Wilkins and Wontkins

Wilkins and Wontkins are characters created by puppeteer Jim Henson for the Wilkins Coffee brand. The coffee was produced and sold in the United States by John H Wilkins & Company in Washington D.C.^[1][2] "Wilkins", a character who enjoys Wilkins Coffee,^[3] and "Wontkins", a character who does not, are used to advertise the coffee.^[4][5]

Wilkins and Wontkins
The original Wilkins and Wontkins puppets (1957)
First appearance	1957
Last appearance	1969
Created by	Jim Henson
In-universe information
Species	Muppet
Gender	Male
Nationality	American

Background

Wilkins Coffee was founded in 1899 by John H. Wilkins Sr. The company sold coffee, tea and spices. His son John Wilkins, Jr. later took over the business.^[6][7][8]

Wilkins Coffee's slogan was ‘'Try Wilkins Coffee - It’s Just Wonderful!’;^[9][10] a later slogan used in advertisements was 'Rich… Rich… Double Rich'.

Wilkins and Wontkins

Collection of Wilkins and Wontkins Commercials.

In 1957, Jim Henson was hired by Helen Ver Standig who worked on advertising Wilkins Coffee, to produce commercials using early Muppet characters. Henson produced these commercials from 1957 to 1961.^{[6][11][12][13]} Each ad ran for about 10 seconds long.^[14] They were composed of an 8-second puppet skit, and a 2-second shot of the advertised Wilkins product.^[15] The ads were very successful. In 1958, 25,000 puppets of Wilkins and Wontkins were sold for 1 dollar each.^[16] There were also ads for Wilkins Tea and Wilkins Instant Coffee. Jim Henson also used Wilkins and Wontkins in ads for several other brands, such as Community Coffee, Nash’s Coffee, Red Diamond Coffee, La Touraine Coffee, Jomar Instant Coffee, Kraml Dairy, Calso Water, Taystee Bread, Dugan's Bread, Merita Bread, Frank's Beverages, Faygo, and Standard Oil of Ohio (SOHIO).^[17] The last ads to feature Wilkins and Wontkins were ads for Community Coffee in 1969.^[11]

"Cannon" Wilkins Coffee commercial (1957), copyright was not renewed in 1984.

The typical format of the ads would see the gleeful Wilkins attempting to persuade the sour Wontkins to drink Wilkins Coffee; Wontkins would almost always grumpily refuse, leading Wilkins (or an assisting outside force, such as an animal, a vehicle, an object, a hand, or company president Mr. Wilkins) to commit some act of extreme violence, such as:^[18]

• Shooting him
• Stabbing him
• Running him over
• Throwing him out of buildings
• Throwing him off of ships
• Throwing him out of aircraft
• Breaking a glass bottle over his head
• Strapping him to a barber chair and attempting to slit his throat
• Firebombing his house
• Executing him in an electric chair

Later history

John H. Wilkins, Jr. died in 1967 of a heart ailment.^[1][10]

Wilkins Coffee had a number 1 retail spot in the 1950s, but as competition got tougher with companies such as General Mills and Folgers, Wilkins began losing its market share.^[8] In the early 1990s Wilkins Coffee started to sell Wilkins and Wontkins shirts to try to regain popularity.^[19]

Wilkins Coffee has been defunct since 1997.^[20]

In recent years, the Wilkins Coffee ads have gone viral online due to their excessive use of violence.^{[21][22][23][24][25]}

Almost all of the Wilkins and Wontkins commercials have fell into the public domain due to lack of renewal (on the commercials with notices) and ones that aired without notices. The characters themselves have fell into the public domain in 1984 as "Cannon", the first commercial was not renewed.^[26]

Book cites

• Coffee and Tea Industries and the Flavor Field. 1918. p. 948. Retrieved 2022-01-29.
• Davis, M. (2008). Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street. Viking. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-670-01996-0. Retrieved 2022-01-29.
• Jones, B.J. (2015). "Chapter Four - Muppets, Inc.". Jim Henson: The Biography. Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0-345-52612-0. Retrieved 2022-01-29.
• Boyd's Directory of the District of Columbia for ... R.L. Polk & Company. 1920. p. 142. Retrieved 2022-01-29.