Gofer Cakes

A few years ago I stumbled across a bizarre PSA on a the "Dr. Doolittle" video (the lousy one with Eddie Murphy.)
I had started the tape and had left the room to get a Tab and I heard this amazing, catchy jingle.

“Gofer a mouthful, Gofer the fun! Gofer cakes are for everyone!”

I ran back and rewound the tape to see what Gofer Cakes were. It turned out to be a parody of a 'Hostess type' commercial that was actually there to encourage kids to exercise and skip the junk food.

However, it shows a child’s junk food UTOPIA a place where chocolate and whip cream are in high quantity and there is no such thing as too much sugar.



It’s a great spot, with a clever twist. I thought it was a real commercial all the way up to the ending.

Here is my scene by scene review of the 30 second spot:

The spot opens with a group of four kids happily entering the house after school and running in.
“Gofer a mouthful, Gofer the fun! Gofer cakes are for everyone!”

I love how the kids are running. They dart into the house like the rest of the world is on fire. The kids are of different races and sexes. The sort of group you ONLY see on TV. I guess Gofer cakes truly are for everyone. Sadly in the next scene they have taken off their backpacks and jackets. I guess Gofer Cakes aren’t for every THING, just everyone.

“Cool, Gofer Cakes!” Exclaims on child as he opens the pantry door to find it stocked with Gofer Cakes, a hockey puck shaped cupcake in colorful box featuring a Gopher for a mascot. In the next shot the kids are shown eating the Gofer Cakes and stacking them up.
“Just one snack has what it takes and its Gofer, Gofer, Gofer Cakes.”

See what I mean about this being a child’s utopia? I bet most kids would have skipped going to Disneyland just to go to a house that was STOCKED with cupcakes. I know I would have. Remember Halloween? Every child knew which house had the best candy. This was that house. I don’t know much about this kid, but I know his friends only like him because his parents leave him with enough chocolate to kill a clinic full of diabetes patients.


The kids are surrounded by Gofer Cakes!

I do mean surrounded. Do you see the checkerboard on the floor?

 They are playing checkers with Gofer Cakes! I am not sure how that works since all Gofer cakes are the same color, but you have to admire the ingenuity.

Then one of the fat kids starts to stack the Gofer Cakes in a bizarre Gofer Cake barricade. Perhaps this is to keep the other kids away from his Gofer Cakes. I hope it worked.

The other fat kid is shown rocking in a chair. In an amazing feat of coordination he manages to cram in another Gofer Cake with every rock of the chair. His cheeks are swollen like a chipmunk. It is funny.

“Open wide, stuff your face. There’s always room for more gofer cakes.”

The kids are happily eating the Gofer Cakes as fast as they can. Then they start to shove them into a blender. In with the Gofer Cakes they pour whipped cream and chocolate syrup.

This is where things start to get strange. It is at this point that you might start to realize that you are being had.
This is really a brilliant commercial.
The kids are so absurdly happy as they makes something so fattening that a teaspoon full could provide enough nutrients to allow a starving child to live an extra month.
They pour chocolate and whipped cream into the blender to add to a product that is, in all probability, made of 50% chocolate and 50% whipped cream.

“Empty the box and then reload. Eat those Gofer Cakes ‘till you explode.”
The children are shown lying around, presumably stuffed. An announcer says “Exercise lately?” and we are shown information regarding the Presidential Council on Physical Fitness.

I have a problem with how the song lyrics go at this point. The line “empty the box” is sung so fast it is as if the singer forgot that part of the lyric and had to rush it into the song. The result is that we don’t really understand it and it sounds pretty odd.
Still, you hardly notice this because you are watching a shot of the kids sitting around looking like they are recovering from an all night party with Mickey Rourke.
Hung-over and listless, they just sit there.

It is a brilliant spot. Watch it again: