Kinito de Kina San Clemente

Old promotional doll of Kina San Clemente, KINITO Robin Hood or troubadour. Decade of the 70’s. Material pvc rubber. The chosen ones to give life to the creature were Estudios Moro, pioneers of Spanish advertising animation. They came up with Kinito, an energetic boy with a huge K on his chest who was capable of devouring huge quantities of food after a gulp of Kina San Clemente. The message was clear: ‘if your child doesn’t eat well, whet his appetite with a good drink’. The animated mascot’s strategy was a success and Kinito propelled Kina San Clemente to the highest levels of popularity. Between the TV commercials and the promotion that allowed people to exchange six caps of the brand for a doll with his effigy, Kinito became one of the most popular characters of the moment. The brand ended up delighting children thanks to the comic strips it placed in comic magazines. Ibáñez himself was the main cartoonist, showing Kinito and his cat Sardino solving the most diverse misfortunes thanks to their particular magic potion, quinine.

‘Let him taste’. ‘Just a little goes a long way’: ‘Give him bread dipped in wine, which is very nutritious’. Relatively recently, these phrases were commonly used in Spanish homes, and not just by grandparents. In this country, children also drank. In small doses and on certain occasions, but they drank. Until well into the seventies, alcohol was not seen as the threat to health that it is, and tolerance towards its administration to infants reached limits that would be mind-boggling for any parent today. In that context, beer advertisements appeared showing kids happily sharing a litre. But perhaps the product that most viciously focused its marketing on children was the so-called vinos quinados, very popular in Spain in the fifties and sixties. This type of drinks considered ‘medicinal’ boomed in the late 19th century all over the world, and became increasingly popular in Spain throughout the 20th century. They were enriched with cinchona, enhanced with alcohol and endowed with supposedly healthy effects. ‘It’s medicine and it’s candy’, said the slogan of Quina Santa Catalina. ‘This excellent quina wine is very good for children and adults’, read the slogan of Kina San Clemente.