Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Second rate reporter says what?

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

This blog will pay for itself.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Everybody saw this coming.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Let’s finish the job.

You are here: Home / TV & Movies / Television / Best Television Commercials of Your Youth?

Best Television Commercials of Your Youth?

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For some reason I just found myself singing this Milk of Magnesia commercial:

What commercials do you remember as favorites? I loved all the Eddie Jemison “Yes I am” Bud Lite commercials, and the Wendy’s “evening wear” commercials were awesome. Oh, and really old Doritos commercials with Avery Schreiber.

When I watched the superbowl ads the last couple of years I just thought they were crude and dull. I sound 95.

Reader Interactions

174Comments

  2. 2.

    kindness

    Remember cigarette commercials? Alka Seltzer commercials. Crazy Eddie commercials. Little Anthony running through the streets of Boston because Wednesday is Prince spaghetti night? They don’t sell Prince spaghetti out here. Is it still sold back east? Thank the FSM for the dvr so I can ff through commercials.

  3. 3.

    NoraLenderbee

    I wish I were an Oscar Meyer wiener
    That is what I’d truly like to be
    ‘Cause if I were an Oscar Meyer wiener
    Everyone would be in love with me

  7. 7.

    Citizen Alan

    I am continually surprised at how many people much younger than me know how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop even though I don’t think the commercial in question has aired in 30 years or more. And I am gobsmacked at the number of people who know the significance of the phrase “Ancient Chinese secret, huh?”

  8. 8.

    Just one more canuck

    Rainier Beer commercials (out of Seattle) were great, especially the ones with Mickey Rooney

  9. 9.

    Patricia Kayden

    I loved all the Mikey cereal commercials — the ones where Mikey was reputed to eat anything.

  13. 13.

    jl

    I’ve blocked them all out from my memory. I remember some cereal rabbit kept getting its heart broken, punked and rejected.
    Also a tuna of some sort. Was discriminated against.

    Cruel and heartless commercials. I still bear some psychic scars and dislike commercials. they make me not want to patronize the sponsors.

    Poor cartoon rabbit was persecuted. How could they put something like that on, and for poor innocent children?

  14. 14.

    Grover Gardner

    Quite a few years ago I had a termite infestation and called Terminex. The guy came a took care of it, and when he was done he had a little survey, including the question, “How did you hear about us?” I said, “Well, you know, the ad! ‘Termites? Whoop whoop! Call Terminex!” He shook his head and said, “You know, we haven’t run that add in twenty years but people still remember it.”

    Also, “HEY CULLIGAN MAN!”

  17. 17.

    Mnemosyne

    There was a carpet place in Chicago called Empire Carpets that has gone national since I moved away. It’s a little weird to see that the original spokesman, now passed on, has been turned into a CGI cartoon character.

    I recently finished a work project that required me to watch 1950s commercials over … and over … and over again, so instead I’m going to link to a video of an elderly rescue cat (“Grandpa Mason”) wrestling with some kittens. He’s supposed to be in kitty hospice because of his kidney problems, but he seems to love having kittens around.

  19. 19.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Funny this came up, I don’t know why this churned up in my storm-tossed brain today, but I’ve had an ear worm of the Freakies today.

    @kindness: I remember the Hallowe’en version, Dracula saying that Wednesday was for Prince spaghetti. And I think an Adam and Eve one, Adam refusing the apple because it was Wednesday

  21. 21.

    NoraLenderbee

    Male chorus/dancers:

    Grab a bucket and mop
    Scrub it bottom and top
    Tell me what does this mean?
    That McDonald’s is clean!
    You deserve a break today
    So get up and get away
    to McDonald’s
    McD-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-nalds

  25. 25.

    Grover Gardner

    And here’s one for old Pittsburghers. Can any of you guess what show this ran on?

    “Who can? Toucan!”

  34. 34.

    mai naem mobile

    Apparently I’m an old fart but the one I remember is the Coke ‘I’d like to teach the world’

  44. 44.

    efgoldman

    I can’t find a clip, but there was a 50s deodorant commercial where the camera panned slowly across the famous “discus thrower” statue, especially the armpits, and a portentous, pretentious orator voice intoned “in the mature male… and in the mature female…”
    I don’t remember the product, but it cracked my brother and me up every single time.

  50. 50.

    Repatriated

    Southern Calfornia regional: The late Cal Worthington* and his “dog” Spot.

    “Dog” in quotes because Spot was always some exotic animal (elephant, tiger, etc).

    * Worthington Ford

  51. 51.

    philpm

    The original series of commercials for Miller Lite, with the numerous sports and other stars and Rodney Dangerfield. The best was the bowling one. Great commercials for one of the worst excuses for beer ever made.

  59. 59.

    philpm

    Another one for me is the Norelco Christmas commercial with Santa using a Norelco shaver as a sleigh. Always looked forward to that one.

  60. 60.

    dmsilev

    @OldDave: If anyone tells you diamonds are forever, don’t believe them. My colleagues and I have broken dozens of the things over the years (by accident, usually), with the damage ranging from chips and scratches all the way up to one memorable episode in which a diamond exploded and all we found afterwards was dust.

  61. 61.

    JCJ

    Hot dogs
    Armour hot dogs
    what kind of kid eats Armour hot dogs?
    Fat kids, skinny kids, kids that climb on rocks
    Tough kids, sissy kids
    Even kids with chicken pox
    love hot dogs
    Armour hot dogs
    the dogs kids love to bite

    That sounds so awful.

  62. 62.

    Jay Noble

    “Many parts of a pine tree are edible” Euell Gibbons

    “SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!”

    “You’re soaking in it right now” Madge

    Mrs. Olson the Folgers Lady

    “How about a nice Hawiian Punch?”

  65. 65.

    Suzanne

    My cousins and I really liked the commercial for Super Mario Bros. breakfast cereal. And a Norelco holiday ad for an electric shaver that scooted across the snow.

  67. 67.

    Pete Downunder

    “A tank of Chevron gasoline will last a whole year…

    If you don’t drive your car.”

    Vintage late 50’s I think.

  71. 71.

    Davebo

    @dmsilev: The Diamonds are Forever campaign was less about selling diamonds and more about preventing people from selling theirs lest the entire cartel go down the tubes!

  73. 73.

    dmsilev

    @Jay Noble:

    Mrs. Olson the Folgers Lady

    ‘We’ve secretly replaced their fresh-brewed coffee with new Folgers Crystals. Let’s see if they notice.’

    (I’ve had that stuff, and yeah, I’d notice the difference)

  75. 75.

    Suzanne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Now you have a friend in the diamond business. The Shane Company, just off Arapahoe Road on Emporia street…

    No! On Scottsdale Road at Acoma, one mile south of Bell Road.

    Another radio commercial I loved as a teenager was the “I’m JJ, and I’m the KING of beepers!”

  77. 77.

    Original Lee

    I think the Riggs Bank commercials from the 90s were some of the best, mostly because I loved the soundtrack. They made all kinds of variations on it for the different kinds of banking services. For instance, the construction loan commercial used saws, power drills, hammers, and so on for percussion. Alas, the soundcloud of the basic theme was the only thing I’ve been able to find.

    ETA decade.

  78. 78.

    Tehanu

    Joe Isuzu. Also, the one where “A Volkswagen can go forward. A Volkswagen can go backward.” And Brylcreem, “A little dab’ll do ya!”

  79. 79.

    RepubAnon

    There was a guy in Portland named Tom Peterson – his commercials came on late night TV. The most famous one had him knock on his side of the TV screen and say “Wake Up”! I believe he had a bit part in My Private Idaho

  81. 81.

    Scamp Dog

    Paramount Potato Chips (which I think was regional, so most won’t know it) had a jingle that went
    “I’m Slim Chipley, the guy you see on the Paramount potato chips bright red bag
    I’m the flavor deputy, protecting crispness in every pack
    They’re delicious, and so nutritious,
    Yes siree, they’re pips!
    Paramount potato chips!”

  82. 82.

    Another Scott

    “At Beneficial (doop) (doop)
    You’re good for more.
    At Beneficial (doop) (doop)
    You’re good for more…”

    Such happy music for what is too often a sleazy business – consumer finance loans that are often far more expensive than people realize…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  83. 83.

    Juice Box

    Sexy man and sexy woman making eyes at one another with Un bel di in the background. Sexy man sits sexily on the edge of a beautifully set table full of food and the table tips over sending food flying all over the Dupont Stainmaster carpet. It cracked me up everytime. It’s not that old, but I didn’t have a TV before that.

