For today's posting, we pay tribute to the classic commercials of yesteryear, beginning with Jim Henson's hilarious Wilkins Coffee ads.
The "I Want My Maypo" commercials by John Hubley's studio no doubt sold tons of cereal.
We at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog have a sneaking suspicion that, from his extremely hyper, overenthusiastic and frequently unhinged behavior, Sonny the Cocoa Puffs bird was actually cuckoo for COCA PUFFS.
Mr. Magoo was cuckoo for STAG BEER!
Those of us in a certain age group don't remember friends, lovers, places we lived and six month sections of our own lives but have perfect recall of the Choo Choo Charlie theme from Good & Plenty commercials.
What could be considered the worst, most noxious ear-worm EVER, even more than 1960's bubblegum teenybopper records by the Ohio Express and The 1910 Fruitgum Company? That would be the equally uber-catchy (and equally uber-annoying) ditty from the Oscar Meyer commercials.
Never could come close to falling in love with Oscar Meyer Wieners or Oscar Mayer Bologna ("my bologna has a first name"), but certainly tried.
UPA produced a series of very cool "cartoon modern" spots for Oldsmobile.
And, speaking of very cool ads, here's one for American Oil animated by the one, the only Rod Scribner. Thanks for posting, Mike Kazaleh!
Among the ubiquitous characters in animated ads from the early years of television were the Ajax Elves, produced by Shamus Culhane's studio.
Another sponsor with animated ads (IIRC, also created by Shamus Culhane Productions) was HALO SHAMPOO! If you, dear reader, are among the classic comedy geeks who have binge-watched episodes of the The Colgate Comedy Hour starring Martin & Lewis (and hope a kinescope of the February 22, 1953 Colgate Comedy Hour starring The Ritz Brothers turns up), you've seen lots of Halo Shampoo commercials!
It would be an understatement to suggest that classic cartoon characters pitched products, especially cereals, all the time.
Yogi Bear not only starred in his own commercials, but had his own cereal. I remember OKS and they weren't half bad!
Since Quaker Oats had to compete with Kellogg's, Cap'n Crunch, which stays crunchy, even in milk, was invented.
Quaker Oats execs were golf pals with Jay Ward, so the studio that made Rocky & His Friends, Hoppity Hooper and George Of The Jungle went on to produce numerous Cap'n Crunch commercials, prominently featuring such ace voice artists as June Foray and Daws Butler.
After the success of Cap'n Crunch, Quaker Oats tried out LOTS of cereals. Two were Quisp & Quake. The question remains, how could Quisp cereal not sell, with Daws Butler enthusiastically claiming "it's from outer space!"
Another short-lived cereal: Quangaroos
Who could forget King Vitaman! Actually, I did, but the commercials are great.
The ultimate in cartoon commercials would be the Linus The Lionhearted TV show by Ed Graham Jr. Productions. The stars were characters from Post cereal boxes (Alpha-Bits, Sugar Crisp, Rice Krinkles, Crispy Critters).
Linus The Lionhearted was a clever and enjoyable series with an original and distinctive sense of humor.
Film historian, Joe Penner fan and ace animator Mark Kausler wrote a Cartoon Research article about Linus The Lionhearted that is an excellent read.
The show had its charms and featured voice characterizations by Sheldon Leonard, Carl Reiner, Ruth Buzzi, Jesse White, Paul Frees and more.
Yes, Virginia (O' Brien or Mayo), it's true. . . November 15 is National Raisin Bran Cereal Day.
It does not specify Kellogg's, Post or newfangled Trader Joe's Raisin Bran.
Alas, this scribe, unfortunately, likes cereals way too much for his own good.
It is likely that in this loony world we inhabit, when National Cereal Day was declared on March 7, a bunch of pushed-out-of-shape, outraged, discombobulated and inflamed devotees of Raisin Bran protested and demanded their own day.
The TV ad for Raisin Bran this blogger/cereal fan digs the most is from Post - and stars Maisie Raisin and Jake the Flake!
Once Madison Avenue got past the jingle-packed singing cereal commercial in the early days of TV, the realization that offering cool stuff in or on cereal boxes took hold. Take it from Tom Corbett, Space Ranger!
Better yet, miniature cartoon characters inside cereal boxes might be the best way to market Raisin Bran!
We sincerely hope at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog that no obsessed collectors bid 27 million bucks on eBay to win a cheap cardboard cut-out of Sniffles The Mouse from a 1956 cereal box.
