After These Messages: Animated Commercials Back From When Commercials Were Actually Fun

Commercial breaks are often considered to be little more than an opportunity for you to use the bathroom while you're watching TV. And indeed, as somebody who watches a lot of TV, I can see why commercials aren't too popular. Nowadays, commercials all seem to be a blur of memes and techno music and random things like that. And when they're not like THAT, they're long and needlessly creepy ads for medicines and stuff.

But back when the world was a place where whimsicalness (I know that's not a word) was actually something greeted with praise, commercials were more often than not actually pretty fun. No, really!

And from the dawn of television to the 2000s, there was no commercial like an animated commercial. Commercials that are fully-animated are, for whatever reason, rather rare today (at least on channels like TBS and Freeform), but during that time period where whimsy = GOOD, companies knew that one for sure way to make people interested in buying their product was by having a cartoon character suggest it. And since this is a blog dedicated to animation... You can see where I'm going with this, right?

So today, we'll be talking a little about fourteen commercials featuring cartoon characters. Why fourteen? Because ten seemed like too little and twenty seemed like too much. The rule here is that every commercial needs to be ANIMATED (or at least half-animated), so this is TOTALLY different than those videos the Nostalgia Critic makes, right? RIGHT?

Also, the animation must be one hundred percent original. As in, not recycled from a movie or something. Okay, let's get started...

Here's a commercial directed by the great Bob Kurtz at his company, Kurtz and Friends - they also gave us the Mr. DNA sequence in Jurassic Park and the animated title sequences of George of the Jungle, City Slickers, and my personal favorite project of theirs, the 2006 remake of The Pink Panther (and here's another interesting fact for you - the Panther was animated there by Eric Goldberg!). Bob's art style is very distinct.
It's rare to see an animated commercial for a zoo (then again, I find it rare to see commercials for a zoo at all). It doesn't really tell us anything about the zoo, it's just some animals singing about how something is "brand new" at the zoo. And you know what? I'm okay with that. I really should get to the Lincoln Park Zoo at some point. I love zoos, and if this zoo is as good as the commercial makes it out to be, I'd better take the advice of the animals and go there.
Just a warning, though - once the song that the animals are singing enters your head, it ain't gonna leave.

We'll just ignore the whole political aspect of this commercial and focus on everything else. I don't know who animated this - I'm getting Kurtz and Friends vibes, but I don't know if this was indeed made by them. I don't know who's voicing the elephant and the donkey either, but the elephant sounds exactly like Wayne Knight. I don't know if I've ever been on a Delta airplane - I've flown with Continental Airlines and I believe JetBlue, but I'm not sure about Delta. If anybody has any information about this commercial that I am not aware of, feel free to send me an email.

You don't see a whole lot of commercials for Starbucks, which I guess mainly stems from the fact that Starbucks doesn't NEED to advertise themselves - there are more than 14,000 stores on this planet (I looked it up! It's true!), what are the odds that there's anybody that doesn't know what a Starbucks is? Again, I don't know who animated this, or who the voices are, but it's a very interesting style. I especially like the design of the bear.

When you think "M&Ms commercial", you probably think of the ad campaign that debuted in 1994 - the ones with a Red M&M voiced by Billy West and a Yellow M&M voiced by J.K. Simmons (of course, they were voiced in the first few commercials by Jon Lovitz and John Goodman - I believe Billy and J.K. took over in 1998). With that in mind, it's rather jarring to see these earlier, entirely animated ads, featuring completely different versions of Red and Yellow training new recruits at a "chocolate camp". Once again, I don't know who the voices are, or who animated this, but it's a charming little commercial - I especially like the gag about the M&Ms showering.

Come to think of it, I could actually picture an M&Ms commercial featuring the "updated" versions of Red and Yellow watching this ad and commenting on it.

I have no official confirmation on this, but my theory is that the reason why the mascots for Charmin are bears is supposed to be a reference to that "bears go in the woods" thing. It's kind of weird that people say that, right? I mean, yeah, of course bears go in the woods - that's where they LIVE. And what about foxes, rabbits, deer, skunks, raccoons, etc.? Don't THEY go in the woods as well? Maybe foxes use Port-a-Potties, I don't know.

Anyway, this ad campaign made its debut in 2000s, and since then it's been nineteen years of watching bears who are WAAAAAAAAAAY too happy about this toilet paper (don't even ask me where they GOT this toilet paper, by the way - I mean, they're BEARS). This campaign has evolved over the years - there are currently two or three different families of bears (one family of bears has red fur, another has blue, and the third has brown), and they live in houses. But they're still incredibly obsessed with toilet paper.

