Flintstones Vitamins: Yabba Dabba Doo they're good to chew!

Yabba dabba doo they're good to chew

If you were a child or parent of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s you no doubt saw one or all of the various cartoon ads where Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble promoted vitamins for children. The duo initially began advertising One A Day vitamins but this evolved into Flintstones chewables.

The following video has all of the television commercials and it's a nice way to take a trip down memory lane. My personal favorite is the one where Fred and Barney sing "Yabba Dabba Doo, Yabba Dabba Doo, Flintstones vitamins are good to chew.

The vitamins come in the shapes of Fred Flintstone, Wilma Flintstone, Pebbles Flintstone, Barney Rubble, Betty Rubble, Bamm-Bamm Rubble, Dino the dinosaur, and The Great Gazoo. For the first 20 years, Betty was not included as a vitamin but a Bayer telephone poll indicated that consumers were in favor of including Betty. She was added to the lineup in 1995, at the expense of the Flintstone car.

10 million strong and growing

Many baby boomers were given Flintstones Vitamins each day and these commercials bring back fond memories. Flintstones are supplemental multivitamins for children from age 2 and are based on the animated sitcom The Flintstones because of how popular the cartoons were. The vitamins were first introduced by Miles Laboratories who created Chocks children's vitamins in 1960.

They saw the benefit of combining a children's vitamin with a popular cartoon and in 1968 approached Hanna-Barbera who agreed and came up with Flintstones brand. If like me your parents gave you Chocks you could taste the similarity right away. Children loved both brands because they tasted similar to candy. Miles Laboratories no longer exists as it was acquired by Bayer in 1979.

During the 1980s the commercial jingle changed to "We are Flintstones kids 10 million strong and growing." This jingle "has become world-famous due to the heavy circulation and rotation of the advertisements. The music is by Martin O'Donnell, and the lyrics by Jim Morris, AKA "Tagline Jim." O'Donnell used his own children to sing the jingle and later he came up with the music for the blockbuster Halo series.

Flintstone vitamins are nostalgic

Today, in addition to the original chewables there are Flintstones Gummies, Flintstones Sour Gummies, Flintstones Plus Iron, Flintstones Complete with Choline (a nutrient found in breast milk) Flintstones Plus Extra C, Flintstones Plus Calcium, and My First Flintstones. The nostalgia in these ads is amazing and I can recall watching the commercials during Saturday morning cartoons with my brothers and later my own children.

Flintstones vitamins were innovative in the fact that they were the first to look like cartoon characters. Chocks were square shaped and today there are many brands of vitamins that come in the shape of various animated characters but Flintstones was the pioneer.

Flintstones having staying power

The vitamins are one of the most successful pharmaceutical products ever because Fred and Barney are trusted salesmen as children and adults have confidence in them. Flintstones vitamins can be purchased in grocery stores, pharmacies, and on the Internet. Thanks to the worldwide web those who enjoy nostalgia and looking back on days gone by can find practically everything they remember from childhood, teenager, and young adult years.

Experts believe the nostalgia factor is the main reason the vitamins continue to sell. Children who grew up watching the Flintstones and taking the supplements have childrne ad eve grandchildren so it becomes generational. There is even a Facebook group for those who ate Flintstones vitamins when they were children. Hanna-Barbera and Myles/Bayer sure came up with a winner.