Anyone who ever picked up a comic book as a kid probably marveled at the ads for the mysterious Sea Monkeys. In reality, they are just brine shrimp, not fantastical beings with magical powers. But the story behind the invention of the Sea Monkey is tale all its own. Listen in to this classic episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: What are Sea Monkeys and why are they famous?
This is the exact same thing, but this is the Sea Monkeys world.
Right. I would like to see, I was about to say I'd like to see the Sea Monkeys TV show, but I did.
What did you think?
Did you watch any of it? Yeah, I did. Yeah, so there was a TV show in the 80s starring Howie Mandel. Yeah. It just really doesn't get any better. Like, who else would have been better than Howie Mandel for that?
It was Howie Mandel. He produced it as well, along with the Chiodo brothers, who were known for making killer clowns from outer space.
Yeah, so you know what you're kind of going to get there.
It is the definition of camp. Like, they watch Pee-wee's Playhouse, and they're like, this is kind of campy, but let's increase it by 35%. Yeah. And that's what they did.
It was not long for this world, though, right? Yeah.
No, and the thing is, I don't know if we've gotten this across, it was live action. Oh, yeah, right. It wasn't a cartoon. That's what made it so not just campy, that made it unsettling as well. Like, the actors were all done up as, like, sea monkeys, and it was for kids, but it was obviously made by adults with a wink and a nod to other adults. It was a weird, weird, weird show.
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Chapter 2: How were Sea Monkeys marketed to children?
I think one of the reasons sea monkeys were successful was because it wasn't just that these things were pets or whatever. You ordered them yourself. Like you handled this transaction yourself. Right. And you got to show your friends something that you purchased. Like your parents didn't take you to the store or anything like that. Right.
contracted with this strange man to buy these brine shrimp from him and they arrived and you followed the instructions and now they're floating around.
Well, you probably got mom or dad to cut you a 49 cent check or have them cut a check or, you know, you maybe got the funds from your lemonade stand and converted that to a cash bond.
Yep.
A bearer bond. A bearer bond. I don't know what any of that stuff is. But, yeah, so you probably had a little assistance from mom and dad. Or maybe you put a dollar in an envelope.
I'll bet many kids did. I wonder if Bronhut sent the change back or was like, I'm keeping this change, kid, just to teach you a lesson not to send a dollar bill in the mail anymore. Yeah, because you can't send change in the mail, right? Right. So, I mean, suffice to say, sea monkeys were and are just like one of the classic toys of all time, largely because of the way they were marketed, right?
Yeah.
Well, yeah, and Von Braunhut, this was not his only jam. He had close to 200 patents on everything. Like, you know, we mentioned the x-ray specs and that great, great ad of the guy looking at his hand or the sexist, misogynistic ad of him leering at a woman in a dress. Right. And x-ray specs were very disappointing. Yeah.
when you got those because they were, it was two pieces of cardboard with little pinholes that you look through and in between the cardboard where that pinhole is is a feather.
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