The Flintstones characters are (bed)rock-solid salesmen.
The Flintstones haven't gone out of popularity since they first came on screens in 1960, so the characters have graced a wide variety of merchandise. While candy seems such a natural fit for cartoon characters, you have to wonder why this particular company didn't go for "rock" candy. Wouldn't that make the most sense? At least the product most associated with the Flintstones is a little healthier.
Flintstones vitamins were introduced in 1968, after the show had already been off the air for two years. Made by Miles Laboratory (which would later be purchased by Bayer), the vitamins come in a variety of chewy flavors shaped like all the characters on the show - though that wasn't always the case. Betty wasn't originally represented vitamin form. Manufacturers claimed that her tiny waist made the vitamin break too easily. But a grassroots campaign in 1995 finally put her in the vitamin bottle, replacing the Flintstones' car.
Nostalgia for the product has produced generations of kids to grow up with the vitamins - making true the claim of "ten million strong, and growing."
And it's certainly a better product to pass on to children than the Flintstones' original sponsor: Winston cigarettes.
