Jim Henson the adman. I was a member of The Muppet Show Fan Club when I was a wee lad. I loved The Muppet Show and was introduced to that furry funny crew of puppets via Sesame Street. But even before Mr. Henson and Mr. Frank Oz were making kids laugh with the zany antics of the Muppet characters on those two shows aimed at kids, they were selling everything from RC Cola to lunchmeat.
Part of the appeal of Jim Henson and the Muppets to the show’s [Sesame Street] creators, in fact, was that in the 1960s Henson had been running a highly successful advertising shop.
Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point
Sesame Street was a show that was defined by, among other things, the intense scrutiny of it’s effectiveness at getting pre-school age kids to not only learn but to love learning. It’s ablility to involve parents in the learning process was another hallmark of the show’s genius. To do this the show’s creators used many of the same techniques that the advertisers of the day were using to sell products on TV. Instead of products, Sesame Street was selling education. The rest is history.
The videos linked to from this article were sourced through batman1971’s extensive collection of Muppet-based TV commercials.