Last month we posted two of the earliest Producto Lures ads I’ve ever seen from 1979. Today in Producto Lures 1980, I have the company’s next ad featured in a national bass magazine. But not only is it a new ad, Producto was introducing a new accessory to their famous Jake’s Tournament Worm.
As we said back a month ago, Producto got its start around 1978 and the baits were an instant hit. The first two ads we posted from 1979 showed their mailing address to be out of Longwood, Florida. The ad we’re featuring today shows their mailing address had changed to Winter Park, Florida, about 10 miles away from the original address. I would venture to guess this was a move from a garage to an actual production building.
Another thing about this ad, compared to the first two, was this ad was placed in the March-April 1980 issue of Bassmaster Magazine. The prior ads were both placed in National Bassman, a magazine and organization that would go under by Thanksgiving 1979.
In fact, at this time, there were no more bass-centric national magazines in publication. Other national avenues for advertising would have Fishing Facts, In-Fisherman, and the Big Three. Having not seen a Producto ad in any of these magazines in this time frame tells me that Producto was still running lean but knew their ad dollars would go furthest by advertising in the biggest bass magazine ever published.
The ad itself is much different than the original two ads. The main difference is the ad is in color, but the production value of the ad is head over heels above the prior two. This wasn’t something cobbed together with an image of an angler, block lettering and some line drawings. This was a full-on ad produced by a marketing company, or maybe even Bassmaster.
The ad also featured a new product for the Tournament Worm, a product called Sounders. Sounders were small plastic tubes filled with a couple of BBs that could be inserted into the worm to give it some sound. From the image, it appears that the mold had been modified to accept the Sounders worm rattle. In their ad, Producto stated, “why let a worm sneak past a bass in thick cover?” By adding the sound chamber, you could call fish to the worm and once they saw it, they couldn’t resist it.
This was by no means a new concept as Rattler Lures was making a glass version of the rattle chamber for this exact use in the 1970s. During this time and into the early 80s, I used the Rattler version of the sound chamber. I was sold on the concept until someone showed me in an aquarium it didn’t make much noise, if any. Most of the noise was produced by the worm weight and that sound was far louder than that from a couple 1/16-inch diameter BBs.
The final thing about this ad is the special nationwide introductory offer. For $8.95 and $1.00 postage, Producto would send two 25-packs of 6-inch Tournament Worms, a bottle of Lunker Lotion, and two packs of Sounders. That right there is a deal. I know we’ve said it here a hundred times but I sure do miss these special offers from back in the day.
That about ends it for this ad. As we find more Producto ads, we’ll continue to post them. Oh, and if you didn’t read the first article on Producto, you may not know that they’re back in business under Bodacious Baits. They purchased the company from the original owner and are making the baits exactly as they were made back in the day. Give them a try.
