Doll-A-Day 2017 #319: Campbell's Soup Kids

  Today's doll is two again. It's these little guys.

They're The Campbell's Soup kids.

Our cat Mow decided to 'help' me take pictures tonight. We were gone most of the day and got back late, and he was feeling lonely. That's his nose, and his whiskers, in the right of the picture. You'll see him again later.

Campbell's Soup became one of the first companies to use human characters in their advertising when they started using the Campbell's Soup Kids to advertise their soups in 1905. The kids were originally drawn by Grace Drayton,who was also a children's book illustrator.
 

Grace Gebbie was born in 1877. She was married twice, to Theodore Wiederseim, and William Drayton,and worked under both of those last names at various times. She coauthored several books with her sister Margaret G. Hays,including "The Adventures of Dolly Drake",and "Bobby Blake in Storyland".  She was also responsible for Dolly Dingle,who appeared in paper doll form in the ladies magazine Pictorial Review.

Drayton died in 1936.

This set is from 2000.

These dolls are 7" high to the tops of their hats.The boy doll represents tomato soup.

He has tomatoes on his shirt...

...and on his pants.

And Mow makes his second appearance of the night, as an ear,in the bottom right hand corner of the picture.

His hat is even a tomato.

The girl has onions on her dress.

And a very unsouplike flower on her hat.

Although these days the Campbell's Soup Kids are just the boy and girl these dolls are based on,originally there were several kids used in the advertisements,including teenagers.

Almost immediately the cute characters captured the public's affections and were licensed to the E.I. Horsman company to be made into dolls. The dolls were immensely popular,and continued to be manufactured by various companies over the years. The Kids also appeared on a plethora of other products.

In the 1930's the Campbell's Soup Kids had competition from what could be called their relatives. Grace Drayton designed a pair of dolls named Bobby Bounce and Dolly Dimple,based on the characters from her comic strip and children's book  'Dolly Dimples'.

During the 1920's Campbell's began to use the Kids less. In 1954 they were brought back in a big way for their upcoming 50th anniversary. Dolls were again manufactured, and the Kids began appearing in the Campbell's TV commercials. The Kids are still used today and still appear on many products. I've always loved them, and have quite a few things featuring them,including kitchen ware,and dolls. When my kids were little Emma referred to them as 'the candle-oop kids'.

  That's it for today. See you again tomorrow for another doll.