I don't remember records inside cereal boxes, but this was another marketing gimmick that sold lots of cereal, in this case to junior high school kids.
Perhaps what led to a Post Raisin Bran with a free Bobby Sherman record inside was a cult of crazed pre-teens on an extended sugar high from devouring entire boxes of the crunchy cereal, as seen in the following commercial.
The Raisin Counters commercials made one wonder why Post even bothered to include actual cereal in the mix.
Kellogg's was the sponsor for a slew of Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning shows in the late 1950's and early 1960's and produced a gazillion commercials.
The Kellogg's Raisin Bran sun, at first voiced by the great Daws Butler, ended up the cereal's cheerful spokes-model through animated ads in the 1970's, 1980's and into the 1990's - and remains the smiling face of the product today.
This blogger forgets six month sections of his own life, but remembers Post Raisin Bran commercials from the enjoyable Linus The Lionhearted show.
Love those cool voice characterizations by Sheldon Leonard, Carl Reiner, Ruth Buzzi, Jesse White, Paul Frees and more.
Now, in 2019, should any snotty, snarky, hipper-then-thou individual say "ok, boomer" to me, the following is the only thing I can think of.
Bring on the crunchy cereal - and no fat free milk, please. Let's watch some TV, after I check my blood glucose levels!
Now pondering if a Raisin Brain Day ever happened. . .
Did not know until today that there was any such thing as a National Cereal Day, which was yesterday.
We at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog readily admit to having a soft spot for. . . Count Chocula and Frankenberry!
The cereal commercials from this writer's favorite Saturday morning television shows, especially any involving the Termite Terrace crew from Warner Brothers and the satirists of Jay Ward Productions, made a deep imprint upon his very soul, so it is fitting that a selection of ads from The Bugs Bunny Show featuring the WB cartoon characters, introduced by author and animation historian Jerry Beck, shall kick off today's post.
One of the exercises animation buffs do is to try to identify which studio produced the ads. This one for Corn Kix makes me think of John & Faith Hubley and their ultra-cool commercials for Storyboard Productions, Inc.
For comparison, here's a Maypo commercial produced by the Hubleys.
And, speaking of commercials that, as Marky Maypo did, sold lots of cereal. Kellogg's was a sponsor of Hanna-Barbera's Huckleberry Hound show.
Both print ads and commercials affiliated with Hanna-Barbera's subsequent hit, The Yogi Bear Show, sold lots and lots and lots of Kellogg's product.
The animated commercials for Kellogg's forced moms across America to get tough with their kids who persistently and annoyingly badgered their parents for the cereals they saw between Yakki Doodle, Pixie & Dixie and Augie Doggie cartoons. The booming voice of Thurl Ravenscroft as Tony the Tiger still makes me want that cereal - and I'm under doctor's orders to stay away from all variants of Frosted Flakes! And, if this commercial featuring Tony and a Little Leaguer is any indication, Kellogg's Frosted Flakes were the predecessors of steroids.
Characters from the Post cereal boxes for Alpha-Bits, Rice Krinkles and Sugar Crisp actually became recurring characters in the clever and enjoyable Linus The Lionhearted show, which featured voice characterizations by Sheldon Leonard, Carl Reiner, Ruth Buzzi, Jesse White, Paul Frees and more.
All I can think of seeing the Lucky Charms leprechaun is dubbing in "hey, there's that leprechaun - let's kick his butt! Little did we know, TV ads for sugary cereals eventually led to not just a lawsuit against General Mills, but at least one rock band named The Cereal Killers.
One of the funniest bumper stickers I've ever seen is one that said "let the rabbit have the Trix." Said Trix rabbit enters the following compendium of commercials at 4:05, after that irritating Lucky Charms leprechaun. Yes, all these decades later, "Trix are for kids" remains seared into the psyches of those who were watching Saturday morning TV in the 1960's. Following the Trix rabbit: Bullwinkle, accompanied by the way too wholesome Cheerios Kid, who we suspect was a p.e.d. user.
This blogger's favorite of all the studios that created cartoon series for TV, Jay Ward Productions, produced dozens of commercials for the Rocky & His Friends show. Small wonder, the sponsor was General Mills.
Jay Ward Productions went on to produce numerous Cap'n Crunch commercials, prominently featuring such ace voice artists as June Foray.
How could Quisp cereal not sell, with Daws Butler enthusiastically claiming "it's from outer space!"
