Wilkins and Wontkins

Wilkins Coffee was founded in 1899 by John H. Wilkins Sr. The company sold coffee, tea and spices. His son John Wilkins Jr. later took over the business. Wilkins Coffee's slogan was "Try Wilkins Coffee—It's Just Wonderful!"; a later slogan used in advertisements was "Rich... Rich... Double Rich". == Wilkins and Wontkins ==

In 1957, Jim Henson was hired by Helen Ver Standig, who worked on advertising Wilkins Coffee, to produce commercials using early Muppet characters. Henson produced these commercials from 1957 to 1961. Each ad ran for about 10 seconds. They were composed of an 8-second puppet skit and a 2-second shot of the advertised Wilkins product. The ads were very successful. In 1958, 25,000 puppets of Wilkins and Wontkins were sold for one dollar each. There were also ads for Wilkins Tea and Wilkins Instant Coffee. Jim Henson also used Wilkins and Wontkins in ads for several other brands, such as Community Coffee, Nash's Coffee, Red Diamond Coffee, La Touraine Coffee, Jomar Instant Coffee, Kraml Dairy, Calso Water, Taystee Bread, Dugan's Bread, Merita Bread, Frank's Beverages, Faygo, and Standard Oil of Ohio (SOHIO). The last ads to feature Wilkins and Wontkins were ads for Community Coffee in 1969. ==Later history==

John H. Wilkins, Jr. died in 1967 of a heart ailment. Wilkins Coffee has been defunct since 1997. In recent years, the Wilkins Coffee ads have gone viral online due to their excessive use of violence. ==Book cites==