Saying Goodbye - Brought to You By...

This is one of those podcasts I was truly sad see come to an end. It's started out called Household Name with a tagline of "Brands you know, stories you don't". The entire idea was a deep look into one aspect of a brand that was a household name - Pizza Hut, Coca-Cola, Jack Daniels, Whoopie Cushion, etc. The show was produced by Business Insider and the original host was Dan Bobkoff. When Dan left Business Insider in 2019, Charlie Herman became the new host and the show got a new name, though you can see the branding didn't change.

Brought to your by... Logo

Household Name Logo

The content didn't seem to change much either, for which I was grateful, and episodes continued to be produced throughout 2020, for a total of 62 in the show's run. This means if you haven't listened to it yet, you've got plenty of listening to enjoy.

Brought to you by... (aka BTYB) was a business show at the core, something that isn't always a win for me. Some business podcasts are really boring if you aren't actually into finance or a specific industry. But the cool thing about this was that the vast majority of these brands were either ones you actively used, had used, or were familiar with. I've never used an electric scooter, but the episode about the Scooter Wars was relevant because they are everywhere. Pan Am was before my time but learning about their involvement in the Vietnam War was eye opening. 

They also did listener stories about their interactions with various brands. Listener stories have a way of irking me (mostly because I'm somewhat sensitive to certain tones and that seems to resonate more over headphones of any kind) but I found they kept them short, relevant, and generally funny. They also had people who would call in and ask product questions, then a producer or researcher would come on to answer those questions after they found answers. You get the sense that they all enjoyed learning these new aspects about brands and we all know authenticity is a key component to podcasts.

I highly recommend this in both forms. Episode 1 posted on July 25, 2018 with an episode about TGIF being the Tindr of the 60s. The podcast can be found here or wherever you get podcasts. Farewell, BTYB, you're missed.