Anyway, while Swiss Miss is the most popular brand of hot cocoa going, Carnation (now a brand of Nestle) tried to cut in on the action in 1980 with Marshal Mallow, even creating an animated namesake to promote the product, voiced by the legendary Don Messick.......
Edit, 4/18/20: The video has been deleted. However, all we have available now is a still clip:
Edit, 4/18/20: The video has been deleted. However, all we have available now is a still clip:
I do remember the ad, and, seeing it again for the first time since then, I think the animation might be from the folks that brought us Schoolhouse Rock!, for all we know. Anyway, Marshal Mallow didn't last long, and rode off into the sunset after a few months or so. Nestle acquired Carnation in 1985, eliminating a competitor, as Nestle was putting out their own hot cocoa (and still do).
6 comments:
I remember this ad, and I believe I saw the actual product in a store once, IIRC, it was in a now defunct grocery/department store chain called Memco, where we used to grocery shop in on weekends.
Marshal Mallow wasn't around very long, though. I never actually tried it.
I never tried it, either, and I don't remember seeing it in stores here in upstate NY.
Being off topic, a few years down the road will see Swiss Miss putting out an ad where a puppet of Swiss Miss touts their line of pudding bars ("If Jell-O can do it, so can we!", I guess).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw302mtqH7o
Didn't realize there was a stop-motion version of the girl too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_idQFFW1kE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2e7eR5YBb0
I tried to do some research to see if Rankin-Bass had been commissioned to do those Swiss Miss ads---later ads clearly used a traditional puppet on a string---back in the day. No go. I have plans to put one of those up soon.
Also slightly off-topic but nonetheless interesting: the name Marshal Mallow was used again for a character in the animated movie Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return (2013).
I'll have to look at that one.
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