Dec 17, 2012

Mail Order Monday - ICEE Club (1981)

This is about as close to a Christmas related Mail Order Monday as you'll get.

ICEE club membership mail order offer slurpee frozen drink

What a deal! You can join the ICEE Bear Club for life for only $10. FOR LIFE, yo!
And just look at all that swag: a t-shirt, a frisbee, magnets, a list of prizes you can also send away for with enough bear points. You even get 100 bear points to get you started on the path to ICEE mail order mastery!

Perhaps most impressive is the certificate suitable for framing. I'd love to see a vintage photo of some kid's bedroom with this and another "suitable for framing" certificates on their walls.

When I was growing up, ICEE was always associated with the K-Mart snack bar. As a kid, that was the only place I remember seeing it available. The oddly textured carbonated frozen treat was only available in flavors blue or red. I still don't know what actual flavors they were, berry and cherry maybe?

According to Wikipedia:
  • ICEE machines can be found in all kinds of stores nowadays (I haven't see any)
  • 7-11 licenses ICEE and uses it for their Slurpee product line
  • The creator originally wanted to call it "scoldasice"
You might be asking, what makes this even close to Christmas related? Or maybe you forgot I even mentioned it by now because you're imagining the sweet, sweet brain freeze you'd have if you ran out to get a Slurpee right now. Either way, it's the polar bear.

His look has changed since wearing that overly long turtleneck that doesn't quite go below the waist line (what up with that?). I know they want to make him more "modern" but I can't see his recent incarnation without thinking of Poochie from The Simpsons.
At least he has pants now.



6 comments:

  1. Screw the kid's bedroom--I want to see a vintage photo of an executive's office with one of those bad boys framed on the wall.

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    1. Haha, yeah I could see someone sneaking it in on their wall of law degrees!

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  2. Replies
    1. I vaguely remember collecting the points on the cups but don't remember if I ever actually sent away for anything.

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  3. I've never seen ICEE machines anywhere except Kmart either. Our local Kmart still has one. That bear has had a major makeover through the years!

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    1. It just occurred to me that I never look in my local Kmart. I usually try to go in and get out as fast as possible. Plus it's in the other direction from the toy section which is the only thing I ever go there for.

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