1 Black Friday 2 Carvel

merch. “People died, got trampled by mobs, trying to get a deal,” Brownlee says. Since then, the rise of online shopping has led to fewer crowds. In the 21st century, the phenomenon became global, with New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Saudi Arabia, among other countries, implementing their own versions.

Tom Carvel founder of his namesake soft ice cream franchise (as of 2018, there were 371 franchises worldwide), pioneered a DIY marketing approach starting in the 1950s. Dissatisfied with existing Carvel radio spots, he wrote and performed his own in his distinctive gravelly voice. When he began appearing in TV ads for the company in 1971, audiences were startled, Brownlee says. “He was not a beauty by any stretch of the imagination. Most ads at that time featured women in glamorous gowns,” or blandly handsome TV actors. “Tom came off as an average guy,” and his down-home, honest approach was appealing. Customers ate it up, along with Carvel’s Fudgie the Whale and Cookie Puss cakes. With Tom on camera, the company saved money on talent, but the real benefit came from his plainspoken owners of companies would take the microphone as a way of saying, ‘If something goes wrong with the product, you know who to blame.’” Imitators followed: Dave Thomas of Wendy’s, Orville Redenbacher of popcorn fame, and Frank Perdue, touting his “tender chicken.” Of the latter, as Brownlee tells it, “Frank asked the marketers, ‘Why me? I’m bald and I have a high voice.’ ‘Because you look like a chicken, Frank.’” Tom Carvel made the spots through the 1980s; he sold the company in 1989 and died a year later.