So, give them raisins! Box Office Software produced a different, unrelated California Raisins computer game in 1988 for the Apple II, Commodore 64, and PC compatibles. CH: This commercial was the most popular TV ad in 1987 and 1988. SW: Michael Jackson sent Will Vinton a video with instructions for how he wanted the claymation to lookdown to the motions and facial expressions the backup raisins were making in the background of the ad. You don't, right? If you have more stories to share, call us anytime. We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly. Or 'if it's bad for Sunmaid, it's gotta be good for them. The band broke up. And he made it very clear to me right off the bat that no one, him included, would be interested in talking about the New York Times story I'd read. AD SEVEN: I heard it through the grapevine! Audiences quickly connected with the Raisins authentic R&B sound, and The California Raisins version of "Grapevine" even reached No. HARRY OVERLY: I know for a fact that there is animosity that still exists within the industry of what happened back then. First aired on September 14, 1986, Werner's idea for a 30-second television commercial introduced audiences to The California Raisins, a group of anthropomorphized raisins with expressive eyebrows, stylish shoes, and the slickest dance moves since the Chiquita Banana shimmied into advertising in the 1940s. The concept was originally created by advertising firm Foote, Cone & Belding (FCB) for a 1986 Sun-Maid commercial on behalf of the California Raisin Advisory Board when one of the writers, Seth Werner (at the time with FCB in San Francisco) came up with an idea for the new raisin commercial, saying, "We have tried everything but dancing raisins singing 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine'" (the 1968 song popularized by Marvin Gaye). I grew up in California, and it felt like they were everywhere. SPEAKER ONE: It was like a Mr. SW: This is Matthew Malcolm again. https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/34693/California+Raisins/I+Heard+It+Through+the+Grapevine. SPEAKER SIX: They were an incredible Motown band.SPEAKER ONE: I thought they were a real band, and really did not connect them to like raisins, or like the idea of dried grapes until well into my adulthood. [9] Blackthorne Publishing also released a six-issue comic book series entitled The California Raisins 3-D which included 3D glasses; these would later be re-released in the Ultimate Collection trade paperback. He's now on his second round of leading the Raisin Bargaining Association. Little disagreements surfaced. You're making us put up $32.50 for generic advertising, and Sunmaid's getting the benefit of it. (laughs) These little guys took over everybody's hearts and minds, so it didn't surprise us at the time. WERNER: A frame was one snapshot. And their arms were like small, and they had like little legs. This special saw the Raisins hiring a new manager with the goal of making a comeback. https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/34693/The+California+Raisins/I+Heard+It+Through+the+Grapevine. Umpteen searches though the archives using the terms "California Raisins" and "Hardee's" came up mostly empty, except for . SPEAKER EIGHT: And I guess subliminally, it probably worked because I do remember eating raisins as a snack. Lead vocals in the group were sung by musician Buddy Miles. And if the California raisin family wanted to avert economic disaster, it needed to band together and find a way to sell more raisins. BK: No, what we got was him for free, but he wasn't gonna do anything. Test your MusicIQ here! And it became more entertainment than strategy. Not much longer would you be mine. SW: One of the people who saw that ad was Michael Jackson. I was in the room when it got killed! SW: He just turned 82, and for the last few decades, he's been privy to almost every dispute in raisin land, and lots of them have landed on his desk. Like, when Ray Charles had starred in his ad, he agreed to do a cross-country public relations tour, promoting the health and goodness of California raisins. Connect your Spotify account to your Last.fm account and scrobble everything you listen to, from any Spotify app on any device or platform. Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal (Europe) S. r.l. Michael Jackson asked to be featured in a sequel. SW: Michael Brunsfeld was the commercial animation director at a company called Colossal Pictures, which had been contracted to do a mockup of the ad. The ad was fun, but, to quote The Fruits of Their Labors again, it "made no effort to sell raisins. Constitution Avenue, NW Go directly to shout page. WERNER: We created this huge conga line that came out of a box of raisins and danced on the coffee table while this husband and wife or boyfriend and girlfriend were watching a movie, and they were unaware that all this was happening in its own little world. A California Raisins Fan Club began in 1987, which included a Grapevine Gazette newsletter and various memorabilia. I said, 'Ok, that's one piece of the marketing puzzle. I'm Charlie Herman. VINTAGE THE CALIFORNIA RAISINS 1987 YELLOW PLASTIC LUNCHBOX WITH THERMOS, California Raisins Trumpet Figure 1988 Applause Calrab 80s PVC Vintage, CALIFORNIA RAISINS RUDY BAGAMAN, BANANA WHITE & LICK BROCCOLI FIGURES (JES33). The 1980's TV commercials for California raisins have been called some of the best ads ever made. View wiki Your email address will not be published. If you require a personal response, please use ourContact page. KB: We're not getting our fair share of it. From Performing Songwriter Issue 111, July/Aug 2008. Definitely [both laugh]. On November 4, 1988, CBS aired a primetime television special called Meet the Raisins! But, that's not where this story ends. Still one thing nearly everyone does agree on is the mass appeal of the dancing raisins. You're over. And in 1998wait for it, another acronymthe CRMBCalifornia Raisin Marketing Boardtook over as the new hype machine for California Raisins. Did it, uh, did it drive up the price of raisins? The California Dancing Raisins ad has been called one of the best of all time. A new version of Last.fm is available, to keep everything running smoothly, please reload the site. SPEAKER THREE: The one song I remember them doing all the time was "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" To the point where I was a kid and I hadn't, I don't think it really clicked to me that that was like a real song. 1 Mar. Not much longer would you be mine baby. And on top of everything else, he says there's one subject of conversation that just won't drop. 30 of those and you have a second of the commercial. I mean, we didn't do anything short of that. The face took up most of the raisin's body MB: And then there was little wrinkles here and there, but the more you emphasize that, the more it looked, you know, kind of like a weird prune. SW: That's another thing that makes the raisin industry different. [4] To their surprise, the commercial became wildly popular, paving the way for several future commercials and opportunities through other media. I says, 'in Canada? The California Raisins were a fictional R&B group created in the mid-1980s for a commercial produced by the California Raisin Advisory. SW: So are the California Raisins coming back, do you thinkthe Dancing California Raisins? We love hearing from you. The tape was rewound and the presentation repeated.". People loved the singing, dancing Claymation raisins so much that more commercials followed, andin a marketing scheme that was virtually unheard of at the timeThe California Raisins went on to release four albums, score a Billboard Hot 100 hit, and earn an Emmy nomination (and appear in an Emmy-winning show). The growers are the ones with the vines. Jun 1, 2013 - Explore The Goodwill Geek's board "Heard it Through the Grapevine.", followed by 362 people on Pinterest. Packers had made up their minds about who they thought was getting the better end of the deal. Post's Raisin Bran cereal took advantage of the increasingly popular dried fruit and teamed up with the Raisins to help promote their boxed cereal, and fast food chain Hardees bought a license to produce the incredibly popular collectible Raisins figurines. SW: Lots of details would have to be worked out first. So you really had to be in the right place at the right time just to see it, and then when you saw it, you weren't quite sure what that was, but it was different than everything else you saw, and people started just saying 'what was that?'. SETH WERNER: It wasn't back then, and it still isn't now. MICHAEL BRUNSFELD: The first step in this was we need somebody to create some raisins that are going to dance around. Select PayPal Credit to have the option to pay over time. Raisins, dressed up in white gloves and sunglasses, dancing to Marvin Gaye's "I heard it through the grapevine." Although Vinton made one last Claymation TV movie about the Raisins in 1990, the end of the '80s brought a decline in the Raisinss popularity. And then it clicked on me that it was like, 'oh, this is a real song, like not a California Raisins song.'. We'll do that.'. "[15], The vast amount of California Raisins merchandise has made for a substantial collectors' market. