At some point in 1967, treat the creative department of the chewing-gum-and-baseball-cards giant Topps took a wild stab at a new product:
They hired comic-book artists (Art Spiegelman, web Kim Deitch, Drew Friedman, Bill Griffith, (among others) to draw wicked parodies of major brand labels. Marvelous anarchy bloomed.
They printed the gags on to stickers – Suffertone suntan lotion, Bone Ami cleanser, Blisterine mouthwash, Crust – stacked three or four of them with chalky slabs of gum, wrapped them in lurid wax-paper and turned them loose on America’s young for 25 cents a pack.
Wacky Packages tapped into the hippie-overthrow zeitgeist, sold by the millions and injected a viral meme of anti-establishmentarian cheek nto the most conservative niches of this nation’s society to a depth that has never been rivaled.
My esteemed brother was kind enough to give us his collection of more than 100 (I waited for them to collect dust untouched on his shelf a respectful 35 years or so before asking), which we’ve mounted and framed and hung pavé in the bathroom.
Always pleasant to have something to snicker at while you pee.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.