Corn flakes were a forgotten batch of wheat
Stale wheat, a pair of rollers and the flakes that came out instead of a sheet.
Company stories
Short videos about companies and how their products actually work, drawn by hand.
Shorts
Nobody knew how to close it
The burping lid, and the home parties that finally sold it.
It started as gunk on oil pumps
Rod wax from Pennsylvania oil rigs, cleaned up into a clear jelly.
Named after an upset stomach
Brad's Drink, a pharmacy soda fountain, and the word behind the name Pepsi.
The name means nothing
Why George Eastman made up the word Kodak, and the camera you mailed back.
Named after a pie company
Pie tins, a 25 cent cake pan and the physics of a flying disc.
It was made for one sick boy
From propellers and farm pumps to a whirlpool built for a toddler with arthritis.
Invented for one woman's kitchen cuts
Tape, gauze and crinoline: how Earle Dickson made the first Band-Aid at home.
They started as Disneyland leftovers
Leftover tortillas at a restaurant inside Disneyland, cut, fried and seasoned.
Grandpa's bricks still click into yours
The tubes inside a LEGO brick and why a brick from 1958 still fits.
Chocolate was too expensive
How scarce cocoa and Piedmont hazelnuts turned into Nutella.
It started because players weren't peeing
A doctor's question about a football team, and the drink named after it.
It made looms before cars
A loom that stopped itself when a thread broke, and why Toyota's lines still stop on a pull cord.
Your juice carton started as a pyramid
How one paper tube, sealed a quarter turn apart, became the first Tetra Pak.
The three letters on your zipper
What YKK stands for and how a zipper's teeth actually lock.
It started with dried fish
Before phones and chips, Samsung was a small shop selling dried fish and noodles.
It made rubber boots before phones
A paper mill, a river, rubber boots and cables: the long road to Nokia.
5,127 vacuums before one worked
Why bags lose suction, and how a cyclone spins the dust out instead.
The restaurant stars were a tire ad
Why a tire company started rating restaurants, and what the three stars mean.
It was supposed to be wallpaper
Two failed products later, Bubble Wrap found its job. How the bubbles take the hit.
Dalí drew your lollipop
The painter behind the Chupa Chups daisy, and why the logo sits on top.
Your toilet brush is named after a lake
The naming system behind every IKEA product, and what the four letters stand for.
The glue that failed
Why a Post-it sticks, lets go and sticks again, and how a choir bookmark saved it.
Almost pure sugar, zero on the label
How the US label rules let a sugar mint say 0 g of sugar.
The can designer buried in a can
Why Pringles are saddle-shaped, what they are made of, and the man who ended up in the tube.
The hole in your pen cap
The two holes in a BIC Cristal and how a ballpoint actually writes.
You've been hitting it in the wrong spot
Why ketchup gets stuck, where to tap the bottle, and where 57 came from.
Invented to help people stop smoking
PEZ started as a peppermint for grown-ups, with a dispenser shaped like a lighter.
The broken organ behind Yamaha motorcycles
How a repaired school organ led to pianos, three tuning forks and a motorcycle.
A dog, a burr and a microscope
How a burr under a microscope became hook and loop.
Your cup noodles never touch the bottom
Why the noodle block hangs in the middle of the cup, and the trick that made it possible.
The 40 means 39 tries failed
What WD-40 stands for and how a thin film pushes water off metal.
Every pepper starts on one salt island
Tabasco's peppers, salt mash and old bourbon barrels, all tied to one island in Louisiana.
The MSG company inside your computer
How a soup seasoning led Ajinomoto to the film inside computer chips.
Bike gears and the other kind of reels
How a derailleur shifts, and why Shimano also makes fishing reels.
Soy sauce from Wisconsin
How Kikkoman brews soy sauce, and why some of it comes from a farm town in Wisconsin.
Longer stories
The mayo company that sells every part of the egg
Kewpie only uses the yolk. Here is what happens to the whites, the shells and the skin.
Blacklisted by the Pentagon, licensed by Ford
CATL, the battery maker behind a third of the world's electric cars, and how its batteries work.
Cheaper than the stock it owns
Why Prosus has traded for less than its stake in Tencent.
Tesla in three minutes
History, cars, energy, charging and what comes next.
Figures come from company reports and other public sources at the time each video was made. Not financial advice.