Iron Butterfly Revival Ahead?

Despite the breakup of the Grateful Dead because of Jerry Garcia’s death last year, look for a resurgence of the hippie in 1996.

That’s one of the predictions of the Trends Journal, a Rhinebeck, N.Y., publication that forecasts business and social trends for marketers and others.

In its “Top 10 Trends ‘96,� the newsletter predicts that “a new anti-Establishment activism is simmering among teenagers and preteens,� leading to protests and an “underground press� distributed through the Internet.

Protests will be aimed at the “culture of greed and materialism� and at “corporate America� rather than at the Pentagon, as it often was in the 1960s.

One main difference from the 1960s: “Today’s parents will agree and sympathize with their children’s complaints.�

All in the Family

Walt Disney’s recently filed Form 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission got a lot of attention because it included the employment contract of new President Michael S. Ovitz.

The document also disclosed this tidbit: Disney in its 1995 fiscal year paid $121,122 to an interior decorating firm owned by a director’s wife.

According to the document, Disney paid Impact Design, whose principal is Barbara Hale Thornhill, for work on a vacation club being built in Newport Beach.

Her husband is Gary L. Wilson, a Disney director and the company’s former chief financial officer.

Slammer for Rent

Madera County is trying to lure Hollywood to film at one of its more unusual landmarks: the California Women’s Correctional Facility in Chowchilla.

So far, Hollywood hasn’t come calling.

But film commissioner Brian Wilkinson is optimistic that Hollywood will soon discover what he boasts is the “largest women’s prison in the world� through film magazine ads the county is running.

For the slammer, Wilkinson says, it would be “a better business than making license plates, and more enjoyable.�

Biting the Bullet

It’s not exactly a decision that will make your teeth fall out, but the company that manufactures the Secure Denture Adhesive Paste plans to discontinue its claims that the product “out-holds the leading brands.�

The action came after manufacturing giant Procter & Gamble Co. complained about the John O. Butler Co.’s claim to the National Advertising Division of the Better Business Bureau.

P&G; submitted the results of tests measuring “the accurate measurement of the bite-force required to dislodge a denture and of the holding efficacy of a product over time� to support its claim.

Butler countered by claiming that the ‘bite-force’ P&G; used “may not be representative of actual use conditions throughout the day, which include many other actions than biting.�

In the end, Butler said it disagrees with any challenges raised about its claims but that it nonetheless will discontinue running those ads.