Last year, Sun-Maid's iconic mascot, the Sun-Maid maid, got a makeover so the brand would have a new look. Her overall appearance remained very similar, but she was digitized. The newly three dimensional character talks, does yoga and promotes California raisins, but even though she was one of the first ad icons to undergo this overhaul, she isn't the only one. Orville Redenbacher has recently been digitized so that he can continue to convincingly promote his famous popcorn brand over ten years after his death. The first ad to use digital Orville will air during the Golden Gloves and will depict "Redenbacher [pitching] popcorn while jiving to his MP3 player." A preview clip can be seen here.
With the amount of technology that went into the ad, it is the company's most expensive ever, but as we have seen from the movie industry, an expensive venture doesn't always yield blockbuster results. Opinions vary on whether this was a good idea or a bad one. Some, including Redenbacher's grandson, see it as a way to remember the man and even feel that he would have loved the idea himself. Others think that there is "a certain creepiness" to the revival of a long-dead man.
Click past the jump for a vintage Orville Redenbacher commercial.
1-15-2007 @1:51PM Foodie Bride said... Surely they had better ideas from their marketing department.
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1-15-2007 @1:37PM MJ said... This is as scary as the burger king guy!
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1-15-2007 @2:54PM Matt said... I think the ad will appear on the Golden *Globe* Awards show, not on a boxing match that's part of the "Golden Gloves."
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1-15-2007 @2:32PM Megan said... I don't like that one or the new SunMaid
girl. The only things creepier are the
BK King and the digital Nasonex family.
I hope Wendy's doesn't pick up
on this and do that to Dave Thomas : X
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1-15-2007 @2:26PM Mike said... The Gene Kelly VW commericial was just creepy, but since it made people talk, I guess it served it's purpose.
While Gene had little connection to VW, at least virtual Orville will be shilling for the company that bears his name. He'd probably be more OK with the use than John Wayne would have been with the Coors commercial.
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1-15-2007 @5:40PM Blair said... lol, Nicole we knew what you meant( still funny though, thanks, and good eye Matt)
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1-16-2007 @3:24PM Rich S. said... My wife and I just saw this commercial for the first time a few minutes ago. WOW! Was that creepy or what?! It wasn't even mildly amusing. Not even a shread of irony. Just a creepy digitized dead guy, and we're supposed to accept it as what? Nostalgia? Funny? Campy? I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the ad agency that came up with this one when they gave it final approval. Were they on crack or what? We will never buy that popcorn again--it would taste like the polyps off Orville Redenbacher's dead neck.
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1-16-2007 @12:19AM Mark said... This is more like Orville's corpse. When I saw this commercial during the golden Globes, I thought somebody was doing a spoof commercial. I logged on to find that someone actually wanted to produce one of the scariest, morbid recreations of Redenbacher. Let the man rest in peace. And... No, this does not make me want to buy his popcorn!
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1-16-2007 @7:34PM Scott said... Rich nailed it with his comment. There was nothing remotely redeeming about the ad. They made Redenbacher look creepy and silly (with the mp3 player) all at the same time. I can't believe his grandson approves. I don't approve and I don't even know the man.
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1-17-2007 @7:09PM Lena said... I never want to see this commercial again! It was worst than a trailer for a creepy horror flick, but much more effective. When I recalled it later that night, I almost convinced myself that it WAS a horror movie trailer! This was a crass and ill-conceived idea, grandson. If Papa Orville was such a zealous self-promoter that he would have endorsed the idea of his ghost selling popcorn, that's a disclosure that should have been left with him in the grave.
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1-18-2007 @10:47PM Danielle said... I never take the time to post comments on commercials, but this one was a bit disturbing. I agree that we should let the celebrities rest in peace and not put words in their mouths, literally.
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1-20-2007 @7:33PM Michael S. said... I hate this commercial! This Orville is so scary little kids would run and jump into the Burger King's arms to get away from him! Obviously the ghouls behind this had to resort to digital imaging when the actual corpse of poor Mr. Redenbacher could not withstand a "Weekend at Bernie's" type of workout in front of the cameras. As horrible as that may sound, they have created the same result. Let real people rest in peace. As for me, whenever I reach for some popcorn in the supermarket, I will feel a chill down my spine as i see this product on the shelf and grab a different brand until this ad campaign is long gone from the airwaves. Hope you do also.
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1-21-2007 @2:55PM James Duncan said... This has got to be one of the most disturbing commercials I have ever seen. This is the worst idea that I have ever seen from an ad agency. If they could have kept it at a distance, it might not have been so bad, but the closeups make me cringe.
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1-22-2007 @2:01AM LoisAlene said... What happened to Orville's neck?? It doesn't look like they remembered to include it in the digitization. This creepy new commercial makes me cringe every time it comes on.
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3-18-2007 @2:29PM Raymond Ackerman said... Not only do the prosthetics and make-up make the actor in the faux bloopers commercial look creepy like Orville's corpse but I also think the whole idea of having somebody pretend to be a real person that is dead is really disrespectful. I've see ads with Ben Franklin or Lincoln or something and that's different,because they died so long ago nobody alive knew them so that's not quite as bad. But a decade after Redenbacher died it's really sleazy for ConAgra to use a guy in make-up to sell popcorn. Totally disrepectful. Just because the company has the legal right to his name and image, they should have had some respect and not used it that way.
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3-18-2007 @8:20PM Raymond Ackerman said...
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