Sprint Chocolate Wafers

In early 1969, ad executive Ted Bates, representing candy manufacturer Mars, Inc., approached Jim Henson about making a commercial promoting Sprint Chocolate Wafers, a combination cookie/candy bar. 
Henson's first idea was to create a two-headed creature who had opposing views of the wafer; one head thought it was a cookie while the other thought it was candy. To add a visual contrast, Henson planned for the left head to have a smokestack on top to punctuate his speech with a "toot," and the right head with a light bulb-like protrusion on top that would light up and "ding" (much like the creatures he created for the "Business Business" sketch performed on The Ed Sullivan Show).
According to Henson's notes from his original proposal, the creature would have been a live-hand puppet, and like other devouring Muppet monsters of the era, it would also have a throat opening so it could really eat the product (as Henson wrote, "Very effective puppet business").
Although humanoid Muppet characters were used for the final commercial instead, Henson's initial concept found its way to Sesame Street in the form of its Two-Headed Monster. The Sprint creature also shares similarities with the later Honkers and Dingers. The female character designed for the revised commercial (labeled "Sprint Lady" in Jim's original concept sketch) would later appear on Sesame Street opposite Guy Smiley in an insert covering the 1930s pop song "Gone with the Wind" and as Frieda in a story read by Bob showcasing the letter "F" (performed in the latter sketch by Frank Oz).
==See also==
* M&M's, also made by Mars Inc
==External links==
* Falk, Karen. Jim Henson's Red Book, 2/27/1969 – 'Shoot commercial – Sprint – Candy Bar.'
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Category:TV Commercials