Wunnerful,
Wunnerful.
 Earlier today someone reminded me about Stan Freberg.
In case you don't know, he is a comedian, a singer,
a recording artist, satirist, writer, puppeteer, and
noted
advertising
creative
director,
acquiring 21 Clios during his long career. The guy changed
the way commercials were made in the 50s and 60s, producing witty,
often bizarre ads at a time when hard-sell was
king. Whether
it was pizza
rolls, lawn
mowers, prunes,
candy
bars, wieners,
credit
cards,
soup,
or TV
dinners Stan was having fun. If these were on TV
today I would happily watch these commercials.
He was also a master of parody, producing a long string
of quite successful comedy records. My favorite is probably
The
Great Pretender, partly because of the quick
nod to "Lullaby of Birdland".
He is also a subversive. His famous "Green
Christmas"
painted a picture of an overly-commercial holiday long
before Charlie Brown and his pals gathered around that
little tree.
My favorite story about him concerns his radio program,
the short-lived "Stan Freberg Show". At a
time when smoking was much more pervasive than today
he wouldn't allow his program to be "bought by American
Tobacco". The
lack of ad revenue from such a reliably deep-pocketed
source basically doomed the show but I admire his stance
on
the matter. He was way ahead of his time.
I'm not eulogizing Stan. Thankfully, he's still around.
In fact, he's doing a book
signing in Seattle this Saturday with his wife,
Hunter. Check it out if you're
in the area. It's free.
=Lefty=
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