Anybody out there old enough to remember Sea Monkeys?
Sea-Monkeys is a marketing term for brine shrimp (Artemia) sold as novelty aquarium pets. Developed in the United States in 1957 by Harold von Braunhut, they are sold as eggs intended to be added to water, and most often come bundled in a kit of three pouches and instructions. Sometimes a small tank and additional pouches are included. The product was marketed in the 1960s and 70s, especially in comic books, and remains a presence in popular culture.
Ant farms had been popularized in 1956 by Milton Levine. Harold von Braunhut invented a brine-shrimp-based product the next year, 1957. Von Braunhut collaborated with a marine biologist, Anthony D’Agostino, to develop the proper mix of nutrients and chemicals in dry form that could be added to plain tap water to create a suitable habitat for the shrimp to thrive. Von Braunhut was granted a patent for this process on July 4, 1972.
They were initially called “Instant Life” and sold for $0.49, but von Braunhut changed the name to “Sea-Monkeys” in 1962. The new name was based on their salt-water habitat, together with the supposed resemblance of the animals’ tails to those of monkeys.
Sea-Monkeys were intensely marketed in comic books throughout the 1960s and early 1970s using illustrations by the comic-book illustrator Joe Orlando. These showed humanoid animals that bore no resemblance to the crustaceans. Many purchasers were disappointed by the dissimilarity and by the short lifespan of the animals. Von Braunhut is quoted as stating: “I think I bought something like 3.2 million pages of comic book advertising a year. It worked beautifully.”
Good old American marketing genius and ingenuity, that’s what, enhanced by a heaping helping of old school medicine-show hucksterism. What reminded me of it all was this post over at BRM. I tried leaving a comment over at Peter’s joint, but I don’t think it took.
There are several iterations of the Sea Monkeys ad findable via Luxxle search, but the one I remember best is this one:
Please note the disclaimer at bottom left—truth in advertising if ever I saw it, although as a kid I of course would pay it no heed. After refusing for a few years, my Dad finally consented to order some for me back then, and I must say the main result of the whole project was profound disappointment. Be all that as it may, one has to ask: was the world really a more fun place then, or were we all just more gullible? All things considered, this might be the perfect time to embrace the healing power of “and.”
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I remember them, unfortunately 🙂
I don’t recall that we ever got them though.
I didn’t mind the “sea monkeys” being brine shrimp.
I was far more pissed when my “Polaris submarine” turned out to be cardboard construction, and the ICBMs had nowhere near the range I needed.
LOL, I recall something similar.
I got the eggs from the pet shop when I had a 25 gallon aquarium as a teenager. I’d hatch them in a gallon jar of salt water and when they got big enough I’d feed them to the Angelfish and Guppies
Cruel, Skyler. Those fish shoulda been taught to be vegan.
I remember brine shrimp were available in the ’50s as “fresh food to feed your aquarium fish, along with micro worms and banana worms
With me it was the X-ray glasses. Saved up my dough to get a pair.
What a ripoff. Even at my young age, I realized as soon as I opened the package that I wasn’t going to see any tiddies with those things.
ha, I remember those things, and thinking maybe I could see through a dress?