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.
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).
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| Courtesy Schulz Museum |
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Charles Schulz and his popular creation have been the subject of many posts on this blog.
The Prince of Sandwiches, who used Millbrook Bread to make sandwiches of noble birth.
ReplyDeleteBTW, who remembers when Maestro Millbrook proclaimed that Millbrook Bread was "baked to music"? I wonder if they actually played music in the bakery...
Yes they did...my dad worked for them. Started as a custodian in the late 50's, on Fuller Rd Albany NY worked up to foreman by the mid 60's ( they used to have a red dog house with snoopy laying on top at the street in front of the offices of the bakery. They sent him to school in Chicago and transferred him (us) to Cincinnati) as asst production mgr. We stayed there for 2 years while he was being groomed to be Production Mgr of the then Corp offices and bakery of IBC (Butternut Bread) where we moved to in 1972.
DeleteI was in the Millbrook Bakery pretty much on a daily basis, since way back then, in the 60's we only had 1 car and my mom would need it while dad was at work, so when he got off we would go pick him up and usually had to walk to his office within the bakery to wait for him to finish up. I was raised on the smell of freshly baked bread and yes, the music was always playing.
Now you know