When writing the latest installment of Ad Nauseam, I honestly never know when I’ll be inspired next. The comic and ads have to be just right to stir up those nostalgic buried recollections as well as the ability to humorously riff on them. It’s safe to say that the comic featured today may quite possibly be one of my favorite pulls in Ad Nauseam history!
Superman & Bugs Bunny #1 released July 2000.
A series of four issues released from July to October of 2000; Superman and Bugs Bunny was the first official crossover between the DC Universe and the Looney Tunes.
During my time writing these, I’ve come across advertisements within comic books for things I had no idea existed; yet I could only desire for them to have been a part of my youth (for better or worse). But this is the first comic book I’ve come across that I wished fell into my pruney-summer Cheeto dusted 12 year old hands. Bugs Bunny and Superman are two of my favorite things after all; and they’re as American as deep fried Oreos and gas station slot machines. Unfortunately, post millennium, both these characters lose relevance as time marches on due to mismanagement by their Warner Brothers overlords.
But we’ll sulk about the slow death of American pop culture icons in another pointless article. We have advertisements to chew the fat about! And this comic is practically obese with, what seems like, more advertisements than your standard 32 page comic book. So lets jump back to the summer of 2000: crack open this comic, blast the “Thong Song”, and be oblivious to the fact that every facet of American life will soon all be downhill from here. That’s All Folks!
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Fruity Pebbles Free Movie Tickets
Fun fact you don’t care about: I love The Flintstones.
I was the prime demographic for the 1994 live action film and ate that junk up like Dino with an oversized rack of brontosaurus ribs. I had the Happy Meal toys, a couple action figures, and a dream of one day owning a real life Dino the dinosaur. I was surprised when I learned how much vitriol the film received upon its release. So I recently revisited the 1994 film and, much to my surprise, it wasn’t half bad. The sets, costumes, and effects were solid as a rock. The soundtrack (led by the B-52s) was fun. And the plot, while overly complicated for a children’s movie, was competent. The Flintstones were always a lazily animated rip off of The Honeymooners to begin with, so I’m not sure what prehistoric sized stick critics had up their ass when this was released in 1994.
Sequels were immediately planned but everything fell apart before it began. So 6 years after the first film we received a “prequel” with none of the original cast that Steven Speilberg didn’t even produce. I’ll admit I only saw bits and pieces of this movie on television, yet I walked the entire set of “Rock Vegas” at Universal Studios Florida for a number of years. While I admit it had that Flintstones charm, it still didn’t make me want to see the movie. And, apparently, not even giving away movie tickets with the purchase of Fruity Pebbles worked as the movie bombed at the box office and is mostly forgotten.
In 2025, I believe The Flintstones are largely forgotten and mostly associated with the cereal we’re seeing advertised here. And even though I love me some ‘Stones, I don’t trust their colorful sugary poisons. As I’m pretty sure their vitamins I took every morning were simply colorful rock candy with no nutritional value.
Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour
The chaotic camaraderie that Mario Kart brought to gamers was something that was quickly duplicated by many game developers. More specifically with the release of Mario Kart 64, soon every property suddenly had a wacky racing game over the course of a couple years. While some were solid, most were uninspired ripoffs that made you appreciate how well the Mario Kart games were designed.
Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour, besides having the longest name for a racing game ever, was actually a decent multiplayer racing game. But what personally set it apart was how each course was set within an “actual” depiction of Walt Disney World. Complete with music, sound effects/bytes, and environment. Before being able to watch 1440p walkthroughs and ride throughs of any Disney Park attraction on your phone, you used to have to simply recall with words to “relive” it. This game was a nice little way to “retrace” your experience if you’ve visited Disney World, complete with the main menu taking you down Main Street U.S.A and selecting your course being a Disney park and attraction. I had a copy of this game on the Sega Dreamcast (remember that one?) years after it was released and I found it magically charming. Being a big Walt Disney World fan, I wasn’t even much into the racing aspect, as I normally selected “practice” mode and leisurely drove my go-kart to take in the sights; the Haunted Mansion course being my favorite.
Being a 25 year old game now, I find it even more desirable. As it’s locked into a Disney “World” of the past when I loved it most. I previously played this game to remember what Disney World is, yet now I play it to remember what Disney World was.
Sportz Snacks
There’s nothing quite as ironic as having a peak physical athlete at the top of their game being a spokesman for chemical laden junk food that will slowly kill you. That’s kind of the point of advertising though, isn’t it? Whoops, went a little too pessimistic there.
So anyway,
Ken Griffey Jr. reminds me of summertime. Playing baseball at a local park diamond. Sweating but loving it. Waiting for the sun to set so the fireflies would come out as you washed down some brightly colored sugar water given to you by your buddy’s mom. You were terrible but, damn it, it was baseball. And so was Ken Griffey Jr. Griffey was past his peak at this time. Notice he’s not even pictured eating the snack crackers. Just looking in the distance at something probably more important than sport-shaped snack crackers. And why wouldn’t he be? Griffey overcame suicide, had a line of baseball video games, and made guest appearances on Harry and the Hendersons, The Simpsons, and Fresh Price of Bel Air.
Snack crackers are for small timers. Little leaguers, dig?
Wild Thornberry Cereal
The best thing about coming across this ad was that it led me to a Breakfast Cereal wikipedia. And when I was delighted to find out they had an entry for Wild Thornberry Cereal, it just turns out it’s a page that simply says “This was indeed a cereal”. But it wasn’t a complete loss, as I discovered a website called “The Boxtop” (except the URL is not that in the slightest). It’s a blog for “Cerealists” established in 1999 with the latest entry going up to 2016. I recommend clicking around to witness the hodgepodge of culture you can only find from a web 1.0 blog. The Boxtop aka LavaSurfer.com aka Topher’s Castle also links several other cereal blogs. And I always get a little sad when the links lead to a broken page. But there still is one active link: Cerealously.net. I absolutely adore eccentric creativity like this that made the early days of the internet such a pandora’s box of adventure.
