Green Giant ad, 1947

From the most excellent Vintage Ads LiveJournal group, this smashing look at the alternate Green Giant universe of 1947, in which the GG looks decidedly satanic, and enjoys a cannibalistic corn-cob pipe.

NEW PACK'S IN!

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Hamsterdam

Decidedly Satanic? I don’t see the green skin and leaves for hair even *remotely* resembling a red, caped, vipergated tail’d, goatee’d smoking cinder cone of of a beast whasoever.
Anonymous

The pipe and smile are a dead giveaway – that’s J.R. “Bob” Dobbs, of the Church of the SubGenius, modeling in another of his vintage ads. That guy can sell anything! Praise “Bob”!
Anonymous

I wonder when exactly he lost the pipe….
Anonymous

Also interesting is the concept of ‘seasons’ and ‘crops’ which globalization, technology and oil has completely obsoleted.

All produce – especially frozen or canned – is now available all year round, and in the case of frozen or canned could be from this year, last year, or a decade ago… nobody knows, much less cares.
Anonymous

Green Giant referred to peas, so not quite cannibalistic.
Anonymous

it’s 1947,the war is over and we can toss the ration card and eat what we want.that’s the message here.
Antinous / Moderator

Something about the almost upskirt shot and the juxtaposition of the word ‘niblets’ is unnerving.
- frogmarch
  
  The Green Giant’s goodness nearly shows.
Anonymous

Kind of a cool chair.
- Lester
  
  So is that a throne made from the bodies of His worshippers?
  
  I can’t tell if the Green Giant is a quisling vegetable or a metaphor for an uncaring god, culling the worthy for his own purposes.
Anonymous

I’m surprised only one person the uncomfortably close to upskirt shot of the Green Giant airing out his niblets.
HowardsGrl

Maybe Satanic is a bit strong, but he’s always stuck me as a big green smart ass. And he even stole the ‘ho ho ho’ which was Santa’s first, of course. He’s always looking like he is up to no good with that grin.
Phikus

He doesn’t seem made of corn to me. It looks to me like he’s of some master plant race, enjoying the complete subjugation of the corn species. Everything he has is built on the backs of enslaved kernels. See how they underscore who is dominant with the derogatory slur “niblets”, adding insult to injury?
- Dr_Wally
  
  He is probably the King of the Vegepygmies.
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegepygmy
  - Phikus
    
    I think you may be right about that. I am going to go to the grocery store today and try to liberate all the corn I can from its oppressive masters.
    Â¡Viva la maiz!
HowardsGrl

I meant ‘struck’ no ‘stuck’. (above comment)
Baron Karza

So he asked me, “What kind of Corn Soldiers are you?”, and I said “Kernels?”

And thank you for adding the word Mexicornâ„¢ to my vocabulary!
Caroline

I really want that corn-on-the-cob upholstery fabric. Wouldn’t that make a great cover for a small armchair in real life?
Anonymous

Resting on his laurels. Literally.
Anonymous

Complete with a “grocer’s apostrophe”… the word ‘packs’ is a plural, not a possessive. And before any of you illiteracy fans scream ‘pedantry’, just consider this; language is a really good tool – like any tool it should be treated with respect.
- Anonymous
  
  In this case, “PACK’S” is neither a plural, nor a possessive; it’s a contraction for “PACK IS”, as in “NEW PACK IS IN”.
- Anonymous
  
  In which case I hope for your sake you don’t speak American English.
qousqous

Veg-dude’s got GAMS
artaxerxes

@#33, when we canned at the end of the summer, or in the fall, we’d “put up” the extra tomatoes and corn from the garden and pickle the cucumbers. We’d can a bunch of peaches too, mid-summer, but the idea wasn’t to can for the atomic bunker. The idea was to can enough to get us through the winter and early spring when new produce would come out of the garden/arrive in the market.

Also, when advertisers started marketing factory-canned items, they were still trying to get the consumer to believe that the corn was just as fresh, sweet and good, before it got in the cans, as the corn you’d can at home.

For the record, I grew up in a suburb of the Bay Area in the 70s and 80s. But my grandmother and mother came off the farm. My grandmother was born in 1909, and being fascinated with history, I asked her a ton of questions.
sergeirichard

Note the presence of the grocer’s apostrophe, in celebration of the recent victory over the grammar Nazis.
Anonymous

never thought of this before… how do they remove the kernels from the cob without tearing/cutting them?
Anonymous

Whoa! “Pack’s” is neither plural nor possessive. The headline might read: “The New Pack Is In!” or, in this case: “New Pack’s In!” One crop of corn is harvested, decobbed [thank you very much] and converted into niblets, and then packed. That’s called a “pack,” singular. You can look it up.
spcfgt

How is it cannibalistic? He’s not corn, you know!
teapot

Ah, advertising from the golden age, where poster advertising was considered equal to film as an art-form.

I ‘member MVCCO like it was yesteryear…
Blaine

Initially I thought the string of letters after the copyright symbol were the year it was copyrighted…MVCC. And then my brain exploded trying to convert it from roman numerals. Copyright 1195?!
Cochituate

Sweet niblets, I had no idea that Green Giant had invented that word. Of Course, when I Googled the word, I found that it could also be someone’s ball sack hanging below their shorts. I had no idea of that either.

Next time I hear Miley Cyrus using the term, I’ll have to wonder if she’s going after the copyrighted term or the ball sack…
ill lich

I see he’s reading “Corn Times”– a fine newspaper, I used to read it in the bathroom.
Art Carnage

There’s nothing “cannibalistic” about his corn-cob pipe. He’s not a corn giant. He’s just sort of generically vegetable-like.
bjacques

The Jolly Green Giant = the Green Man + J.R. “Bob” Dobbs.

Ho ho ho! EEYIIYIIYIIYII!!
Binary Slim

Anybody able to identify the artist?
Anonymous

any reason why we should care if the new crop is in?

Isn’t the point of canning that the corn will last nearly forever? By creating a desire for “new corn” aren’t they devaluing last year’s corn, and therefore implying that canning is not an effective form of preservation.

Doesn’t seem well thought out.