SW: Then, you've got nature to think about. KB: And at this point, even though I had to vote to kill it, I side on the other side, where I helped put that program together, and was successful for ten years. Possibly, but in their own sweet, silly way, these spots conveyed a sense of mindless fun and gave the humble raisin its moment in the sun. How would the assessment be collected? But he told me something else too, something he says a lot of reporters like mewho fly into Fresno from the big city to cover the dramaoften miss: MM: We're all families here and so, everybody's really close, everybody knows each other, I mean, a lot of them are related to each other, they marry in, and so they're very tight SW: And that big family, with lots of opinions, is where some of that drama comes from. KB: Grape and raisin grower. It wasn't at The Fillmore in San Francisco or the Troubadour in LA. The California Raisins merchandising snowballed into 300 different products, including clothing, bed sheets, Halloween costumes, car accessories, lunch boxes, and even toilet paper. 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. Seth Werner and CALRABthe agency responsible for hyping up California raisinsthey had delivered a hit. Or 'if it's bad for Sunmaid, it's gotta be good for them. Paul McCartney requested his own copy on VHS. Umpteen searches though the archives using the terms "California Raisins" and "Hardee's" came up mostly empty, except for . SW: Seth has a whole scrapbook of these letters. The success of the dancing raisins exposed fractures in the industry which had been forming just under the surface for decades. WERNER: 'Dear NBC, After weeks of trying to find out who to congratulate on a recent national ad, I came up with nothing. California Raisins T-shirt ~ I Heard It Through The Grapevine ~ Claymation 80s. The Raisins released numerous studio albums in the 1980s, starred in a cartoon series, and were nominated for an Emmy for their 1988 "Meet the Raisins" mockumentary. Hell no! They weren't in the shelf. 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. They recorded an album that went gold within weeks of its release. CH: From Business Insider. He's a reporter covering raisins and grapes for one of the trade magazines his family publishes. Jackson, who agreed to do his commercial for free (and on the condition that he only work with Vinton, who he knew from their Captain EO project with Disney), helped create his own Claymation raisin with his signature single white glove, fedora, and pelvic-thrusting dance moves. Not much longer would you be mine baby. MICHAEL JACKSON: And Will, keep these guys still until they do the heard it! 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. SW: In the end, the ad went to air. There was 19 of us at Sunnyside country club sitting in a circle in the main dining room, and we all voted. November 12, 1986 SW: You guys, it's from Paul McCartney's manager. 2023. And it became more entertainment than strategy. (laughs). Somewhere, some afternoon, Noel Gallagher sat down with a guitar and did a little strumming and made up a few words to go with it. This latest incarnation can still be seen on the California Raisin Marketing Board website.[11]. Then in 1989, a 13-episode Saturday Morning Cartoon show calledThe California Raisin Show aired. Now, the story of a man many call an outlaw. And if you don't have a consensus, it doesn't matter. Many of the items created for the campaign have become part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution. Post's Raisin Bran cereal took advantage of the increasingly popular dried fruit and teamed up with the Raisins to help promote their boxed cereal, and fast food chain Hardees bought a license to produce the incredibly popular collectible Raisins figurines. First of all, you've got that family dynamic. But in 1986, that's just what happened when the California Raisin Advisory Board launched a series of ads by the California Raisins, a group that existed only in . Think you know music? And they had good reasons to be! Sign up for notifications from Insider! 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". Start the wiki. SW: When the Dancing Raisins ad stopped airing, Sunmaid's share of direct raisin saleslike in boxes on grocery store shelvesactually increased. Their cover of Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" peaked at #84 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988. 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. If I tell everybody some fictitious story about you know, Chicken Little, right now to you, they might know it in Madera by 2 o'clock. In 2015, it was announced that a live-action/CGI reboot of the California Raisins would be produced, with president of The Actors Hall of Fame Foundation, Rusty Citron, as one of the people behind the project. First, they provide tools the industry can use to regulate the raisin market. Vintage California Raisins Posable, Puppets, Bank, Wind up toy. Play with guitar, piano, ukulele, or any instrument you choose. We'll do that.'. AD TWO: We know raisins are natural, but kids just know what they like. And because they were big companies, not headquartered in the Fresno circle, they were not at the table, and participating in all of this back-and-forth. Dancing Raisins "Heard It Through the Grapevine". SUNMAID AD: My girl talkin' bout my girl. (981) $9.95. Leave a message at (646) 768-4777, or email us at btyb@insider.com. And now they are all I can think about!! And the industry was coming out of a big slump at the time. SW: Yeah, that did not go over well within the industry. Almost like you can hear the band warming up "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" in the distance. 