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A Secret History of Brands: The Dark and Twisted Beginnings of the Brand Names We Know and Love
We live our lives immersed in name brand products. It's hard to drive down the street without seeing a plethora of chain restaurants, car dealerships, branded clothing they're all around us. What most of us don't know is that the origins of many of the most well-known and beloved brands in the world are shrouded in controversy, drug use and sometimes even addled with blatant racism.
A Secret History of Brands cuts through the rumors and urban legends and paints a picture of the true dark history of famous brands, like Coca-Cola, Hugo Boss, Adidas, Ford, Bayer, Chanel and BMW among others. Explore the mystery of the cocaine content of Coca-Cola, the Hitler-Henry Ford connection and why Bayer is famous for asprin, but began their journey with Heroin, and how Kellogg's Corn Flakes were crafted to deter sexual arousal. Thoroughly researched, McNabb details firsthand conducted interviews alongside fairly weighed research to present the decisive view of brands histories that you haven't heard of yet.
A Secret History of Brands cuts through the rumors and urban legends and paints a picture of the true dark history of famous brands, like Coca-Cola, Hugo Boss, Adidas, Ford, Bayer, Chanel and BMW among others. Explore the mystery of the cocaine content of Coca-Cola, the Hitler-Henry Ford connection and why Bayer is famous for asprin, but began their journey with Heroin, and how Kellogg's Corn Flakes were crafted to deter sexual arousal. Thoroughly researched, McNabb details firsthand conducted interviews alongside fairly weighed research to present the decisive view of brands histories that you haven't heard of yet.
170 pages, Paperback
First published October 19, 2017
315 people are currently reading
776 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 94 reviews
November 1, 2019
It reads like a lengthy middle school report with a high word count requirement. Loads of filler, and poor organization. Also... too much Nazi. Most of the brands in the book had a Nazi connection.
Mildly entertaining, but too hard to read overall.
Mildly entertaining, but too hard to read overall.
Read
February 7, 2022Kinda non-fiction lite? Nothing ESCANDALO but a few 'huh neat' moments. I learned! It was entertaining! Coke did have heroin! Now you know!
July 13, 2021
A Secret History of Brands: The Dark and Twisted Beginnings of the Brand Names We Know and Love
by Matt MacNabb
This book should be called something about the Brands that had Nazi beginnings or something. A couple didn't but didn't have much better start! I knew about these brands and a bit about each but not all that was told in great detail. Quite shocking! A short book but really packed a lot in here!
Coke probably would still have cocaine in it but some racists lawmakers didn't want blacks to get hooked on the stuff although whites were drinking more Coke than blacks is why they had a big push to get the cocaine out of the bottles! It wasn't until years later that the ban on selling cocaine happened.
Most of the rest of the stories had Nazi starts. Boy, they would fit right in now in America with all the Proud boys! Even Chanel was a spy for the Nazis! Wow! Read her story! Good book.
by Matt MacNabb
This book should be called something about the Brands that had Nazi beginnings or something. A couple didn't but didn't have much better start! I knew about these brands and a bit about each but not all that was told in great detail. Quite shocking! A short book but really packed a lot in here!
Coke probably would still have cocaine in it but some racists lawmakers didn't want blacks to get hooked on the stuff although whites were drinking more Coke than blacks is why they had a big push to get the cocaine out of the bottles! It wasn't until years later that the ban on selling cocaine happened.
Most of the rest of the stories had Nazi starts. Boy, they would fit right in now in America with all the Proud boys! Even Chanel was a spy for the Nazis! Wow! Read her story! Good book.
July 16, 2023
I knew of Bakelite the early form of plastic, but never have I heard the scandalous story of the inventors child and grandson involving murder and possible incest. Quite eye opening. I mean, I had previously heard the rumors about Chanel and Ford, and even that Puma and Adidas were created by two brothers with Nazi connections..
January 12, 2020
While interesting subject matter, this book was written rather poorly. It felt like reading a freshman research paper in dire need of an editor. The majority of the book discusses companies with Nazi ties, so it could have been titled differently.
March 26, 2020
Honestly, I want to give this book 4-stars, but the other half of me says 2 is appropriate. The book is almost there, and plenty of fun, but doesn’t quite deliver what the title promises.
What works is that most of the stories are fun, ranging from quirky anecdotes to downright crimes against humanity perpetrated by companies and their founders. It’s fascinating what the state of pharmaceuticals was in the late 19th and wary 20th centuries. The connection between prohibition and the rise of Coca-Cola, how Adidas & Puma came from a small town in Germany due to family feuding, and the brief intriguing history of Coco Channel all make an interesting story.
