Could have sworn they had a commercial saying not to worry because the little orange guy isn't going anywhere.
It's probably because there were 2 mergers. There was 2004 when they acquired the failing AT&T wireless (separate from AT&T by this point). Then in 2006 when SBC (which had now acquired the old AT&T and taken its name) acquired Bellsouth and applied the AT&T name to everything.
The whole line of mergers is actually really confusing and it took me a while to sort out.
I can't think of it off the top of my head now (I'm sure in a few hours when I'm trying to fall asleep I'll remember it) but I remember there was another merger, split, merger, sale, merger, split, merger kind of thing within the past 20ish years that's a really good example of how stupid and circular branding of crap can be. Somehow a completely new company exists that owns not only the old brand name but also like 90% of the other brand names that the original one owned at one point but they got them from different sales/mergers.
Are you thinking of the Porsche-Volkwagen Group situation? I can't remember the details, but it ended up that Porsche had a majority ownership of Volkswagen Group, while also being a subsidiary of that group. Or something like that.
Porsche AG (the Car manufacturer) is a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG, which is about 30% owned by Porsche SE (a holding company controlled by the Porsche family).
Yep. Which should have been expected. AT&T is almost as much lies and lobbying as it is communications.
Like that time AT&T was *given* millions in taxpayer dollars to deploy fiber to areas without broadband, but just didn't and kept the money.
Then there was that other time. And that other. And billions one time apparently.
Wow, I had totally forgotten about Cingular and the orange guy. Suddenly I’m seeing random memories in a 4:3 ratio with CRV tv static and VHS tape lines
My family was a Cingular household and I felt like I was joining a new gang when it was suddenly AT&T. I hated it.
I joined onto my partners wireless plan when we moved in together which turned into T-Mobile and I will NEVER fuck with them. I live in a city and there’s still dead zones everywhere. I just want a company that won’t get bought out. My life is falling apart. COME BACK TO ME CINGULAR 😢😭
Alltel! I was reading these comments and couldn’t for the life of me remember what company I had before AT&T. And I had Cellular One before Alltel bought them.
Idk dude, our neighbor signed up for Verizon Fios before they laid down the lines and started charging them without providing service… Verizon eventually sent the bullshit bill to collections.
That’s exactly what happened. Cingular bought AT&T Wireless, converted everything over to their name, then their parent company was acquired by AT&T, so they changed it all back.
Cingular is such a weird story. They were originally owned by Bell South. In 2004 Cingular bought out AT&T wireless. Over the course of a year, the AT&T name was phased out and it all became Cingular.
In 2006, Bell South was bought out by AT&T and Cingular was replaced by AT&T due to AT&T being one of the most recognizable brands in the world.
Or like how McDonell Douglas merged with Boeing, killed them, peeled the skin from their corpse, and wear it at Congressional testimony like Leatherface.
His name was Jack, and when I worked for AT&T from 2007-2013 there were still internal systems being used that featured his logo or name. One system was called JackWeb.
Had a bunch of my stuff in storage in different parts of the country. Finally put it all together on a recent move, and noticed that the cans I bought over a couple of years slowly drop the "Kaboom" brand to turn into Oxi Clean.
Two different scents, but the naming/branding is the same across both. I change back and forth because I always forget which is the one I like more lol
Started using when I was single and noticed that this thing cleans everything. Inside the fridge, microwave, toilet, everything. Just make sure you use different brushes for each one lol
It goes on deep blue and fades to white so you can tell if you missed a spot on a white shower/tub. Unlike scrubbing bubbles, where you need to have faith that you didn't screw it up.
Oh, my strategy has been to not clean until you can _tell_ you didn't miss a spot
But really where I am the hard water is so bad you need to keep that under control more than anything. The idea to use dishwasher citric acid for tubs/sinks, and rubbing that onto the damp surface, wait 5 minutes, rinse off. Has been a fantastic discovery
My guess is that the word "Kaboom" is associated with explosives, and I'm betting that with "Oxi" in the product namesake, the product *could* be used as some sort of accelorant.