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. BK: No, what we got was him for free, but he wasn't gonna do anything. What about Michael Jackson and what he was contributing? Like the Archies before them, the imaginary band was a hit. SW: His boss had him working mostly on trade adsstuff for industry publications not the kind of campaigns you or I would ever see in a commercial or on a billboard. But I think we're heading in a positive direction now. Michael Jackson asked to be featured in a sequel. Okay? And this broke the mold. High-top sneakers, sunglasses, and endless swagger. 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. If you saw a commercial you liked, you couldn't look it up on YouTube and send a link to a friend. Not this time, however! But were they a success for the raisin industry? "Picture cover". These wildly popular clay animation raisins grew into far more than their creators had ever dreamed of. That's what happened. 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. SPEAKER NINE: Definitely didn't make me any more of a fan of raisins. Not much longer would you be mine. But in 1994, the raisin industry abruptly pulled the plug on the ad and its spinoffs, and still debates whether or not it was successful. And the US, by the way, is the second largest raisin producer in the entire world. Everyone is hungering for unity again, they just have to find something to unify around. SW: Michael Jackson sent Will Vinton a video with instructions for how he wanted the claymation to lookdown to the motions and facial expressions the backup raisins were making in the background of the ad. Javascript is required to view shouts on this page. But in 1986, thats just what happened when the California Raisin Advisory Board launched a series of ads by the California Raisins, a group that existed only in Claymation. [Ebm E Ab Eb Cm] Chords for California Raisins Heard it Through the Grapevine (Better Quality) with Key, BPM, and easy-to-follow letter notes in sheet. [6] 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. CALRAB and the commercials it paid for represented the entire industry. Year . (laughs) These little guys took over everybody's hearts and minds, so it didn't surprise us at the time. Washington, D.C. Email powered by MailChimp (Privacy Policy & Terms of Use), International Media Interoperability Framework. It's a pop song reimagined as a nervous breakdown. By the time "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" hit #1, the song had been sitting there for more than two years. And that might be part of why some raisin packers felt like this all boiled down to: "it's us versus Sunmaid.". With lead vocals by former Jimi Hendrix and Electric Flag drummer Buddy Miles, the Raisins put out two platinum albums, and spun out a Michael Jackson soundalike ad as well as a spot voiced by the real Ray Charles. People loved the singing, dancing Claymation raisins so much that more commercials followed, andin a marketing scheme that was virtually unheard of at the timeThe California Raisins went on to release four albums, score a Billboard Hot 100 hit, and earn an Emmy nomination (and appear in an Emmy-winning show). Or, as they saw it, for Sunmaid's good. Free shipping for many products! SETH WERNER: It wasn't back then, and it still isn't now. While the songs popularized the phrase, they inspired the hit kids cartoon series "The California Raisins" in the 1990s. Of all the acronyms, there's just one you need to remember: CALRAB. Required fields are marked *. as well as other partner offers and accept our, NOW WATCH: An investment chief at HSBC sees huge trading opportunities outside the US. Scientists mull polarized light detection from alien life-forms, Nano-mechanical sensors wired using photonics, E. coli outbreak leads to massive flour recall, First human CRISPR trial passes safety and ethics review, Cephalopods: Natures camouflaging masters, Scientists detect gravitational waves for the second time, Colorful secrets of chemical elements with slow motion flames. Lyrics.com. 84 on the Billboard Hot 100. I said, 'Ok, that's one piece of the marketing puzzle. Box Office Software produced a different, unrelated California Raisins computer game in 1988 for the Apple II, Commodore 64, and PC compatibles. You know? Just one piece! Lead vocals in the group were sung by musician Buddy Miles. Heard it! SW: Barry Kriebel became President of Sunmaid Raisins in February of 1986, one year before Ross Vannelli produced his album, and right as the California Raisins were in liftoff. Phrases Similar to Heard it Through the Grapevine And then on top of that, this article also made mention of a raisin mafia, along with allegations of death threats!? Constitution Avenue, NW And so he says, 'Ok fine. 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.'. But in terms of its impact on the industry it depends on who you ask. But there was enough leadership to sway the ones that weren't smart enough to realize what a good program it was. HO: Oh, there's definitely hope. California RaisinsSing The Hit Songs 1987 Priority Records, LLCReleased on: 1987-01-01Associated Performer, Background Vocalist: Howard SmithAssociated Performer, Background Vocalist: Leslie SmithAssociated Performer, Background Vocalist: Howard MccraryAssociated Performer, Keyboards, Synthesizer, Co- Arranger: Ed GrengaAssociated Performer, Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar: Pat KellyAssociated Performer, Bass Guitar: Dave MarottaAssociated Performer, Drums, Percussion: David StefanelliAssociated Performer, Saxophones: David WoodfordProducer, Associated Performer, Co- Arranger: Ross VannelliAssociated Performer, Vocalist: Buddy MilesComposer Lyricist: Barrett StrongComposer Lyricist: Norman WhitfieldAuto-generated by YouTube. CALRAB, the organization who made the campaign, was also closed on July 31, 1994, due to disagreements with raisin producers over the fairness of required payments to the organization. The problem, FCB's account supervisor said at the time, was that though customers understood the health benefits of raisins, they had emotional connections with various vice products, like cigarettes because of the long-running "Marlboro Man" ads, or beer based on the popular "Miller Time" ads. 