Recall Wacky Packages? They are a series of trading cards featuring parodies of consumer products.
According to the online Wikipedia, the cards (usually in a sticker
format) were produced by the Topps Company beginning in 1967. The
original series sold for two years. Incredibly, at one time the product
briefly outsold baseball cards. I personally had contributed to both
products' sales back in the day.
If you recall, the cards spoofed well-known packaged brands such as
"Blisterine" (instead of Listerine) and "Neveready" batteries (for
Eveready batteries).
Little did I realize way back when my friends and I were snickering at
this kind of low-brow humor that someday my career would center on the
very things these cards parody: packages of consumer goods.
I thought the cards had faded away much like my childhood. However, it
seems that the concept proved popular enough that it has been revived
every few years since. I just learned that an "all-new" series of
stickers was released in 2004, and has continued into a fifth set in
2007. The latest series includes "Del Monster Fright Cocktail" (Del
Monte Fruit Cocktail), "Ant Jemima" (Aunt Jemima), and "Covered
Girl"(Clairol Covergirl) cosmetics.
Maybe the takeaway for me is that juvenile humor will always be in style.
