A man wowed the internet after discovering an old Mountain Dew can inside the wall of his home during renovations.
On Thursday, Ben—who uses the handle AlternativeEgomaniac on Reddit—shared the image with the internet after the can was found while he was doing some renovation works in Niagara Falls, Canada.
The old can features a design that commenters suggest was from a promotion in the 1970s, featuring a “Play Buckshots” graphic and a classic Mountain Dew logo below.
Ben told Newsweek: “I was at work where we are going through renovations and one of the workers found the can after pulling out some drywall.
“I googled the can and found it was from the mid-1970s.”
The original Mountain Dew was invented in the 1940s by Tennessee brothers Barney and Ally Hartman. Marketed in Virginia and Tennessee, for the first few years of the company’s existence, the Hartman brothers gave Mountain Dew a classic hillbilly-inspired design, like the one found on this can.
Expansion of the Brand
In 1964, the Pepsi-Cola company acquired the Mountain Dew brand, and production grew wider. According to a timeline on a Mountain Dew fan wiki page, the Willy the Hillbilly promotion began in 1965 with numerous designs featuring the cartoon and the phrase: “It’ll tickle yore innards!”
Almost 10 years later in 1973, Pepsi gave Mountain Dew a fresh re-brand, abandoning the hillbilly style and changing the logo in an attempt to appeal to a new customer base.
“Cool find. I love finding this kind of thing,” said one commenter on the Reddit post that showcased the discovery: “Every home improvement project becomes a potential time capsule.”
“Neat! I dig the artwork on it,” said another reply.
A quick search online revealed that another version of the 70s soda can—albeit in slightly better shape—sold on eBay for just over $120. But Ben has different plans for his discovery and said: “I think I’m going to gift it to a friend who is interested in collecting old things like that.”
When it comes to catching a glimpse of some of the soda brand’s classic packaging yourself, the East Tennessee Historical Society has shared its “It’ll Tickle Yore Innards – A (Hillbilly) History of Mountain Dew” exhibit with a wider audience at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol, Virginia, where it’s showing until August 7, 2022.
“I wonder if this was put in the wall out of laziness or by some person who liked the idea of a makeshift time capsule. Of trash,” said another commenter on the Reddit post: “Either way, I think it’s cool.”
Not the only unusual discovery in a house wall, back in April another home renovator wowed the internet when he discovered a 60-year-old McDonald’s in the walls of a building in Illinois, including still-intact fries.
AlternativeEgomaniac/Reddit
