The Potato Story – Once upon a time nobody in Europe wanted to eat potato. The royalty saw potatoes as an anti famine vegetable, but for the peasants it was a dirty looking vegetable with no taste. In many European countries, the royalty forced the farmers to grow the vegetable. The peasants weren’t happy being ordered to grow potato though, and in most of the European countries potato was rejected. But in such times there was a country where peasants were stealing potato plants from the king’s royal garden to grow it. Such was its popularity. The country was Prussia, and what was surprising that potato a couple of years back didn’t hold any appeal for the local Prussians. Infact in 1774 King Frederick of Prussia had placed an order for the peasants to grow potatoes as protection against famine, the town of Kolberg came up with a list of drawbacks – “The things have neither smell nor taste, not even the dogs will eat them, so what use are they to us?” So, how did the once rejected vegetable became a huge hit with the farmers and locals? The answer – a succesful rebranding strategy by King Frederick that changed the way people saw potato.