Washington, D.C. Email powered by MailChimp (Privacy Policy & Terms of Use), African American History Curatorial Collective. WERNER: My job, I called it jack of all trade. Whod have ever thought that a beloved Motown classic would be brought back to life by a bunch of animated dried fruit? Perhaps the most memorable piece of California Raisins merchandise, however, came in the form of small, non-poseable California Raisins figures. SW: Lots of details would have to be worked out first. The commercials were produced by Vinton Studios using their claymation technique, with character designs by Michael Brunsfeld. Our collection database is a work in progress. Seth Werner, the young copywriter newly in charge of the California Raisins account, had a concept. Oh, that's sweet. As of the 2010s, packages of Sun-Maid Natural California Raisins still feature an updated California Raisin character. https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/34693/California+Raisins/I+Heard+It+Through+the+Grapevine. We may update this record based on further research and review. They were tired of paying into a shared piggybank for the greater good. These wildly popular clay animation raisins grew into far more than their creators had ever dreamed of. And then, job number two: they work on public relations and marketing for the entire raisin industry. If no one liked it, the raisin industry could not get that money back. WERNER: Uh yeah, it was probably a little bit of a shock, I guess. First of all, you've got that family dynamic. But these tears I can't hold inside. He wasn't worried about making the most of this one shot and impressing his boss. Between 12th and 14th Streets SW: In the end, the ad went to air. The industry is in talks about a new campaign to promote California raisins. Heard it, heard it! And, when it went down, so did the Dancing California Raisins. Leave a message at (646) 768-4777, or email us at btyb@insider.com. KB: Grape and raisin grower. Today, the story of the California Dancing Raisins. RV: And I set it up in the studio exactly how like an old Motown session would be. 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 article ranked The California Raisins' premiere advertisement, "Lunchbox", at #15 with comments by ad agency executive Claude Jacques and described the Raisins as "The coolest wrinkled musicians this side of the Stones. The raisin packers didn't reach this decision because anyone had anything against the ad, or because licensing fees had stopped rolling in, or even because raisin sales were down. [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]. CH: This episode was reported and produced by Sarah Wyman, with Julia Press and me, Charlie Herman. This latest incarnation can still be seen on the California Raisin Marketing Board website.[11]. CH: A raisin by any other name would be a dried grape. Test your MusicIQ here! 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 . 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. Check mate. 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. Unless you just happened to have a VCR set up and recording at the exact moment the ad aired WERNER: You had to wait and hopefully see it on TV again on some show you were watching and not know when that was coming, and because we didn't have a very big media budget, it wasn't on that often. SW: CALRAB came up with and promoted new recipes that used raisins, it went to bakery conventions, it pitched raisin stories to food magazines and newspapers. Audiences quickly connected with the Raisins authentic R&B sound, and The California Raisins version of "Grapevine" even reached No. WERNER: 'Dear NBC, After weeks of trying to find out who to congratulate on a recent national ad, I came up with nothing. CH: We're back. Or 'if it's bad for Sunmaid, it's gotta be good for them. SW: Kalem Barserian, raisin industry veteran, again. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. First, they provide tools the industry can use to regulate the raisin market. But, that's not where this story ends. I mean, we didn't do anything short of that. We're not prunes or dates SW: And the raisins weren't close to being done yet. 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 . Top editors give you the stories you want delivered right to your inbox each weekday. Your email address will not be published. Matthew has observed his fair share of contentious industry meetings. But actually to me, one of the most interesting parts of that story was this little section on the California Dancing Raisins ads from the '80s. The community that created them, and the questions they left in their wake. It began to cost CALRAB too much to market the Raisins, and the public moved on. BK: Well, the simplest way to answer that is, 'how do you define success?' - The California Raisins II. And as that rift widened, the raisins fell right through it. Oh! How would the assessment be collected? 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: But while the ad made the dancing California raisins cool did it do anything for actual California raisins? SW: Kalem was voting on behalf of the packer he worked for. But Barry Kriebel says, at that point, the actual facts had stopped mattering. 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. SW: The winning concept was a raisin with big eyes, a defined nose, and a wide mouthperfect for lip syncing. And if you ever saw him. SW: But even as the dancing raisins scored these victories, back in Fresno, things were heating up. Dancing Raisins Heard It Through the Grapevine. The 1980's TV commercials for California raisins have been called some of the best ads ever made. 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.'. 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. WERNER: Well, you know, we were at this point, we were like what else is new. Paul McCartney requested his own copy on VHS. RAISINS SHOW: You might have heard about us through the old grapevine. SW: Let me explain. Not this time, however! Casey Holford and John DeLore composed our theme. And so, with a $7.5 million campaign on the line, Werner hit play and began dancing across the room to the old Motown hit "I Heard it Through the Grapevine.". SW: But you know who was on that shelf? BK: You gotta have consensus. Your email address will not be published. But of course, that was not really the end of it. Kalem Barserian will tell you the ad made the raisin industry money, and he will pull out a calculator to prove it. 