By LUKAS I. ALPERT
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - Somewhere, in a a junior high school
locker, sits a faded sticker: "Weakies, the Breakfast of
Chumps."
Time to scrape it off, and make room for a new generation
of pop culture spoofs. "Wacky Packages," the hot 1970s fad
parodying popular household products, is revamped and ready
for the 21st century.
In May, the Topps Co. will rerelease Wacky Packages with
one eye on the nostalgia market and its other on kids brought
up in the computer age. The company hopes its product can
transcend time and the generation gap.
"Poking fun at things, making parody, is a long accepted
form of entertainment and one we think transcends
generations," said Ira Friedman, vice president of new
products at Topps.
"But the question remains: aside from the adult market,
will it resonate with younger kids today? We hope so."
Born in 1967, the "Wacky Packages" were hand-drawn parodies
done with Mad Magazine style-humor, placed on punched-out
cardboard with a lick-and-stick back, and sold like baseball
cards in a pack with a piece of gum.
Early artists included pulp-novel cover master Norman
Saunders, who also created the Mars Attacks series for Topps,
and Art Spiegelman, who later won the Pulitzer Prize for his
illustrated holocaust narratives "Maus" and "Maus II."
Everything was fair game. Jell-O became Jail-O _ a metal
file hidden in a jello mold and billed as Sing Sing's favorite
dessert. Gravy-Train Dog Food became Grave Train, with a
picture of a dead dog and the grim tag line, "Your dog will
never eat anything else."
Topps even took swipes at its own products, turning Bazooka
gum into Gadzooka.
Initially, the cards were not successful but when they were
brought back in 1973 as stickers they quickly became the
biggest thing since white rice (or Minute Lice, as the
stickers would have it).
"Anyone who was 7 years old in 1973 who wasn't really
square was into this stuff," said Greg Grant, a University of
Pennsylvania research mathematician who also runs an elaborate
"Wacky Packages" Web site. "It was just life back then."
With their booming popularity, New York Magazine put them
on the front page, The New York Times gave them a large spread
and kids all over the country affixed them to school desks and
lockers.
"It's an inherently common pastime for kids to take a
printed sticker and _ as a form of expression, mind you _ put
it on something," said John Williams, the creative series
manager at Topps. "It's kind of like graffiti, I suppose, just
maybe not as messy."
By 1976, Topps began running out of ideas, and called it
quits after printing the 16th series. Briefly in early 1980s
and again in the early 1990s, Topps came out with new "Wacky
Packages" series but they never took off.
Grant said the ones from the '80s and the '90s were "just
too far into gross-out humor."
Oddly, the Topps folks decided on the rerelease after the
success of last summer's encore of the uber-gross
Wacky-Pack-successor, "The Garbage Pail Kids."
The new series will feature art from some of the original
artists and with takeoffs on modern products like
baboon-flavored "Chimp Stick" (Chap Stick), "Mr. Coffin Casket
Liners" (Mr. Coffee coffee liners), and blue snazazberry
flavored "Bling Pups" (Topps' own Ring Pops).
Completing the consumer angle, the backs of the new
stickers will feature fake coupons offering savings like $2 on
"Vinnie's Brooklyn-English Translator" or seven cents on an
"Extremely Complicated Straw."
___
On the Net:
Topps, Co.: http://www.topps.com/
Grant's Web site: http://www.wackypackages.org/
(Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten or redistributed.)