As the 1960's ended and the 1970's began, bringing well-intentioned but humorless children's TV watchdogs, Saturday morning cartoons became more standardized and correspondingly both less imaginative and more oriented specifically towards children (and towards not offending the watchdog groups and parents), while the cereals themselves got even odder, such as King Vitaman. Don't remember a darn thing about King Vitaman cereal all these years later, but the commercials were fantastic!
While the Hanna-Barbera and Filmmation studios continued cranking out numerous cartoon shows for Saturday morning television through the 1970's and 1980's, the consistently inventive Jay Ward Productions, as well as the producers of Linus The Lionhearted, Ed Graham Productions, no longer made animated series for the small screen. After the very funny George Of The Jungle series in 1967, Jay Ward Productions made a few pilots which did not sell (Hawkear: Frontier Scout, Fang the Wonder Dog, Rah Rah Woozy), and then stuck to commercials. That was a loss to Saturday morning animation; the Jay Ward studio produced the funniest made-for-TV cartoons by far.
We're pleased as pomegranates at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog to emerge from a two month hiatus to post print ads and TV commercials for 1950's cars, A.K.A. boats.
Since American Motors was a key sponsor for the Disneyland TV show, even the Mick, Pluto and Jiminy Cricket got into the car commercial act.
This blogmeister, well known for the curious ability to watch hours on end of 1950's and 1960's car ads - and then beg for more - is thrilled to find the following advertising film plugging the Nash Ambassador.
For more info, there is an in-depth article about the Nash Ambassador on Wikipedia.
"He was gifted with an amazing imagination and the performing gifts necessary to transfer that imagination into something that others could see and hear." Mark Evanier
"His humor has worn well and his voice work speaks for itself—pun intended." Leonard Maltin
"Stan Freberg's satire still speaks volumes today." Don M. Yowp
The late, great Stan Freberg wrote the funniest TV ads in the history of Western Civilization, with the possible exception of those Piels Beer commercials starring Bob & Ray. Well, small wonder - they were written by a guy who turned down a drama scholarship to work with Mel Blanc as a voice-over artist on Warner Brothers cartoons!
Stan Freberg was also responsible for the only TV commercial featuring science fiction/fantasy writer (and chum of Looney Tunes director Chuck Jones) author Ray Bradbury.
Stan Freberg started his long career of writing hilarious commercials for radio. Historian and writer Don M. Yowp wrote at some length about Stan Freberg's career as cartoon voice artist and radio/television advertising wunderkind, in an August 7, 2013 post.
Here are a few more hilarious commercials by Stan Freberg - enjoy!
Submitted for your approval are yet more stop-motion pitches for Your Favorite Product, including a historic German advertising film for LEGO, a most jaunty Quaker Oats ad animated by Joop Geesink's Dollywood Studio and Dave Allen's epic King Kong Volkswagen spot.
Although Your Blogmeister is not under the impression that wolves are interested in Del Monte Zucchini as anything other than a side dish, who knows - haven't had any wolves as pets, maybe they adore canned zucchini.
The following ad encouraging parents to crank up their kids yet further with super-sugary Apple Jacks cereal reminds me more than a little of Art Clokey's classic Budweiser commercial and very funny Lawn Party short subject.
Here's one of my favorite commercials, starring the immortal "Hamm's Bear" (of course, he's immortal - he's a freakin' cartoon character), from the land of sky blue waters (waters)."
Too bad cartoons were considered to be for kids in the 60's, since Yogi Bear (Ed Benedict design) would have been the perfect animated spokesperson for a delicious frosty brew! And if marijuana had been legal and advertised on prime time TV, Yogi would also have been a fantastic plugger for what the great Louis Armstrong dubbed "New Orleans Golden Leaf". Yogi would have been WAY less expensive than Satchmo, Bob Marley or Peter Tosh and almost as entertaining.
Just imagine: "hey BooBoo, pass that pipe over to me, heeheehee. . . I'm as hungry as a bear, hey hey hey, maybe we could have some simply scrumptious Kellogg's OKs!"
This blog wishes Elaine May a happy birthday and salutes her many contributions to the comedy universe. These Nichols and May ads for Jax and Narragansett Beers are right up there with the Bob & Ray commercials for Piels Beer.
Although, come to think of it, my favorite beer ad ever is the 1961 beaut with beer cans sitting in a stream while the jingle rhapsodizes, "refreshing as springtime, Old Milwaukee beer!"
