food and cat food?  Did you know that there is a CSFTS podcast?  That’s right there is and it’s hosted by the current editor in chief, Amy Newmark. There is also a YT channel. 

And, I totally predicted this, but there are now several books in the series with an undertone of Jesus like:  Miracles, Angels & Messages from Heaven,Devotional Stories of Resilience and Positive Thinking, and Chicken Soup for the Soul:Miracles and the Unexplainable:  101 Stories of Hope, Answered Prayers, and Divine Intervention. Some of their books used to come with companion CDs..remember when that was a thing?  I am pretty sure they also used to sell 365 day tear off calendars and special portfolio binders and workbooks to coincide with the series.  And I am always one to poke a little fun at most of my show topics, but a few things I appreciate about the CSFTS company is that they have always been inclusive to their readers, no matter their religion, sexual orientation, nationality, etc.  Further, they give a lot of their proceeds to non-profit organizations like Toys for Tots and the Alzheimer’s Foundation.  Now that is a book series I can get behind.   

We will end our look back on novelty crap from the 90s and early 2000s, with some inspiration, some motivation, if you will. Does the word Successories mean anything to you? I’ll wait, it may come to you. This is a name I haven’t heard in probably 20 years, but once I started my research, I was channeling my inner Celion Dion when she said:  “it’s all coming back, coming back to me now.”  Successories was the name of a small store, located underneath the tall escalators at my local shopping mall called Yorktown which was about 10 minutes away from where me and my sister grew up.  

In said store and other successories locations, corporate supervisors and office employees could purchase a motivational poster to hang up in their office or break room.  According to the website QZ.com these posters were described as follows:  “For a time in the late 20th century, a Successories poster was an essential feature of office décor. The format never varied: a black border, a bold-type word, and a forgettable platitude, like “Take the initiative and lead the way” or “The strength of the team is in each individual member.” The posters evoked a particular strain of management culture: earnest, a little out of touch, and resolutely unremarkable.” For example, you could purchase a photo of a rowing team, on an early morning boat ride, the sun is coming up and covering each athlete in a warm, orange glow.  Fog is rising off of the water.  

The cockswain’s back is to the viewer, the rowers all are facing forward and rowing in unison.  Underneath this generic photo is the word TEAMWORK in an orange colored font.  

Below that is a supposedly motivating statement that says:  “Teamwork, “is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.”  Again, according to the website QZ, they described this particular poster this way: The empty text, the faceless figures, the utter forgettability of the photograph itself—together, it added up to bland magic, a poster that could hang on virtually any wall in the world without offense, controversy, or distraction. It was the company’s bestseller, and remains so to this day. Or perhaps you wanted to purchase the bridge poster, perfect to stare at while you chain smoked virginia slims and drank burnt coffee in the dark break room behind the produce section at the grocery store you were employed at in 1992.  On this poster, you could see a photo of a generic looking bridge, likely taken around twilight time.  There are no cars on the bridge or boats in the water.  However, the street lights are illuminating the bridge which can be viewed in any midwestern state, I’m sure.  Below our beloved bridge is the wording:  BE THE BRIDGE, again in the typical upper case lettering.  Below that reads:  “Problems become opportunities when the right people join together.”  Bland with a capital B.  In my head, I often find myself thinking, did these so-called motivational posters actually motivate anyone?  You know?  Like did someone look introspectively at the photo of the mountain during sunset that said:  Excellence, some excel because they are destined to, most excel because they are determined to.” and have some sort of emotional or life-changing moment?  As in, you know what, I was going to try and steal a lot of money from my company which I despise, but now, because I saw that poster when I woke up from my cat nap during my break, I am going to work my butt off to get promoted!  

The popularity of these posters also led to some parody posters, like the one that features a picture of the lead character from the movie Office Space, Peter Gibbons.  It says Motivation - it’s not that I’m lazy, it’s that I don’t care.” Then another features a photo of a box of french fries against a pleasing blue backdrop.  Underneath in blue lettering is the word Potential - “not everyone gets to be an astronaut when they grow up.”  This reminds me not of a poster, but rather a bad xerox copied piece of standard sized paper with some statistics on it that used to hang in my previous place of employment.  That sounded weird, but I’m sure many long time listeners know that I previously worked in education for a long time and I loved it.  Anyways, next to the Guidance office where I worked as a counselor was the in-school suspension room.  Ah yes, the in-school suspension room.  

This classroom was a bit smaller in size than most standard classrooms in the school.  It smelled like the yellow chalk dust that covered the board and chalk tray.  It also had little to no decor, but it did have a collection of old desks, chairs, and textbooks.  There were just two things hanging on the wall, a bright piece of paper with the bell schedule on it, and also a piece of paper with some random wording on it and a picture of stacked dollar bills.  Upon closer inspection, I realized the handout if you will, was about a young person’s earning potential based upon their years of secondary and post-secondary education.  Essentially, some old, cranky detention teacher printed out an infograph about earning potential to perhaps inspire the alleged deliquents who were stuck in in-school suspension and were probably not going to graduate, at least in their pessimistic mind. (I say delinquents in gest as I don’t think detention is helpful and I spent the better part of 20 years trying to help teenagers  lead healthy, happy lives, but I digress).I imagine that crotchety old fuddy duddy assumed that if the troubled students could make out what the small piece of paper said, they may be motivated to turn their lives around, graduate from high school and maybe pursue a doctorate. I wonder if anyone ever said:  “Mrs. Johnson, you know, I was going to drop out of high school, but once I saw that barely readable sign about income potential that has clearly been xeroxed and faxed 20 times, I decided that I want to become a surgeon.  I can’t thank you enough for hanging that up with one small piece of scotch tape.” And you know what wasn’t on that stupid piece of paper?  The fact that the average salary for a masters level social work is 50k/year, yet a plumber or electrician can expect to earn at least 60k/year right off the bat.  Me, bitter?  No.

