• by P.J. Bednarski  @pjbtweet, November 17, 2020

National Presto Industries got its name from the consumer pressure cooker it showed off at the 1939 World’s Fair, but it also markets a large assortment of handy devices  that, as the saying goes, “make a great holiday gift.” 

Gizmos like the FryBaby electric deep fryer, the Salad Shooter electric slicer-shredder, and Orville Redenbacher’s Hot Air Popper fill up Presto’s product line.

The Eau Claire, Wisconsin.-based company is back again this holiday season with two clever new products. The Stuffler is a stuffed waffle maker and Dorothy is a rapid cold brew coffee maker. Both went on sale last week, just in time for the gift-giving holiday season.

Presto has been making small household appliances and houseware items since 1905. But the company hasn’t advertised any new products for about the last 15 years, a spokesman says. 

That changes with these devices, which will be advertised online in programmatic ads, on the company's web site and via Amazon, which has a link to the Presto Store.

The new commercials were created by the Chicago-based ad agency called The Distillery Project.

“We proposed the new tagline, ‘It’s kinda like magic’ as more than just a bit of wordplay off the company name,” explains John Condon, TDP’s chief creative officer. “It was a way to capture the spirit of innovation being applied to products that are central to everyday life.”

The ad for the Stuffler begins with footage of an astronaut stomping around in space. “Fifty years ago, we put a man on the moon,”  the narrator says. “Today, we put chicken inside a waffle.” (Or lots of other foodstuffs, as the commercial demonstrates.)

“Historically, retail waffle makers have undergone little alteration and have traditionally functioned with only minor changes to their design and usage,” Presto points out, in language that sounds like the Stuffler might just be another giant step for mankind.

For Dorothy, the rapid cold brew coffee maker, Presto continues to use the onslaught of new technology to make its pitch. 

The homemaker in this ad first has to step over a Roomba as he reaches for the coffee maker on the counter. Just about then the narrator says, “Technology has become so advanced you can have a conversation with your lamp,” At that point, a floor lamp glimpses the coffee container and asks the owner, “Wow, is that all for you?”

Dorothy may get its name because the appliance creates a tornado-like funnel cloud in its see-through container to make the brew, but evoking Alexa and Siri is also part of the idea behind naming it that way, as much as “The Wizard of Oz” is. 

Other campaign components include digital display ads, a Facebook carousel ad, and static ads for Facebook and Instagram.

It seems, though, that Presto lets the product ideas themselves do most of the heavy lifting. 

There’s history behind that approach. By the end of 1941 (and the coming of Pearl Harbor), the formerly little company  “ranked among the largest producers of housewares [by dollar volume] in leading stores throughout the country,” according to Presto's published history. In 1945, when post-war sales resumed, Presto says it sold more pressure cookers than its 11 competitors combined.