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Sez-A-Me Seed TV Commercial - Long Lost Animated Commercial from the 1970s


DonRocks

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Back when I was a child, maybe a pre-teen, there was this hilarious, animated commercial on TV, and I don't know if it was local (channel 5 or 20) or on one of the networks.

It was a cartoon of these four sesame seeds, dressed up like hippies, and playing a rock-and-roll song. It started with:

"Hey, hey, Heeeyyyyy! We're the sesame seeds!"

And it went on for about 30 seconds, with harmony, and everything.

The penultimate line was something like this (the second part of the line I'm just guessing and it isn't right):

"A plain old burger, is a lot more fun ... when it's <something-something-something> on a sesame bun ..."

The last line was classic, with the lead singer soloing the first part, and then the group chiming in to respond:

"A hot dog takes, a groovy toll ... *On An Open Sesame Roll!*"

You absolutely have to see it to appreciate it, but from what my child's mind can process and remember, it's one of the best TV commercials I've ever seen.

It faded away quickly, and I haven't seen it in about 40 years. I tried doing some research on it a few years ago, and found almost nothing, except a little blurb saying that it was sponsored by the Sesame Seed Council (or something like that), which leads me to believe it might have been a DC-only commercial, an attempt at political lobbying.

Okay, I don't believe I'm the only person who remembers this. So, who remembers it, what can you tell us about it, and can you possibly find the video? It's a funny enough commercial to go viral on YouTube, so I urge the Sesame Seed Council (or whoever it was) to dig it out of the archives, and to resubmit it.

I can't even find any Twitter #hashtags about the sesame oil industry, much less any associations or international organizations. This commercial needs to be brought back - It's absolutely priceless!

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I agree - I remember this commercial with fondness! I was recently trying to see if I could locate the commercial on line and found this post. I have yet to find it on YouTube or anywhere else.

I can still hum the tune. The "band" was little hippie-dressed cartoon sesame seeds, and their stage was a hamburger bun. I grew up in York, PA - I could not recall if the commercial was for a specific brand. Interesting to see it was produced by the sesame seed council!

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I agree - I remember this commercial with fondness! I was recently trying to see if I could locate the commercial on line and found this post. I have yet to find it on YouTube or anywhere else.

I can still hum the tune. The "band" was little hippie-dressed cartoon sesame seeds, and their stage was a hamburger bun. I grew up in York, PA - I could not recall if the commercial was for a specific brand. Interesting to see it was produced by the sesame seed council!

So you and I are the only two people left in America who remember the commercial - thank you for posting this!

The sesame seeds had voices like Alvin and the Chipmunks.

I hope one day someone can resurrect this thing because I'd love to see it again.

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No. There are now three of us who remember this commercial. I have tried to find this for my 8 year old son who LOVES sesame seed buns, but thus far, have had no luck. If anyone comes across it, please let me know. My son would get a kick out of it! Thank you   :)

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No. There are now three of us who remember this commercial. I have tried to find this for my 8 year old son who LOVES sesame seed buns, but thus far, have had no luck. If anyone comes across it, please let me know. My son would get a kick out of it! Thank you   :)

Where did you watch it? I grew up in Metro DC, and AbbieGayle was in York, PA. Maybe it was a Baltimore channel (2, 11, and 13 were the three Baltimore networks back then - CBS, NBC, and ABC, respectively).

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I grew up in Woodbridge, VA. It's about 40 minutes south of DC - on a good day.

Hmm, so you didn't get the Baltimore channels? I wonder if York could pick up the DC networks (4 (NBC), 7 (ABC), and 9 (CBS)), or if this was locally produced (Channels 5 (WTTG) and 20 (WDCA)). If this was indeed produced by the Sesame Seed Council, it makes more sense for it to be aired in the DC market.

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I have been looking for that commercial for YEARS!!! I'm thinking circa 1977-79.  I remember them singing in high pitched voices and I (a young 7 year old) thought it was hilarious.  I believe the commercial aired on some NY metro stations like Channel 11 WPIX, Channel 9 WWOR etc..  I really wish I could track it down. 

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I have been looking for that commercial for YEARS!!! I'm thinking circa 1977-79.  I remember them singing in high pitched voices and I (a young 7 year old) thought it was hilarious.  I believe the commercial aired on some NY metro stations like Channel 11 WPIX, Channel 9 WWOR etc..  I really wish I could track it down. 

