Channel Frederator Blog

Happy new year! If you had a crazy night of celebration, maybe Speedy can help. Radio Actor, Dick Beals was the voice of Speedy Alka-Seltzer on the Alka-Seltzer commercials. Speedy Alka-Seltzer was originally known as Sparky, but the name was changed by a sales manager, Perry L. Shupert, to reflect that year’s promotional theme, “Speedy Relief”.

The Speedy Alka-Seltzer character was created at the Wade Ad Agency in 1951. The original working model was 6 inches tall and sculpted by Duke Russell. It appeared in more than 200 commercials over a 10 year period from 1954-1964.

I really like these types of ad campaigns.  Today’s mascots can all trace their roots back to Speedy and his peers.

-Floyd Bishop