Monday, January 3, 2022

Toonfomercial: Crime prevention with McGruff (1979)

 The Ad Council introduced an iconic character in the 70's, McGruff, The Crime Dog, who advised viewers about crime prevention.

We bring this up because an old ad surfaced on Family Guy recently as a cutaway gag, in which Brian (Seth MacFarlane) purportedly appeared as McGruff's sidekick, Sgt. Bark. Of course, that wasn't really what happened, just MacFarlane channeling his inner pop culture geek for laughs.

In this 1979 spot, McGruff teaches how neighbors can help prevent a vacationing family from being robbed.


Unlike the Incredible Crash Test Dummies, McGruff was never spun off into an all-animated series of his own. It would've taken away his uniqueness.

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