"How Did Hamburger Buns Get Their Seeds?" by Joe Satran on huffingtonpost.com

This article concludes, "Yet one question remains: What are those sesame seeds for? They can't be there for flavor. The savory taste of the beef in a hamburger is more than strong enough to drown out their taste. You could make a better argument for texture, I suppose, or visual appeal. But in the end, their true purpose may just be another mysterious footnote in the bizarrely mysterious history of that most American of foods, the hamburger."

However, I remember, years ago, seeing one tiny blurb on the internet about this commercial, which was produced by some organization called the "Sesame Seed Council" (or something like that) - a lobbying group of sesame-seed growers, perhaps. And McDonald's may be *exactly* the reason they made the commercial - think of all the millions of sesame seeds that *just* McDonald's uses - that's why it might have been shown primarily in the DC area - as a lobbying campaign.

So if anyone wants to continue their research, I would figure out who the sesame-seed consortium was back in the 1970s (perhaps in California, perhaps in another country), and investigate there. My guess is "California" because this commercial had a very rock-n-roll, hippy vibe to it while at the same time being absolutely inoffensive and family-oriented, even child-oriented.

Note also the American Sesame Growers Association is in Monkton, MD.

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18 minutes ago, trangert418 said:

I have searched for this commercial several times and, until now, have come up with nothing. I'm thinking it's from the early 70s, but hey, it has been 40+ years.

What I remember most is the line:

"Sez-a-who? Sez-a-me!"

I'd love to see it again.....

That was the very last line in the commercial, after the announcer chimed in. I'm *so* glad other people have enjoyed this as much as I did.

Do you remember what channel it might have been on? Where were you living?

Thanks for chiming in - and welcome to our community!

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I don't remember what channel it was on but I'd guess that it was most likely 5 or 20. I remember seeing the commercial in the afternoons after school so I would not have been watching channels 4,7,9 as they were mostly soaps and talk shows which I didn't watch. At the time I was living in the Washington DC area (and still am).

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On 5/5/2014 at 12:00 PM, AbbieGayle said:

I agree - I remember this commercial with fondness! I was recently trying to see if I could locate the commercial on line and found this post. I have yet to find it on YouTube or anywhere else.

I can still hum the tune. The "band" was little hippie-dressed cartoon sesame seeds, and their stage was a hamburger bun. I grew up in York, PA - I could not recall if the commercial was for a specific brand. Interesting to see it was produced by the sesame seed council!

The reason this is coming up again is because someone else (who is looking for this commercial) found this thread, then found me on Facebook (see the Facebook link just below), and messaged me - she was living in Easton, PA at the time (Jill, I hope you can figure out how to join here and reply to this post).

Apparently, this thread is the best current source of information about the Sez-A-Me Seeds which doesn't bode well. However, I just pinged John Kelly from the Washington Post - he's *perfect* for this type of research, but only if he gets interested.

https://www.facebook.com/donrocks/posts/10226151316677898

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On 2/1/2021 at 5:47 PM, DonRocks said:

Apparently, this thread is the best current source of information about the Sez-A-Me Seeds which doesn't bode well. However, I just pinged John Kelly from the Washington Post - he's *perfect* for this type of research, but only if he gets interested.

He appended it at the end of this story:

Streetcar from Georgetown to Glen Echo was area’s most memorable ride, by John Kelly, February 6, 2021, on washingtonpost.com.

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On 2/7/2021 at 7:29 AM, dcs said:

He appended it at the end of this story:

Streetcar from Georgetown to Glen Echo was area’s most memorable ride, by John Kelly, February 6, 2021, on washingtonpost.com.

On 2/7/2021 at 8:53 AM, Mark Slater said:

Nice shout out, Don!

True story: I'm sitting in a *dentist chair* this morning, ready for my six-month check-up, and my dentist walks in and says, "Hey, Don, was that you John Kelly wrote about?" For whatever reason, I missed John's article *and* these two posts here yesterday (I was running around all day, and then got too caught up in the Super Bowl). It's really odd to hear from a random person that they read about you in the newspaper, when you didn't even know about it!

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