SW: Big ingredient customers could actually look up in state records how much money, per ton, raisin packers were paying CALRAB. Sarah Wyman is our showrunner. CH: A raisin by any other name would be a dried grape. 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. SW: Clyde E. Nef, who was CALRAB's manager at the time, wrote about Seth's performance and the board's reaction in his book, The Fruits of Their Labors. CALRAB and the commercials it paid for represented the entire industry. 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: All of those different factors combined add up to the final, and most important challenge for the raisin industry. My girl!BK: Yeeeeah the marketing guys at Del Monte filed a complaint with the Department of Food and Agriculture over it. SW: Remember, these were Fresno guys, not big city ad men. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. They help out with keeping prices stable and have an eye on supply and demand. There it is. onefunplace. This is Brought to you by Brands you know, stories you don't. Back in 1987, the president of Priority Records got in touch with Ross, and he asked him to produce an album of Motown hits, sung by the California Raisins. (laughs). SW: Almost as soon as it disbanded CALRAB, the raisin industry got to work developing another agency to take its place. Sarah tells us what happened next SW: In 1994, a group of raisin packers voted to shut down CALRAB. Not much longer would you be mine baby. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions. All Rights Reserved. The 1980's TV commercials for California raisins have been called some of the best ads ever made. Qualifying purchases could enjoy 0% interest if paid in full in 4 months on purchases of 99+. And as that rift widened, the raisins fell right through it. 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. And so he says, 'Ok fine. [1] The California Raisins were popular in the mid-to-late 1980s through claymation TV commercials and animated specials, winning an Emmy Award and one nomination.[2][3]. Will Vinton told Seth the hardest part was getting his nose right. We love hearing from you. It was the sequel to the Emmy-nominated special Meet the Raisins! Who'd have ever thought that a beloved Motown classic would be brought back to life by a bunch of animated dried fruit? He writes: "The thirty seconds of this commercial seemed like an eternity. With the musicians all in a room, live, everything. But of course, that was not really the end of it. 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). Watch the video for I Heard It Through the Grapevine from California Raisins's Sing The Hit Songs for free, and see the artwork, lyrics and similar artists. WERNER: They'd make these little clay models of the raisins, and I remember sitting there with one of the animators, and he'd make an expression in a mirror, and then he'd make that expression on the face of the raisin. The California Raisins released four studio albums on Priority Records, BMG, and ZTT Records between 1987 to 1994, and their signature song, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", landed on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at number 84 or 85. There was 19 of us at Sunnyside country club sitting in a circle in the main dining room, and we all voted. But in terms of its impact on the industry it depends on who you ask. SW: Then, you've got nature to think about. But Barry Kriebel says, at that point, the actual facts had stopped mattering. They filed a petition, and that's it! But the Raisinss influence went beyond just TV and music and began to invade all levels of pop culture. 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. Scrobbling is when Last.fm tracks the music you listen to and automatically adds it to your music profile. And since there wasn't a "Dancing Raisin" brand in the store, small packers worried Sunmaid was getting all the business. This was not a formula. 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. And their arms were like small, and they had like little legs. Everyone is hungering for unity again, they just have to find something to unify around. The mockumentary-style show created a full backstory about the bands rise to stardom and delved into the histories of each of the individual Raisins, who had names by this pointA.C., Beebop, Stretch, and Red. SW: They pulled up to a business park, hopped out of the car, and marched into a conference room. I don't like raisins. It's being threatened by growing raisin production in other countries. But back in 1994, almost ten years after the first dancing raisins ad aired, that good feeling was nowhere to be found. RV: Oh no, to me it at one point it kind of went beyond that. Note: Comment submission is temporarily unavailable while we make improvements to the site. SW: One of the people who saw that ad was Michael Jackson. Still one thing nearly everyone does agree on is the mass appeal of the dancing raisins. Honey, honey yeah. (869) $17.99. They used themselves to make them human. The musical mockumentary was again created by Vinton Studios, and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. SPEAKER ELEVEN: We watched it in art class when I was in elementary school. Listen to music by California Raisins on Apple Music. WERNER: We want sunglasses on them, I want to put them in Converse sneakers, but untie the laces, and they gotta look hip, basically. Dancing Raisins Heard It Through the Grapevine. The California Raisin Advisory Board. Seth Werner and CALRABthe agency responsible for hyping up California raisinsthey had delivered a hit. Hey Sarah. And I told him, all of this sounds absolutely exhausting: KB: I'm still here! Please take time to look at pictures I try and show condition clear as possible. Merchandise sales included toys and Raisins images on nearly every conceivable medium: lunch boxes, notebooks, clothing, posters, bedsheets, and even a Halloween costume, just to name a few. In 2010, claymation versions of the California Raisins were featured in the special Christmas episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, "A Very Sunny Christmas". 