Capp allowed his popular hillbilly characters to be used to sell everything from Cream of Wheat to laundry detergent. (Fearless Fosdick, Capp's parody of Dick Tracy and Li'l Abner's "ideel," also was featured in a series of ads for Wildroot Cream-Oil Hair Tonic.)
And here's yet another advertising campaign using the denizens of Dogpartch – this time for Superior's Frankies, the "Keener Wiener." The ad above appeared in the Lorain Journal back on May 23, 1962 – sixty years ago this month.
The ad campaign was fairly late in the strip's life, past its prime of the 40s and 50s. But apparently the folks at Superior's Frankies were still confident that Li'l Abner and his family could dee-liver the goods.
It's an entertaining ad, with Li'l Abner lying in a hammock, squirting a condiment on his Frankie using one of the very dispensers being promoted in the ad. Li'l Abner's son, "Honest Abe" Yokum is handling one as well, while curvaceous wife Daisy Mae holds a whole tray of dee-licious Frankies.
Here are a couple of the Frankies mustard and ketchup dispensers (which I mentioned back here on this post).
"L'il Abner" was one of the first comic strips I remember reading, and using to help myself learn to read. I remember seeing the 1959 movie based on the strip, and finding it just as funny as the comic. These days, I don't even know what comics are in the paper; I don't read newspapers any more. Just as with the major tv media, I don't trust them to tell me the truth.
ReplyDeleteThose condiment containers are pretty cool.I'll have to be on the lookout for a set.But they look more like a big red "Hot Tamales" jelly candy than they do a hot dog.
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