The Dingo Kids Meet O.J. Simpson (Comic Ads #28)

Comic Ads are more than just the mountain of Hostess Ads we know and love. Over the years, many a company has used one page comic ads to shill their products in the pages of comic books! So I thought I'd do a list series that showcases those ads, and shows you what issues I've found them in. To me, these are as much a part of comics history as any superhero, and I love 'em for the nostalgia they bring. I hope they do the same for you. Enjoy.

Yes indeed, that is the now infamous O.J. Simpson hawking boots for Dingo, and man, the jokes are just too easy. I mean believe it or not, The Dingo Kids were heard from again after this ad! Actually, at the time of this ad- mid-1980- we were still some fourteen years away from the brutal killing of Nicole Brown Simpson (1994), twenty-seven years away from the despicable If I Did It (2007), twenty-eight years away from Mike Gilbert's How I Helped O.J. Get Away With Murder (2008), and thirty-two years away from William C. Dear's O.J. Is Innocent and I Can Prove It (2012).

...Just for the record, I have read none of those- that's all courtesy of some Google searches. In fact, after watching the ridiculous farce of a "chase" the night Simpson was arrested, I made a concerted effort to pay no attention whatsoever to the Simpson trial. The media was so inundated with it though, it was impossible not to get the highlights, all the way to "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit." My personal opinion? Whether he did it or not, the verdict was "not guilty," and I'd rather see a hundred guilty men go free, than for one innocent man to go to jail. Whether it failed in this case or didn't, our legal system did what it was supposed to do, and that's good enough. In the end, O.J. will answer for any crimes he may have committed.

In 1980 though, this was O.J. Simpson- idol of millions, and wide eyed cartoons cooing over the stardom of "O.J. Dingo" and the glory of Dingo boots. It wasn't just Dingo either. O.J. was also the spokes-toon for Spot-Bilt shoes (seen below). A golden time for Simpson, before it all ended horribly.

Update: I found another O.J. ad for Spot-Bilt, a handful of O.J. Dingo photo-ads, and an ad where he's promoting a roller skate, with the regrettable-in-retrospect tagline of "It's better than running." I don't really want to do another list for the Spot-Bilt stuff though, so I'm just going to add them here.

Oh, and apparently, he's got three legs in the photo-ads because "the man's all feet." Enjoy.