Bob Barker brand soap ... who knew?

[Kniwt]

So I'm watching the 6 o'clock TV news tonight, and there's a story about a prison hunger strike because of issues about soap. And the camera zooms in close on a bar of soap in a wrapper that boldly proclaims "Bob Barker." Say what?

A couple of searches later, and I find that Snopes has the story:

Second, the Bob Barker of prison toiletries and clothing fame is not the TV game show host, but a former North Carolina State Senator who got into the jail supply business after a busy career that included starting his own newspaper, becoming mayor of his town, and selling restaurant equipment. Bob Barker Company, Inc., which describes itself as "America's Leading Detention Supplier," began in the late 1970s.

Being as I've never spent time in the big house, this was mildly interesting to me.

[Kevin Prather]

A fun article about it, courtesy of snopes.com.

[rebelwrest]

Secondly confirmed. Sometimes while performing audits of county commissions, I have to test revenues and expenses of the prison under the control of the county.  Many times I have come upon the invoices from the "Bob Barker Company" for clothing.  A lot of nice people work in a prison.

[CarbonCpy]

In some alternate universe, there's a commercial with a tagline like "Barker's Beauty Body Wash: Go ahead, rub a little Bob on you today!"

[ET206]

I teach in a prison in North Carolina.  There's been a number of occasions when I've had to explain that the "Price is Right" guy and prison industry guy were not the same.  One student was actually sad that it wasn't the same person.

[DrBear]

I'd put something on the label about "Control the prison population: Have your convicts spayed or neutered" and watch the fun.