But... the filler. Even with the lack of real connection to the brands themselves, there’s just so much random filler to take up space, which often has nothing to do with the stories of the brands. The Bakelite chapter is entirely skippable, with an abridged history of a couple of plastics, an attempt to make Bakelite more important than it ever truly was, and the controversy is that the next generation spawned a murderer... but what does that have to do with the brand?
Overall, it has some fun tidbits, and a more appropriate title would have been Curious Tales of a Few Rich Families You May Have Heard Of. Calling it the Secret History of Brands... sets the book up for failure. Even a few better fleshed-our collections with tighter themes and greater depth would have made the author’s time better spent.
What works is that most of the stories are fun, ranging from quirky anecdotes to downright crimes against humanity perpetrated by companies and their founders. It’s fascinating what the state of pharmaceuticals was in the late 19th and wary 20th centuries. The connection between prohibition and the rise of Coca-Cola, how Adidas & Puma came from a small town in Germany due to family feuding, and the brief intriguing history of Coco Channel all make an interesting story.
But... the filler. Even with the lack of real connection to the brands themselves, there’s just so much random filler to take up space, which often has nothing to do with the stories of the brands. The Bakelite chapter is entirely skippable, with an abridged history of a couple of plastics, an attempt to make Bakelite more important than it ever truly was, and the controversy is that the next generation spawned a murderer... but what does that have to do with the brand?
Overall, it has some fun tidbits, and a more appropriate title would have been Curious Tales of a Few Rich Families You May Have Heard Of. Calling it the Secret History of Brands... sets the book up for failure. Even a few better fleshed-our collections with tighter themes and greater depth would have made the author’s time better spent.
March 4, 2018
Welcome to another quirky corner of history! Matt MacNabb takes the reader through the secret history of nine different well-known brands. He gives you the inside scoop on how these brands got started and the controversies that surrounded them. I found this book to be really fun to read, largely because it is so well written in way that is really engaging and informative. You’ll learn about the brands that marketed what today are illegal drugs. Some brands have a hidden history of involvement with the Nazi party. Along the way you will also discover the behind the scenes family dramas that influenced the development of various brands. All in all, this book is fun read with lots of fascinating historical moments.
February 11, 2021
Lots of interesting, and somewhat unbelievable tidbits of info. I felt some of this could come in handy if I was ever a contestant on Jeopardy.
Unfortunately, when I came across the term "STATUE of limitations" in the text, I started to question and doubt the validity of the information in this book. As I continued reading, the amateur writing style almost became a distraction. I nearly felt I was proofreading a teenager's research paper.
That being said, the chapters about Coke, Ford, and Kellogg's were legitimately interesting. Many of the other chapters were bogged down in extraneous details to the point that they weren't entertaining. Also, I'm not sure I'd agree that a business's association with Nazi Germany in that era is really a "Secret History". Honestly, not much presented in this book is "secret". But the book was short and interesting, and I am glad I stuck with it.
Unfortunately, when I came across the term "STATUE of limitations" in the text, I started to question and doubt the validity of the information in this book. As I continued reading, the amateur writing style almost became a distraction. I nearly felt I was proofreading a teenager's research paper.
That being said, the chapters about Coke, Ford, and Kellogg's were legitimately interesting. Many of the other chapters were bogged down in extraneous details to the point that they weren't entertaining. Also, I'm not sure I'd agree that a business's association with Nazi Germany in that era is really a "Secret History". Honestly, not much presented in this book is "secret". But the book was short and interesting, and I am glad I stuck with it.
January 2, 2018
A great book for fans of fun facts and trivia. An alternate title could be "And now you know the rest of the story".
October 15, 2023
3.5 stars
Interesting. Most of this is known as pop culture trivia or myth, so there wasn't A lot new for me here. I was surprised with the many bites to the Nazi party, however, and the way these companies bounced back after the war.
Interesting. Most of this is known as pop culture trivia or myth, so there wasn't A lot new for me here. I was surprised with the many bites to the Nazi party, however, and the way these companies bounced back after the war.
dnf
December 6, 2021Interesting but don’t have the interest to finish the rest
April 28, 2022
"A Secret History of Brands" had exactly one chapter with new information in it for me. And the chapter was more like, "wow, who cares?"
This book is okay and will probably have some surprises for you if you have no idea what IG Farben is and what Siemens got up to during ww2. Most of the brands have a direct link to Nazis. The less you know about who profited off concentration camp slave labor the more informative this book will be.
