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. ( via ) "Wilkins", a character who enjoys Wilkins Coffee, and "Wontkins", a character who does not—are used to advertise the coffee.

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. Wilkins Coffee's slogan was ‘'Try Wilkins Coffee - It’s Just Wonderful!’

Wilkins and Wontkins

In 1957, Jim Henson was hired by

Helen Ver Standig Wellington Jewels was a Washington, D.C. based jewelry store and direct mail chain, operating from the 1960s through the 1990s. The jewelry store chain specialized in artificial diamond jewelry and sold high-quality gold and platinum settings conta ...

who worked on advertising Wilkins Coffee, to produce commercials using early

Muppet The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an surreal humor, absurdist, burlesque, and self-referential humor, self-referential style of Variety show, variety-sketch comedy. Created by Jim Henson in 1955, they are ...

characters. Henson produced these commercials from 1957 to 1961. Each ad ran for about 10 seconds long. They were composed of an 8-second puppet skit, and a 2-second shot of the advertised Wilkins product. The ads were very successful. In 1958, 25,000 puppets of Wilkins and Wontkins were sold for 1 dollar each. There were also ads for Wilkins Tea, Wilkins Instant Coffee, and Wilkins

Community Coffee Community Coffee is a coffee roaster and distributor based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. As of 2005, it was the largest family-owned coffee brand in the United States, controlling 52% of the market in South Louisiana and 72% in Baton ...

. Jim Henson also used Wilkins and Wontkins in ads for several other brands, such as Nash’s Coffee, Kraml Dairy, Taystee Bread and Faygo. The last ads to feature Wilkins and Wontkins were ads for Community Coffee in 1969.

Later History

John H. Wilkins, Jr. died in 1967 of a

heart ailment Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. CVD includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). Other CVDs include stroke, ...

. 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. In the early 1990s Wilkins Coffee started to sell Wilkins and Wontkins shirts to try to regain popularity. Wilkins Coffee has been defunct since 1992. In 2006 Helen Ver Standig died of respiratory failure at the age of 86. In recent years the Wilkins Coffee ads have gone viral online.

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