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Oh! Our editor is Micaela Blei. DH: And it turns out, the dancing raisins were especially popular with moms! I heard it through the grapevine. When Seth Werner, a 31-year-old copywriter at the ad agency Foote, Cone & Belding, walked into the pitch meeting, he knew he had to put on a show. AD TWO: We know raisins are natural, but kids just know what they like. And then, job number two: they work on public relations and marketing for the entire raisin industry. Commissioned by the California Raisin Advisory Board (CALRAB), a trade group of raisin producers in Californias Central Valley, the commercial was part of a multi-million dollar campaign to combat slowing raisin sales. Somewhere, some afternoon, Noel Gallagher sat down with a guitar and did a little strumming and made up a few words to go with it. In 2015, it was announced that a live-action/CGI reboot of the California Raisins would be produced, with president of The Actors Hall of Fame Foundation, Rusty Citron, as one of the people behind the project. CALRAB gave the "Grapevine" pitch the green light. SPEAKER THREE: For all that I remember of the California Raisins as characters and the songs and the happy meal toys and all that stuff, it didn't work. Sarah Wyman is our showrunner. And now they are all I can think about!! They were the California Raisins. The California Raisins were a fictional R&B group created in the mid-1980s for a commercial produced by the California Raisin Advisory. I mean, you can imagine that! Will Vinton told Seth the hardest part was getting his nose right. He has faith in the industry's ability to work this out. The comedy podcast Felix Navipod features discussion of the California Raisins on all 166 episodes of its run. SW: Almost as soon as it disbanded CALRAB, the raisin industry got to work developing another agency to take its place. Brought to you by is a production of Insider Audio. Get instant explanation for any lyrics that hits you anywhere on the web! TikTok video from Shug (@sonyastanford2). Unless you just happened to have a VCR set up and recording at the exact moment the ad aired WERNER: You had to wait and hopefully see it on TV again on some show you were watching and not know when that was coming, and because we didn't have a very big media budget, it wasn't on that often. Everyone is hungering for unity again, they just have to find something to unify around. CH: But while the ad made the dancing California raisins cool did it do anything for actual California raisins? Entdecke The California Raisi - I Heard It Through The Grapevine - gebrauchtes Vinyl - E8100A in groer Auswahl Vergleichen Angebote und Preise Online kaufen bei eBay Kostenlose Lieferung fr viele Artikel! In 1985, he was a copywriter at the ad agency Foote, Cone, and Belding. SW: Paul. KB: Heard it through the grapevine! But these tears I can't hold inside. KB: Grape and raisin grower. If I tell everybody some fictitious story about you know, Chicken Little, right now to you, they might know it in Madera by 2 o'clock. 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. But in terms of its impact on the industry it depends on who you ask. The show would have animated raisins acting as rockstars, and the song, "I heard it through the grapevine," was the California Raisins number-one single. And the band wasn't playing heavy metal or rock 'n' roll. CH: A warship, the USS Pyro, even asked permission to sail with a California Dancing Raisins flag flying high above ahoy mateys! RAISINS SHOW: You might have heard about us through the old grapevine. And this is what I told him. But first, he had to get approval from the raisin growers and packers who were paying for it. SW: I was not even alive when most of those ads aired, and I had the same experience. in 1988. The Hardee's restaurant chain offered these as part of a promotion for its Cinnamon 'N' Raisin biscuits. Sunmaid had always been the golden child, and now, they were making off with the family fortune. We may update this record based on further research and review. I know a man ain't supposed to cry. Remember, he reports on the raisin industry. Vintage California Raisins Posable, Puppets, Bank, Wind up toy. And, I didn't know this, but nearly 100 percent of the raisins the U.S. produces come from within a 60 mile radius of the city. AD THREE: Raisins from California. Refresh your browser window to try again. Now, the story of a man many call an outlaw. California raisins from the California vineyards. (869) $17.99. Scrobbling is when Last.fm tracks the music you listen to and automatically adds it to your music profile. Was the Dancing Raisins ad a success? BK: So the bottom line was you didn't have industry consensus. They were tired of paying into a shared piggybank for the greater good. HO: Oh, there's definitely hope. CALRAB and the commercials it paid for represented the entire industry. But in 1994, the raisin industry abruptly pulled the plug on the ad and its spinoffs, and still debates whether or not it was successful. Socit en Commandite par Actions Registered Office: 22-24 Boulevard Royal L-2449, Luxembourg). But actually to me, one of the most interesting parts of that story was this little section on the California Dancing Raisins ads from the '80s. This client had been with his agency for over a decade, and though they'd had some fairly successful campaigns in the past, the client's main product was slipping in sales. The most popular TV ad in 1987, which included a grapevine Gazette and! Call an outlaw us anytime this is Matthew Malcolm again the band was n't back,! 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