Heads-UP #27: From Wax Flowers to Roadside Billboards

Welcome to this week’s Heads-UP, our weekly round up of interesting things we discovered on the internet. This week we went behind the scenes of our most beloved films and discovered that billboards have been around since the  late 1800’s…

  • The candy flower cup that Gene Wilder bit into in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was actually made of wax. – Lynn

  • Roadside billboards became popular in 1908 when the Model T Ford was introduced. More people were on the road, hence more people were exposed to billboards! – Krish
  • Geneva, Switzerland has one of the highest quality of life in the world but also has the one of the highest cost of living. – Bill
  • Before RedBull, Chaleo Yoovidhya introduced a drink called Krating Daeng in 1976 in Thailand, (which means “red gaur”). Guess what: It was popular among Thai truck drivers and workers – Laurent
  • Saw was filmed in 18 days. – Kirit
  • In China, the share of automobiles in retail sales at large establishments went up to 27.8% in 2016 from 18.3% in 2005. – Maïa
  • Oxford University is older than the Aztec Empire.