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. Photo: A Claymation Christmas Celebration / CBS The Raisins Were Featured In Will Vinton's 'Claymation Christmas Celebration' On CBS In 1987 Packers had made up their minds about who they thought was getting the better end of the deal. Their cover of Marvin Gaye's &, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. SW: I was not even alive when most of those ads aired, and I had the same experience. If you require a personal response, please use ourContact page. And that is something producer that producer Sarah Wyman has made very clear to me since she began digging into the orgins of the California dancing raisins ad. In fact, the industry was on an upswing. BK: It actually got to the point where the Dancing Raisins had their own television show. And they should pretty much be still once they do their heard it! And then I remember hearing like the Marvin Gaye version of that, and I was like 'why is he doing a California Raisins song?' But were they a success for the raisin industry? And since they were already touring the country, at least on TV screens, there was only one logical next step. [16], In 2002, the Food Network program Unwrapped featured a segment on The California Raisins featuring interviews with Will Vinton, David Altschul, and Mark Gustafson of Vinton Studios. SW: This is Seth Werner. And so Will said 'well finally I took Janet's nose and put that on the raisin and he bought it [snaps fingers] like that.'. SPEAKER ONE: Like obviously, they're raisins, but it just didn't occur to me that like this was a tool to get you to eat like what you see in boxes of raisins. HARDEES AD: Announcing the big plush bendable California Raisins at Hardees SW: There were California Raisins Halloween costumesthey were bestsellers in 1988. Leave a message at (646) 768-4777, or email us at btyb@insider.com. What about Michael Jackson and what he was contributing? It taxed both growers and packers. You know? So, CALRAB proposed this big advertising campaign, with national TV commercials. [10] Different collections were produced in 1987, 1988, 1991, and finally in 2001 (the latter adding Carl's Jr. due to their late '90s acquisition of Hardee's) for their new stylization. Sunmaid. So Fresno is like Eden for raisins. Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. You can have a talking head, you can have a situation' you know, there were like formulas on how to do this. SW: Kalem says the vote on whether or not to approve the ad was extremely close. SW: The California raisin industry is complicated. KB: We're not getting our fair share of it. RV: And I set it up in the studio exactly how like an old Motown session would be. I mean. Of all the acronyms, there's just one you need to remember: CALRAB. Oh I heard it through the grapevine. Heard it! ", In 2017, an episode of The Simpsons called "The Cad and the Hat" included a couch gag segment featuring the California Raisins being killed by Homer.[21]. Condition: Used. From a pop culture standpoint, absolutelypeople all over the world have heard of the Dancing Raisins. SW: And then at the end the announcer says: WERNER: I remember when I went to college, people would say 'there are three or four ways you can do an advertisement. The California Raisins II is a 1990 claymation television special directed by Will Vinton, featuring the advertising characters The California Raisins. SW: But by 1994, the packers had reached a consensus. Raised in the California sunshine WERNER: He volunteered and said 'I won't be paid, I just want to be a raisin, I have one thing I need to ask though, I will not talk to anybody from the advertising agency, and I will not talk to any clients. SW: But you know who was on that shelf? SW: Back in Fresno, the raisin growers and packers watched with amazement as the Dancing Raisins turned into superstars. The lead singer is wailing, wearing shadesnaturally, since they were raised in the California sunshine. Was Marvin Gaye spinning in his grave? Yeah. Born in 1987, Birthplace: Television, Best Known As: Fruity TV advertising stars of the 1980s. CH: We're back. It seems like everyone in Motown heard about this song "through the grapevine" before it was finally recorded. And most of the people spending millions of dollars don't want to know there are two guys sitting in a back room trying to make each other laugh and come up with this stuff, but that is what we did. How would the assessment be collected? But back in 1986, going viral was not yet a thing. Just one piece! SW: For the packers who did have their own brands and worried Sunmaid was running away with raisin sales, there was another issue. Even if you weren't alive to see the advertisements, TV. And the industry was coming out of a big slump at the time. Because the smaller packers still thought Sunmaid had an unfair advantage. CHARLIE HERMAN: On September 14, 1986, California's hottest new band made its debut. But that little piece of fruit is anything but dry and boring. The ads storyboards were pretty simple: A bunch of raisins dance in a line across the screen, grooving to the Motown sound that had been rejuvenated by the success of The Big Chills 6 million-selling soundtrack. I didn't eat raisins. Remember, he reports on the raisin industry. Then in 1989, a 13-episode Saturday Morning Cartoon show calledThe California Raisin Show aired. SW: Seth's boss handed him the California raisins account. As for the music, the commercial featured Buddy Miles, a Carlos Santana collaborator and drummer for Jimi Hendrix, singing "I Heard It Through The Grapevine"picked because of the obvious connection between grapes and raisins, but also because the song had seen a resurgence after the Marvin Gaye version had been used for the opening scene of the 1983 hit movie The Big Chill. 