Reaching Our Target Market

Retailers originally showed little interest in Harold von Braunhut’s Instant Life® pet creation. Wham-O’s preceding product, Instant Fish, had not performed well with consumers and, thus, quickly didn’t perform well with retailers. Department stores were naturally weary of stocking another instant-pet failure.

Instead of throwing in the towel, Harold took his powdered pet creation directly to his target audience — the kids through ads in silver and bronze age comic books. That turned out to be the perfect combination and mail-order sales skyrocketed. The more ads Harold ran, the more Sea-Monkey® sales rolled in which resulted in more income. His tenacious nature to not give up ultimately launched his mail-order empire.

Here’s a look at some of the Sea-Monkey® ads that appeared in comic books from the mid-1960s through the mid-1980s. These ads are largely responsible for Sea-Monkeys® becoming the cultural icon we know today.

It’s often said that “imitation is the greatest form of flattery.” If that's true, Sea-Monkeys® should feel extremely flattered. Over the decades, many manufacturers have tried to create Sea-Monkey-esque counterparts for hatching brine shrimp as pets. However, none have achieved the iconic status that Sea-Monkeys® hold.

It’s hard to compete with a brand that has been around for over 60 years, becoming an icon in the toy and novelty industry, and evoking nostalgia for multiple generations. Their frequent appearances in bronze age comic books (1970 - 1985) have elevated Sea-Monkeys® to a rare level of notoriety.

Much like Kleenex® for tissues and Jello® for gelatin, the Sea-Monkeys® brand name has become synonymous with the little creature itself. The name “Sea-Monkeys®” has become the general term representing all knockoffs of instantly hatching aquatic life.

Despite many attempts to rival Sea-Monkeys® with mermaids, aliens, dragons, fairies, monsters, and a variety of other pseudo-aquatic creatures, most competitors have been fleeting, failing to last as long as a single Sea-Monkey®.

The fact remains, only Sea-Monkeys® are the ORIGINAL Instant Life pet.