r/ForgottenArchive

 

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> ### 📁 ARCHIVE RECORD | AMAZON DASH BUTTONS > * Date / Period: 2015–2019 > * Associated With: Amazon.com, Inc. - creator and operator > * Category: Forgotten Technology > * Defining Feature: Brand-specific Wi-Fi buttons that placed a configured product order with one press. > * Status: Discontinued - device sales ended on 28 February 2019 and ordering support ended on 31 August 2019.

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📝 Overview

Amazon Dash Buttons were Wi-Fi devices that let Prime members reorder everyday products with one press.

Each button was set up through Amazon’s shopping app and linked to a particular product. They were usually kept close to whatever they ordered — beside the washing machine for detergent, in the kitchen for coffee, or wherever else they were needed. Pressing the button placed an order, with a phone notification giving the customer a chance to review or cancel it.

Amazon introduced Dash Buttons in the United States in 2015, before expanding them to parts of Europe and Japan. The company stopped selling the physical buttons worldwide on 28 February 2019, and existing buttons stopped placing orders on 31 August that year.

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💡 Why It Mattered

For a few years, Amazon wanted buying something online to be as simple as pressing a button. Dash Buttons turned something normally hidden inside a website or app into a physical object in the home — running low on washing powder could literally mean pressing the Ariel button beside the washing machine.

They disappeared almost as quickly as they arrived. Subscriptions, voice assistants and automatic reordering made dedicated buttons increasingly unnecessary, leaving them as a very particular piece of mid-2010s technology — when putting Wi-Fi into everyday objects still felt new.

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💬 Archive Memory Check

Do you remember using or seeing an Amazon Dash Button in someone’s home?

👇 Primary sources, technical records, and historical breakdown in pinned comment.

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Forgotten things are still part of history.

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> ### 📁 ARCHIVE RECORD | WRIGLEY’S EXTRA THIN ICE > * Date / Period: 2003–2007 > * Associated With: Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company - developer, owner and marketer > * Category: Forgotten Food & Drinks > * Defining Feature: Micro-thin breath-freshening films that dissolved on the tongue > * Status: Discontinued - UK withdrawal reported in April 2007

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📝 Overview

Wrigley’s Extra Thin Ice was a range of breath-freshening strips that dissolved on the tongue.

Announced in October 2002, it reached British shops in January 2003 as Wrigley’s first UK non-gum product. Peppermint launched first, with spearmint following in April 2003.

Marketing Week later reported a £5 million launch investment and said in April 2007 that Wrigley was axing the range.

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💡 Why It Mattered

Extra Thin Ice offered a different way to freshen your breath: a tiny film that disappeared on your tongue, with no gum left to chew or throw away.

For a brand associated with chewing gum, that was a noticeable change. The unfamiliar texture was part of the experience—and its disappearance from British shelves in 2007 made it a short-lived alternative to the familiar packet of Extra.

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💬 Archive Memory Check

What do you remember about trying Extra Thin Ice?

👇 Primary sources, technical records, and historical breakdown in pinned comment.

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Forgotten things are still part of history.

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> ### 📁 ARCHIVE RECORD | LYONS MAID HAUNTED HOUSE ICE CREAM LOLLY > * Date / Period: 1973 > * Associated With: Lyons Maid Ltd - ice cream producer > * Category: Forgotten Food & Drinks > * Defining Feature: Coloured horror pictures printed directly on the ice cream and concealed by the wrapper > * Status: Discontinued — exact withdrawal date unconfirmed

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📝 Overview

Lyons Maid Haunted House was an ice cream lolly with a coloured horror picture hidden beneath its wrapper.

A purple-and-black wrapper showed a crooked house, moon, bats and witch-like figure. When opened, it revealed one of a reported set of eight monster pictures printed directly on the ice cream in edible pink, orange, red, green or blue colouring. The Lyons Maid product chronology dates Haunted House to July 1973 and lists its price as 4p.

Associated promotional badges carried the haunted-house imagery beyond the ice cream, and several designs survive. A surviving “New Horrors” wrapper identifies vanilla ice cream, though the complete picture range, withdrawal date and extent of distribution remain unclear.

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💡 Why It Mattered

Haunted House made the ice cream itself the attraction: the monster picture was something you discovered and then ate. That gave it a different appeal from a novelty sold through a famous television character or a toy inside the packaging.

The most distinctive part was also temporary. Wrappers and badges could be kept, but the printed ice cream could not—which helps explain why surviving packaging tells only part of its story.

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💬 Archive Memory Check

Do you remember unwrapping Haunted House to see which coloured monster picture you had?

👇 Primary sources, technical records, and historical breakdown in pinned comment.

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🔗 Explore the Archive

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Forgotten things are still part of history.

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> ### 📁 ARCHIVE RECORD | GHOSTWATCH > * Date / Period: 1992 > * Associated With: BBC Films - production company; Stephen Volk - writer; Lesley Manning - director > * Category: Forgotten TV & Film > * Defining Feature: A scripted ghost story presented in the visual language of live factual television > * Status: Preserved - survives through catalogue records, home-media editions and retrospective screenings

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📝 Overview

Ghostwatch was a 1992 BBC Screen One drama that made a scripted haunting look like live television.

Familiar presenters and a phone-in made the investigation feel like an ordinary BBC broadcast. Handheld footage and awkward camera movements added to the illusion. Sarah Greene reported from inside the family’s supposedly haunted home. Craig Charles interviewed people outside while Michael Parkinson anchored the studio.

The opening credits identified it as a drama, but some viewers believed they were watching a real investigation. The Broadcasting Standards Council received 35 formal complaints and later ruled that the BBC’s warnings were inadequate.

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💡 Why It Mattered

The programme exposed how much viewers’ trust depended on familiar faces and broadcasting conventions. A studio discussion, a phone-in and an apparent technical fault could make fiction feel credible even when drama credits were present. As the haunting appeared to reach the studio itself, the broadcast became part of the threat.

Its reputation outlasted the initial controversy. DVD and Blu-ray releases brought Ghostwatch to new audiences, while anniversary screenings kept its reputation alive. Even knowing it was fiction, viewers could still find themselves drawn into the illusion.

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💬 Archive Memory Check

Did you watch Ghostwatch when it was first shown, when did you realise it was a drama?

👇 Primary sources, technical records, and historical breakdown in pinned comment.

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🔗 Explore the Archive

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Forgotten things are still part of history.

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