Tag: Brand Names

Barbie

LORELAI: I feel like this is one of those moments when I should be remembering all the great times I had with my dad, you know. The time he took me shopping for a Barbie or to the circus or fishing and my mind is a complete blank.

Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by Mattel and launched in 1959. The doll was created by Ruth Handler, based on a German doll named Bild Lilly. The doll was named after Ruth’s daughter Barbara. Mattel has sold over a billion Barbie dolls, and Barbie herself has become a cultural icon.

If Lorelai was given a Barbie as a small child, she might have received Malibu Barbie, the iconic doll of the 1970s.

Wonder Bread

LORELAI: You made me a Santa burger … He has a hat and everything.
LUKE: Yeah, I just cut a piece of Wonder Bread, you know, poured a little ketchup, piped on a little cream cheese.

Wonder Bread is a brand of bread first produced in the US in 1921. It was one of the first brands to sell bread pre-sliced, and their classic item is a white sandwich loaf. It was owned by Hostess in 2000.

Grey Poupon

LORELAI: Don’t you have any kind of holiday special? Something festive?
LUKE: I just got some Grey Poupon. That’s French.

Grey Poupon is a brand of mustard originating in Dijon, France, and first produced in 1866. The American rights to it were bought in 1946, and it was eventually acquired by Kraft Foods in 1999. The mustard became popular in the US in the late 1970s and ’80s.

Razor Scooter

LORELAI (speaking on phone to pizza delivery guy): So what’s the next phase of the delivery saga? Mm-hmm …Well how long until your brother’s back with the Razor Scooter?

The Razor Scooter is a compact folding scooter manufactured by JD Corporation. Released in 2000, it became an immediate hit and was named the Most Popular Toy of 2001. Of course it is not suitable for delivering pizzas.

Stairmaster

RORY: You just wanna hold a grudge.
LORELAI: Yes, it burns more calories.
RORY: That’s not true.
LORELAI: Yes it is, how do you think your grandma got those legs of hers? She’s not exactly a StairMaster gal.

StairMaster is an American company which makes exercise equipment, founded in 1983. Their first piece of equipment was a stair climbing machine.

Kelly Bishop, who plays Emily, got “those legs” of hers training in ballet, and working as a chorus line dancer for many years. We learn in the next season that Emily does in fact follow an exercise regimen to stay in shape.

Dristan

DEAN: Get out of my way Dristan.
TRISTAN: Oh, aren’t you clever.

Dristan is a brand of cold and allergy over the counter medications made by Pfizer intended to unblock a stuffy nose.

You see what Dean did there, besides invent his and Tristan’s couple name?

Baccarat candlesticks

Emily is horrified to discover that the Baccarat candlesticks she bought Lorelai for Christmas in 1999 were exchanged for a lamp decorated with “leering” monkeys holding coconuts.

Baccarat is a French manufacturer of fine crystal glassware, located in the town of Baccarat. The glassworks were founded in 1764 by King Louis XV. An American subsidiary of the company was created in New York City in 1948.

Emily may have bought the candlesticks from Lux Bond and Green, a jewellery store in West Hartford authorised to sell Baccarat products. A classic pair of Baccarat candlesticks (like the ones in the picture) will set you back around $500, but a fancier double candlestick holder would be over $6000.

I doubt that the same store that sells Baccarat also sells the novelty monkey lamp so there probably wasn’t an actual exchange of goods – Lorelai may have simply made a cash exchange, meaning that she pocketed a tidy profit after purchasing the monkey lamp somewhere else.

(The monkey lamp may have been partly inspired by Daniel Palladino’s first gift to Amy Sherman-Palladino when they were courting – the toy game Barrel of Monkeys, a barrel filled with plastic monkeys that can be interlinked together).

Ann Taylor

(Emily is clearly excited about Rory attending the dance)
LORELAI: Wow, Mom, look at you. You’d think Ann Taylor was having a sale or something.

Ann Taylor is a chain of women’s clothing stores selling classic styled suits, dresses, shoes, and accessories, with affluent career women its target demographic. Its first store opened in New Haven, Connecticut in 1954, and there are now nearly 300 stores in the US.

There are two Ann Taylor stores that Emily might shop at one – one in West Hartford, and another at the mall in Hartford.