Here’s Rick’s brief review from The Boxtop:
Boxtop visitor, Rick Barr, sent us this scan of a new “Limited Edition” cereal from Post based upon the Nickelodeon cartoon series The Wild Thornberry’s. Rick reports that the cereal “is great stuff… very sweet. Tastes like Sugar Smacks with marshmallows. If you like Sugar Smacks you’ll love this cereal. I’m a sucker for new cereal — got to try anything new.”
The Wild Thornberrys were my “exit stage left” when it came to the entertainment of “Nicktoons”. I was lucky enough to grow up alongside the golden era of Nickelodeon. Adoring such originals as Ren and Stimpy, Rocko’s Modern Life, Rugrats, and that prepubescent milquetoast cuck Doug . And I’m not even mentioning the iconic game shows and sitcoms. Yet, come the millennium, when a new lineup of original cartoons debuted I yearned for “my” cartoons. Yet I soon realized that it was simply time for me to change the channel, as I’m not the demographic any longer. Spongebob, Rocket Power, As Told By Ginger, Chalk Zone, and The Wild Thornberrys were shows that made me realize that perhaps I am too old for this stuff.
NesQuik
I’m not certain, but I want to say the direction of this NesQuik ad was to parody the masculine cowboy smoking print ads of the time. If that’s the case, I find it pretty funny and an example of the creativity that would likely be stifled by today’s standards. Even though we’re in the middle of the year 2000, that 1990’s counterculture “edge” is still peaking through. I’d counter this ad with Toucan Sam giving Joe Camel a bowl of Froot Loops.
Trivia: Did you know Marlboro cigarettes were originally marketed for women? Looking to expand their market, they began the rugged cowboy marketing images in the 1950s and soon became a “man”’s brand. Neat!
The Mask/Pee Wee DVD
The most bizarre double feature at first…but also the best double feature of all time?
So why are they advertising Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (15 years old at this point). and The Mask (a ripe 6 years old)? Because they’re fresh on DVD! The great conversion! Perhaps you bought your favorite records on cassette…then your favorite cassettes on CDs.
If you notice, The Mask’s cover clearly states “This Film Edited For Family Viewing”. I tried to look into what this means exactly but found no specific information other than “it has some obscenities and profanities removed”. If you go back and watch The Mask as an adult, you immediately realize that the zany-campy-cartoony overlay is mere makeup on a very twisted, violent, and even promiscuous movie. Which still dials down the source material in which it’s based on. But I can immediately see some parents “falling” for what was marketed as a “real life” cartoon character portrayed by peak-wacky Jim Carrey. The magic of The Mask is in the same vein as Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, but feels more Judge Doom than Roger.
Superman Got Milk?
The “Got Milk?” ad campaign is a true staple of the 1990s. A verifiable “who’s who?” of pop culture. If you didn’t have a milk mustache in some print ad for “got milk?” did you even really make it? It was like getting your own Spaghetti O shape or “READ” poster. Starting commercials in 1993 with the print ads following in 1995, you almost felt vindicated when someone you admired was featured in a “Got Milk?” ad. My favorites being Stone Cold Steve Austin and even freakin’ Spider-man. So it makes sense that Superman would be featured, as he is the “Man of Steel” after all. And “milk builds strong bones”, right? That was the whole point of the ad campaign.
Well, actually it doesn’t. In fact, apparently the more milk you drink…the more likely your bones will break. That’s “Big Milk” for you. If I had a nickel for everytime a big corporation lied to me, they’d call me “Nickel-Man” because I would be known worldwide for having so many nickels. And people would be like, “Hey why don’t you deposit all those nickels, you’d have a fortune…” and I’d reply, “Why don’t you mind your own business? Then why would I be called Nickel-Man to begin with? Then Big Milk would just be lying to some guy that has a lot of money” and they would be like, “Hey what are you talking about? Big Milk? What do you mean?” and I’d just go “Ahh, forget it!” and motion that “nevermind” sign with my hands and go back into my Nickel cottage.
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Well, that about closes the comic on another exciting installment of Ad Nauseam! From cereals to Nesquik to Got Milk? ads, I didn’t expect to get so milk heavy in this article but here we are. I hope none of our readers are lactose intolerant. My favorite part of writing this article in particular was browsing those cereal blogs. I briefly mentioned how much I adore the eccentric creativity that made the early days of the internet such a pandora’s box of adventure. And I truly do. People carving out their own personal niche corner of the limitless lawless internet. Dedicating time, design, and buying a domain to create a digital shrine of your passion. Aspects like this still exist through social media. But social media is too autonomous and self defeating. But I suppose that’s “evolution” when it comes to our modern internet.
I recommend reading the actual issues of Superman and Bugs Bunny as it’s expertly written and illustrated. If you’re into that sort of thing. It was during this time that “evolution” hit both of these American pop culture staples. As time marched on in the new millennium, the Looney Tunes and Superman became less relevant by the year. And, beginning with the 9/11 terrorist attacks, our country became more pessimistic, angry, and fearful than ever. And I don’t believe we ever shook that. The hate, fear, and division is stronger than ever. Our country could use the silly escapism of Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes. And we can certainly use the hope, unity, and optimism of Superman. But I don’t know if we’ll ever get those days back. I guess that’s why nostalgia exists in the first place. Thanks for reading about 25 year old ads found in a silly comic book crossover.
You can read more in the Ad Nauseam Archive.
In 1994 there were action figures that projected adventures from their chests and I just found out about it…
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