It is a quick read around 250 pages. I was a bit disappointed because the author went for all the low hanging fruit. Also, pretending that Woodrow Wilson was a decent human being is pretty funny.
This book is okay and will probably have some surprises for you if you have no idea what IG Farben is and what Siemens got up to during ww2. Most of the brands have a direct link to Nazis. The less you know about who profited off concentration camp slave labor the more informative this book will be.
It is a quick read around 250 pages. I was a bit disappointed because the author went for all the low hanging fruit. Also, pretending that Woodrow Wilson was a decent human being is pretty funny.
May 18, 2021
This book was decently written (there were a few sections with unneeded repetition), but it didn’t tell me a whole lot that I didn’t already know. One things for certain; a lot of brands were in bed with the Nazis. And Bayer has the worst record of all in regards to what they’ve done to try to make up for their notorious past.
January 11, 2018
Good information
It is interesting to see how these brands were started but sometimes the history behind them is even more interesting .
It is interesting to see how these brands were started but sometimes the history behind them is even more interesting .
February 22, 2018
A great read, full of fascinating, curious, sad, and even horrifying stories. Thanks to Alex and the whole team at Pen & Sword for providing me with a review paperback copy of this book that I freely chose to review.
I would not class myself as particularly “brand-aware”. Although when I was younger I wanted to have the latest of everything, especially if all my friends had it (oh, the wonders of peer-pressure, even then), with time I’ve become quite skeptical about it, and I tend to avoid them if I can. (I understand the status thing, but I can’t see why I should have to pay and then, on top of that, be happy to advertise the product by making sure everybody knows what it is). Give me local craft any day! So, of course, I could not resist a book that promised to share with its readers ‘The Dark and Twisted Beginnings of the Brand Names We Know and Love’. And it delivers, for sure. I suspect if you are big authorities on the subject, you might already know a lot of the information contained in this book but if like me, you are just curious, this is a gem.
I’d never read anything by this author before, but his style is engaging and he pitches this volume at the right level for the subject: he includes the adequate amount of historical information about each one of the brands and characters (inventors, creators, public figures…) to make sure that the readers understand the context of each brand and its products, and then focuses on the more intriguing and less publicized aspects of their evolution. Some of them might be more familiar than others (I suspect a lot of readers will know about Coca-Cola and its early cocaine content), but even then, MacNabb manages to unearth elements of the story that are bizarre and less well-known (so Coca-Cola still contains extracts of coca leaves [no actual cocaine though, don’t worry!] supplied by the only lab in the US with a permit to import coca leaves).
While some of the chapters are curious and amusing (like the Coca-Cola one or the chapter on the Kellogg’s ‘war on sex’), some can be quite disturbing. There are many connections to Nazi Germany I was not aware of, like Hugo Boss’s manufacture of Nazi uniforms, Adidas & Puma’s Nazi connections (I had no idea the creators of these two brands were brothers, either), Chanel’s spying for the Germans (and the fact that the information was kept under wraps by the French government). For me, the most shocking were the chapters on Bayer (not so much the Heroin production, even if they seem to have become aware of its addicting properties quite early on, but its direct connection to slave labour and the production of Zyklon B, used in the gas chambers in the concentration camps), and Henry Ford and his anti-Semitic beliefs and writings (that seem to have inspired Hitler). The chapters on Winchester and Bakelite were intriguing (as I didn’t know anything at all about the history of the objects, other than some vague notion of the importance of the rifle) but sad, due to the personal tragedies behind the stories.
This book is a great read, a page-turner, and I suspect most readers will move on to read full accounts on some of the selected topics. Although the brands are chosen for their interesting stories, the author gives credit where credit is due and always tries to offer as balanced an account as possible of the people and the companies, making sure to emphasise how things have changed for most of them. It is a sobering thought to reflect upon the past of some of these household names, and it is important we don’t forget the lessons learned.
I recommend this book to anybody interested in brands, pop culture, history, and it will be a resource of interest to writers and researchers. (The notes contain bibliographical information for those interested in further reading). Another great addition to the publisher’s varied catalogue.
