Pre-Kermit and the Obstinate Lump.

For those people who think that society is getting too violent these days, have a gander at what passed for coffee commercials back in the early 60s.

The above commercials were done by Jim Henson for the now defunct Wilkins Coffee brand. Appearing are two of the earliest "Muppets", in this case, an early Kermit the Frog, and a gruff lump that closely resembles, well, a lump. The slapstick violence is at such a high level in these ads, there is no way they would be allowed on television these days without a fight. The very first ad goes like this:

Kermit: "How do you feel about Wilkins Coffee?"
Lump: "Never heard of it!"
Kermit fires the cannon and blows Lump to smithereens
Kermit (Turning the cannon towards the viewer/camera): "Now, how do you feel about Wilkins Coffee?"

The ad that most clearly steps over the line is the second one, where Lump is assassinated in cold blood by an off-screen, pistol wielding human, just because he doesn't want to fall in line and drink the Jonestown Kool-Aid. Errr.. I mean, Wilkins coffee. Perhaps it's the black and white image, combined with unexpected gunshot, but something about this ad evoked the imagery of the 1963 Jack Ruby assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald.

My favourite part of these ads is the gruff Lump. If you were to look up the word Obstinate in the dictionary, you'd see his photo. Heck, I'll save you the trouble and define it below:

ob‧sti‧nate  [ob-stuh-nit] –adjective
1. firmly or stubbornly adhering to one's purpose, opinion, etc.; not yielding to argument, persuasion, or entreaty.
2. characterized by inflexible persistence or an unyielding attitude; inflexibly persisted in or carried out: obstinate advocacy of high tariffs.

No matter how many times dear Lump gets shot, stabbed, beaten, blown up, or kicked out of a tree, he refused to yield on his unwavering negative opinions of Wilkins coffee. God bless, him. He is an inspiration to us all.

If you enjoyed that, I've posted another set of clips below. More Wilkins Coffee Commercials can be found on YouTube.


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