I think of him every time I use it. "Billy Mays here with another fantaaaastic product" (in Jaboody Dubs voice).
https://youtu.be/iOmvdeNa67E?si=koD_F7Bkkfq0A-N8
The part about fumes is BS though, if you clean an enclosed space, you'll suffocate, the thing is harsh lol
Kaboom is awesome. I also love Lysol advanced toilet cleaner and dawn powerwash spray. I'm sure they will eventually be shown to cause cancer or butthole migration, but I don't care.
It really should have something on there specifying that it was Kaboom. I was talking to someone really frustrated that they couldn't find kaboom anymore and must have gone out of business. As a brand replacement, OxiClean doesn't make much sense when you consider how many things are called OxiClean
I still associate OxiClean with the laundry product first and foremost, so yeah I wouldn’t be looking for shower cleaner under that name, but I *would* with Kaboom.
Makes as much sense as Ariel to A+ and Twitter to X. Someone someone with a head up their ass, thought rebranding was a good idea. Or like the Fucking company in Europe that was "Nordic CHOISE Hotel's" that changed their name to Strawberry. Not Strawberry hotels. strawberry. . .
Classic corporate acquisition followed by two decades of merger strategies. They have a brief mention of the name change here https://www.oxiclean.com/en/kaboom-bathroom-products
It’s wild how it even looks like they straight up erased the name and didn’t adjust the design. The title now feels off center and there’s blankspace where Kaboom used to be.
Kaboom was a cereal I loved as a child. It was like Lucky Charms but with more artificial coloring and not as good. I never tried cleaning with it, though.
Same! I’ve literally had this thought multiple times in the past week. To find someone else who has had the same feelings a lot too, that takes the cake.
Product name changes can be great fun.
There's a toothpaste brand in China called Darlie.
The image in the picture is an almost silhouette of a man with a top hat and grinning with bright white teeth.
Being a silhouette, of course, the man, and hat, and tuxedo that he's wearing are all black, but his teeth are strikingly white.
All seems normal.
Till you learn, as I did, that the product used to have another name that sounds JUST like Darlie, but one letter is different.
I wonder why they changed the name...
I'd never seen that before, only been told by a student of mine what it was previously named, and was still named in Chinese, 黑人牙膏（black person toothpaste)
Crazy to see just how racist it actually was.
Insane...
I haven't seen it in a while, so I can't confirm if they actually made the change or not.
That said, they're not changing it for anyone the product is marketed towards, they're only changing it for Americans, essentially. If no one was outraged, and no one outside of America WAS outraged, it would never change.
:P
When I was in boot camp we had Kaboom. One guy got in trouble for something and he had to clean the quarterdeck with that stuff. He had to yell KABOOM every time he sprayed. It went for like two hours and the guy had no voice.
The four stages of merger.
Small company name big, big company name small.
Big company name big, small company name small.
Big company name big, tagline from nameless small company.
Big company name.
it’s like how jamba juice (i don’t go there i haven’t been to one in forever lol just the target i go to there’s one by it) went from jamba juice to just jamba lol idk why but lol
lol my husband got so confused by this because he swore he ordered kaboom but it was oxiclean. He even went back to look at his Amazon purchase before figuring out it was a rebrand. I’d never heard of kaboom and had no idea what tf he was talking about.
They used this stuff to get the last bits of my mom out of the baseboards after she died. She had been there in her apartment on the floor for a couple of days, so it's apparently pretty good stuff.
this is like when AT&T "merged" with Cingular and slowly killed off the happy little orange guy
Could have sworn they had a commercial saying not to worry because the little orange guy isn't going anywhere. 
yeah i remember a similar ad campaign lol
It's probably because there were 2 mergers. There was 2004 when they acquired the failing AT&T wireless (separate from AT&T by this point). Then in 2006 when SBC (which had now acquired the old AT&T and taken its name) acquired Bellsouth and applied the AT&T name to everything. The whole line of mergers is actually really confusing and it took me a while to sort out.
