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  Quisp
and Quake - A quarreling pair of Quaker
Oats cereal box mascots popular in the 1960s who had their own cereal but didn't
want to share air time with one another. Quisp is a round-faced impish alien
from the planet "Q" with pink skin, crossed-eyes, and a broad teasing grin.
Quisp weighs 43 pounds and stands slightly under four feet tall. He traveled
about using the spinning propeller that sprouts from the top of his head.
Quisp's mission?: to market his "Quispy, quunchy, quazy energy cereal" to the
people of earth.
Unfortunately, Quisp had to share his TV commercial spots
with a mighty subterranean-dwelling miner named Quake (voice of William Conrad).
Consequently, Quake relentlessly chased Quisp to prevent him from plugging his
extraterrestrial cereal ("the biggest selling cereal from Saturn to Alpha
Centauri!").
The Quisp & Quake ad campaign was created in 1965 by the
Compton Ad Agency. The Q&Q cartoon characters were created by Jay Ward and Bill
Scott (of Rocky and Bullwinkle fame).
In 1970, Quaker Oats held a contest to see who was the most
popular of the two cereals. Quisp won and Quake retreated under ground never to
be seen again.
Shortly thereafter, a new orange-flavored cereal and its
swashbuckling mascot Simon the Quangaroo (with cape, hat and the same bold chin
as Quake) arrived on the seen to continue the feud over who had the best cereal.
Quisp and Simon entered a cross-country race to decide the winner.
The Quisp Cereal was discontinued by Quaker Oats in the 1970s
but reintroduced for sale on the Internet and selected markets in 1999 for baby
boomers who craved the saucer-shaped crunchy corn cereal of their youth.
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