Craig McNamara writes

In a post on May 19 of last year, I traced the apparent inspiration for this 1970 At&T ad back to the look of The Beatle's 1968 "Yellow Submarine," movie. The art director behind that movie's graphics, Heinz Edelmann, passed away recently. Interestingly, as the NY Times reports, Despite the huge influence of “Yellow Submarine” on the culture of the time, Mr. Edelmann admitted that he could never quite connect with the 1960s aesthetic. Once the film was complete, he altered his approach to avoid being pigeonholed as a psychedelic artist, becoming considerably less ethereal and decorative... Some examples of Edelmann's (non-psychedelic) poster work can be seen here .

In its obit for John S. Barry, the exec who's credited with making WD-40 the lubricant found in 80% of American homes, the NY Times says Mr. Barry acknowledged in interviews with Forbes magazine in 1980 and 1988 that other companies, including giants like 3M and DuPont, made products that closely resembled WD-40. “What they don’t have,” he said, “is the name.”