Given the current political climate, you might be surprised to know we once not only welcomed our friends South of the Border, but in fact immortalized them in crude caricature rubber pencil toppers.
The "Frito Bandito" was Frito-Lay's mascot for their corn chips. Voiced in the commercials by Mel Blanc, he only lasted from 1967 to 1972 when his shelf-life ran out due to complaints by The National Mexican-American Anti-Defamation Committee.
What I first thought was a defect in the hat turned out to represent the hole in his hat as he was drawn.
it's crazy that, to this day, i still know the Frito Bandito song and can sing it on a moment's notice. that's the power of advertising and a good jingle, friends.
ReplyDeleteBack in the '70's, my parents would take us on rare occasions to a Mexican restaurant owned by a friend of my dad. They had a Mariachi band playing there and they would play the Frito Bandito jingle.
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