After he stopped making wonderful theatrical cartoons, director Tex Avery made funny animated commercials for a while. This is one of a long series he did for Raid, house and garden bug killer. Raid hunts bugs down like radar and kills them dead. And what's more, Raid won't oil-stain draperies or furniture. Not only that but outdoors, Raid won't harm plants. Isn't it wonderful?
The voice of the smaller bug is Mel Blanc, the voice of the larger bug is Paul Frees, and I'm guessing it took them a long time to record this spot. Maybe three minutes. I believe the announcer is William Schallert, who somehow managed to be on every TV show made in the sixties at one time or another. I don't know why they didn't just have Paul or Mel do all three parts but I guess they had a little cash to throw around on these. When I worked with Tex years later, he told me he made three times as much money doing a 30 second spot like this as he had for directing all seven minutes of Little Rural Riding Hood or Bad Luck Blackie or any of those great cartoons.
Here's the spot…