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. A Saturday morning cartoon series, The California Raisin Show, debuted the following year, but lasted only 13 episodes. Sarah Wyman is our showrunner. You got 100,000 tons. There it is. Honey, honey yeah. How is that better than Ray Charles?'. 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. The California Raisins were the product of an exacerbated ad team, a few broken rules, and the execution of a fascinating visual art form. 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. KB: I'll never forget, he was a handsome guy, had white shoes on, no socks, had an earring in this ear, he had the ghetto blaster up on his shoulders, and he turns it on and it's "Heard It Through the Grapevine.". Almost all the growers in the room were against it. And that takes unity. "Picture cover". But despite it all, by a very narrow margin, more than half the room voted to greenlight the ad. HARRY OVERLY: I know for a fact that there is animosity that still exists within the industry of what happened back then. 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. 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. Photos not available for this variation. See terms. SW: Yeah, I'm still looking for the pictures. I voted to kill it too. California raisins from the California vineyards. A short time after that, he sat in a studio and sang the words into a microphone while strumming his guitar along with a few friends. Constitution Avenue, NW The success of the dancing raisins exposed fractures in the industry which had been forming just under the surface for decades. And the band wasn't playing heavy metal or rock 'n' roll. Characters Steve and Roger go into a mall representing 1980s culture where they meet the Raisins who proclaim that they are "cursed to live forever. Qualifying purchases could enjoy 0% interest if paid in full in 4 months on purchases of 99+. The 1980's TV commercials for California raisins have been called some of the best ads ever made. No, not really. 84 on the Billboard Hot 100. Scrobble, find and rediscover music with a Last.fm account, Do you know any background info about this track? More than 2 million people bought their albums and listened to the Raisins covering songs including "Lean on Me" and "You Cant Hurry Love." eBay (UK) Limited acts as a credit broker not a lender. And on top of everything else, he says there's one subject of conversation that just won't drop. MATTHEW MALCOLM: I mean you can't just leave any field barren here, because something's gonna grow. Because that's a whole market supply and demand on both the national and international basis. [6] However, the Raisins would continue to make their strongest impression through animated endeavors, and the characters proved popular enough that they were used to endorse Post Raisin Bran cereal. And if you don't have a consensus, it doesn't matter. Now, the story of a man many call an outlaw. He just wanted to make an ad he thought was cool. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. California Raisins poster vintage 1987 Heard it Through The Grapevine. The Hardee's restaurant chain offered these as part of a promotion for its Cinnamon 'N' Raisin biscuits. So when his friends were like WERNER: 'What are you gonna do with that? And this broke the mold. SW: Buddy Miles, who'd been the drummer for Band of Gypsies with Jimi Hendrix, flew to California to record the vocals in Ross's studio. AD TWO: We know raisins are natural, but kids just know what they like. Will Vinton told Seth the hardest part was getting his nose right. The California Raisins were a fictional R&B group created in the mid-1980s for a commercial produced by the California Raisin Advisory. I will only talk to you, Will.'. The following year, Vinton created another TV special called Meet The Raisins! 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? Still one thing nearly everyone does agree on is the mass appeal of the dancing raisins. Listen on:Apple Podcasts |Stitcher | Spotify |and more. It's a pop song reimagined as a nervous breakdown. KB: Vine doesn't know who it belongs to. There was 19 of us at Sunnyside country club sitting in a circle in the main dining room, and we all voted. KB: Because a raisin is a raisin is a raisin. The "Heard It Through the Grapevine" theme is fabulous. You asked someone to name a raisin brand, and they would say "Sunmaid.". And I told him, all of this sounds absolutely exhausting: KB: I'm still here! But in 1994, the. Scrobbling is when Last.fm tracks the music you listen to and automatically adds it to your music profile. Will Vinton. (laughs) These little guys took over everybody's hearts and minds, so it didn't surprise us at the time. And maybe some people are pessimistic about it, I don't know, maybe people are tired of just the lack of unity. They sold most of their raisins in bulk, to ingredient customers, like cereal brands or bakeries. It also gave the band members individual names and roles: A.C. (vocals), Beebop (drums), Stretch (bass), and Red (guitar/piano).[7]. If you require a personal response, please use ourContact page. Can you just give me an assignment? The California Raisins II is a 1990 claymation television special directed by Will Vinton, featuring the advertising characters The California Raisins. SW: I was not even alive when most of those ads aired, and I had the same experience. SPEAKER EIGHT: And I guess subliminally, it probably worked because I do remember eating raisins as a snack. They're just a staple. And then they called me and they said, 'you know what it's platinum in Canada too!' From a pop culture standpoint, absolutelypeople all over the world have heard of the Dancing Raisins. SW: When the Dancing Raisins ad stopped airing, Sunmaid's share of direct raisin saleslike in boxes on grocery store shelvesactually increased. SW: Then, you've got nature to think about. Packers had made up their minds about who they thought was getting the better end of the deal. They all watched as Seth walked in and took the floor. Constitution Avenue, NW She would always show them to me and talk to me about them and how cute and clever they were, and I just thought, why in the world is a grown woman so excited about something so ridiculous? Find and rediscover music with a Last.fm account, had a concept make an ad thought! 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