Note sull'episodio
After the 1929 crash wiped out demand, a French Italian bank called Sudameris was stuck by 1932 with a huge surplus of Brazilian coffee beans that would soon rot. It asked Nestlé for a way to preserve them. Max Morgenthaler led years of development and refined spray drying, misting concentrated coffee into a tower of hot air so water evaporated in midair and flavor compounds stayed trapped in the particles. Nescafé launched in Switzerland on April 1, 1938, one year before World War II, and once the United States entered the war the output of Nestlé's US plant was reserved for the military.
Peacetime marketing went local. In Britain, Anthony Head and Sharon Maughan starred from 1987 to 1993 in a 12 part flirtation for Gold Blend that was released on a VHS called Love Over Gold and novelized by Susan Moody as Susannah James. North America got Taster's Choice as a premium tier in the late 1960s, merged into Nescafé Taster's Choice in 2003. Legal trouble followed the brand's reach: model Russell Christoff won $15.6 million in 2005 for unauthorized use of his face on labels from 1998 to 2003, before the California Supreme Court reversed it in 2009, and Muse won 500,000 pounds over Feeling Good and gave it all to Oxfam.
- Earlier Gareth Hunt ads featured a bean shaking gesture that co-star Sarah Greene said carried strong sexual connotations.
- A 1986 Smash Hits poll ranked Nescafé both the fifth best and the worst TV ad at once.
- India's Sunrise blends instant coffee and chicory at 70 to 30, and Australia and New Zealand sell a local Blend 43.
- Sponsorships included a theater in Chile, the Nescafé Basement music show in Pakistan, and an AeroGal Boeing 737 painted red in Ecuador.
- The Dolce Gusto pod system of 2006 uses real ground coffee, not instant powder.