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

[Brad from Georgia]

I've been mainlining Jell-O for years, and occasionally I will eat Grape-Nuts (but not the flakes--don't like 'em as much). I've never smoked, so I suppose I'll never know if Luckies are round, firm, and fully packed even to this day.

[Gerry O.]

Of course, Jell-O had a distinct advantage over Grape-Nuts and Lucky Strike.....

While the Grape-Nuts Benny shows didn't have a theme song (just Don announcing) and the Lucky Strike shows used "Love In Bloom/Yankee Doodle Dandy" as their theme song, the Jell-O signature jingle ("J-E-L-L-OOOOO") was used as the show's opening theme song. It may have been short, but it was effective....GREAT sponsor identification!

[LLeff]

While the Grape-Nuts Benny shows didn't have a theme song (just Don announcing) and the Lucky Strike shows used "Love In Bloom/Yankee Doodle Dandy" as their theme song, the Jell-O signature jingle ("J-E-L-L-OOOOO") was used as the show's opening theme song. It may have been short, but it was effective....GREAT sponsor identification!

Thank Don Bestor for that. He's the guy who wrote that little jingle when he was Jack's orchestra leader before Phil!

It's always funny to me to hear the extremely SLOW singing of the jingle in early days. It was done because people's radio sets in those days didn't always have the best signal/reception, and you wanted to insure that people really UNDERSTOOD what was being said/sung. But whenever I hear it, it's almost like the chorus saying, "Don't forget...this is a REALLY OLD show, folks!"

[LLeff]

Lucky Strike commercials don't make me want Luckies, but shows from Palm Springs make me crazy for dates.

With or without nuts?

[shimp scrampi]

LOL - Dates were one of the few "verboten" foods in my house when I was a kid - my mom is actually freaked out by dates because she thinks they are just too much like japanese beetles in color and texture! The Palm Springs shows - I'm sure - convinced me to try them, and now I love them - though I like the medjools a lot better than the, admittedly, beetley deglet noors (no nuts, thanks).

[Kathy FS]

Hey, here is a very late reply to the Addictive-Jello thread, but I have been listening to 1930s shows this spring and GOSH do those Jello commercials work well, I have been torturing my husband with gelatinous salads, desserts, frappes, main dishes....have you ever tried tuna flakes in Jello? well, don't....but everything else is tasty.

What I think made it so popular in the 30s (and through the 60s where I was growing up in Ohio) is that everybody's diet was SO DULL during the late fall and winter months. Potatoes, pork, rice, beef, bread, turnips, all pale and bland. Dried, salted, or out of a can. And here comes the wonderful JELLO, which Don promises will be richly colorful, will taste like the real fruit of summer. And the housewife could DO funky things with it, like add fruits, celery or carrots, or red hots, or 7UP or ginger ale, she could mold it into all kinds of shapes, it was like Playdoh for her kitchen? I am currently shopping on ebay for the Jello booklet that Don mentions in 1940 or 1941, a Calender of Desserts, 365 of them, oh boy. And perhaps many folks on the list have seen the Jack and Mary Jello cookbooklet of 1937. If I find a particularly heinous recipe, I will post it for your amusement : )
Kathy

[sweyhrich]

Good to know I'm not the only one who has been influenced by those silly Jell-O commercials.

And although I know that smoking is bad for me, I sure could use something that would pick me up when I'm low, calm me when I'm tense...

... And then there are those Camels that are easy on my "T" zone -- that's T for Throat and T for Taste...

... but that's another show...

[Gerry O.]

Good to know I'm not the only one who has been influenced by those silly Jell-O commercials.

And although I know that smoking is bad for me, I sure could use something that would pick me up when I'm low, calm me when I'm tense...

... And then there are those Camels that are easy on my "T" zone -- that's T for Throat and T for Taste...

... but that's another show...

And just remember.....we'll never have to worry about having enough ration stamps for Grape-Nuts Flakes, because as Don used to say:

"....you don't need 'em.....not for crispy, delectable GRAPE-NUTS FLAKES!"

[Maxwell]

Good to know I'm not the only one who has been influenced by those silly Jell-O commercials.

And although I know that smoking is bad for me, I sure could use something that would pick me up when I'm low, calm me when I'm tense...

... And then there are those Camels that are easy on my "T" zone -- that's T for Throat and T for Taste...

... but that's another show...

And now we know T is also for tumor.

[River Phoenix]

I find it awkward to hear the pudding described as "JELLO pudding" in advertisements on the show, since I only associate the word jello with the gelatin dessert. Did the makers of the pudding ever change the name to something else? I vaguely have a memory of "royal pudding", but it might have been from ads for another OTR show. I mostly only think of the word "pudding" itself as a name for pudding desserts, since it is highly commoditized (jello is too, but j-e-l-l-o is both the brand and the accepted name for the product).

[sweyhrich]

I find it awkward to hear the pudding described as "JELLO pudding" in advertisements on the show, since I only associate the word jello with the gelatin dessert. Did the makers of the pudding ever change the name to something else? I vaguely have a memory of "royal pudding", but it might have been from ads for another OTR show. I mostly only think of the word "pudding" itself as a name for pudding desserts, since it is highly commoditized (jello is too, but j-e-l-l-o is both the brand and the accepted name for the product).

Not sure what you mean; you can still buy Jell-O brand pudding today, as well as other brands of ready-to-make puddings. In the same way, you can now (and could then) buy non-Jell-O gelatin dessert.

[Brad from Georgia]

Royal Pudding was a competing product, not made by the Jell-O company. Among other shows, it used to sponsor The Howdy Doody Show on TV. I remember the jingle:

Rich, rich, rich in flavor,
Smooth, smooth, smooth as silk,
More food en-er-gy
Than fresh, whole milk!
Royal...Pudding!

Of course, that third line just meant it had more calories than fresh, whole milk, but, hey, it sold pudding.

[River Phoenix]

Not sure what you mean; you can still buy Jell-O brand pudding today, as well as other brands of ready-to-make puddings. In the same way, you can now (and could then) buy non-Jell-O gelatin dessert.

I mean that I think of jello as jello and pudding as pudding (not as jello pudding)

@Brad - i remember that jingle too, how ridiculous

[Maxwell]

I find it awkward to hear the pudding described as "JELLO pudding" in advertisements on the show, since I only associate the word jello with the gelatin dessert. Did the makers of the pudding ever change the name to something else? I vaguely have a memory of "royal pudding", but it might have been from ads for another OTR show. I mostly only think of the word "pudding" itself as a name for pudding desserts, since it is highly commoditized (jello is too, but j-e-l-l-o is both the brand and the accepted name for the product).

Bill Cosby advertised Jello pudding for years.

[River Phoenix]

Before my time