Mr. George Whipple is a fictional
supermarketA supermarket, also called a grocery store in some parts of North America, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
manager featured in
television commercialsA television advertisement or television commercial is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organisation that conveys a message. Advertisement revenue provides a significant portion of the funding for most privately owned television networks...
and print
advertisementsAdvertising is a form of communication used to influence individuals to purchase products or services or support political candidates or ideas. Frequently it communicates a message that includes the name of the product or service and how that product or service could potentially benefit the consumer...
that ran in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
from 1964 to 1985 for
CharminCharmin is a brand-name of toilet paper.The Charmin name was first created in 1928 by the Hoberg Paper Company in Green Bay, Wisconsin. In 1950 Hoberg changed its name to Charmin Paper Company and continued to produce bath tissue, paper napkins, and other paper products...
toilet paper. In unvarying repetition, Whipple scolds customers (who were mostly women in those days) who "squeeze the Charmin," while hypocritically entertaining such actions himself when he thinks no one will notice.
The very first commercial set the tone of the advertising campaign.
Mr. George Whipple is a fictional
supermarketA supermarket, also called a grocery store in some parts of North America, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
manager featured in
television commercialsA television advertisement or television commercial is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organisation that conveys a message. Advertisement revenue provides a significant portion of the funding for most privately owned television networks...
and print
advertisementsAdvertising is a form of communication used to influence individuals to purchase products or services or support political candidates or ideas. Frequently it communicates a message that includes the name of the product or service and how that product or service could potentially benefit the consumer...
that ran in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
from 1964 to 1985 for
CharminCharmin is a brand-name of toilet paper.The Charmin name was first created in 1928 by the Hoberg Paper Company in Green Bay, Wisconsin. In 1950 Hoberg changed its name to Charmin Paper Company and continued to produce bath tissue, paper napkins, and other paper products...
toilet paper. In unvarying repetition, Whipple scolds customers (who were mostly women in those days) who "squeeze the Charmin," while hypocritically entertaining such actions himself when he thinks no one will notice.
The very first commercial set the tone of the advertising campaign. Mr. Whipple is seen looking off-camera at a female customer, commenting that first she's squeezing the grapefruits, then she's squeezing the melons, and then (in a classic comic "triple") when she gets to the Charmin, that's the last straw, and he walks over to her and utters his famous plea "Please don't squeeze the Charmin!" for the first time.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a competing grocer named Mr. Hoffmeier came along, who encouraged his customers to squeeze the Charmin, and scolded Whipple on his hypocrisy. By the late 1980s, Mr. Whipple was encouraging customers who weren't buying Charmin to squeeze it. One commercial featured him using a fishing rod to place the product in a skeptic's shopping cart.
"Mr. Whipple" was played by actor
Dick WilsonDick Wilson, born Riccardo DiGuglielmo , was a British-born American character actor who played the role of finicky grocery store manager Mr...
, a character actor who also played a recurring role on the television series
BewitchedBewitched is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for eight seasons on ABC from 1964 to 1972, starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York , Dick Sargent , Agnes Moorehead and David White. It is about a witch who marries a mortal and tries to lead the life of a typical suburban housewife...
. Between 1964 and 1985, Wilson appeared as Whipple in more than 500 commercials for Charmin. Playing this role allowed Wilson the luxury of working only 12 days per year, while earning an annual salary of $300,000.
In 1999, after a 14-year hiatus, Mr. Whipple returned to Charmin with various commercials involving why he could not retire (with the answer being that he had to inform the public about Charmin). A later series of commercials featured him with the new slogan, "Is Mr. Whipple watching?". In a subsequent advertising campaign in 2000, the Whipple character was eventually replaced with the Charmin Bears, a family of cartoon bears whose parents extol the virtues of Charmin to their bear-cub children.
Dick Wilson died of natural causes on November 19, 2007, at the age of 91, in California.
On November 28, 2007, a new commercial-tribute debuted on television, featuring old clips and paying tribute to Dick Wilson and Mr. Whipple. The tribute indicated that the deceased actor will be "In Our Hearts Forever".
Pop culture
According to a 1970s survey, "Mr. Whipple" topped then-U.S. President
Jimmy CarterJames Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981 and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
as the most recognizable face in North America.
