Millbrook Bread Ad Featuring Snoopy – May 17, 1972

Yesterday's post featured popular comic strip character Li'l Abner being used in a 1962 newspaper ad to sell Frankies wieners.

Ten years after that ad appeared in the Journal, Peanuts was now the most popular comic strip in the country. And just as Al Capp allowed his characters to be used in ads, cartoonist Charles Schulz had no problem using Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang to sell, sell, sell.

By 1972, the Peanuts specials had been on TV for seven years. Many of us that watched these original specials remember the Coca-Cola sponsorship that was worked into the opening and closing credits, as well as the animated commercials for Dolly Madison snack cakes and fruit pies.

Millbrook Bread was another longtime advertiser connected with the specials. Below is a Millbrook Bread ad featuring Snoopy that ran in the Journal back on May 17, 1972.

It's kind of funny that the ad just reproduced one of the bread wrappers as its main graphic.

Looking at the bread wrapper, I was fairly surprised to see that by 1972 Snoopy's design had already evolved into the short, squat version. I liked the mid-60s version much better (see below).

Courtesy Schulz Museum

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Charles Schulz and his popular creation have been the subject of many posts on this blog.