Culled from recent news, here are some iconic deaths (well, most of them are):
- Mr. Goodwrench. Yup, GM is pulling the plug on the guy, giving him that ol’ pink slip. Seems that even a bailout couldn’t save his job. He’s on the unemployment line, being replaced with “Chevrolet, Buick, GMC or Cadillac Certified Service”
- Sara Lee. At least on baked goods. Actually, the name isn’t dying, but the bakery operations of Sara Lee are being sold to Grupo Bimbo out of Mexico City. You might say the jobs are being outsourced to Mexico, only they aren’t. You can’t do that with bakeries. The jobs are staying local. This means that brands such as Rainbo, EarthGrains, IronKids will joins Bimbo’s other brands Orowheat, Entenmann’s, Boboli and Thomas’ English Muffins. Of course, for me, this just means more variety in the Bimbo Outlet just down the street from work.
- Mr. Peanut. OK, he’s not dead. He’s just getting a makeover. He’s gotten clothes (a gray wool, notch lapel three-button suit jacket accented with white piping, gray trousers, a white dress shirt with French cuffs and light green necktie, and a crisply folded triangle of white pocket square), as well as a voice (Robert Downey Jr.).
- Piggie Banks. In this case, it is the pig that is dead. Yup. One enterprising company is selling a piggie bank made from actual piglets. The pigs die of natural causes, are taxidermied, and then stuffed with a coin storage unit and a cork plug. Yours for only $4,000, with half of that due as a deposit.
