45: Heard It Through the Grapevine
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Business Insider
4.6 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 25 March 2020
⏱️ 44 minutes
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Summary
The 1980’s TV commercials for California raisins have been called some of the best ads ever made. The claymation raisins singing and dancing to Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” became a kids TV show, recorded an album that went platinum, launched a range of toys and costumes, and starred in an Emmy-winning Christmas special. But were they a success for the raisin industry? Or did the dancing California raisins cause more trouble than they were worth?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | On September 14, 1986, California's hottest new band made its debut. |
| 0:09.8 | It wasn't at the filmore in San Francisco, or the Trubidor in LA, and the band wasn't |
| 0:14.2 | playing heavy metal or rock and roll. |
| 0:16.4 | Instead, it was a group of tiny, claymation raisins playing a Motown hit in a national ad |
| 0:22.1 | campaign. |
| 0:24.1 | Today were the California raisins. |
| 0:36.9 | This commercial was the most popular TV ad in 1987 and 1988, and a lot of people, including |
| 0:43.5 | many of our listeners, still remember it really well. |
| 0:46.6 | It was like a Mr. Potato Head but a raisin. |
| 0:48.5 | Like it was like the whole body was just the head with arms and legs waving about. |
| 0:53.4 | And some of them played instruments, maybe. |
| 0:55.3 | All dancing in the real world, but in their little clay situation. |
| 1:00.1 | They were disproportionately, recently huge, and their arms were like small and little legs. |
| 1:05.1 | The dancing raisins were so popular, they took on a life of their own outside of the |
| 1:09.0 | ad. |
| 1:10.0 | They even have real figurines. |
| 1:11.0 | I remember seeing them in my toy chest. |
| 1:14.3 | They were part of some happy meal, kind of thing. |
| 1:19.2 | The dancing raisins were invited to light the national Christmas tree at the White House. |
| 1:23.3 | They recorded an album that went gold within weeks of its release. |
| 1:26.9 | They were an incredible Motown band. |
| 1:30.0 | I thought they were a real band, and really did not connect them to like raisins or like |
... |
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