Chips Ahoy! cookies

Two series of commercials for Nabisco's Chips Ahoy! chocolate chip cookies.

Circa 1973
These commercials involved a cheesy superhero figure named "Cookie Man" Can't remember exactly what he looked like, but I know he wore some form of blue tights. I think there was a logo of sorts on his chest. The commercial began with a "secret identity" character.

A narrator did a pun-filled voiceover as some crazy villain was trying to steal the man's Chips Ahoy! cookies. In one spot it was a giant telephone. The man ran into a phone booth, but the phone was out of order and it tried to eat the man's cookies. "..it's another big phony." Something then happened to transform him, "...and it's Cookie Man". Punching the giant telephone's dial, literally, "He's got their number. What an operator. Long distance!!"

The ad always ended "...with an average of 16 chocolate chips. From Nabisco."

Circa 1976
These commercials were animated, and had a "chocolate mountain" that looked remarkably similar to a giant chocolate chip. A narrator sung:
"In a secret land, very far away
lies a chocolate mountain, where work is play
And on that mountain is a Chips Ahoy! mine
Where folks are chipping chocolate chips all the time."

Shows a bunch of kids with machinery distributing chips into huge cookies, one at a time.

"...chocolate chips galore,
till there's hardly any room for one chip more
And if you'd like a taste of chocolate mountain, boy
munchy crunchy chocolate chip-filled Chips Ahoy!"

Welcome - Cocoa Krispies with Ogg

Ancient Chinese secret, huh?
Ring around the collar!
Where kids are king.

Remember these lines? Yes, some of the most creative TV commercials were in the 1970s, yet comparatively few of them remain available on the likes of YouTube. Perhaps this was because the 70s commercials were between the well-preserved black-and-white films of the 50s and 60s, and the VCR-era ads of the 80s and 90s. Indeed, many of the surviving color commercials from the 70s have faded.

In this blog I will post periodic, approximate memories of 1970s TV commercials as they come to mind -- which happens to me a LOT. Be sure to post a comment if you remember the commercial, a variation, or have a correction.

So, let's get started.

Kellogg's Cocoa Krispies cereal with caveman Ogg.
circa 1971
Long before the likes of Coco the Monkey, the spokesman for Cocoa Krispies was a caveman named Ogg. (His wife's name was Kell. Kell-Ogg, get it?) The commercials took place in a prehistoric setting, and was often found showing off his stone-age inventions while enjoying Cocoa Krispies cereal. Ogg spoke with a half-British accent of some sort. A very impressive stop-motion animation technique was used.

I remember two of these:

1. (Ogg is walking on top of a tire-like object as it rolls)
Voice: "What's that, a wheel?"
Ogg: "No, it's my latest invention, which allows me to ride and eat Kellogg's Cocoa Krispies cereal at the same time."
(Ogg is seen eating a bowl of cereal while walking atop the "wheel")
Voice: "Really? What's it like eating Cocoa Krispies, going down steep hills?"
(Ogg is now struggling to eat and stay atop the wheel as it rumbles down an incline)
Ogg: (gives a description of the cereal with an edge of fear in his voice. Finally he wipes out. From amidst the wreckage: )
"Finished eating. I think I'll invent a brake."

2. (Ogg is standing atop a small mountain, as a huge bird or pterodactyl approaches him)
Voice: "Ogg, WATCH OUT!!"
The bird picks Ogg up and gets him on his back.
Ogg: "Whew, I almost missed my flight. The meal they serve on this flight is Kellogg's Cocoa Krispies cereal."
(Ogg is seated on the back of the flying avian creature with a bowl of cereal, or more likely a "complete breakfast" in front of him. Standard description of cereal follows.)
Voice: "Wow, you sure are good at flying"
(Bird releases Ogg atop a very tall and thin mesa)
Ogg: "Oh, the flying's easy. (loud despearate voice) But what's hard is, getting down from the airport!"

The Ogg character was retired in about 1975, at which point he was replaced by a brown elephant named "Tusk Tusk".