I grew up watching and enjoying animated commercials and have recently transfer several pencil tests and animatics of these animated commercials to the Animateducated YouTube channel for all to enjoy and learn from.
Here is an early stop motion of the smiling and rather scary looking Jolly Green Giant from the 1950s.
Advertisers cleverly discovered that the spokesperson of their product needed to be appealing to kids as well as adults.
When I was a kid, I remembering hearing a familiar jiggle and seeing a commercial about canned vegetables. The older commercial showed a live action Green Giant standing in the distance proudly admiring the crops below. Over time, I learned that this was the Green Giant who lived in the valley of the Jolly Green Giant. Apparently he owned the land and his own company which was named after him.
Soon the Jolly Green Giant must have lost his appeal, because soon a younger spokesperson came along called "The Little Green Sprout." It might be years or centuries before he could retire, so the Sprout was introduced with his own origin commercial in the 1970s.
Then there were the Keebler Elves, who had a bakery in an old hallow tree where they made cookies at first and then branched out to crackers of all sorts. Below is a great example of a test spot or an animatic, a roughly animated storyboard followed by the final commercial. This was from the early 1990s, a year after Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. These are the Bill and Ted teen elves who are obsessed a new product called Pizzarias!
Ad agencies were hired to develop these animated pitchmen who could be human like or an animal with human traits which an audience could identify with instantly.
Here's a whole series of different stages of production for one Keebler commercial featuring a live action background, miniature props, pencil tests, color product images and final inked and painted animation.
Other commercials began combining live action and animation with the success of Roger Rabbit. Here is a fun Froot Loops spot with a live actor, a boat and giant fruit props that drop into a lake.
You can enjoy more pencil tests and making of commercials as well as other animated educational videos on YouTube at Animateducated. Subscribe to the channel to see more future videos!
