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A retro-futuristic Ray Bradbury helps sell prunes

By Adam Stanhope in Advertising, Book & Lit, Food & Drinks, Video Clips on Aug 25, 2008 at 2:26 pm



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]


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COMMENT
  1. Don Newbury
    Aug 25th, 2008 at 2:30 pm

    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.

  2. Tony LaRocca
    Aug 25th, 2008 at 7:13 pm

    Stan Freberg and Ray Bradbury - two of my favorite creative people - together. Who knew?

  3. Juan Motaim
    Aug 25th, 2008 at 8:54 pm

    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.

  4. seekshelter
    Aug 25th, 2008 at 10:11 pm

    ray bradbury is awesome... i just wish he was right about those tubes...

  5. Lotta
    Aug 26th, 2008 at 7:01 am

    I can't wait for my pneumatic tube to arrive!

  6. Cat
    Aug 27th, 2008 at 12:27 pm

    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!

  7. Jbot
    Aug 27th, 2008 at 1:37 pm

    that was funny :D he was (sadly) wrong about the tubes though

  8. Chad Cloman
    Aug 29th, 2008 at 1:08 am

    But he was right about the wall-to-wall televisions...

  9. earl
    Aug 30th, 2008 at 11:41 pm

    Little did they know then that in 2000 the California Prune Board would spend $10 million to market prunes as "dried plums".

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