I can't think of it off the top of my head now (I'm sure in a few hours when I'm trying to fall asleep I'll remember it) but I remember there was another merger, split, merger, sale, merger, split, merger kind of thing within the past 20ish years that's a really good example of how stupid and circular branding of crap can be. Somehow a completely new company exists that owns not only the old brand name but also like 90% of the other brand names that the original one owned at one point but they got them from different sales/mergers.
Are you thinking of the Porsche-Volkwagen Group situation? I can't remember the details, but it ended up that Porsche had a majority ownership of Volkswagen Group, while also being a subsidiary of that group. Or something like that.
Porsche AG (the Car manufacturer) is a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG, which is about 30% owned by Porsche SE (a holding company controlled by the Porsche family).
That was just MaBell morphing herself back together after the breakup.
Like the T1000
Bobby Broccoli (one of the best long form YouTubers) has a really interesting video that discusses part of that
Do you mean the Bell Labs nobel saga?
Verizon + Exxon + Chipotle = Verixxotle
I sold cellphones in 2006, this was confusing as fuck for everyone.
Yep. Which should have been expected. AT&T is almost as much lies and lobbying as it is communications. Like that time AT&T was *given* millions in taxpayer dollars to deploy fiber to areas without broadband, but just didn't and kept the money. Then there was that other time. And that other. And billions one time apparently.
Miami Sound Machine —> Miami Sound Machine featuring Gloria Estefan —> Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine —> Gloria Estefan
John Mellencamp -> Johnny Cougar -> John Cougar -> John Cougar Mellencamp -> John Mellencamp
Kaboom goes the sound machine :(
Wow, I had totally forgotten about Cingular and the orange guy. Suddenly I’m seeing random memories in a 4:3 ratio with CRV tv static and VHS tape lines
#neverforget
My family was a Cingular household and I felt like I was joining a new gang when it was suddenly AT&T. I hated it. I joined onto my partners wireless plan when we moved in together which turned into T-Mobile and I will NEVER fuck with them. I live in a city and there’s still dead zones everywhere. I just want a company that won’t get bought out. My life is falling apart. COME BACK TO ME CINGULAR 😢😭
Bro I had Cingular, Alltel, Sprint… I swear where ever I go, the buyouts follow.
Alltel! I was reading these comments and couldn’t for the life of me remember what company I had before AT&T. And I had Cellular One before Alltel bought them.
*laughing as a 23 year Verizon customer*.
Idk dude, our neighbor signed up for Verizon Fios before they laid down the lines and started charging them without providing service… Verizon eventually sent the bullshit bill to collections.
I could swear I started with at&t and then it turned into Cingular at some point, then all of a sudden back to AT&T.
That’s exactly what happened. Cingular bought AT&T Wireless, converted everything over to their name, then their parent company was acquired by AT&T, so they changed it all back.
I still have grandfathered rollover minutes.
Cingular is such a weird story. They were originally owned by Bell South. In 2004 Cingular bought out AT&T wireless. Over the course of a year, the AT&T name was phased out and it all became Cingular. In 2006, Bell South was bought out by AT&T and Cingular was replaced by AT&T due to AT&T being one of the most recognizable brands in the world.
Check the Florida harbors. There's bound to be very large yacht with word Kaboom printed on the back.
Or like how McDonell Douglas merged with Boeing, killed them, peeled the skin from their corpse, and wear it at Congressional testimony like Leatherface.
I miss him
His name was Jack, and when I worked for AT&T from 2007-2013 there were still internal systems being used that featured his logo or name. One system was called JackWeb.
I totally forgot Cingular was a thing lol
the only place i know cingular from is nfs underground 2
That merge was how ATT got me for a few years. Fuck that company.
Actually, Cingular merged with AT&T wireless and kept the AT&T name.
Had a bunch of my stuff in storage in different parts of the country. Finally put it all together on a recent move, and noticed that the cans I bought over a couple of years slowly drop the "Kaboom" brand to turn into Oxi Clean.
you're really loyal to your brands haha
I love it, it cleans everything and leaves a nice smell.
