In 1967 Mattel began advertising a new contest with Funny Face Drink Mix. The first ad was prominently exposed as part of a two page spread in Jack & Jill Magazine, August, 1967. The ad also appeared as a full-color page in some major metropolitan areas.
The premise was to color-in a small Funny Face Strip and fill-out an entry form (you also had to either send in 5 Funny Face packages or 5 sheets of paper with "Funny Face" hand printed on them). There were 5000 winners (2500 boys and 2500 girls).
The boys won a Space Station Space Crawler Deluxe Action Set, while the girls won a Twist 'n Turn Barbie and a "World of Barbie" House. The store display was unusual in that an MMM Flight Card and Twist 'n Turn Barbie (in the box) were glued to the display header. At the bottom were boxes of Funny Face Drink Mix and a tear-off book of Entry forms. I believe that the forms were also distributed as a separate pad as some have surfaced that don't have torn backs.
I know of a couple of examples where the winners of the boys package kept both the "you've won" letter and the letter accompanying the Space Station Space Crawler Deluxe Action Set when received. Thus there are several items that are worth collecting as part of this promotion:
- Unused Funny Face Form (and glue-bound, cardboard backed pad)
- August, 1967 Jack & Jill Magazine
The two-page center spread features a promotion in conjunction with Funny Face Drink Mix. The idea was to color-in a small Funny Face Strip and fill-out an entry form (you also had to either send in 5 Funny Face packages or 5 sheets of paper with "Funny Face" hand printed on them).
- Newspaper Ad
The same competition was advertised in major metropolitan area newspapers, mine is from an Atlanta Journal. - Store Display
Made up of a 25"x 13 1/4" printed cardboard sheet with an actual Major Matt Mason Flight Card and boxed Twist 'n Turn Barbie l glued to it. The top of the display has the characters touting the contest while the bottom has a Tear-Off pad of entry forms. This probably originally shipped in a Mattel carton, (I remember one coming up for sale but don't remember the details). There are at least 3-4 variants of the display - the differences are in Barbie's hair color - otherwise they are all the same.
- Pillsbury Comic Strip Contest - You've Won Letter
When you're a winner you received a huge package in the mail that included the Space Station Space Crawler Deluxe Action Set with a few bits of paper, including a letter, a list of all winners by state and a mail-away form for the Major Matt Mason Club. (I don't recall who sent me the letter images but as I recall it was someone who had an original set received via the promo as a kid!)
What adds to the mystique of this promotion is that all of the Flight Cards attached to the Store Displays feature a White Rubber MMM with all that entails - seems this promotion was firmly attached to the initial release of MMM, prior to the figure being manufactured with black rubber compounds.
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