There's a very good chance that if you were born in the 1970s or the early 1980s you may remember the most ridiculous food mascots of all time, the California Raisins.
Debuting in 1986, the California Raisins came from the minds of the California Raisins Advisory Council who were concerned that not enough people were eating raisins. The team decided that the best way to promote their snack was to hire a clay animation studio to put together some anthropomorphic characters to appeal to young audiences. With that, the California Raisins were born!
Clad in white gloves and sneakers (and sometimes sunglasses) the California Raisins were musicians who covered well-known songs like "Heard it Through the Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye with their raisin-spin on the songs. Real musicians were hired to play the role of the foursome.
The commercials they appeared in were extremely popular and pretty soon, Michael Jackson and Ray Charles would appear in commercials with them! There was even a holiday special and an animated TV series.
Believe it or not, the holiday special was nominated for an Emmy!
Before you knew it, the animated series was getting more and more popular and you could find California Raisins merchandise all over the place. There was even a California Raisins Nintendo game!
The piece de resistance for the California Raisins mania happened when they appeared in their very own ice show! My sister went with her Girl Scout Troop and since my mom was her leader, I got to go, too! Imagine my excitement as a child and horror as an adult!
If you want to hear more about the California Raisins check out the video here and an upcoming episode of the show! You can find episodes of the show here.
Do you remember the California Raisins?! Did you ever see them on ice? Leave me a comment below!
