Do JB's commericials ever influence you to try the product?

[Radioman]

Last year I discovered a download site for JB programs and started listening to the back to back while doing my boring job. I went from Grape Nuts to Jell O, and listened all day to Don talking about how wonderful Jell O was. One evening I had to stop by the grocery store and get some cherry Jell O, my favorite. I made some that night and enjoyed it after dinner. It had been a while since I had Jell O, but I have to admit that Don influenced me to buy it. My wife thought I was nuts, though.

I am wondering if anyone here has ever been influenced by the commercials on JB to try the product. I won't do Grape Nuts. I have had them and it's like eating a bowl full of soggy gravel. Never tried Grape Nuts Flakes (or "Grapes Nuts Flakes" as Don called them once). I'm not a smoker so I won't ever buy Lucky Strikes, but if I did smoke, I'd probably try them sometime.

Anyone else? Or am I just a little "off the beam?"

allen

[LLeff]

Last year I discovered a download site for JB programs and started listening to the back to back while doing my boring job. I went from Grape Nuts to Jell O, and listened all day to Don talking about how wonderful Jell O was. One evening I had to stop by the grocery store and get some cherry Jell O, my favorite. I made some that night and enjoyed it after dinner. It had been a while since I had Jell O, but I have to admit that Don influenced me to buy it. My wife thought I was nuts, though.

When I was writing 39 Forever Volume 1 (which includes all of the Jell-O shows), I couldn't stop eating the stuff. In driving home, I would stop at the grocery store just to buy boxes of Jell-O--nothing else--and be mixing it up like someone laboring under a gise. And I'm not someone who eats Jell-O normally...I'm more of a chocolate fan. Then I finished the book, and magically, my Jell-O craving stopped.

Hopefully I can get General Foods to recognize the power of what they've got.

[Alan]

Like you, the jello ads are the only ones that have got me.

They occasionally provoke pleasant flashbacks of what was one of the more common treats/desserts while i was growing up.

I'm only semi-aware of having even seen Grape Nuts Flakes...there are now so many permutations of grapes and nuts and....However, your hilarious description seems consistent with other reiews i have read.

I wonder how it manages to survive?...maybe initially it was the only one of that type, but it seems like a crowded segment now....maybe it is one of those long-time brands that hangs on by (for now) having enough remaining long-time habituals.

Lucky Strike--packed away (somewhere?) i still have a deck of playing cards given to my family at a US-Canada border duty free shop (for what reason i have no clue), where the reverse side is dark green with a middle circle area that has a drawn pack of Lucky Strikes with a few smokes pulled out at one end in the classic Madison Avenue pose.

[Jack Benny]

I too have become a JELL-O nut since listening to the shows. We have it often at my home, and I've even tried all six delicious flavors now. I used to only have the red ones. I love lime!

[LLeff]

I used to only have the red ones. I love lime!

Someone had a great story quite some time ago, may have even been on this Forum, about going to a restaurant as a kid and asking if they had Jell-O. The waitress said "Yes." The kid asked, "What flavor?" The waitress answered, "I don't know, but it's red!" So the kid orders it, figuring it's strawberry, rasberry, or cherry.

Only to take one bite and gag on.....tomato aspic!

[David47Jens]

I am wondering if anyone here has ever been influenced by the commercials on JB to try the product. I won't do Grape Nuts. I have had them and it's like eating a bowl full of soggy gravel.

I suspect that listening to frequent and/or back-to-back doses of Benny programs -- or any other OTR show which was identified with one or more long-running sponsors, as most were -- can't help but drum it into our impressionable heads that we really should be eating Jell-o, Grape Nuts Flakes, etc. (There is that basic raison d'être of advertising, after all!) And even though I've heard relatively few of the Canada Dry programs, that's usually the brand I grab on those rare occasions when I drink ginger ale.

Some of us got into a similar discussion on this forum quite a while back. I mentioned that, as an adult, listening to a series of "Dick Tracy" programs, I was induced to purchase and consume some Quaker Puffed Rice... which quickly reminded me why I hadn't had any since childhood. (I'd have to equate that cereal's taste to the [presumed] taste of Styrofoam... with apologies to Styrofoam! All things considered, I think I'd prefer to eat a pack of Luckies!)

For that matter, after listening to numerous OTR episodes of "The Shadow," I'd probably heat my home with Blue Coal, were it still available!

[David47Jens]

Someone had a great story quite some time ago, may have even been on this Forum, about going to a restaurant as a kid and asking if they had Jell-O. The waitress said "Yes." The kid asked, "What flavor?" The waitress answered, "I don't know, but it's red!" So the kid orders it, figuring it's strawberry, rasberry, or cherry.

Only to take one bite and gag on.....tomato aspic!

Hmm. "Tomato aspic?" As Johnny Carson once said, "You know, there's another line for that, and I'm not going to use it!"

[Gerry O.]

Of course, the credit for giving Benny fans those Jell-O cravings HAS to go to Don Wilson....

When you hear Don do commercials for Grape-Nuts Flakes and Lucky Strike, you think, "OK, that's nice...", but when he does a commercial for Jell-O, he REALLY makes it sound "tempting and delicious" (HIS words, not mine!). You get the impression that Don really LOVES the stuff and that it IS worth buying and eating....

