Not much to this post. I was thinking about McGruff the Crime Dog for whatever reason today. I was also thinking of that little yellow guy that used to give out recipes for healthy snacks on Saturday mornings.

So anyone who were some of your favorite PSAs or PSA characters.

Yahoo has a "vote for your favorite advertising icon" this week. Some good PSA characters on there, most notably Smokey the Bear. That's who I voted for, since he's a pretty big part of Americana. Even lending his name to state troopers and their hats.

Woodsy the Owl and his "give a hoot, don't pollute" were big in the 70's and early 80's. I'm not so sure that he's identifiable to today's young'uns. I always think of Woodsy and Smokey when it comes to PSA characters.

I know who you mean with the nurtional geek. Weird yellow guy who looked an over-ripe lemon. "When my git' up n' go has got up n' gone, I hanker for a hunka' cheese!". Googled around and found out that his name was "Timer". They played his spots forever. They were mid 70's stuff, but I remember seeing them in the early 90's!

This blogg-ish page has some of Timer's stuff:
http://www.vaiden.net/childhood_memories2.html
(Including RealMedia files of the original spots!)

BTW, did anybody ever make one of his "wagonwheels"? Or the "you'll have a fun time eating sunshine on a stick" ice cube tray thingie? I threw a Halloween party a couple of years ago and served "wagonwheels" with Ritz crackers.

Actually I think I've seen a Timer ad within the last 3 years or so. That one never seems to die. I did the sunshine on a stick ones. I did it with Ecto-Cooler at some point.

I used to have a stuffed Smokey when I was a kid. It helped that my Dad worked for the forest service and fought forest fires. Until I was 8 I thought my Dad actually worked with Smokey