In 1957, Jim Henson was approached by a Washington, D.C. coffee company to produce ads for Wilkins Coffee. The local stations only had ten seconds for station identification, so the commercials had to be lightning-fast -- essentially, eight seconds for the commercial pitch and a two-second shot of the product.
From 1957 to 1961, Henson made 179 commercials for Wilkins Coffee and other Wilkins products, including Community Coffee and Wilkins Tea. The ads were so successful and well-liked that they sparked a series of remakes for companies in other local markets throughout the 1960s.
The ads starred the cheerful Wilkins, who liked Wilkins Coffee, and the grumpy Wontkins, who hated it. Wilkins would often do serious harm to Wontkins in the ads -- blowing him up, stabbing him with a knife, and smashing him with a club, among many other violent acts.
Wilkins and Wontkins were generally the only characters in the commercials, though on rare occasions, such critters as a Muppet whale or baby birds would appear. Company owner Mr. Wilkins was also invoked more than once.
The characters proved so popular that in October 1958, the company offered vinyl puppets of Wilkins and Wontkins through the mail for $1.00 and a coffee can label. The offer on the can said, "Hey Kids! I'm Wilkins -- he's Wontkins -- you see us on TV!" Obviously, Wilkins Coffee and Henson knew that the Muppet characters had kid appeal, although this doesn't seem to have had any effect on the use of violence and terror in the ads.
10 Comments
Ekleksays...Nice find! I always had a romantic view in mind when thinking about coffee commercials:)
blankfistsays...The early Gorgonheap has to choose Wilkins Coffee or the early Kermit would give him death!
Peroxidesays..."Drink Wilkins Coffee or Kermit will re-occupy the Rhineland!"
Kruposays...*actionpack of dark humour.
siftbotsays...Adding video to channels (Actionpack) - requested by Krupo.
siftbotsays...Tags for this video have been changed from 'wilkins, coffee, puppets, muppets, henson, jim henson' to 'wilkins, coffee, puppets, muppets, henson, jim henson, 50s' - edited by swampgirl
grintersays...Fantastic!
10769says...lol, love this.... wow, early muppets in the making....
joedirtsays...I like how DFT throws out other people's videos just to steal them instead of fixing the originals.
http://www.videosift.com/video/Proto-Muppets-Sell-Wilkins-Coffee
quantumushroomsays...VIOLENCE! BEAUTIFUL VIOLENCE!
Discuss...
Enable JavaScript to submit a comment.