Yes, I would have to say that those enthusiastic 1930's Jell-O commercials make up some of Don Wilson's finest on-air work!

[Frank Nelson]

I used to eat Jello when I was a kid, but not since I found out what it's made of!

[Clyde]

I found myself in quite an interesting dilema a couple of years ago. I was walking almost daily and listened to a long stretch of Jello shows. I found myself craving Jello. Then I got to the Grape-Nut shows, and, sure enough, I bought a box or two of Grape Nut Flakes at the grocery. I must admit I was hesitant about continuing to the Lucky Strike shows, but the urge to "light up a Lucky" did NOT take hold.

[Jack Benny]

Now the darker side...cue dramatic musak...

I have not been in any way tempted to "light up a Lucky Strike," but I do start humming and singing, "Light up a lucky...it's Lucky Strike." Unfortunatley, so do my 5 year old son and 7 year old daughter, which is usually followed by my wife throwing some heavy object my way.

[Roman]

Man, talk about bang for the buck with your advertising dollars! I can't remember most commercials 2 seconds after they've aired and here we are talking about buying Jello because of commercials aired 65 years ago. General Foods really did get the bargain of the century when they signed on with Jack.

[LLeff]

Man, talk about bang for the buck with your advertising dollars! I can't remember most commercials 2 seconds after they've aired and here we are talking about buying Jello because of commercials aired 65 years ago. General Foods really did get the bargain of the century when they signed on with Jack.

Just a challenging thought...is that because of the MUTE button?

I don't watch a lot of commercial television, although there are commercials on the History Channel, etc. But when they come on, so does our MUTE button. Here are some other commercials that pre-date the mute button:

Mother PLEASE! I'd rather do it MYSELF!
Let Hertz put you in the driver's seat.
I can't believe I ate the whole thing.
Plop plop fizz fizz oh what a relief it is
They'll tell two friends, and they'll tell two friends, and so on and so on and so on
(and barely before mute) Where's the beef?

Is there a chance that these commercials had more of a chance to "catch hold" and be remembered because we didn't have the technology to tune them out? I remember my mother said (as I've mentioned before) that Dennis' song was when you got up to go to the bathroom (a non-technical mute button). Of course that would be about 2.5 minutes where the commercials were either integrated or about 1 minute.

Thoughts?

[David47Jens]

I don't watch a lot of commercial television, although there are commercials on the History Channel, etc. But when they come on, so does our MUTE button.... Is there a chance that these commercials had more of a chance to "catch hold" and be remembered because we didn't have the technology to tune them out?

I'd say that's quite possible, especially when a lot of people automatically hit the mute button (or "fast forward" when watching a program that's been videotaped or DVR'd). That way, you don't have the opportunity to see if you actually like a specific commercial -- and let's face it, some are quite well-written and entertaining -- never mind whether or not you're convinced to try the product.

My earlier example of buying Quaker Puffed Rice was, I believe, influenced by my listening to constant "Dick Tracy" shows back-to-back. I say that because I definitely wouldn't have done so otherwise, but after hearing all those ads, I said, "Oh, what the heck... " But I suspect that, for most people, it more often boils down to someone's being influenced to buy a specific brand of something they were going to buy anyway. Which is why a Benny fan would pick Jell-O when looking for a dessert, or try Grape Nuts Flakes when deciding on a cereal, etc. (It's like my earlier mention of buying Canadra Dry ginger ale on those rare occasions that I buy ginger ale.) This would also explain why none of the non-smoking posters on the Forum would ever be mystically induced to pick up a pack of Lucky Strike.

There's also the chance that many commercials from days gone by prevented people from buying a product because they were downright irritating, and couldn't be tuned out. I know that I privately boycotted Wisk detergent because of their screechy "Ring around the collar! RING AROUND THE COLLAR!" ads, and that was a decision I made even before I ever had to buy detergent on my own (The commercials first aired when I was a pre-teen.). I similarly stayed away from Burger King during an obnoxious series of commercials featuring an actor named Dan Cortese, whose character in said commercials was that of an incredible dork!

Anyway, to get back on track, here... I would have to agree that the advent of mute buttons, VCRs, and DVRs have definitely made the ad men's jobs more difficult.

[shimp scrampi]

It's funny because I've heard several stories that the "integrated" commercial is coming back for these very reasons - zillion-channel cable, the mute button, the "flicker", TIVOs, etc. make watching the commercials obsolete. For awhile it seemed they could get by with just making commericals more and more clever and hip - but I think that's about at the end of the line as well.

So there are more "product placement" deals - The character on CSI noticeably drives an Audi - or drinks a certain soft drink, etc. More subtle than the old Jack Benny "integrated" style - but I wonder if that might not come around again as well.

Remember one of the rationales for going to programs that were sponsored by multiple products, with the program content NOT containing the sponsor's content - was that no company could afford the high cost of single-sponsoring a program because they were so expensive. I doubt that logic still holds today. Can Coca Cola, GE, or Wal-Mart truly not "afford" to fund a TV series? Hogwash. I predict some variation of the old model will probably return in the near future.