Epic Win: Grey Poupon Commercials
Submitted and Written by Mary C, Dijon aristocrat
These commercials were as epic to me as the Mentos guy, “This Is Your Brain on Drugs,” and the native american crying over garbage. Even as a small child, I dreamed of riding with a driver and making a delicious sandwich at the same time. All while having a cute British accent, of course.
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Grey Poupon parodies after the jump.
Courtesy of Skyfire, here’s one from Wayne’s World:
And from Family Guy:
Thanks to Torus2112, here’s a clip from Married… With Children:
My friend used to pull up next to me at traffic lights to ask if I had any Grey Poupon. When he moved, he gave me a jar of it as a going-away present and I kept it in my glove compartment for years.
Poupon your face.
Representative Duke Cunningham, Republican of California, proclaimed “I took the Grey Poupon out of my cupboard” on the floor of the House denouncing French opposition to the Iraq war (March 5, 2003). The move was of questionable symbolic value, since Grey Poupon is a product of Kraft Foods, an American company.
Conservative political commentator Sean Hannity criticized President Barack Obama for preferring Grey Poupon on his hamburger at a casual eatery, denouncing the president’s preference as “fancy” and hinting at his pretended “elitism”. Most commentators have mocked this incident because, far from being an “elitist” delicacy, Grey Poupon is an affordable, mass-marketed product.
Close but no cigar. Not all Grey Poupon is made by Kraft foods. In fact, the mustard that is sold in Canada is produced by a French company in France named AMI foods. However, it wasn’t always produced by Kraft either. Kraft purchased the rights to make it, but originally Grey Poupon was produced by a company called Maille. Maille is a French Mustard and Pickle company based out of Dijon France.
In the 1980’s, when this series of commericals were produced, it wasn’t exactly a Kraft foods product either. During that time (Kraft purchased the rights in the late 80’s) the Mustard was being produced by the Heublein company who had purchased the original rights from Maille in 1946.
As to it being elitist, that’s kinda what the ad campaign was aiming at. The idea was to instill in the American buyer the idea that Grey Poupon was an expensive mustard. Notice how it’s two Rolls-Royce cars at the light. The campaign’s intent was to make the user believe that this Dijon mustard, based off of an actual recipe from France, and there for they were being able to live like the rich…without the money involved.
Curiously, Grey Poupon has never actually been a cheap mustard. With an average price point of seven dollars a bottle (in 1988 dollars, that translates to around fifteen today) it wasn’t something the every day person could afford. They still wanted it though.
The prices must have gone down. At a regular grocery store (Kroger, exc), it’s about $4.
Depends on the region you’re in really. In more urban areas like NYC, it’s higher. Go further south in the US, it’s less. Price point varies is all.
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Poupon your face.
I do this all the time to random strangers. Unfortunately, most people don’t get the joke, so I only get odd stares.
i like to do this when people pull up in fancy cars.
nobody seems to get the joke… but its funny to get odd stares
Agreed! The odd stares make it quite worthwhile.
The Poupon your face is worthwhile.
I still keep a jar in my car to this day, and show folks as I drive around. Limitless smiles and laughs from a $5 jar of mustard.
The Wayne’s World spoof was classic too… somebody should link that thing up in here
By your command!
Also, Family Guy/Star Wars:
Priceless! I like this one:
Oh, thank you for Nos. Winning this!
It makes me so sad now that, when I reference this to people, so, so many don’t get it. TOO many.
They need to revive these commercials, because they were such win. They ARE such win.
The thing I always used to think, was why are these people lending each other mustard? Can’t you afford your own, especially if you have such a nice car?
When I was in 5th grade, we were on the school bus stopped at a light next to a semi, and one of the guys stuck his hand out the window and asked the semi driver if he had grey poupon. Still funny years later.
Back in about 1987, we were sitting at an outdoor cafe in Boston and one of the tour trolleys was stopped at a light. The driver leaned out and asked the waiter if he had any Grey Poupon (he did, but he was laughing too hard to actually give it to him before the light changed). Still makes me giggle too.
Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon your shoe?
Grey Poupon commercials were on TV at the same time as Bugle Boy jeans.
My friends and I always said, “Pardon me, but do you have any grey poup on those Bugle Boy jeans that your wearing?”
I know it was dumb, but that’s the only way my brain processes the grey poupon phrase.
“Pardon me but do you have any grey poup on those bugle butt jeans.”
Yah… my family is weird too. ><
Pardon me but I think you have some Poupon your face.
haha nice one!
I’m from the UK, and that joke in Waynes World drove me mad because I never understood it! But now I finally get it yay!!
British accents aren’t cute… ’specially not around here.
There is only one British accent.
Only one british accent? There’s more than one dialect here, let alone accent. I can do at least half a dozen – Cockney, Estuary, West Country, Brummie, Scouser, Yorkshire… not to mention, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish (which all have their own sub-dialects). Trust me, Hugh Grant and Ozzy Osbourne do NOT sound alike!
THANK YOU for clarifying that for everyone. Not from Britain (I’m actually from Kentucky- NOT a redneck), but it irritates me to no end when people here (with broken grammar and annoying drawls) can tell you the difference between a “knox county redneck, a clay county redneck, and a jackson county redneck,” but it absolutely blows their minds if you say that there are multiple dialects and sub-dialects in different languages and accents. Half of these bigots insist that “a mexican is a mexican, a chinese [what all asians are called here] is a chinese, and a brit is a brit.” The other half can’t get their minds around the fact that they were wrong in the first place. I really need to move to a classier place… =/ Anywho, rant over. Love these commercials! I asked a guy in walmart if he had any Grey Poupon, and he just pointed me to the mustard aisle. How disappointing.
New York City. Lovely day, riding in the back seat with my brother and my Dad and his friends. We pull up next to a limo with a guy and two girls and their window is open. He plays for the 49er’s.
My father leans out the window to ask him if he has any gray poupon.
Oh yes. Laughter all around.
Even though I don’t like mustard, gray poupon will always be an epic win because of this.
You have some gay poupon your face.
Malcom Gladwell – a writer who among others worked for The Washington Post, now for the New yorker – had a TED lecture about food science and marketing.
In this lecture he mentions this commersial and why it is essentially a flawed way of doing food business. Well ok, it was good for Grey Poupon, but ever since it’s just folly to try to repeat it.
Google for “Malcolm Gladwell on spaghetti sauce” or click my name for that TED lecture.
Bird Poupon your face
Epic win. This ad sparked so many jokes that they are all classics now.
My mom knew an older lady down in FL who had bought & restored a beautiful older Rolls-Royce… and she kept a huge jar of Grey Poupon displayed proudly in the center console. FTW.
)
That waynes world parody was epic.