    All time great PSA/earworm.

  84. 84.

    The Lodger

    @Suzanne: @Major Major Major Major: You’re both wrong. It’s on 217, across from the Washington Square Mall.
    When I first heard these ads, I thought they were ripping off Tommy Van Scoy’s Diamond Mine from the Philly area. Same first name, same expressionless voice, same direct sales schtick. I almost expected to hear, “You can run, but you can’t hide.”

  85. 85.

    TheronWare

    The Benson & Hedges commercials with music by the Brass Ring. Chunky thickerer. Slinky. Good & Plenty. High Karate. Clep commercial with Abe Lincoln. Chiffon Margerine.Campbell’s Manhandler soup. Action Jackson.Sheraton Hotels jingle: 800-325-3535.

  88. 88.

    TheOtherHank

    “I’m the sole survivor!”

    I loved that commercial. Then I got the game; what a disappointment.

  90. 90.

    jl

    @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:

    ‘ Silly rabbit! Rights are for white American kids! ‘

    I am starting the silly rabbit liberation front. (SRLF). Hope you people are finally and properly woke on Trix.

    I think Charlie was a blue fin, so on the brink of extinction. Too late for him. Send contributions for a memorial. Sad.

  92. 92.

    Jackie

    @Just one more canuck: Rai….neeer Beers.. My son (toddler) would stop in his tracks watching Tarzan yodeling Rainer Beer and the Motorcycle revving up to Rainer Beer. Also to SeaGalley’s “We got Froglegs…” Good times ? 1982 or thereabouts.

  93. 93.

    seaboogie

    @efgoldman: heh. I’ve long felt that when listening to a radio broadcast in another language (first-time disappointment was in French in QC, Canada), that this otther, romantic language should not be so similarly crass. I’ve since evolved to “Domingo, Domingo, Domingo…!” I don’t think the US has the lock on that.

  98. 98.

    seaboogie

    @NoraLenderbee: Chiffon. Earlier commercial tag line was “If you think it’s butter, but it’s not – it’s Chiffon. Of course we kids went all “If you think it’s butter, but it’s snot”.. yada yada.

    First vow to my newly adult self was never margarine-only butter. A promise to myself that I’ve kept, even though I am now mostly fresh, locally sourced EVOO, since I consult in that biz.

  102. 102.

    philpm

    @efgoldman: I love Chickenman. We had a place here in the midwest called the Red Barn that you could get Chickenman t-shirts from. One of these days, I’ll actually buy the CD version of the complete series from Amazon.

  103. 103.

    efgoldman

    @philpm:

    It really took some effort to get them to work correctly.

    I guess I really didn’t have the patience at 10-11 years old. Model trains were easier and for me, at least as much fun.

  105. 105.

    RobertDSC-Mac Mini

    @Repatriated:

    I know it.

    Mervyn’s: Lady with her face in the window waiting for the store to open: “Open. Open. Open.”

    Chick Hearn doing voice work for the LA Boat Show: “Don’t miss the boat…Show!”

  106. 106.

    ExpatDanBKK

    This is recent as well, but may be interesting to some. Here in Thailand, there is a genre of ad we call “sadvertising.” It is a vignette, usually with a morality message, combined with an ad (or sometimes just “sponsored” by a company. Here’s one of my favourites, sponsored by a mobile phone company. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JPOVwKPMG8o

  107. 107.

    seaboogie

    Totally OT, but I seem to have a series (2, so far) of bright green crickets moving into my joint. The latest, smaller one was in my empty wine glass, so I brought it outside, coaxed it slowly out of the glass, and it is perched on a small shallow bowl of water, if that is what it is seeking. This sort of interaction with nature calms and centers me in the face of T tweeting “Big things coming this week”.

  108. 108.

    john fremont

    @The Lodger: The only diamond commercials I can remember from Philly were from Robbins 8th & Walnut.

    Also too, from Philly, “…the bosses daughter, from Atlantic Transmissions!” And the never ending series of Krass Brothers, Store of the Stars commercials.

