Tuesday, September 06, 2005

A Monkey Poster

Few things in life give me the sense of awe and wonder that this poster does.

I love this poster! First off, in the center of the poster is a monkey (O.K., technically chimpanzees are members of the great ape family, but monkey is more fun to write.)

Interestingly, the fact that a chimp is on the poster is the most NORMAL thing about it.

A few years ago I spotted this on eBay as I searched for decorations for my kitchen. I couldn't resist. But I was confused. Look at the slogan proclaimed boldly at the bottom of the poster:

Watch out, McDonalds?

Why? Because some greasy spoon has obviously skirted some animal labor laws and health code restrictions to allow a chimp to serve food? How does this threaten McDonalds? Is the chimp going to storm into a McDonalds and bite people?

Also prominent on the poster is "Suga Duga."

According to the poster Suga Duga was "crazy flavored sugar."

I think the craziest flavors were "butterscotch armpit", "old man breath", and "Gigli."

In the poster they used orange and grape. The package shows grapes (or oranges) conversing with each other about what they will taste like.

I don't know if Suga Duga was a real product. An internet search returns lots of websites featuring the words "suga duga" but none are actually speaking about this crazy sugar.

If Suga Duga was a real product and not a prop, perhaps the whole poster was an advertisement for Suga Duga. Maybe the makers of Suga Duga had a plan to topple the McDonalds Empire by giving the public what they TRULY wanted: sweeteners with a history of mental illness.

Unfortunately, I assume McDonalds watched out.

Interestingly, this image popped up on eBay again recently:

This time it was a T-Shirt iron-on. The image is the same, except it is now cut around the chimp, leaving the salt and pepper and Suga Duga prominently in the picture.

The phrase "Watch out, McDonalds!" still appears, but slightly off center.

The only additional info the seller had was that this image was "dated 1976."

I bought the iron-on, I plan to slap it on a shirt and then stroll into a McDonalds.
I hope they watch out!

30 comments:

  1. Anyone have any memory of Suga Duga?

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    1. Yes! We drank it all the time. Banana was my favorite flavor! That's why the monkey!

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  2. Anonymous9/06/2005

    No memory of Suga Duga per se, but I do remember an apple flavored sugar at the A&P in the 1980s.

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  3. Anonymous9/06/2005

    Robble Robble Robble Robble. If you are wondering why you never heard of this company or Suga Duga, it's because Grimace, my cousin the hammurderer and myself put them out of business. A rival fast food chain was hiring monkeys to serve as cheap labor and had put Suga Duga in all their food. Without getting into details, let's just say, that company's CEO is now a "roommate of Jimmy Hoffa's"

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    1. Anonymous5/12/2023

      This a load crap, Suga Duga was a fruit flavored sugar promoted in the 70s. They used a chimp for their tv commercials. It sold in the stores in the sugar section. It came in grape and orange, I don't remember a banana flavor, the chimp was a gimmick to get kids to ask their parents to by it. No buddy put them out of business, they just never had the sales to stay afloat.

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  4. Anonymous9/06/2005

    Foul! Foul! I know you are all upset about the war, but monkeys handling food is just foul.

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  5. Anonymous9/06/2005

    I think hall of famer is on to something. Just look at that monkey's face. If that isn't the face of an overworked monkey I don't know what is.

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  6. I do a great monkey impression.

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  7. Anonymous9/07/2005

    Who is behind this poster and this iron-on? Is it possible some insane 70's craze passed everyone by???

    I think it will make for a stunning shirt. Better yet, iron it onto the back of a stonewash denim jacket. Now THAT would be sweet.

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  8. Great poster!
    I've never heard of it, but Suga Duga had to be a real product. My question is how a flavored suger would be a threat to McDonald's? Actually now that I think about it Suga Duga would most likely have been a threat to any and ALL food. Sugar is hard enough to compete with. Flavored Suger would be unstoppable. Is it too much to believe that Suga Duga was "taken" out?

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  9. Suga Duga...that doesn't have anything to do with Suga Buga does it...as in "Come over here Suga Buga"...or is that Sugar Booger???