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. While the songs popularized the phrase, they inspired the hit kids cartoon series "The California Raisins" in the 1990s. https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/34693/The+California+Raisins/I+Heard+It+Through+the+Grapevine. Or did the dancing California raisins cause more trouble than they were worth? California Raisins poster vintage 1987 Heard it Through The Grapevine. KB: [counts] 350 versus 244. These wildly popular clay animation raisins grew into far more than their creators had ever dreamed of. The California Raisins were a fictional rhythm and blues animated musical group as well as advertising and merchandising characters composed of anthropomorphized raisins. It would go on to produce the Dancing Raisins ad. Instead, it was a group of tiny, claymation raisins playing a Motown hit in a national ad campaign. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for CALIFORNIA RAISINS: i heard it through the grapevine PRIORITY 7" Single 45 RPM at the best online prices at eBay! [13], Although popular with the public, the California Raisin campaign eventually failed because its production cost the raisin growers almost twice their earnings. And the US, by the way, is the second largest raisin producer in the entire world. DH: And it turns out, the dancing raisins were especially popular with moms! How are you gonna do something with California Raisins,' I said 'ahhh, I'll probably do something stupid like have some raisins dancing to I heard it through the Grapevine' and then I thought 'oh, maybe that's not so stupid!'. Nature's candy. I know a man ain't supposed to cry. No, not really. [6] And maybe some people are pessimistic about it, I don't know, maybe people are tired of just the lack of unity. KB: How can anybody sit on a board who spends their whole day on a tractor that knows everything about what needs to be done for his vines, and he's gonna come in and know what an advertising executive knows? SW: The ad was a hit. Between 12th and 14th Streets Oh I'm just about to lose my mind. SW: Kalem Barserian, raisin industry veteran, again. The 1980's TV commercials for California raisins have been called some of the best ads ever made. SW: Matthew Malcolm was one of the first raisin industry members to return my calls. SW: Lots of details would have to be worked out first. Blastfrompasttoys. The California Raisins were the product of an exacerbated ad team, a few broken rules, and the execution of a fascinating visual art form. Okay? So, there's an alphabet soup of different boards and agencies and committees to help make that happen. Needless to say, their band history borrowed heavily from the types of origin stories real bands tended to have. WERNER: We went there because we had to meet the growers, and so we would drive, what was it, an hour, 90 minutes to Fresno from San Francisco, and the account people were all nervous on the way there like 'what are we going to do?'. First of all, you've got that family dynamic. Artist. 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. Raisins are not like cell phone brands, with unique features and better WiFi connectivity and a sleeker feel than their competitors. Start the wiki. It turns out the raisin industry is actually a very contentious industry there's this long history of lawsuits going back and forth between different members. 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). Musicians such as Ray Charles and Michael Jackson even got in on the raisin action, singing their own versions of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" for later commercials. Constitution Avenue, NW To make sense of that storyto understand where the dancing raisins came from, and how they disappearedeveryone told me I needed to talk to this guy. RV: I said, 'I think that's a great idea.' HO: Well there's there's definitely 12:02 some discussion about that I mean in its infancy right now. Lead vocals in the group were sung by musician Bu, The California Raisins were a fictional R&B group created in the mid-1980s for a commercial produced by the California Raisin Advisory. Stay up to date with what you want to know. See more ideas about california raisins, raisin, grape vines. Fresno is a dusty, medium-sized city in the middle of California's central valley. CALRAB teamed up with advertising agency Foote, Cone & Belding to try to forge an emotional connection between consumers and the dried fruit. Thanks to everyone who left us voicemails and shared their memories of the California Raisins in our Facebook group. First, they provide tools the industry can use to regulate the raisin market. In 1987, Vinton featured the Raisins singing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" in A Claymation Christmas Celebration, a Christmas TV special he produced that won an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program. Lots of brands tested the limits of this rule, including Sunmaid: BK: I got permission from the manager to create a claymation ad where I had the Dancing Raisins singing to the Sunmaid girl. But there was enough leadership to sway the ones that weren't smart enough to realize what a good program it was. But how did a bunch of dried grapes, burdened with the reputationof being a mediocre, boring snack, become synonymous with swagger? See terms. Almost all the packers resented Sunmaid, but not all for the same reasons. Like the whole body was just a head, with arms and legs waving about. 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?'