  116. 116.

    philpm

    @efgoldman: I enjoyed the model trains too. I still have the one I won from a toy store grand opening. I think I was around 10 when that happened. I need to find a working control unit for it. I think the caps in the original died.

  118. 118.

    Amir Khalid

    @ExpatDanBKK:
    I saw one of those ads many many years ago. Dunkin’ Donuts opened its very first store in Kuala Lumpur in the 1980s and junior reporter me covered the official launch — the mayor himself was in attendance! They showed us a few of their commercials to help explain what they did. In those days the donuts were fresher because they were baked onsite rather than being trucked in from God knows where, and the commercials made a big deal of that.

  119. 119.

    efgoldman

    @philpm:

    I enjoyed the model trains too.

    When my mom, little brother and I arrived in Germany in December 1952 to join my dad (career Army) , he had a footlocker full of German Marklin HO gauge trains waiting for me. Would have cost hundreds of dollars in a specialty hobby shop in the states, but the exchange rate was so advantageous in those days that they literally cost him a pittance. He also bought boxes of things I didn’t know about until he brought them out for gifts in later years.

  123. 123.

    efgoldman

    @efgoldman: Sixty++ years later, it occurs to me that my dad bought the trains illegally on the German economy for DM, rather than with Army scrip in the PX, which is all they were supposed to do. It was a courts martial offense at the time.

  124. 124.

    efgoldman

    @ John Cole –
    I know you don’t read this far down, ever, but thanks so much for this fun thread. We needed it.

  125. 125.

    Suzanne

    @Repatriated: I occasionally hear someone say “OPEN OPEN OPEN” and it always makes me think of Mervyn’s, where I got many clothes up until I was about 14.

  127. 127.

    Mike in Pasadena

    Still rather badly wrinkled, says snooty Englishman about pitted prunes.

    He is pleased that the pits are removed and the flavor is quite good, but he must find something to criticize.

  130. 130.

    joel hanes

    They’re GRRREAAAAT !

    You’ll wonder where the yellow went
    When you brush your teath with Pepsodent

    She’ll love to run her fingers through your hair

    Greasy kid stuff

    Call for Phillip Mor-rissss !

    Serutan spelled backwards is “Natures”

    When it’s time to relax
    One beer stands clear
    (beer after beer)
    Miller tastes too good to hurry through

    It’s two two two mints in one
    With a sparkling drop of Retsyn

    Double your pleasure
    Double your fun

    Sugar Pops are tops !

    I’m coo-coo for Cocoa-Puffs.

    We’d rather fight than switch.

    Come aalll the way up … to KOOL

    It’ll tickle yer innards!

    See the USA
    In your Chevrolet

    My advice, sir?
    Get de-icer.

    Hurry on down to wide-track town

    It’s a white tornadoe!

  137. 137.

    prostratedragon

    @jl: You know, that tuna was voiced by Herschel Bernardi, an actor who had previously been blacklisted. Discovering this decades later confirmed yet again my old suspicion of adults speaking and acting in code.

    (Of course, I now do it shamelessly myself.)

  139. 139.

    opiejeanne

    @tom: That was Gene Wilder?

    I remember an Alka Seltzer ad with a middle aged mid-western couple driving through a desert landscape and the wife shouts something like “Look Harold, TAMALES!” pronounced tuh-MAILS. It has become part of our private dialog, along with various quotes from Monty Python and the Princess Bride.

  144. 144.

    ChrisB

    “Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?”

    I kept a small bottle in my car for years in the hope that someone might ask me that question so I could say “But of course!”

  145. 145.

    Jim Parish

    Going way, way back, three ads that made a special impression on 5-ish me:

    The Kodak commercial with “Turn around” (“Where are you going, my little one, little one?”)

    An ad for Prestone Antifreeze showing a car, on a rainy night, blowing past a hitch-hiker: “Never pick up a stranger / Pick up Prestone Antifreeze!)

    An ad for Firestone tires (“The name that’s known is Firestone (da-da-da-da) where the rubber meets the road!”)

    Damfino why those three have stuck with me for half a century…

  146. 146.

    evodevo

    Anybody from Cincy here? In my small town down the river, all we could get in the old days was cincy teevee. “I don’t care about making money! I just LOVE to sell CARPET!! “

  147. 147.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    “Someday all watches will be made this way”: Seiko

    “We will sell no wine before its time”: Paul Masson

  148. 148.

