The Golden Age of Cartoon Commercials?

By Michael Patrick O’Brien–

If you wanted to find me—or pretty much any other kid who grew up in the 1960s or 70s—at 6:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning, you need only look for the family television set. 

Our set had but five channels, no remote control, and broadcast only in black and white. “Streaming” or “on demand viewing” were not yet things. None of that mattered.

With a bowl of cold cereal and milk to keep me company, I was perched in front of the TV, immersed for a few hours in the animated worlds of legends like Bugs Bunny, H.R. Pufnstuff, the Jetsons, Josie and the Pussycats, Jonny Quest, and Scooby Doo.

It may have been the golden age of cartoon watching in America.

And in the Great American way, in between those now-classic shows I also got to know some other interesting animated characters. They wanted me to buy—or to convince my parents to buy—lots of stuff. 

These were the hardworking (and sometimes controversial) commercial toon hucksters, peddlers, and hawkers. Three of the most memorable were the Frito Bandito, the Flavor Fiend, and the Tootsie Pops Owl.

The Frito Bandito served as the official Saturday morning cartoon spokes-toon for Fritos corn chips from 1967 to 1971. 

Probably spun off from the “Mexican bandit” stereotype found in Western movies such as The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (“We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!”), the Frito Bandito spoke/sang in broken English and robbed people of their Fritos corn chips, thereby presumably making the chips more desirable.

An international advertising agency created the concept. An artist named Tex Avery brought the Bandito to animated life with a handlebar moustache and sombrero. Avery also drew Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig.

Famous voice actor Mel Blanc voiced the Bandito with an exaggerated Mexican accent similar to what he used for a cartoon mouse named Speedy Gonzales. Blanc also was the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety, Sylvester the Cat, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, and the Tasmanian Devil. 

The Frito Bandito was best known for singing a catchy jingle to the basic tune of the traditional Mexican song “Celito Lindo.” It went something like this:

 “Ay, ay, ay, ay,

 oh, I am the Frito Bandito.

 Give me Fritos corn chips

 and I’ll be your friend.

 The Frito Bandito

 you must not offend.“

For obvious reasons, the Frito Bandito became controversial. In response to pressure from ethnic advocacy groups like the National Mexican-American Anti-Defamation Committee, Frito-Lay made the character appear more friendly. 

Even when that did not help, Frito-Lay still stood by the character for a time. Its ad agency also produced a survey from four cities in California and Texas which allegedly showed that 85% of Mexican Americans liked the Frito Bandito. 

After ongoing protests, however, local television stations eventually banned the character from their airwaves. That was the beginning of the end. Frito-Lay said adios to the Frito Bandito in 1971.

Bubble Yum’s Muppet-like character named the “Flavor Fiend” was less controversial than the Bandito, but probably less successful too. Brand owner Life Savers included the Fiend in ad campaigns during kids TV shows in the mid-1970s to promote what was said to be the first soft bubble gum in the United States.

The Flavor Fiend sounded like Grover from Sesame Street. Yet, it (or maybe he? she?) looked to me like an early version of Elmo, who did not debut until 1980. The Fiend wore a black hat/mask pulled down low over the top of its face with holes for its eyes.

American artist William Baird created the puppet. Baird and his wife also produced and performed what is perhaps the most-famous puppet sequence ever made—“The Lonely Goatherd” scene from The Sound of Music movie.

Like the Frito Bandito, the Flavor Fiend stole the product he promoted, and thus made it more appealing. He also had a catchy jingle soundtrack he used to accomplish such thievery: “When you try some soft and juicy Bubble Yum, a flavor fiend will be there wanting some…the flavor lasts so long, long, long in Bubble Yum.”

Unlike with the Bandito, the big Bubble Yum controversy of my youth did not involve its cartoonish spokes-puppet. Instead, in 1977 lurid rumors spread that Bubble Yum was soft because one of its main ingredients was spider eggs. 

Yikes! Sales plummeted until Life Savers took out full‐page ads in dozens of newspapers to combat the nasty rumors. 

Besides worrying about spider eggs in our gum, the youth of my generation also had another important candy question on their minds. How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop lollipop? 

Fortunately, another intriguing cartoon commercial character named Mr. Owl helped unravel that great mystery.

In the original TV ad, an animated boy (voiced by Jodie Foster’s older brother Buddy) asked a cow, a fox (voiced by Paul Frees, Disney’s Professor Ludwig Von Drake ), and a turtle the all-important question. None knew the answer.

So the boy asked an owl (voiced by Paul Winchell, who also did Disney’s Tigger). The apparently wise owl offered to investigate and started licking the Tootsie Pop to find the answer. Then, suddenly, the owl bit into it. 

The owl told the surprised boy it only takes three licks to get to the center. In one similar version of the ad, a narrator asked at the end, “How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie pop? The world may never know.” 

The Drum website—which features news and events for the marketing and media industries—has rated the Tootsie Pops ad as one of the World’s best 100 commercials ever made. 

I agree. I was never a fan of Tootsie Pops, but I loved their Mr. Owl commercial.

There were lots of other memorable Saturday morning animated hucksters too. For example, I did not eat Frosted Flakes, but I had a Tony the Tiger school lunchbox in third grade.

Tony was just one of a gaggle of toons pitching cereal. Remember Snap, Crackle, and Pop? Cap’n Crunch? Count Chocula? The Lucky Charms Leprechaun? The Trix Rabbit?

The Pillsbury Doughboy sold baking products while people poked its belly. The Keebler Elves sold cookies and crackers from their hollow tree.

Charlie the Tuna pitched seafood from the ocean depths. Ronald McDonald and company sold fast food from a McDonaldland conjured up by Madison Avenue.

And then there was Mr. Peanut (aka Bartholomew Richard Fitzgerald-Smythe). For some reason, as a kid I always was just a tad nervous at the notion of a giant upper-class peanut with a top hat, cane, and monocle wandering around. What might he do to someone with a peanut allergy?

I have no stats at my fingertips about the success of these cartoon commercials. As a kid, I don’t recall thinking these toons were trying to sell me something. Instead, I saw them as an extension of the Saturday morning entertainment universe.

As an adult, however, I’d guess these toons did their sales job well because there sure were a lot of them. And there can be no doubt on one relevant marketing data point…even a half century later, I still remember them.

*Mike O’Brien (author website here) is a writer and attorney living in Salt Lake City, Utah. Paraclete Press published his book Monastery Mornings, about growing up with the monks at the old Trappist monastery in Huntsville, Utah, in August 2021. The League of Utah Writers chose it as the best non-fiction book of 2022.