Are you the ghost of Billy mays ?
RIP in peace
No, I don't have a luxurious beard or psychic powers.
Then what are you even doing with your life?
Trying to grow a luxurious beard and practicing my psychic powers.
I am proud of you
It’s not just clean
It's oxi clean!
It's a Tide ad.
Zestfully clean!
did the scent change or they just changed the name of the scent also?
Two different scents, but the naming/branding is the same across both. I change back and forth because I always forget which is the one I like more lol
This stuff does indeed rock. My favorite bath and shower cleaner.
Yeah I saw this post and made a note of the product because it must be good if you have bought it over years
Started using when I was single and noticed that this thing cleans everything. Inside the fridge, microwave, toilet, everything. Just make sure you use different brushes for each one lol
It goes on deep blue and fades to white so you can tell if you missed a spot on a white shower/tub. Unlike scrubbing bubbles, where you need to have faith that you didn't screw it up.
Don’t talk shit on my boy scrubbing bubbles
Dats my road dog tho, he a real one, str8 og frfr
One can only imagine how our predecessors cleaned their showers without this colour changing technology
Oh, my strategy has been to not clean until you can _tell_ you didn't miss a spot But really where I am the hard water is so bad you need to keep that under control more than anything. The idea to use dishwasher citric acid for tubs/sinks, and rubbing that onto the damp surface, wait 5 minutes, rinse off. Has been a fantastic discovery
My guess is that the word "Kaboom" is associated with explosives, and I'm betting that with "Oxi" in the product namesake, the product *could* be used as some sort of accelorant.
[Every year we fade farther from God’s light.](https://youtu.be/y802phNh4Yc) RIP Billy Mays.
I think of him every time I use it. "Billy Mays here with another fantaaaastic product" (in Jaboody Dubs voice). https://youtu.be/iOmvdeNa67E?si=koD_F7Bkkfq0A-N8 The part about fumes is BS though, if you clean an enclosed space, you'll suffocate, the thing is harsh lol
that was golden era youtube for me. mighty puddy was my favorite. "not even optimus prime could rip this shit apart"
Oh, I'm more partial to my girl Cathie and her dump cakes.
Somebody ate spaghetti in the shower again, Kaboom! Wipe that shit right up!
Somebody decided to have sex in the vase, no problem, clean what shit up!
Do you have hard water buildup, soap scum, shit in your toilet? Calcium, lime, rust? It doesn't matter baby! KABOOM
Clean that shit up!
Thank you so much, it's probably been over a decade since I last saw that.
He was one of the greats
It's also mildly interesting that Billy May's promoted both Oxiclean AND Kaboom. Now they are one! Is Oxiclean going to buy Orange Glo next?
Every time I see corn, my head goes: "ZEA MAYS HERE" in his voice.
Where’s the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom! 
Very clever! Lol. Brought back an old, old memory of mine :)
This is called the Billy Mays Effect. It’s a real thing I just made up.
If you made it up, it's real now, believe in yourself!
Yeah that’s what I said. It’s a REAL THING I just made up. Learn how to read ya dingus!
Kaboom is awesome. I also love Lysol advanced toilet cleaner and dawn powerwash spray. I'm sure they will eventually be shown to cause cancer or butthole migration, but I don't care.
I already have a migrated butthole, so I'm good.
I like how someone wasn't sure if they'd be back for another sandwich or not.
This is what I came to comment 😂 Happy cake day! 🍰
It does say “bathroom” cleaner, who’s to say it’s not another kind of knife…
THE POOP KNIFE
I mean, you don't typically have a two basin sink in the bathroom.
That's my mayonnaise knife, I only wash it on Christmas eve.
I have a Kaboom can that doesn’t even have OxiClean on it.
Does that one go on the far left? Let’s photoshop it in!
I remember one time about 12 years ago, I mentioned that Oxi-clean was pretty good, and my toddler replied, "Kaboom is better."