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! Right or wrong, It depends on wherever the votes are. Playlist, Written by: Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong, Lyrics Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Tratore. [9] Blackthorne Publishing also released a six-issue comic book series entitled The California Raisins 3-D which included 3D glasses; these would later be re-released in the Ultimate Collection trade paperback. KB: We're not getting our fair share of it. Go directly to shout page. Will Vinton told Seth the hardest part was getting his nose right. CH: So where did this journey for you begin? If you have more stories to share, call us anytime. If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. I mean, really, most of us don't give raisins a whole lot of attention..they are just kind of everywhere: in our cereals, bagels, and, of course, kid's lunch boxes. With the musicians all in a room, live, everything. THE THROWBACK MACHINE: Going for the gold, but coming up blonde. SW: This is Seth Werner. RV: I think within 4-5 months it was platinum! And I told him, all of this sounds absolutely exhausting: KB: I'm still here! It had sold more than 500,000 copies. Kalem Barserian, along with around 40 raisin growers, packers, and industry members, was in that room. There it is. If you require a personal response, please use ourContact page. This figure is also included on CalRaisins.org. CEO of.. SW: His dad started farming and processing raisins in Fresno back in the 1920s, and since then, Kalem has bounced around pretty much every corner of the industry. Seth Werner, the young copywriter newly in charge of the California Raisins account, had a concept. They starred in two claymation TV shorts, and a Christmas special that won an Emmy! in 1988. 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. If you require a personal response, please use ourContact page. The California Raisins released four studio albums in 1987 and 1988, and their trademark, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," was on the Billboard Hot 100. If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. Some years later, Noel Gallagher stands on a stage strumming his guitar while . And even in the 1990s, Sunmaid was like the "Kleenex" of the raisin industry. . I heard it through the grapevine. Check mate. The Raisins released numerous studio albums in the 1980s, starred in a cartoon series, and were nominated for an Emmy for their 1988 "Meet the Raisins" mockumentary. WERNER: 'Our thanks again on behalf of Paul McCartney. Test your MusicIQ here! 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. SW: Did it feel at any point while you were working on this album like you were making an ad for raisins? Werner and Fedor also thought that the commercial should use clay animation, a type of stop-motion animation using characters or settings made out of clay or other similarly pliable materials, rather than regular cartoon animation. The community that created them, and the questions they left in their wake. California Raisin's Version. Between 12th and 14th Streets Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online. You asked someone to name a raisin brand, and they would say "Sunmaid.". SW: That is exactly what I wanted to find out. WERNER: We want sunglasses on them, I want to put them in Converse sneakers, but untie the laces, and they gotta look hip, basically. California Raisins Heard it Through the Grapevine (Better Quality) Herozilla Video Editing and Livestream Gaming 82.3K subscribers Subscribe 10K Share 983K views 3 years ago I don't own the. RV: I said, 'I'm going to do it where it feels authentic.' HARDEES AD: Announcing the big plush bendable California Raisins at Hardees SW: There were California Raisins Halloween costumesthey were bestsellers in 1988. RV: Oh no, to me it at one point it kind of went beyond that. KB: Because a raisin is a raisin is a raisin. I know a man ain't supposed to cry. SPEAKER FOUR: My mother thought they were great, and she collected the figurines. 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. HARRY OVERLY: I know for a fact that there is animosity that still exists within the industry of what happened back then. Audiences quickly connected with the Raisins authentic R&B sound, and The California Raisins version of "Grapevine" even reached No. California raisins from the California vineyards. Almost all the packers resented Sunmaid, but not all for the same reasons. [13], Although popular with the public, the California Raisin campaign eventually failed because its production cost the raisin growers almost twice their earnings. SW: The ad agency hired a guy named Will Vinton and his team to take the animated mockup of the ad and turn it into clay animationor, claymation. And they should pretty much be still once they do their heard it! 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