Violence on TV a new trend?

Antivash · Jun 17, 2009

Not really. And fuck. I love these commercials! XD

[Sauce]

Surprisingly violent series of commercials for Wilkins Coffee, featuring primitive Muppets. One of the ads involves a guillotine.

Hard to believe, but it apparently was a genuine ad campaign:
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.
You can see a list of all the commercials here. And go here to see many more Muppets videos from the 60's.
Click to expand...

God I love the Muppets. :/

Solomon · Jun 18, 2009

Oh hell yeah, I remember that. I used to watch this one guy's YouTube channel because he uploaded a ton of those videos.

Ched · Jun 22, 2009

Just watched those old commercials for Wilkin's at the second link. Damned nice link, has all the commercials in one video.

I laughed a hell of a lot more during those than I have in any recent commercials I've seen. I wish they still did stuff like that. I'm sure people would be up in arms about it encouraging kids to shoot their friends who don't like their favorite soda though, but... well, damn.

Anyway, awesome post, thanks.

summanus · Jun 23, 2009

The 'en Garde' one, with the fencers had me lolling like hell.

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Violence on TV a new trend?

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