300 years ago, the common potato was so looked down upon in Russia that peasants wouldn’t even grow the vegetable, nevermind eat it. Religious groups even had a nickname for the potato, “Devil’s Apples”.

According to Rory Sutherland in his famous TED conference talk, he shared that the Russian government aimed to make potatoes more widely accepted because they wanted people to start growing them. They did so by increasing their perceived value.