I would not class myself as particularly “brand-aware”. Although when I was younger I wanted to have the latest of everything, especially if all my friends had it (oh, the wonders of peer-pressure, even then), with time I’ve become quite skeptical about it, and I tend to avoid them if I can. (I understand the status thing, but I can’t see why I should have to pay and then, on top of that, be happy to advertise the product by making sure everybody knows what it is). Give me local craft any day! So, of course, I could not resist a book that promised to share with its readers ‘The Dark and Twisted Beginnings of the Brand Names We Know and Love’. And it delivers, for sure. I suspect if you are big authorities on the subject, you might already know a lot of the information contained in this book but if like me, you are just curious, this is a gem.
I’d never read anything by this author before, but his style is engaging and he pitches this volume at the right level for the subject: he includes the adequate amount of historical information about each one of the brands and characters (inventors, creators, public figures…) to make sure that the readers understand the context of each brand and its products, and then focuses on the more intriguing and less publicized aspects of their evolution. Some of them might be more familiar than others (I suspect a lot of readers will know about Coca-Cola and its early cocaine content), but even then, MacNabb manages to unearth elements of the story that are bizarre and less well-known (so Coca-Cola still contains extracts of coca leaves [no actual cocaine though, don’t worry!] supplied by the only lab in the US with a permit to import coca leaves).
While some of the chapters are curious and amusing (like the Coca-Cola one or the chapter on the Kellogg’s ‘war on sex’), some can be quite disturbing. There are many connections to Nazi Germany I was not aware of, like Hugo Boss’s manufacture of Nazi uniforms, Adidas & Puma’s Nazi connections (I had no idea the creators of these two brands were brothers, either), Chanel’s spying for the Germans (and the fact that the information was kept under wraps by the French government). For me, the most shocking were the chapters on Bayer (not so much the Heroin production, even if they seem to have become aware of its addicting properties quite early on, but its direct connection to slave labour and the production of Zyklon B, used in the gas chambers in the concentration camps), and Henry Ford and his anti-Semitic beliefs and writings (that seem to have inspired Hitler). The chapters on Winchester and Bakelite were intriguing (as I didn’t know anything at all about the history of the objects, other than some vague notion of the importance of the rifle) but sad, due to the personal tragedies behind the stories.
This book is a great read, a page-turner, and I suspect most readers will move on to read full accounts on some of the selected topics. Although the brands are chosen for their interesting stories, the author gives credit where credit is due and always tries to offer as balanced an account as possible of the people and the companies, making sure to emphasise how things have changed for most of them. It is a sobering thought to reflect upon the past of some of these household names, and it is important we don’t forget the lessons learned.
I recommend this book to anybody interested in brands, pop culture, history, and it will be a resource of interest to writers and researchers. (The notes contain bibliographical information for those interested in further reading). Another great addition to the publisher’s varied catalogue.
January 3, 2023
Convinced half this book was written by the PR teams of the companies and corporations in the book. The opener read like a ready made press release for the companies addressing what was in the book, and it showed up more periodically through out the book. He kept talking about how all this stuff was in the past (true) and the corporations/companies are good now (no) just completely hyping up the companies and in addition to just not really being important to the book, was just weird. The book felt a little droning and it covered the same information it felt like over and over because a lot of the stories were similar. This was a prime example of just because you did the research doesn’t mean it needs to be included. I did think this was a really interesting book with really great potential it just didn’t deliver. This has some really great stories in it some of them I knew, and all of them I learned something new about.
January 14, 2022
Excellent! Nice presentation of different brands, their creators and the bad decisions made along the way. I don’t want to go in the details of which company or products are featured, but I learned something I was wondering about in the bus in the 80s (never thought about it since, but still) so now I know what Adidas means… I was waiting for him to show up in Greek mythology but he never did!
There’s a couple of companies that I thought were more recent than they are. I mean Hugo Boss appeared in the 2000s in my world and he’s definitely Italian… okay, I might be way wrong about that. I’ll let you discover how wrong, if you don’t know either.
Very interesting material.
There’s a couple of companies that I thought were more recent than they are. I mean Hugo Boss appeared in the 2000s in my world and he’s definitely Italian… okay, I might be way wrong about that. I’ll let you discover how wrong, if you don’t know either.
Very interesting material.
January 19, 2023
This book I do recommend to all. You too will see why I will try not to use a Bayer product ever again, purchase a Ford vehicle and Hugo Boss clothing, eh? Must read to find out. Some darkness worse than others. Cocaine in Coca Cola is not a shocker, it is in the name for heavens sake. Lol. This was a very good and informative book. If you read do enjoy, and maybe change the way you view things on/in the marketplace.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 19, 2022
Super intriguing book and easy to listen to and engaging.
February 9, 2023
Spoiler Alert: Everyone was a Nazi in the 1930’s! But all these brands are totally cool now because they said they were very sorry.
