Since everything
old is new again, guess who is returning to TV? The Jolly Green Giant, soon to
be property of B&G Foods. Sales of canned and frozen vegetables have
slipped as shoppers opt for fresher options, but B&G is confident the Giant
can turn that around. Or presumably there will be hell to pay in the valley.
The JGG has been
around since 1928. Back then he wasn’t green, looked pretty Neanderthal and
wasn’t even called “jolly.” He was redrawn twice during the Depression and then
given a hideous, clashing red scarf in 1960, making him look more like an
oversized aviator. The current version on cans was introduced in 1976.
Through the
decades, the JGG brand has been bought and sold many times, shuttled among
countless advertising agencies; the Giant himself suffered long stretches of
not appearing in commercials. But B&G Foods is buying the product line from
General Mills and soon the JGG will be on your TV again.
The JGG is one of
the best known advertising icons in history, but his TV debut in the late 1950s
was rocky. According to Bob Noel, a copywriter at the Leo Burnett agency,
videographers tried men painted green, puppets and animation. Nothing worked
well because “when you try to move the Giant around and really show what helooks like, he comes off like a monster. The baby cries and the dog goes underthe bed.”
Mr. Noel’s
solution was to show the monster – uh, the JGG – sparingly and have him bellow
“ho, ho, ho.” (In those less litigious times, Santa Claus didn’t sue.)
I’ll close with a
tidbit you probably didn’t know. As a pop icon in 1965, the JGG inspired a
grossly over-modulated Top 40 song by the Kingsmen, who also did the classic
“Louie Louie.” Courtesy of YouTube, here’s “The Jolly Green Giant”:
No comments:
Post a Comment