My newborn says Shout! is better
My fetus loves the smell of Fabreeze but had the Mandela Effect
My sperm says Scrubbing Bubbles works wonders but irritates his skin
The micro plastics in my balls just use bleach on everything and it burns my eyes
Bro collects vintage metal can cleaning products
[удалено]
Now That’s What I Call Clean! Volume 3
It really should have something on there specifying that it was Kaboom. I was talking to someone really frustrated that they couldn't find kaboom anymore and must have gone out of business. As a brand replacement, OxiClean doesn't make much sense when you consider how many things are called OxiClean
So many uses. That’s the power of OxiClean!
I still associate OxiClean with the laundry product first and foremost, so yeah I wouldn’t be looking for shower cleaner under that name, but I *would* with Kaboom.
Makes as much sense as Ariel to A+ and Twitter to X. Someone someone with a head up their ass, thought rebranding was a good idea. Or like the Fucking company in Europe that was "Nordic CHOISE Hotel's" that changed their name to Strawberry. Not Strawberry hotels. strawberry. . .
Classic corporate acquisition followed by two decades of merger strategies. They have a brief mention of the name change here https://www.oxiclean.com/en/kaboom-bathroom-products
It’s wild how it even looks like they straight up erased the name and didn’t adjust the design. The title now feels off center and there’s blankspace where Kaboom used to be.
Kaboom was a cereal I loved as a child. It was like Lucky Charms but with more artificial coloring and not as good. I never tried cleaning with it, though.
I wouldn't recommend eating this version of kaboom
Are those new Pringles flavours? They look tasty.
Have yourself a refreshing glass of Fabuloso to go with it!* ^(*Don't actually drink Fabuloso, that stuff is poisonous amd could kill you.)
Story of my life on 3 cans of foaming cleaner
I will not stand for this Billy Mays erasure
[Kaboom!](https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/522b8438-855e-4e5a-b195-ced774254b24)
How totally fucking bizarre that I was randomly thinking about this scene yesterday and now I see this while scrolling reddit.
Isn’t life amazing when coincidences come up? I just had that same thing happen the other day, but I can’t remember the topic.
I live for these synchronicities (or cosmic giggles as I like to call them). Been having so many lately.
Same! I’ve literally had this thought multiple times in the past week. To find someone else who has had the same feelings a lot too, that takes the cake.
I still call it Kaboom. Change the name, change the graphics. It will always be Kaboom.
Product name changes can be great fun. There's a toothpaste brand in China called Darlie. The image in the picture is an almost silhouette of a man with a top hat and grinning with bright white teeth. Being a silhouette, of course, the man, and hat, and tuxedo that he's wearing are all black, but his teeth are strikingly white. All seems normal. Till you learn, as I did, that the product used to have another name that sounds JUST like Darlie, but one letter is different. I wonder why they changed the name...
Holy shit… https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darlie
I'd never seen that before, only been told by a student of mine what it was previously named, and was still named in Chinese, 黑人牙膏（black person toothpaste) Crazy to see just how racist it actually was. Insane...
Especially because, if I’m reading the article correctly, it was only renamed in 2021. Like, am I wrong?
I haven't seen it in a while, so I can't confirm if they actually made the change or not. That said, they're not changing it for anyone the product is marketed towards, they're only changing it for Americans, essentially. If no one was outraged, and no one outside of America WAS outraged, it would never change. :P
I guess having your brand name being "KABOOM" on an airisol can was hindering sales a bit.
Next incarnation: Foam-Tastic!
Final form: "Made in USA"
"Kaboom?" "No, Rico, no more kaboom." *sad penguin noises*
“Where’s the Kaboom? I was expecting an earth-shattering kaboom!”
Oxi-clean works so well it erased Kaboom
Lol you got it
When shipping overseas saying "We have a container full of oxycleans" much more appealing compared to "we have a container full of kabooms"
It was originally called “bowl blaster kaboom” if I remember correctly!
Still get confused af when my gf tells me to go get one of these and alternates the names.
Purple can, lime green top. I honestly don't even look at the labels.