QZ.com once again knocked it out of the park when they described the successories posters this way, “They hung in conference rooms and reception areas, as innocuous as the office fern, ideally engineered (as organizational psychologists later would find) to be almost instantly forgotten by the conscious mind. But the story behind the posters is far more dramatic than the placid scenes on their fronts. It’s a tale that includes a splashy public offering, rapid global expansion, and a precipitous fall. Successories played an unlikely, accidental role in the birth of meme culture, and in a specific brand of office humor that targets both workplaces and the hope of success within their confines.The boom, bust, and rebirth of Successories mirrors the tumultuous changes in the offices it decorated, and in the stories workers tell themselves to get through the day.”

Successories, the company dates back to 1985 and a gentleman named Mac Anderson who was a successful entrepreneur who owned several companies, one that focused on Midwestern Travel.  More like Mid-bestern travel.  Seriously.  

Have you been to Galena, IL?  It’s beautiful. Peninsula state park in Wisc?  Incredible! Have you traveled to Mackinac Island?  No cars are allowed there and everyone gets around by bike or horse, how amazing is that?  Did you know that Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world.  Anyways, Anderson was in love with quotations apparently, especially one that pulled at the heart strings.  

Anderson told Entrepreneur in 2013 about the posters. “It’s like looking through the lens of a camera. Sometimes things are blurry, but then you tweak the lens and it becomes crystal clear. You see the quote and say, ‘That’s how I feel!’”  The company started with posters right off the bat, which could be purchased via catalog order.  In addition to posters, the company also sold mugs and t-shirts.  Anderson purchased stock images and pulled inspirational quotes from his very own collection.  However, Anderson was not the first person to create motivational posters.  One of the trailblazers in the motivational poster industry was a photographer named Victor Baldwin who photographed his terrified-looking cat, Sammy, when he was clammoring onto a bamboo pole with his paws.  On the poster it read:  “Hang in there, Baby.” It was so popular that 350,000 copies of that poster sold in the first 2 years.  Apparently he got a lot of positive feedback that his startled cat hanging from bamboo poster was very inspiring.  It allegedly helped the owners deal and cope with illnesses or accidents.  This also inspired some knock offs like a poster I remember from many, many years ago. In the musty and vomit green carpeted basement of the staff housing I lived in right after college, was home to a random cat poster.  On this one though, there was a cat dangling from a tree with the words “oh shit” written on it.  

Successories went public in 1990 and opened their first gift shop of sorts in Naperville, IL, another town located just a few miles from me and my sisters childhood hometown.  In an urban legend of sorts, it was reported that a businessman learned about these godforsaken posters in an airplane magazine while flying from New Zealand and during a layover in Chicago, he drove at least 60 miles round trip to the Naperville store and snagged a bunch of posters before his next flight took off.  Eventually the company would open dozens more stores both in the US and abroad, and even had franchises.  I wonder if that under the escalator store facing JC Penny in my local mall was company owned or a franchise?  I guess I will never know.  That keeps me up at night. Successories sold thousands of images each day and earned even more profits from the sale of their infamous black frames. 

However, by the late 1990s, successories wasn’t so successful..they were losing millions of dollars left and right due to bad business practices.  

Plus they went through a series of hiring executives who weren’t right for the job. Further, the company was slow to adapt to digital and online shopping and order fulfillment so that didn’t help either. I guess they learned nothing from the demise of Radio Shack, which I spoke about on a previous episode of the podcast. As you may have predicted, Anderson sold the company in 2004 to a private investor.  It was sold again a few years later.  They now sell motivational posters, but also corporate schwag like insulated coffee mugs and duffle bags that you can customize with your companies lame logo.  

Perhaps Anderson, who had to sell his business, has one of those so-called de-motivational posters hanging somewhere in his house, maybe it was the one with a picture of a siloutted man with his arms out, back to the camera, who is standing a top of a vast landscape.  The word Hope is written on it in large capital letters and below it reads:  hope is just disappointment waiting to happen.  Ouch.

I hope you have enjoyed this look back on some of the memorable novelty and gag gift items of the 1990s and early 2000s.  I think these list episodes are some of my favorite to put together so I am so glad we got to talk about all of this tacky crap on episode 100 of the show.  I could talk about this kind of stuff all day.  And I cannot believe we are to episode #100!  How amazing is that?  It’s only taken 4.5 years.  Putting together this show is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears but I love doing it.  But since we are at episode 100, I would love to hear from you!  Do you have a favorite episode of the show?  Why did you enjoy it so much?  Please feel free to email me, DM me, etc. to share your thoughts, I would love to hear from you and I will definitely share on a future episode!  You can email me at:  amy@popcultureretrospective.com or DM me on IG:  I’m @popcultureretrospective and on Twitter I am @popcultureretro

I hope you will join me for my next show where we will be discussing yet another fascinating facet of the 80s, 90s and early 2000s in memory of my sister.