History’s Built America Presents usually celebrates engineering marvels, but this Sunday, it’s trading blueprints for balance sheets in “Battle of the Brands,” a four-hour exploration of America’s most iconic corporate clashes. Forget steel and concrete; this time, the building blocks are sugar, corn flakes, and die-cast metal.
Frankly, four hours feels like a lot of time to dedicate to brand rivalries, but perhaps History’s aiming for an exhaustive, almost anthropological study of American consumerism. The 1970s “Cola Wars,” ignited by the Pepsi Challenge’s blind taste tests, are an obvious starting point. One can practically taste the corporate anxiety (and copious amounts of corn syrup) as Coke scrambled to respond.
Beyond sugary drinks, “Battle of the Brands” will also tackle the cereal aisle, revealing a tale of corporate espionage and idea theft that propelled one breakfast giant to success. It’s the kind of story that makes you wonder how many legally distinct shades of Froot Loops there really are.
And for those who prefer their rivalries with a side of nostalgia, the episode will look into the surprisingly cutthroat world of toy cars, specifically, the origin story of Matchbox cars. Apparently, a British machinist’s gift to his daughter sparked a global phenomenon, proving that even miniature vehicles can leave a massive cultural footprint.
Will “Battle of the Brands” manage to fill four hours without resorting to extended montages of vintage commercials? We’ll see. But the sheer audacity of the premise – a four-hour special on brand rivalries – suggests a certain commitment to the bit, even if that bit is ultimately just a long infomercial for capitalism’s greatest hits.
Tune in to Built America Presents: Battle of the Brands this Sunday, December 1, 2024, at 8:00 PM on History.