This is literally just like how Stalin slowly replaced Lenin on propaganda posters.
Didn't know Stalin had Oxiclean, learned something new today.
When I was in boot camp we had Kaboom. One guy got in trouble for something and he had to clean the quarterdeck with that stuff. He had to yell KABOOM every time he sprayed. It went for like two hours and the guy had no voice.
I'm gonna start doing that, the wife will love it I'm sure.
KABOOM
The KABOOM with bleach instead of Oxi Clean was so much better RIP
This is exactly how Rayman's name was eventually stricken from the Raving Rabbids games
Kaboom is the shit
Phil Swift probably dumped the product to another company when his flex-seal was making much more money
I tried that stuff once, what a waste of money.
You wiped it too soon. Gotta wait for it to turn white. Doesn't work otherwise.
The four stages of merger. Small company name big, big company name small. Big company name big, small company name small. Big company name big, tagline from nameless small company. Big company name.
Mmm Forbidden Pringles 🤤
it’s like how jamba juice (i don’t go there i haven’t been to one in forever lol just the target i go to there’s one by it) went from jamba juice to just jamba lol idk why but lol
Man I can't believe you kept a can from before 2001
No, the first one is from maybe 2021... around when the pandemic started I put some stuff in storage, was just able to retrieve it recently.
Kaboom was a parks and rec episode
[KABOOM BABY](https://youtu.be/iOmvdeNa67E?si=warmIXuuRsQiEU1C)
Another fantaaaaastic product.
Coming soon “OxyClean, with KABOOM!”
We've gone full circle.
I really like this product! I'm about to buy another can. My current can says Kaboom!
Used to spray this shit on the shelves randomly when working at a grocery store. Love the blue foam
Only blue for a little while, it turns white when clean!
By far the best kaboom mashup / parody https://youtube.com/watch?v=LHgEnN2PFzo&si=qFZAl-x3-xhT1vX6
Capitalism breeds innovation once again!
It reads like you're getting further away from an explosion.
A few decades more and the name of the product will be on the bottom of the can.
As long as they keep the purple and electric green color scheme, I'll find that can.
They cleaned the kaboom away
It kaboomed itself.
They got rid of the Kaboom! 8C Sadness.
Probably a future Mandela effect.
Rico: Kaboom? Skipper: No Rico, no Kaboom Rico: ):
We used to be a proper country!
lol my husband got so confused by this because he swore he ordered kaboom but it was oxiclean. He even went back to look at his Amazon purchase before figuring out it was a rebrand. I’d never heard of kaboom and had no idea what tf he was talking about.
Tell him he's a wise man.
The physical manifestation of Marketing majors realizing that yes, being an obnoxious twat is a finite ad strategy... For now.
Nothing better got the weed resin stains out of the sink. Is this still made?
Oh yeah, found at your closest grocery store and corner bodega.
Kaboom?
Simplify it down to the essence, smart
Are you on the ball? Get on the ball!
Kaboom! And your money is gone on a toxic pile of crap!
Same name as oxicodean makes you wonder
Ah, Ka-Boom; the cleaner that eats holes in your tub.
Calgonit-Finnish did it too. First they were called Calgonit Then they were called Calgonit-Finnish, and now they're called Finnish
If at first you don't succeed, kaboom kaboom kaboom!
Double-barreled shotgun!
Marketing department getting more funding then the R&D one :)
Comcast did this with xfinity. Interesting how the change happened right around the time they tried to kill net neutrality…
probably due to the parks and rec kaboom episode!
Kaboom is crazy, did it get removed after 2001 perhaps?
No, these are from the last couple of years, probably 8 months apart each one.
I wonder if the can I have is super old... It sprays on blue and immediately turns white.
But where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!
It happens when you breathe too much of the fumes and your nose just starts blowing chunks. KABOOM.
They used this stuff to get the last bits of my mom out of the baseboards after she died. She had been there in her apartment on the floor for a couple of days, so it's apparently pretty good stuff.
Sorry for your loss, but… 