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A little ultraviolence improves any coffee ad
Boing Boing linked to a series of old, excessively violent Wilkins Coffee commercials created by Jim Henson way back in 1957. The spots depict two characters, Wilkins and Wontkins. Wontkins doesn't drink Wilkins coffee, so Wilkins offs him in various violent ways. The spots are short and sweet (the local station only had 10-second slots), and were so successful that they were reshot for five other local coffee companies, the only difference being the product shot. Steve Whitmire, the voice of Kermit since 1990, recently visited the Savannah College of Art and Design and shared with us an interesting story about one of the Wilkins commercials. Apparently, in one of those local markets, the spot where Wontkins gets shot in the head from a mysterious arm that appears to his left aired for the first time on the day JFK was assassinated. Of course, it was pulled after complaints, even though no one could have seen that coming, not by a long shot. —Posted by Rebecca Cullers |
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June 18, 2009 in Cullers, Food and drink, Vintage, Wilkins Coffee | Permalink |
Comments
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They just get better and better as they go on.
Posted by: Erin Moore | Jun 18, 2009 10:04:15 AM
"Buy my product or I'll shoot you in the face with a cannon" has always been a very successful advertising strategy.
Posted by: Steve | Jun 18, 2009 4:11:56 PM
The fact that you couldn't get away with commercials like this today is irrefutable proof that we now officially suck.
Posted by: Mr. Fabulous | Jun 18, 2009 8:22:00 PM
Awesome.
From a time before we all became a bunch of ninnies.
Posted by: Dag | Jun 18, 2009 10:26:25 PM
Epic stuff. These ads were even referenced in Mad Men, season 2, when don Draper said something about the competition using puppets in their ads.
Posted by: patrick Hunt | Jun 19, 2009 1:52:37 PM
I still can't believe a human hand comes in with a revolver in the second one and just shoots the poor muppet in the head. That was definitely a shock-LOL.
Posted by: Rich Tseng | Jun 22, 2009 2:05:36 AM
