Muppet Mania!

I recently found out that before Jim Henson did Sesame Street, he ran an advertising business that featured many of the muppets that became a huge part of my childhood. For example, big bird is a variation of a dragon used for La Choy, Cookie Monster was used for Frito-Lay, and Grover was used for IBM. Since they were being used for commercials though, the muppets took on a dark and twisted humor. Seeing these ad campaigns in my youth would have definitely given me nightmares.

Thanks to youtube, you can see what I mean:

In this first one, the actual commercials are at the very end of the clip.






La Choy:



RC Cola:


Pak-nit, did you actually sell anything from this ad?


mmm, meaty:


phone dangers:


oh you southerners. always trying to be separate


Can you imagine actually watching this stuff on TV? Ads today seem to have lost that "We're-all-on-drugs" feel.

In summary, the 60's were weird man. real weird.