An interview with Mr.Alvin Hampel(5)
Alvin Hampel
Benton & Bowles, Inc.
Executive Vice-President, Director of Creative Services (in 1969)
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Mr.Hampel Now, second best, I don't know... I did a Gulf Oil Company print campaign which I liked very much.
The best way an oil company can talk to its couatmers is through its products. Gulf Oil Corporation
I might say the second most gratifying work I have done in my years in this business has been working with the movie stars. I became the writer for. ..what we call the cast commercials, where in a Jack Benny Show, Jack Benny would do a commercial;
I used to write that commercial for Jack Benny. I used to write for Danny Thomas, and I wrote for Carol Channing and Andy Griffith, and Jim Nabors and Lucille Ball.
I used to go to California for the shows and write those commercials for those big comedians. And that was to me, most gratifying because I worked with all those stars and they used my humor and I was writing comedy for those people who were used to the most expert comedy writing. I got a big kick out of that.
Have I made myself clear about cast commercials? Souppose in the show, Andy Griffith, will be in a house, (as part of the show). In that same setting, either in the middle or the end of the show Andy Griffith will be there drinking Sanka Coffee and he'll talk about how good
Sanka Coffee is. Andy Griffith will be right in the same character he portrays and in the same setting so people think it's a part of the
show. That's the whole beauty of cast commercials, you see? Let me tell you about another commercial I liked that I wrote for a star.
One of the last things I did with Y & R while I was there was a Lay's Potato Chip commercial with Buddy Hackett. Buddy Hackett plays a Martian, who comes from Mars in a spaceship. He lands on earth and he doesn't know where he is. He finds the potato chips and he doesn't know what they are. He sticks one in his eye and then he sticks one in his ear and finally he sticks one in his mouth and he makes all kinds of funny outer space noises of enjoyment. That was a good commercial.
Lay's Potato Chip commercial
（superimposition）Lay's Potato Chip---You can eat a million of them, but no buddy can eat just one.
cast:Buddy Hackett
