Burke Family Grape-Nuts® TV Commercial, 1968 - 70 

The 30 second commercial spot first aired on television across the U.S on July 19, 1968, and its life on TV spanned nearly two years. It ran in prime-time slots with a number of popular TV series. A 12 second spot, edited down from the full length ad, also ran during this period. Two print ads appeared in issues of LIFE magazine.
Its enduring place in TV pop-culture history is evidenced in the many spoofs, skits, and jokes spawned by the commercial, covering 2 decades and appearing in a range of comedy shows and movies, newspapers, magazines, and literature.
Five single-panel cartoon gags were syndicated: one in MAD and two in PLAYBOY magazines. Comic-strip artist, Bil Keane, penned two panels. The first line of an Erma Bombeck book references it. Four or more television comedy/variety shows did skits and jokes about this ad in the late '60s/early '70s, such as The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The Carol Burnett Show, and Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. A sketch based on it appears in 1977's Kentucky Fried Movie, and over 15 “riffs” on the commercial's dialogue feature in the long-running '80s and '90s television comedy series, Mystery Science Theater 3000.

 

Produced for General Foods by Benton & Bowles, Inc., New York, NY.
Copywriter: Vida Pernick; Producer: Paul McDonough; Director: Phil Landek.
“Cast” of Burke Family spot (in order of appearance):
Mrs. Caroline Burke, Dale Burke, Dennis Sherwood, Adam, Robert, and Bennett Burke, two “extras.”

Special appreciation is due to:
DMBB45044, AdViews Digital Collection, John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History, Duke University Libraries
(for permission to post the high-res commercial footage from their collection);
KF Holdings, Inc., for their permission to include the original TV commercial footage;
Mike Ransom (Tulsa TV Memories) and Chris Speros, for their generous production assistance;
Kevin Murphy, who graciously helped to correct the “Mystery Science Theater 3000” riff info;
Vida Pernick, for providing photos and other archival media;
Jeff Smith, for uploading our commercial, as our film-to-digital transfer, to YouTube;
all who visit our website and view and comment about our commercial on YouTube, and all the great sites that link to us!

Site created July 19, 2002
(34th Anniversary of first broadcast)

POST Grape-NutsŪ, circa 1968

 

LEGAL DISCLAIMER: THIS SITE WAS CREATED AS A FAMILY ARCHIVE OF IMAGES AND DOCUMENTS RELATED TO THE POST GRAPE-NUTS ® TV COMMERCIAL [1968, BENTON & BOWLES, Inc.] IN WHICH THE BURKES WERE FEATURED. ALL IMAGES, TEXTS, AND OTHER MEDIA HEREIN HAVE BEEN REPRODUCED ONLY FOR DISPLAY AND STRICTLY NON-COMMERCIAL PURPOSES, AND THEIR PRESENTATION COMPLIES WITH THE FAIR USE PROVISION OF CURRENT US COPYRIGHT LAW, UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED. Please do not copy, distribute, upload, post, republish, or transmit any content without written consent. You may download material onto one computer for personal, non-commercial use only, provided you do not delete or change any copyright, trademark, or other proprietary notices. Please do not modify any materials or use them for any other purpose; otherwise, you may violate intellectual-property rights. You may freely link to this site, but you may not under any circumstances borrow bandwidth by broadcasting or displaying any content from this site at your site. SITE CONTAINS LINKS TO SOME ADULT HUMOR. Content at external sites is not endorsed by or the responsibilty of this site's host. Permissions: DMBB45044, AdViews Digital Collection, John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History, Duke University Libraries; POST GRAPE-NUTS ® is a trademark of KF Holdings.

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