If you're like me, when someone mentions The Flintstones being featured in a commercial, your mind probably goes back to the yummy chewable vitamins we enjoyed as kids. The healthy supplements are still on the market today and children continue to benefit from the helpful product, but that's not what the modern stone-age family was hawking way back when the groundbreaking cartoon premiered.
Debuting in the fall of 1960 and still in black and white, it was the first animated comedy to be shown on primetime television. As anyone around at the time can tell you, it was completely normal for shows to promote their sponsors at the beginning or end of their episodes with short clips advertising how much they love the product. For example, I love singing along to the Kellogg's cereal jingle along with my Monkees DVDs when I pop them in for a marathon! But for the first two seasons of The Flintstones, you could find Fred, Wilma, Barney, and Betty Rubble promoting their sponsor: Winston cigarettes. Of course, we know now how harmful the cancer-causing habit can be, but it was still quite popular when the cartoon aired.
And they weren't the only ones guilty of having a shocking sponsor. You could also find beloved cast of I Love Lucy promoting Philip Morris cigarettes over on CBS. Still, there's something more jarring about it when it comes from a wholesome animated image! As soon as little Pebbles came along in season 3, the show switched to the much healthier Welch's grape juice as their sponsor for a more family-friendly image.
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