Cal Athletes' Top 20 TV Commercials: No. 7 Joe Kapp

Kapp's ad for a peanut butter in the 1960s demonstrates his star quality while he played in the Canadian Football League

Joe Kapp at Cal | Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics

We are ranking the top 20 TV commercials featuring current or former Cal athletes. The rankings are based primarily on the appeal of the ads, but the number of commercials involving a particular Cal athlete is given some weight as well.

Joe Kapp led Cal to the Bears’ most recent Rose Bowl berth in the 1958 season. He then won a Grey Cup in the Canadian Football League for the British Columbia Lions in 1964, and played in the 1970 Super Bowl for the Minnesota Vikings during the 1969 season. He is the only quarterback to play in a Rose Bowl, a Grey Cup and a Super Bowl.

We have only one commercial for Kapp, and it was shot was while Kapp was a Canadian Football League star in the 1960s. But this ad for Squirrel Peanut Butter is great in many ways.. 

The ad starts with a "highlight" of Kapp getting sacked for a 5-yard loss.  Then the bad puns start to roll.  Kapp is shown spreading the peanut butter, and we can only assume those are actually Joe's hands?  Yet Kapp pulls it off, like he did on the field, making the most of a bad play.

Kapp acquired the nickname Peanut Butter Joe as a result of this ad.

Squirrel Peanut Butter was a Canadian brand that was discontinued in 2000 when it was taken over by Unilevel PLC, which marketed another brand, Skippy..

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