They were a thick, stocky variety of soup introduced in 1968, reputedly in response to housewives' complaints that the wimpy Chicken Noodle lines didn't fill up their husbands.
The commercial showed a hunky, muscular guy in a plaid shirt engaged in various farm tasks (not him -- this is Matt Neustadt of reality tv). I remember him plowing a field, piling concrete blocks atop each other, and mending a barbed wire fence -- while a male voiceover sang the double-entendre laden "How do you handle a hungry ma...aaa...aan? The Ma..aaa...aan Handlers!"
The gay symbolism was obvious, though no doubt unintentional. Viewers could think of all kinds of ways to handle a hungry man.
He goes home, bursts into the kitchen, and plops down at the table, where there is a bowl of Manhandlers soup waiting for him. He thrusts a spoon awkwardly into his fist like he's not used to utensils and begins shoveling the soup in, occasionally making little animal grunts of pleasure. One expects him to say "Me like soup! Soup good!" Oh, right, that's the logo. The voice over repeats: "The Ma...aaa...aan Handlers!"
No ladies were shown in the commercials. The Man evidently lived alone, or maybe with the man who was singing about a "ma...aaa...aan."
the singer was Frankie Laine, who performed in many genres but specialized in cowboy songs, including "Hanging Tree,""Mule Train,""Riders in the Sky," and the themes for Rawhide and Blazing Saddles.
By 1977, the ravenous cave man had been civilized into a New Sensitive Man. He even knew how to hold a spoon properly.