Cookie Crisp has had a few mascots over the years. First there was a wizard named Jarvis, then a crook, his dog, and a cop, and then just the dog, and now Chip the Wolf. His shtick is that he tries to steal the cereal from the kids, but it doesn't work out that way. Maybe he and the Trix Rabbit should start a support group.

That actually begs the question - why doesn't Chip just go to the store and BUY a box of Cookie Crisp? I believe there's one ad where the Trix Rabbit buys a box of Trix, but those kids snatch it away (so stealing in cereal commercials is wrong, but only if you're a cartoon animal?). Perhaps Chip heard about this?

Ah, Aardman! Your stop-motion animation is always a pleasant addition to any commercial. During the 2000s, commercials for Hubba Bubba Max were extremely common. Each ad was essentially just an animal talking to the camera about the gum. There's one with a chameleon, one with a caterpillar, one with a peacock, one with a polar bear, one or two with a jellyfish, and of course, this one, featuring a laid-back fish and his overly-excited whale friend. This commercial is indeed "off the hook!"

Another ad from our friends at Aardman - and I'd say that this is one of their most popular. In hindsight, I wonder if the ads for both Chevron and Hubba Bubba Max that they made took a little inspiration from Creature Comforts, what with the whole "character just talks to the camera while their buddy does something funny in the background" thing they have going on. If I do have ONE complaint about these ads, it's that it's a little unnerving seeing cars with teeth. Then again, Mater from Cars has teeth and I'm not unnerved by him...

And here's an interesting fact for you - did you know that for a while, the Chevron cars could be found at Disneyland? No, really! For twelve years, Chevron sponsored Disneyland's Autopia attraction. The queue featured little videos featuring talking cars like the ones in the ads, and there was a billboard or two scattered around along the track. For further information, I would recommend reading this.

Imagine that you just watched this commercial (animated by the studio of Richard Williams) and you wanted to tell a friend about it. What would you even say?

"Hey, dude, I just saw this commercial for gum!"
"So?"
"Well, it wasn't like OTHER commercials for gum."
"What was it about?"
"There was this, uh, well, this giant green, uh, mouse thing with large human feet... and it was talking about how much it likes sitting on a hill..."
"And this was a commercial for GUM?"
"Yeah, dude, it was a commercial for gum!"

Here's another commercial from the studio of Richard Williams, this one for Heinz. Seriously, just look at that animation! The camera movements, the art style, the choice of colors... how on earth did they do it? And does anyone know who that announcer is?

Speaking of Heinz, here's a commercial from the folks at Klacto Animation animated by my favorite animator, Eric Goldberg. It's kind of strange that there aren't more animated walruses. I like walruses. They seem like animals that would lend themselves well to animation. I don't have much to say about this ad, but I personally think it's a great ad.

Here's another Klacto Animation ad. Quick question - how many advertising mascots are lions? I think the mascot for Paddle Pops is a lion, and I think Linus the Lionhearted got his start as the mascot for Crispy Critters cereal, but aside from them and this guy, I can't think of anyone.

Let's see... Great stop-motion animation? Check! Funny take on the whole "what came first, the chicken or the egg?" thing? Check! John Goodman and Steve Buscemi - in other words, Sulley and Randall - providing the voices of the Chicken and the Egg? Check! I have absolutely no complaints about this commercial.

By the way, I personally believe that the chicken came first. The egg had to come out of SOMETHING, right? Then again, dinosaurs laid eggs too, didn't they? So does that mean that the egg came first?

I'm admittedly not sure when this ad campaign for Pop Tarts got started. For as long as I can remember, Pop Tarts commercials have focused on talking Pop Tarts being eaten by hungry people and/or animals. Which is a little disturbing, but like the Hubba Bubba Max and Charmin commercials, these ads are a big source of nostalgia for me. And is it just me, or does the guy who pops out of the logo and shouts "CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZY GOOD!" look a lot like the guy on the cover of Mad Libs?

Well, that's fourteen! I'm not sure if I'm going to do another one of these... Maybe I'll do a Christmas one.

Have a comment about one of these ads? Did you work on any of these ads and want to share a little information about them? Feel free to leave a comment! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go watch a movie with a chicken and an egg...