A retro-futuristic Ray Bradbury helps sell prunes
What a strange and wonderful television commercial! Ray Bradbury predicts travel via pneumatic tubes by the year 2001 – and becomes an unwitting prune spokesperson to boot. [YouTube]
That commercial was done by Stan Freberg who also narrated it. He was responsible for some the greatest commercials from that era as well as being a wonderful humorist.
Stan Freberg and Ray Bradbury – two of my favorite creative people – together. Who knew?
If you read Stan’s autobiography (“It Only Hurts When I Laugh”) he tells how he convinced Bradbury, who refused all commercial endorsements, to make this commercial.
ray bradbury is awesome… i just wish he was right about those tubes…
I keep missing my chance to meet him. Ray Bradbury was the first science fiction author I read, and he has made me a loyal fan to the genre. Very funny commercial!
Little did they know then that in 2000 the California Prune Board would spend $10 million to market prunes as “dried plums”.

