- Morton's Potato Chips
-
A bag of Morton's Potato Chips, from a 1971 commercial.
Morton's Potato Chips was a potato chip company popular in Texas. This company was popular for their corn chips called Chip-Os, and for the fact that The Carpenters - a vocal and instrumental American duo, consisting of siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter – did a commercial for them in the 1970s. Morton's was a notable potato chip company in Dallas in the 1960s and 1970s, but went bankrupt due to their spending money towards advertisements for the company.[1] This is visible in the fact that The Carpenters sponsored Morton's in 1971.[2] In addition to having bags of potato chips, Morton's also distributed tin cans of potato chips, which are available on eBay.
Morton's Potato Chips was later on subsequently bought by Frito-Lay North America - or simply Frito Lay, Inc., for short - which is a division of PepsiCo, Inc.[3]
The Carpenters' commercial
According to Richard Carpenter, the jingle was written in the Carpenters key, and it worked out perfectly for The Carpenters.[4] The jingle included many special effects including warping of images and intricate zooms, as demonstrated in the image shown at left.
In Close to You: Remembering the Carpenters, Carpenter notes that the backing track for the jingle was previously recorded in the Carpenters' key, but then Karen and Richard recorded their overdubbed vocals. The video was recorded on Yonge Street in Toronto, Canada in 1971 during a major worldwide Carpenters tour.[4]
The Carpenters rarely did commercials, and this advertisement for Morton's Potato Chips was one of only a few commercials they chose to endorse.
The Carpenters singing a jingle for Morton's Potato Chips.References
Categories:- Snack companies of the United States
- Companies based in Texas
- Frito-Lay brands
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
