Mack

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Oinky in an On-Cor Frozen ad

Kermit and Mack in the Claussen's bread ad, "Who Kneads It?"

Mack, also known as Oinky, is a blue humanoid Muppet character who appeared in some of Jim Henson's early commercials produced in the mid-1960's.

In 1962, Jim Henson created a new Muppet character, Onky, for On-Cor Frozen Foods. Oinky is cited as one of Henson's earliest live-hand Muppets.

“The puppet style was a departure from the hand and rod puppets Henson had been using – Onky had “live-hands” meaning the puppeteer put his hand in the puppet’s glove-like hand, enabling the character to easily pick up things (like the product being advertised) and give a more realistic performance. While Onky’s arms were short and almost flipper-like, making for an awkward kind of movement, later in the year, Jim and his new collaborator Don Sahlin created a live-hand puppet that was extremely expressive: Rowlf the Dog.”

On-Cor Frozen ads

Onky first appeared in a series of three ads produced in 1962 for On-Cor Frozen Foods. The ads featured Onky with a human grocer played by Bill Gibson.

Claussen's and McGarry's ads with Kermit

Mack appeared with Kermit in a series of ads for Claussen's Bakery in 1964 and 1965. The pair went to to starred in a similar series of ads for McGarry's Sausage from 1965 to 1968.

Mack had a violent, adversarial relationship with Kermit, which was similar to the relationship between Wilkins and Wontkins in the mid-1950's Wilkins Coffee ads.

Telephone ads with Suzy

Mack and Suzy

Mack was paired with Suzy, a young girl character, in ads for C & P Telephone Co. of VA (1965-1968) and Southern Bell Telephone (1966-1968). In these ads, the roles were reversed, as Mack would get the short end of the deal, except in one commercial, where he did what Suzy told him to do.