I’m trying to put my finger on what makes Farfel the Dog so repulsive. Is it his eyes, always half-lidded and staring directly at the camera? Is it his shark-like mouth full of flat teeth, snapping open and shut like a bear trap? If you pause the video at any point, you’ll see a creature with an impossible, uncanny expression. A snapshot of a nightmare. Moving or not, Farfel turns my stomach. You’d be forgiven for thinking this D-tier mascot was created just for this one Nestle candy ad, but no. Unfortunately, there’s lore. By 1992, Farfel was 37 years old, and this ad was his final appearance.
Farfel was created in the 50’s by ventriloquist Jimmy Nelson and quickly became part of his traveling act. By 1955, Nelson had appeared on the Ed Sullivan show and was pretty successful. He was famous enough to be recruited by Nestlé, where he produced a series of ads, all featuring Farfel, for their chocolate milk mix. The ads ran for ten years, until 1965, at which point Farfel disappeared from the airwaves. That is until he appeared again, almost 30 years later, in the candy commercial you just witnessed.
The ad was an appeal to boomer nostalgia. It resurrected a beloved(?) character from their childhoods, singing a jingle they thought they’d forgotten. At this time of year, it didn’t matter what kind of cultural cachet this weird little guy had, as long as they remembered him. And as you can see, Farfel is unforgettable. I have no idea how well the ad was received at the time, but I hope seeing Farfel back from the dead made my mom and dad think of chocolate milk and smile.
The easy explanation for why Farfel is so grotesque by today’s standards is that Jim Henson and The Muppets moved puppet design forward by lightyears, creating characters that felt alive enough to star in their own feature-length movies, while Farfel is an oogity-boogity dummy. The complicated answer is that he’s from a totally different time, with its own aesthetic sensibilities that we’ll never truly be able to vibe with. The same thing will happen to the things we love1. So cut Farfel some slack. It’s Christmas, after all!2
Title: Farfel. Company: Nestlé. Year: 1992. Agency: unknown