Hello and welcome back to picsandportraits.
Earlier this year we looked at how cartoons have been used to sell things, animated advertising,
how they shilled products, that sort of thing.
Today, we are going to be covering something adjacent: puppeteer Jim Henson and the commercials
he produced using his branded puppets, the Muppets.
We will break down some of his campaigns and clients, obviously the characters, the Muppets,
exclusive to commercials, but first I’d like to give a little background on Henson,
even though I’m sure many of you are at least partially familiar with his work.
Henson’s impact on children’s entertainment throughout the 20th century is perhaps second
only to Walt Disney. His studio, the Jim Henson Company, was
responsible for producing characters for Sesame Street, while his original creations became
stars in their own right. The Muppets, lead by Kermit the Frog, launched
a media empire that included television series and movies but before all of this, Henson
was just a kid fascinated with television.
He got his start in TV, creating puppets for a local station while still in high school.
Puppets were a fixture on early TV, the most popular program probably being Howdy Doody.
Even outside of TV, puppet shows were hugely popular in the world Jim Henson grew up in.
Now I consider puppetry to be an extension of animation and like animation it’s a medium
unto itself.
There are many different types of puppets: marionettes, ventriloquists and sock puppets,
to name a few.
Henson would get his first big break in 1955, when he was given his own show on WRC-TV,
Washington’s NBC affiliate, Sam and Friends.
Sam and Friends consisted of short, five minute segments featuring Henson’s branded puppets,
the Muppets.
Now would be a good time to highlight what exactly a muppet is.
What defines Muppets separate from other, traditional forms of puppetry is the way they
are brought to life.
Unlike say marionettes or even sock puppets, which grew out of live theatre, Muppets were
designed specifically to appear on television or film.
Special sets could be constructed to hide the humans. This allowed Henson and his assistants
more freedom of movement and in turn create the illusion these puppets were walking among
us.
Advertising on television was much different back in the ‘50s. You would often have only
a jingle or the product pitched by a spokesperson. This was also a less globalised time, with
many regional brands and unique spots would be produced for different markets.
The popularity of Sam and Friends lead Henson to appearances on talk shows, giving him national
exposure, which in turn opened the doors to promotional opportunities.
His first commercial campaign was for Wilkins Coffee, out of Washington DC. He created two
kind of similar Muppets for this, Wilkins and Wontkins.
Now some of these are wild. In a couple, Wontkins is straight up shot for not drinking Wilkins
Coffee. This was their general dynamic, one willing, one not, hence Wilkins, Wontkins.
Wontkins is often bullied into getting the coffee and the audience is seemingly threatened
as well. The humour in these is very ahead of its time. They sometimes mock themselves
and the idea of promoting products in exchange for money, which is refreshing to see.
Despite being named after the product, Wilkins and Wontkins not only promoted other products
but other coffee brands in different markets.
Here we see them representing Nash’s Coffee and La Touraine.
Long before the juggalos repped Faygo, the Muppets did.
This is a commercial from the late ‘50s in which Wilkins and Wotkins shill the soda.
They were obviously the same Muppets but sometimes their names were changed to match the product
in different markets.
For example, they became Cal and So when promoting Calso bottled water, here in 1961, or Frank
and Fink in this ad for Frank’s Beverages. They keep the dynamic roughly the same and
sometimes even recycle bits. We will see this a lot, given that these aired in different
regions. It was unlikely viewers would know they were seeing something that had been rehashed
in a way.
Henson’s next commercial creation was 1962’s Onky. Onky represented On-Cor Frozen Foods,
kind of TV dinner products.
He appeared in the supermarket, racing around in a cart or hiding in the freezer. After
he plugs it, he taps on the logo repeatedly, which I think is absolutely adorable.
Onky would be reworked later in the decade as Mack, who shilled Southern Bell and the
C & P Telephone Co. of Virginia. I prefer Onky, personally.
Now onto some more unique Muppets and spots. This 1963 commercial for Marathon Gasoline
features two singing gas pumps, Regular and Premium, known collectively as the Pitchman
Pumps.
What separates these from others we’re looking at it is that they are not voiced by Henson
and company. Instead professional singers perform a jingle, a sort of sing along.
Not all of the Henson produced commercials featured Muppets as well. This one for Ivory
Liquid soap stars a pair of hands, playing in the soap.
Hands are also the stars of these spots for Aurora Bath Tissue. A hand softly dances with
rolls of toilet paper.
Wilkins and Wontkins had a brief resurgence in the late ‘60s, for Taystee Bread.
Henson apparently loved the duo format as it was replicated by Scoop and Skip, for Wilson’s
Meat. Arnold and Fred for Muncho’s chips, Fred and Tommy, for Kern’s Bread, and Nutty
Bird and Sour Bird, who shilled RC Cola. RC, short for Royal Crown, Cola is the distant
third in the Cola Wars, behind Coke and Pepsi. It’s the only brand on here I’ve heard of.
One-off characters included The Southern Colonel. He really just appeared for Southern Bread.
Now in this campaign of sixteen commercials, he would exclaim “I would do anything for
Southern Bread,” and then do something outrageous like outrun a herd of elephants or go to New
York.
There was also Delbert the La Choy Dragon. This was brought to life by Frank Oz in a
body suit, something unique to this campaign.
La Choy was a brand of canned Asian American food and Delbert was an overly enthusiastic
pitchman. His enthusiasm usually resulted in chaos, either on account of his fire breath
or clumsy movements.
Sir Linit represented Linit Fabric Finish and was an anthropomorphic aerosol can with
irons for feet. The animation is incredible here.
Established or famous Muppets also appeared
in ads, Rowlf and Kermit.
At this point Rowlf was arguably a bigger star than Kermit. He regularly appeared on
The Jimmy Dean Show, which was variety show of the time.
In 1962, he shilled Purina Dog Chow, which makes sense. He’s a dog. He appeared alongside
Baskerville the Hound. He also appeared in this commercial for Ideal
plush toys. There was one with his likeness as well as Kermit’s and Snerf’s, which
apparently was advertised but never actually sold.
Speaking of Kermit, he appeared alongside Mack for Claussen’s Bakery and McGarry’s
Sausage, and alone, stuck in a jar, for the Federal Housing Administration.
Into the 70s and beyond, Henson largely abandoned original characters in favour of the much
more recognisable Muppets from the Muppet Show and the sponsors and style changed with
times. NowI tried to be as thorough as possible but
I’m sure a few fell through the cracks. Let me know what I missed. I know there is
a whole sub-genre of Meeting and industrial films that would make a great followup video
to this.
The channel Kermiclown was an amazing resource. If you want to see more, or these spots in
full, I will link their channel in the description. There is a new Sleepcore, further looking
at the mall in media. That’s free over on Patreon. We also have new episodes of Century
of Schlock and Retrofuturism and Animation over there. Please consider supporting us
if you can. patreon.com/picsnportraits.
As always, thank you so much for your interest in this channel and thanks for watching. Stay
safe out there.