
The first Trumpet
It was 1964, not long after television started in New
Zealand, when the very first Tip Top Trumpet TV
advertisement appeared. So long ago, that when we enquired,
Tip Top themselves no longer had a record of it.
In December 2014, I had a
conversation with a stranger at a Christmas party, mentioning
my interest in the history of ice cream. He immediately
introduced himself as ' the original Trumpet boy!', and
it was his memories of an
advertising campaign 50 years ago that
led us to this fascinating story.
In April 1964, General Foods Corporation (Tip Top Ice Cream) had launched the
Trumpet,
New
Zealand's
answer to the American Drumstick and Europe's Cornetto, and our first
ice
cream-in-a-waffle-cone
frozen novelty. It was a major leap forward
in technology and sophistication,
and the launch was supported by an extensive advertising campaign, including
a live-action
television commercial.
The
boy who featured in the TV commercial, and in other advertising material,
is Aucklander Michael
Yalland.
Michael, 11 years old at the time, was cast as one of the members of a junior
marching band, led by a trumpet player. He also featured solo in
the print
and marketing campaign,
complete
with blue band uniform.
He has vivid memories of a particular scene filmed for the television commercial
in Myers Park, Auckland, where he was supposed to be eating ice cream on a swing
- the "takes" being repeated to the point where he was physically
sick!
And just as the famous "VW Beetle" TV commercial helped launch the career
of super model Rachel Hunter twenty-one years later, the first-ever
Tip
Top
Trumpet
television advertisement
starred
another
soon-to-be-famous Kiwi.
The trumpet player was a young singer and musical
performer who would go on to become one of our best-known faces on television
over
the next few decades - TV and radio presenter, TV producer, language expert,
quizmaster
and author, Max
Cryer, MBE.
Michael's mother was a choreographer who had
been involved in a musical production with Max, and Michael thinks that this
is
how
he came to be involved.
Max remembers:
"That particular commercial was inspired by the hit Broadway musical 'The Music Man' - which
had won five Tony Awards and an LP of its songs had topped Billboard charts for
over 200 weeks.
In 1961-62 the musical was playing in London (starring Van Jonson) and in 1962
the movie came out (starring Robert Preston) and was a huge success especially
its hit song "Seventy-Six Trombones" - this was the inspiration for the Tip Top
commercial and its new product: Trumpet.
By 1964 I was appearing on TV in NZ, and was contracted to play the lead in the
Tip Top commercial as a uniformed leader of a junior marching-band - not with
a trombone, but of course with a trumpet.
It was in black-and-white, but the
print offerings (posters, print adverts. etc) were often in colour.
Shortly after that, "The Music Man" musical was produced in Auckland, and possibly
on the strength of the impact the commercial had, I was offered the leading role
of the music man (and his trombone) but alas, commitments had started piling
up, and I was already booked for something else."
Max remembers that the original photography was done by Robert
Steele - Auckland's most famous photographer and film-maker of the era.
Sadly we haven't been able to locate a copy of the film.
However, by complete coincidence, 8 months later I stumbled on a copy of
one
of
the
print
advertisements
in one of my old school yearbooks (below):

Tip
Top Trumpet print advertisement, dated 1964. Probably reproduced from a poster.
-
Edgecumbe College school yearbook - Chris Newey.
Max
worked on the Trumpet project with another famous Kiwi, author, food writer and
television
cook Glynn
Christian, who in those days, worked in advertising.
Glynn, a descendant of Fletcher Christian of "Mutiny On The Bounty" fame,
and these days based in London, remembers the Trumpet advertising campaign very
well - it involved a TV commercial, print spreads and posters, and a radio commercial
(which won a prize in the annual advertising awards).
Glynn produced the TV commercial for top advertising agency J. Inglis
Wright, whose account executive for Tip Top was Brian
Couldrey.
Glynn became Head of Radio and TV Advertising at the agency in 1963, so he dates
the commercial as being made in late 1963 or 1964.
Glynn confirms that the commercial was inspired by 'The Music Man' and
filmed on 16 mm film, with Max's 'band-leader' uniform made in light blue (which
showed as white on black-and-white TV without blurring).
The jingle went:
It's got nuts
It's got chocolate
Smooth vanilla ice cream
And a brand new waffle cone
Four-in-One, ice cream fun
Tip-Top Trumpet.
The price of a Trumpet was one shilling (10 cents).
The campaign included this impressive giant Trumpet in the centre of the Panmure
Roundabout:

Tip
Top Trumpet promotion, Panmure Roundabout, Auckland, ca. 1964
-
Tip Top archives via FMCG magazine and longwhitekid.
The advertising and promotion obviously worked well - Tip
Top sold two million
Trumpets in the first month!
Michael has kept one of the original point-of-sale, stand-up counter-top advertisers
in which he featured:
Tip
Top Trumpet point of sale advertising (re-colourised), 1964.
-
Michael Yalland
The top of the Trumpet is shown as rounded, not
the flattened rosette shape that is produced when the circular cardboard lid
is
applied, so probably the photography was done before production samples
were available.
Robert Steele's production company also made a documentary film for Tip Top
in that
same year, 1964, called "All About Ice Cream".

Tip
Top Trumpet production line, Auckland, 1964.
Stills from the documentary film, "All About Ice Cream", Robert Steele
Productions, 1964.
- Nga
Taonga Sound & Vision
It shows extensive footage inside the then-new
Tip Top Mt Wellington, Auckland
factory,
including
a brand-new Trumpet production
line (10 minutes 30 secs into the film):
"All
About
Ice Cream" (1964) Robert Steele Productions - Nga Taonga Sound & Vision.
A couple of other very famous Kiwis were involved in production of this film
-
the
voice-over
is
by legendary "It's In The Bag" quizmaster Selwyn
Toogood,
and the cartoon characters are voiced by Auckland radio & television personality Merv
Smith.
So an almost-forgotten piece of our ice cream history has been rescued, thanks
to a chance meeting, and the sharp memories of some of the key players in that
ground-breaking
campaign
50 years ago.
And amazingly, Tip Top's legendary Trumpet is still going strong.
- Chris Newey.
- Special thanks to Michael Yalland, Max
Cryer and Glynn
Christian for sharing their memories of the first Tip Top
Trumpet TVC and advertising campaign.
Other references and related sites:
Fonterra Brands (Tip Top)
www.tiptop.co.nz/products/trumpet/
Longwhitekid - history of Peter Pan, Tip Top, Meadow Gold, Wall's, Hokey Pokey,
and
much
more:
http://longwhitekid.wordpress.com
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision
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