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  10. Anonymous9/09/2005

    I didn't ask about it! I was more concerned with the freshness of your Jurassic Park Cereal...those marshmallows would be positively petrified by now!

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  11. Anonymous10/25/2010

    Yes, this was a real product. At the end another monkey would try to take banana suga duga and this guy would say "sorry charlie, I keep banana for myself."

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  12. Yes, Suga Duga was a real product. I date this ad at 1970 at the time "Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp" was on the air Saturday mornings -- a kids show about private eye chimps -- and I would also venture this is one of the chimps from that program in the TV ad.

    Btw, I search for a long time to find a reference online to Suga Duga and finally discovered this blog page! Thank you!!!

    Another similar product at the time of Suga Duga was Space Food Sticks!

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    1. I loved space food sticks! The peanut butter ones were great with banana Suga Duga while we watched Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp!

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    2. My father was paid in boxes of suga duga for a job he did...ugh

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  13. Anonymous8/07/2011

    Yes the last guy was right("siys")
    I loved Suga Duga. And would beg my mom to buy it,you add it to milk. My favorite was banana. It was advertised on the Saturday morning show "The Banana Slpits"and "H.R.Pufnstuff". Flavors were...orange,grape,banana,apple and I think strawberry. Around this time "Freekies Cereal" and Tang orange astronaut drink powder was on the market too.---good luck,-signed AMOS

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    1. Anonymous11/24/2012

      We were looking this up at dinner. I had this poster on my wall! I described it and this is all the info I could find! Thank you!

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  14. Anonymous1/02/2013

    I actually owned this poster. I bought it at Magic Mountain in the early 70's and it hung in my room for years. I never saw any real products related to this. My take on it at the time (and still feel) that this was meant as a joke regarding competition for Mc Donalds. That's what made it so funny back then. This was when this kind of food was not considered poisonous yet and the media was minimal on most subjects.

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  15. Anonymous1/22/2013

    In the commercial the kids would ask the Monkey if he wanted sugar and he would say UHH UHH got Suga Duga. They advertised you could put it on toast, cereal, in milk where ever you wanted the sweet flavors.

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  16. I remember Suga Duga. The "monkey" in the ad is Lancelot Link:Secret Chimp. We used to put this stuff on our cereal. I was starting think that this was a memory I had made up, because I couldn't find any references to it on the internet.

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  17. I remember Suga Duga. The "monkey" in the ad is Lancelot Link:Secret Chimp. We used to put this stuff on our cereal. I was starting think that this was a memory I had made up, because I couldn't find any references to it on the internet.

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  18. I can't tell you about the Chimp or poster, but I can tell you about Suga Duga.
    It was produced by the Great Western Sugar company.
    I know the company existed in Colorado and surrounding states and produced beet sugar.
    The company was bought and run into the ground by the Hunt brothers.

    Suga Duga was sold in a white cardboard tote that contained all four flavors. You would press down on a plastic tab on the top to unseal the container. Once open, it had a rotating ring on the top that controlled how much of the product was dispensed when you shook the container. We used it on toast, and in milk.

    I have one un-opened tote containing all four flavors - still sealed.

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  19. Anonymous1/26/2016

    I remember. I was 7. it was 1972. Grape was my favorite.

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  20. We always ate space food sticks and banana Suga Duga in our milk while watching the Banana Splits.

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  21. We always ate space food sticks and banana Suga Duga in our milk while watching the Banana Splits.

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  22. Produced by the Great Western Sugar Company (defunct now). Not sure if it was a regional or national product. I grew up with it in the 70's and 80's. Grandfather worked at the sugar plant in Longmont, CO and would bring home a few containers.

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  23. Phineas K. Slungdung7/20/2020

    So, a fellow lover of chimps, eh? Great!

    Check this Google Images URL: https://www.google.com/search?q=kimballstock+pix+CHI

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  24. Anonymous7/04/2022

    suga duga was meant to add to breakfast cereal , I only remember the grape, and it was basically sugar with citric acid and flavoring similar to kool-aid. It was advertised on Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp and also on the Banana Splits.

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