Back in the '80s, we kids got a heavy dose of healthy marketing. Each cereal commercial was always "part of this complete breakfast" no matter how much sugar it contained. We were also bombarded with all those PSAs on healthy foods reminding us "
don't knock it till you try it" or get a "
hanker for a hunk of cheese." Our larger-than-life TV heroes also took the time to remind us to eat our vegetables and take our vitamins.
And it was much easier to take those vitamins because they were marketed to us like everything else...with our favorite pop culture characters! For nearly half a century, Flinstones vitamins has been one of the top brands. Marketers even reminded us in the '80s that they were successful to the tune of "
10 million strong and growing." But that didn't stop other companies from hiring pop culture characters to sell their vitamins.
Here are six more pop culture characters besides "the modern stone age family" that were used to sell kids vitamins in the '80s...
Pac-Man Vitamins - Pac-man took a jab at "the leading brand" by hiring Fred Savage to tell kids "
Goodbye, Fred. Hello Pac-Man!" They even laid out three reasons why kids should be chomping power-packed pellets instead of being in stone age of high sugar and artifical flavors.
Hulk Hogan Vitamins - After reminding us to say our prayers and eat our vitamins throughout his WWF career in the '80s, Hulk Hogan got his own brand of kids vitamins in the early '90s. His product was marketed as all natural with beta-carotene, which I remember getting "name dropped" in several health and vitamin TV ads of that time.
Smurfs Vitamins - This is the brand I remember taking the most as a kid. I was huge into the Smurfs and remember collecting some of the model heads on top of the bottles. I can also remember enjoying the taste more than the other vitamin choices.
E.T. Vitamins - I also remember having E.T. vitamins as a kid, not for the taste or advertising but the pseudo action figure that came with the bottle! The figure was glued onto the bottle and I remember removing it and it being part of my toy collection for a long time.
Bugs Bunny Vitamins - Bugs Bunny has been a "spokestoon" for decades, selling everything from Tang to Nikes. The '80s wasn't any different with Bugs pitching his own sugar-free vitamins to parents and kids.
Space Invaders Vitamins - I have no recollection of Space Invaders Vitamins and was pretty amazed to find the above image when researching the topic. I know Space Invaders was very popular at the arcade but never would have guessed it was large enough to have it's own vitamin brand. There was also
a t-shirt offer on the package which would have grabbed my attention.
Remember any more pop culture brands of vitamins? Leave a comment below...
Images credits Flickr Tokkie Pokkie, AmericanHistory.si.edu
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