Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Quisp


My favorite cereal in the late sixties was QUISP, the saucer-shaped cereal from Quaker Oats that competed with the similar (but differently shaped and marketed) QUAKE. The two cereals are best remembered for a memorable marketing campaign that pitted their namesake mascots against each other in a series of clever Jay Ward commercials for about six years. QUISP was a little pink alien with a propeller on his head voiced by the great Daws Butler. QUAKE was a big, tough, lantern-jawed miner voiced by William Conrad. They both offered cool prizes inside including my favorite, from QUAKE: a ring with a real bit of lava inside it! I wore it for about a year! QUAKE never sold as well and eventually was redesigned for some reason as a skinny gay stereotype in a cape and a cowboy hat (or perhaps as an Australian to go along with the new QUANGAROOS cereal but that made even LESS sense). In the end, QUISP won the long-running battle but without his nemesis, the public seemed to lose interest and QUISP, too, became a thing of the past...but not forever. It seems that in the 1990's, QUISP was reintroduced in limited areas with a big Internet marketing campaign! In fact, you can STILL find QUISP in some areas even today in the new century! I got two boxes in Ohio last week. They still taste good, too, but they aren't LUCKY CHARMS. Check out Quisp.com for yourself! Wonder if they've considered marketing QUAKE exclusively in Australia?

5 comments:

  1. My brother preferred Quisp, and I preferred Quake. I think we even used to argue over which cereal was better.

    Within the last five years, I have sometimes found them on the shelf at the supermarket. There was a six month period where they seemed to be stocking it - or perhaps they never sold any except to me and it was always the same boxes.

    Everytime I bought a box, the cashiers would comment on it because they had no idea what it was or that the store even stocked it. So they must not have sold much of it. But boy did it taste good!

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  2. You forget that there was a contest between Quake and Quisp. One cereal would be discontinued and the makers asked you to send in your ballots for your favorite. You voted for what cereal you wante to survive by cutting out a Quake or Quisp ballot from the back of the carton and sending it in.

    Quisp won.

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  3. Anonymous11:11 PM

    And who could forget the great race "from Long Island to Lompoc!"

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  4. Anonymous8:17 AM

    QUISP!
    QUISP!
    QUISP!
    QUISP!
    QUISP!
    THIS ALONG WITH SPACE FOOD STICKS
    [REMEMBER THOSE???] AND TAB IN A 16OZ BOTTLE WERE AMONG MY FAVE FOODS IN THE 60S.

    EATING CEREAL WAS NEVER THE SAME AGAIN ONCE QUISP LEFT THE SHELVES.
    I DID NOT ENJOY CEREAL THE SAME WAY EVER AGAIN.

    AS for Quisp being back in limited areas---I've never seen it in the Maryland / Virginia area.

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  5. Anonymous8:19 AM

    oh geez...i didn't mean to be anonymous....
    the 8:17 post was by Alan
    jettblackberryx@yahoo.com

    Hi Steve

    ReplyDelete