impossible project

In the last two years, dozens of top retailers have liquidated merchandise, shuttered stores and filed for bankruptcy. But thanks to customer loyalty and management smarts, brands once given up for dead are now alive and kicking.

Judging by the way Polaroid distances itself from The Impossible Project, you might never realize that the small Dutch film maker saved Polaroid and its beloved instant photographs from extinction.

The eight-track tape never got a second chance. But things are looking up for instant film, which last year seemed destined to follow the sound-recording technology into the history books. A Polaroid licensee, the Summit Global Group, said Tuesday it would be re-launching Polaroid brand instant...