Some interesting factoids in this book, but also many, many sentences that made no sense. For example:
“The result of Hoffman’s work would not, ironically, produce codeine, but rather a drug that is actually far less potent and more highly addictive than morphine, not to mention two and a half times more potent!”
Some interesting factoids in this book, but also many, many sentences that made no sense. For example:
“The result of Hoffman’s work would not, ironically, produce codeine, but rather a drug that is actually far less potent and more highly addictive than morphine, not to mention two and a half times more potent!”
February 20, 2023
The majority of this reading experience was learning how many of these brands were started by Nazis
March 19, 2023
Interesting parts but a lot of extra stuff that was off topic which made for a lot boredom.
January 22, 2022
Interesting that some of the most famous brands of today originated from wartimes when ingenuity was desperately needed - from uniforms for the Nazis to rifles for soldiers in the Civil War -
Learnt some new facts like Henry Ford was sympathetic to the Nazis and made an appearance in Mein Kampf - and that Chanel may have been a horrible person and spy for her Nazi lover … and that money makes families crazy…
Learnt some new facts like Henry Ford was sympathetic to the Nazis and made an appearance in Mein Kampf - and that Chanel may have been a horrible person and spy for her Nazi lover … and that money makes families crazy…
April 23, 2018
Expected More
There aren't as many brand name products as I expected, but a few like heroin and Adidas were pretty interesting. Some of the chapters were so wordy and involved, sometimes going off-topic, that I just skimmed them.
There aren't as many brand name products as I expected, but a few like heroin and Adidas were pretty interesting. Some of the chapters were so wordy and involved, sometimes going off-topic, that I just skimmed them.
October 3, 2018
Interesting topics well-researched. But the poor quality writing almost made it difficult to read.
April 13, 2020
Interesting but lots of misspellings and not because it is the English version of spelling.
July 15, 2025
I am from Michigan and 2 of the major chapters (Ford and Kelloggs) are well known to me. I will give the summery of the entire books. Most brands from WWII prior have Nazi connections. To the shock of no one, war spurs innovation. Ford was a racist and Kellogg was a religious nut. Also FYI Disney was not a good person, or Edison. People that create the big brands of the world are on the psychopath ladder. They do "whatever" they need to for business. This was a bit of a just the facts type book. I say if your curious your time would much be better spent watching the MANY history channel type shows covering this same topic.
January 6, 2023
Two stars are for the research that went into this book. The rest, well, it should have been titled, "Brands You Didn't Know had Nazi Ties" because I'd say 85% of the book was about these brands' affiliations to Hitler's horrible movement. I'm not diminishing that, it's just that if the book was mainly about one thing, it would have been nice to know in the title. There were a few glaring grammar landmines and at least one repeated paragraph. Made me think it wasn't professionally edited. But, kudos for the hours and hours spent on research. That must have been a colossal task.
May 1, 2023
Some Interesting Reality About Famous Products
For me, this book was a palate-cleanser between more serious works of history and biography. It served its purpose.
The book did offer some detail about product brands with forgotten sketchy pasts. There are a lot of skeletons in corporate closets and the book touches on several.
This author writes pretty well but from a rather flexible point of view. Others might have been more judgmental in their approach. This approach was careful.
Not exactly “judgment at Nuremberg” but a quick and interesting read.
For me, this book was a palate-cleanser between more serious works of history and biography. It served its purpose.
The book did offer some detail about product brands with forgotten sketchy pasts. There are a lot of skeletons in corporate closets and the book touches on several.
This author writes pretty well but from a rather flexible point of view. Others might have been more judgmental in their approach. This approach was careful.
Not exactly “judgment at Nuremberg” but a quick and interesting read.
July 3, 2024
Good book. It has A LOT of info and at times, I sort of zoned out. But I did totally agree with two major quotes from the book:
“It is important to keep those that are famous and well regarded, both in history and today’s world, off a pedestal. It is easy to glorify those that contribute to culture in a positive way.”
“It is my sincere hope that you take away from this book the reminder that we must never forget our history, a rule that should always be carefully regarded, lest we be doomed to repeat it.”
AMEN!
“It is important to keep those that are famous and well regarded, both in history and today’s world, off a pedestal. It is easy to glorify those that contribute to culture in a positive way.”
“It is my sincere hope that you take away from this book the reminder that we must never forget our history, a rule that should always be carefully regarded, lest we be doomed to repeat it.”
AMEN!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 94 reviews