    HeartlandLiberal

    I am 71. I still remember the Frosty Morn ham add from the fifties, and the early days of black and white TV.

    I can still sing the key part of the ad:

    The height of a piggy’s ambition
    From the day he is born,
    Is hopes that he will be good enough,
    To be a Frosty Morn.

    So, being a big fan of YouTube as a growing repository of all knowledge and history, I searched, and lo, here it is:
    (Unless putting this link in dumps my in comment purgatory. Here goes:)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDrMGqSSKgw

  150. 150.

    Doug!

    Two beer commercials:

    One where Billy Martin says “I didn’t patch that doggie”

    And another where, I think L. C. Greenwood says about water polo, “I sure hope those horses can swim.”

    EDIT: I was Bubba Smith

  151. 151.

    janeform

    Pre-Reagan.

    Look for the Union label
    When you are buying a coat, dress, or blouse
    Remember somewhere our union’s sewing
    Our wages going to feed the kinds and run the house
    We work hard but who’s complaining
    Thanks to the ILB we’re paying our way
    So always look for the Union label
    It says we’re able to make it in the USA!

  153. 153.

    JAFD

    Another Philly brat

    Remembering this, used to appear on the Big 5 basketball games, in the early ’70’s. Half a dozen people in evening gowns and tuxedos talking about Ronzoni pasta in extreme Main Line accents (“Isn’t it pronounced ‘lah-zhagh-nyah ?”), ending with chorus of
    “We want Ronzoni,
    Out here in Malvern,
    Out here in Devon,
    Out here in Gladwyne.
    We wan Ronzini.
    Just like Italians.
    Ronzini tastes so good.”

  155. 155.

    bluefoot

    @ChrisB: That’s excellent. Many years ago I was driving home one evening and a large black car pulls up next to me at a light. There’s an 8-year old (or thereabouts) boy in the passenger seat, frantically gesturing at me to roll down my window. Kidnap? My brake light is out? So I roll down my window and the kid says, “Pardon me, but do you have any Grey Poupon?” I respond, “But of course” and give him a handshake out the window while his parent looks on chagrined. He rolls up the window, starts laughing maniacally, and the light turns green. All kinds of awesome.

  159. 159.

    dlw32

    There was a commercial for raisins… to show they were a natural snack they had the Sun on trial and the Sun says, “What do I look like, a chemical?” I remember saying, “yeah. you’re a chemical like everything else.”

    It was the start of my question everything and general smart-assery.

  163. 163.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    The Lowenbrau jingle from the ’70s is still with me to this day: “Here’s to good friends, tonight is kind of special…”

    Also Hamm’s the beer refreshing. A few jingles from local Grand Rapids, MI businesses are permanently imprinted in my brain but for national campaigns the beer jingles are the ones that stuck.

    IMO the last great superbowl ad was the one with the kid dressed as Darth Vader whose dad uses his car’s remote starter to give him a win vis a vis the force. GEICO still produces a clever commercial now and again but it’s pretty slim pickins.

  166. 166.

    Mo MacArbie

    “It takes a steady hand.”
    “Who wears short shorts?”
    “Meister Bräu: it only tastes expensive.”
    “Gennessee: the great outdoors in a glass.”
    “I’m not only the president; I’m also a client.”

  167. 167.

    WaterGirl

    @SiubhanDuinne: That’s the commercial I most remember from being a kid, except that the Hamm’s commercial I remember had the bear rubbing his tummy at the end, and I am told I always got up and rubbed my tummy by the TV set whenever that commercial came on. I was pretty little at the time.

  168. 168.

    Mo MacArbie

    Then there was some 4-record set my brother and I memorized and sang along with. “The night Chicago died…when you’re feelin’ alone, and the fish won’t bite…I couldn’t sleep at all last night…Doot doot do do dooo”.

  172. 172.

    John Weiss

    My favorite commercial was Delco batteries who sponsored “High Adventure with Lowell Thomas”. They were smoothly introduced into the narrative. Underhanded, I suppose, but quite creative.

    jw

  173. 173.

    arielibra

    Another Philly-radio-area brat…Keystone Volvo in Doylestown! “Track lighting in my doghouse.” “It…it’s just like you said.”

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