. These days, some growers are abandoning ship entirely, ripping out their vineyards and planting almonds instead. I voted to kill it too. But as that money flowed back into CALRAB's coffers, the disagreements became more serious. The California Raisins Original Commercial click to see! We apologize for the interruption. While todays commercials may depict M&Ms and cookies with unique personas, the California Raisins hold a special place as '80s pop culture icons. Perhaps the most memorable piece of California Raisins merchandise, however, came in the form of small, non-poseable California Raisins figures. The classic about a man who finds out his woman is cheating on him was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong. Lead vocals in the group were sung by musician Buddy Miles. Yeah the good news is the industry is at a point where people are working together more than they have historically, at least in the past 20 years or so. The figures were kept in a box for several years and headed for the trash before being obtained by Webster Colcord, a former employee of Vinton. The ad was fun, but, to quote The Fruits of Their Labors again, it "made no effort to sell raisins. I Heard It Through the Grapevine features a clip the movie The Big Chill where a group of teenagers in a library who are listening to the song through headphones which leads them to dance . The briefthe goal of the campaignwas to come up with a commercial that would make customers see raisins differently. 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. CH: A warship, the USS Pyro, even asked permission to sail with a California Dancing Raisins flag flying high above ahoy mateys! Did it, uh, did it drive up the price of raisins? And, for better or worse, they're also in it together on that front. But first, he had to get approval from the raisin growers and packers who were paying for it. Because animators arranged each shot by hand, giving each raisin its own distinct personality (including individualized facial expressions and colorful sunglasses), the commercial took more than a month to shoot. The following year, Vinton created another TV special called Meet The Raisins! It lost message. Heard it, heard it! 1 Mar. I heard it through the grapevine. Label. African American History Curatorial Collective. He wrote to Foot Cone and Belding specifically requesting a VHS copy of the ad so he could watch it whenever he wanted to. Which meant packers couldn't slap a Dancing Raisin on their packaging or use the characters in ads unless they got their idea approved by the board. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it. KB: Whereas the packer is the middleman buying it from him, processing it, selling it, shipping it into trade and hoping to make a profit. This commercial has witimaginationand it was good enough that I went and bought a box of Californian grown raisins.'. If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. How is that better than Ray Charles?'. Werner and his copywriting partner, Dexter Fedor, knew that they needed to make the dried fruit less of an afterthoughtthe raisins needed personality. Besides appearing in short commercials, The California Raisins shared their musical chops in television specials. SW: This is what raisin packing sounds like. Michael Jackson asked to be featured in a sequel. Michael Jackson asked to be featured in a sequel. Vinton and his team spent weeks making about six different figurines and a set made out of clay. [22], Last edited on 21 February 2023, at 23:33, "TV Review; 'Claymation Christmas,' On CBS", "On View: A Feat of Clay: The Creator of California Raisins Molds an Animated Easter Special", "Stardom Is Feat Of Clay For California Raisins", "Bad 25: Spike Lee Brings Michael Jackson Back to Thrilling Life", "The California Raisins for Commodore 64 (1988)", "California Raisin Raisin Puppets: Late 80s - Early 90s", "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: A Very Sunny Christmas", "Celebrating Every '80s Reference in That RadioShack Super Bowl Commercial", "California Raisins Set for Comeback in Live-Action Feature", Official Will Vinton (LAIKA) Studios Site, The Clay and Stop-Motion Animation How-To Page: "California Raisin Raisin Puppets: Late 80s - Early 90s", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_California_Raisins&oldid=1140822520, "What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)" b/w "I Got You (I Feel Good)" - 1988, Purple Vinyl 7", "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" - 1988 (single, extended peaked at #84 on the, This page was last edited on 21 February 2023, at 23:33. A series of weather-related disasters during the '70s had thrown the price of raisins completely out of whack. Packers sort the raisins by size, rinse out sand and dirt, control for quality, and pack them all up in boxes. Right or wrong, It depends on wherever the votes are. WERNER: Our whole objective was to make them cool. In The Simpsons episode "'Tis the Fifteenth Season", The California Raisins were spoofed as The California Prunes, on a special entitled Christmas with the California Prunes. SPEAKER TEN: We had the Christmas special on videotape, we probably watched it like three or four times a December, between when I was like 4 and 8. Director. 2016 ScienceAGoGo. SUNMAID AD: My girl talkin' bout my girl. 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. Ended: 27 Feb, 2023 23:10:08 GMT. SW: Again, Seth Werner, sockless ad copywriter. SW: That's another thing that makes the raisin industry different. SW: The winning concept was a raisin with big eyes, a defined nose, and a wide mouthperfect for lip syncing. SW: Seth has a whole scrapbook of these letters. A California Raisins Fan Club began in 1987, which included a Grapevine Gazette newsletter and various memorabilia. Definitely [both laugh]. SPEAKER FOUR: My mother thought they were great, and she collected the figurines. 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. 80s classic toys. Your email address will not be published. Because that's a whole market supply and demand on both the national and international basis. No effort to sell raisins. ' Motown session would be a dried grape, boring snack, synonymous... So, CALRAB proposed this big advertising campaign, with unique features better. 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