According to Charmin makers Proctor & Gamble, a 1978 survey found that "Mr. Whipple" was the third best-known American, behind recently-ousted President
Richard NixonRichard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States and is the only president to resign the office. He was also the 36th Vice President of the United States ....
and evangelist
Billy Graham William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr., , is an American evangelist and an Evangelical Christian. He has been a spiritual adviser to multiple United States presidents and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for the 21st century. He is a Southern Baptist...
.
Country music singer
Charlie WalkerCharlie Walker was an American country musician born in Copeville, Texas. He held membership in the Grand Ole Opry from 1967, and was inducted into the Country Radio DJ Hall of Fame in 1981.- Career :...
had a hit in 1967 with the single
Don't Squeeze My Sharmon. The song is about a man and woman who are having problems. The man then sees his wife being the object of another man's affections at a bar which prompts the plea "hey...Don't Squeeze My Sharmon...". The woman's name, of course, is an alternate spelling of
CharminCharmin is a brand-name of toilet paper.The Charmin name was first created in 1928 by the Hoberg Paper Company in Green Bay, Wisconsin. In 1950 Hoberg changed its name to Charmin Paper Company and continued to produce bath tissue, paper napkins, and other paper products...
toilet paper and a man in a bar is squeezing her in front of her husband.
In 1985, the title track of
"Weird Al" YankovicAlfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, actor, comedian, and satirist. Yankovic is known in particular for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...
's
Dare to Be StupidDare to Be Stupid is the third album recorded by "Weird Al" Yankovic, released in 1985.-Refused parodies:Yankovic had one parody idea that was refused:...
contains the lyric, "you better squeeze all the Charmin you can when Mr. Whipple's not around."
Bob RiversBob Rivers is a well known American rock and roll radio on air personality in the Pacific Northwest as well as a prolific producer of parody songs, most famous for his Christmas song parodies....
and Twisted Radio's "Deck the Halls"/
Michael JacksonMichael Joseph Jackson , known as the "King of Pop", was an American musician and one of the most commercially successful and influential entertainers of all time...
parody "Grahbe Yabalz" contains the line "Squeeze your buns like Mr. Whipple."
MythbusterMythBusters is a popular science television program produced by Australian company Beyond Television Productions originally for the Discovery Channel in the United States. The series has since been distributed by a number of international broadcasters, including SBS in Australia and BBC2 in the UK...
Adam SavageAdam Whitney Savage is an American industrial design and special effects designer/fabricator, actor, educator, and co-host of the Discovery Channel television series MythBusters.-Early years:...
starred in one commercial as a stockboy named Jimmy, trying to keep the store's leaky roof from getting the Charmin wet.
In the late 1980s or 1990s,
A&WA&W is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* A&W Restaurants, American restaurant chain* A&W , Canadian restaurant chain* A&W Root Beer* Ahnapee and Western Railway* Alexandria and Western Railway...
had commercials featuring known television icons. The ads feature a filming of the commercial with the actors messing up the shots with an irate director through voice-over. In one commercial, the director instructs the actor to pick up a can of
root beerRoot beer is a carbonated drink originally brewed using sassafras. Root beer, popularized in North America, comes in two forms: alcoholic and soft drink. The historical root beer was analogous to small beer, in that the process provided a drink with a very low alcohol content...
or
cream sodaCream soda is a sweet carbonated soft drink. It varies from country to country, but its most usual property is its vanilla flavoring. Its name originated, at least in the United Kingdom, from "ice cream soda" as it was traditionally served with a dollop of ice cream floating in it.-International...
in close-up range; each shot is ruined when the actor kept squeezing the can and making a mess. When the director asks the actor why he keeps squeezing the can, the camera pulls up and reveals Dick Wilson in response, "Force of habit, I guess."
in 2009,
Mister Whipple appeared in a filk lyric to represent squeezing
Mr. Whipple's name was borrowed from George Carroll Whipple, Jr. a public relations executive at Benton and Bowles, the advertising agency that created the ad. The real Mr. Whipple was paid one dollar for use of his name for a commercial that was to run for six months on the west coast. It became the longest running ad campaign in the history of television.
Quotes
- "Ladies, please don't squeeze the Charmin!"
- "It's squeezably soft; it's irresistible."