Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

Their shamelessness is their super power.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Medium Cool – Ads! Ads?

Medium Cool – Ads! Ads?

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Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

Not for the first time, NotMax has suggested that we have a Medium Cool about ads.

Whether they are flashy SuperBowl ads or ads from your childhood that you jut can’t shake – it’s undeniable that ads are a part of popular culture.  Ads used to be all white people – white and straight and conservatively dressed.  Somehow, the ad industry figured out that fucking white people are not the only people who buy products.  So yay for that!

Remember the first ad with gay people?  Mixed races?  Hey, gay people with mixed race children buy laundry detergent, too!  Who could have known?

I have some ads etched into my brain, and I’m not even sure what they were for!

588-6300  EMPIRE!  (I don’t know, maybe furniture or carpeting?)

Sunday Sunday Sunday!  (some kind of horse racing?)

Mikey likes it!  (definitely cereal, though I have no idea which one)

Where’s the BEEF?  (no idea what that was for, were they just advertising beef?)

So… talk about ads you loved or ads you hated or ads that are funny or ads that are horrible or ads that are annoying.  And if we don’t talk about ads that are sexist and racist, I will be seriously disappointed!  Was there ever a Lego ad with girls in it?

This Medium Cool may break a record, though I don’t know if it will be for the most comments or the fewest.  Well, probably not the most – I did have a Medium Cool Longmire post that had more comments than the minimum for a TBogg unit!

I tune out most ads, so I am struggling to think of an ad to use as an image.  Perhaps the *Google will bail me out.

*Nope!  I googled, and every site that had the best classic ads wouldn’t let me open the site – wait for it – yes, because I have an ad-blocker installed.  So I’ll go with something I know.

Reader Interactions

262Comments

  1. 1.

    Roger Moore

    I think “Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!” was an ad for monster truck rallies.  I know “Mikey likes it” was for Life cereal, and “Where’s the Beef?” was for Wendy’s.

  3. 3.

    Trivia Man

    My gripe: give it to mikey! He’ll eat anything!

    total misquote. It’s “he won’t  eat it, he hates everything “

    THEN they discover he likes Life

  5. 5.

    Trivia Man

    Where’s the salsa from? New York City! Get a rope.

    thst ad hasn’t run for 20? Years but I’ll wager most people here still remember it vividly

  8. 8.

    Gravie

    Super-local ad from Publix in Tampa in the ‘50s. Various animated heads yelling “beef BEEF Beef beef chicken liver! bEEF beef Beef Beef beef” then the pitch, “Whatever’s for dinner, you can find it at Publix.”

  9. 9.

    Alison Rose

    Empire was (is?) a carpet cleaning company, I believe. RM got the others above me.

    This Iams commercial was my favorite thing when it ran, which must have been at least 20 years ago, I’d say. It always made me and my mom all verklempt, and yes, I did get a lil’ tear in my eye watching it again now. THE DOGGIE GOT OLD BUT HE CAN STILL GET UP THE STAIRS.

  10. 10.

    Roger Moore

    It’s kind of funny, but the ads that really stuck with me were the ones on kids afternoon TV.  It comes from a mixture of watching them at a very impressionable age, seeing the same ads a lot, and my brothers and I making parody ads.  Considering just how political those parody ads were, I’m not surprised I turned out a liberal.

  12. 12.

    West of the Rockies

    Every Christmas I still look up the Miller Beer “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” sled commercial.

    I also loved the GE “Ideas are messy” number.

  15. 15.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    The jingle that’s stuck with me most all these years is a local Grand Rapids, MI carpet company – the Sullivan’s Carpet jingle…a bouncy Irish S-U-double L-I-V-A-N spells Sullivan! The Löwenbrau commercial jingle too “here’s to good friends, tonight is kinda special…”

    Still like the Darth Vader remote car starter commercial. Also have a soft spot for vintage ’70s Christmas beer commercials even though I was no where near drinking age back then.

  18. 18.

    dexwood

    I also tune out ads. I see them, hear the jingle, see the images, but can’t tell you what they are selling.

  19. 19.

    MagdaInBlack

    “Charley Says Love my Good ‘n’ Plenty” , the whole damn song, is etched in my earworm playlist.

    Eta: childhood tv commercial.

  22. 22.

    West of the Rockies

    OMG, the JB Whiskey commercial where the grandfather helps his AMAB grandkids present as female!!!

  24. 24.

    Trivia Man

    The Folgers “Coming Home” was popular and memorable. And… perhaps suggestive. There is a few not (to me) parody ad that may have now been viewed more times than the original. The first time I saw the parody I was completely fooled, I thought it was the origin, sweet reunion story. Then… it keeps going

  26. 26.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    Also loved the cartoon bear Hamm’s beer commercials “From the land of sky blue water, land of tall pines, mighty balsam! Comes the beer refreshing, Hamm’s the beer refreshing, Hamm’s.”

  29. 29.

    bbleh

    And the classic R-O-L-A-I-D-S.

    The ones that REALLY bug me these days are the pharmaceutical ads that grab a few bars from a song popular with Boomers (naturally; they know their audience) and set the name of their product to it.  It sticks in my head and I hate it, which they may think is good because I remember it, but actually is bad because now I hate their product too (Ozempic being top of my list right now).

  32. 32.

    Facebones

    I grew up in Atlantic Canada in the 80s, so the ads for the Green Gables Convenience Stores are permanently etched into my brain:

    You forgot to buy some food, and it’s late.

    You would like a tasty snack, but it’s late

  33. 33.

    JPL

    How many cookies did Andrew eat?   Andrew ate 8000.     How do you keep your carpets clean, call Andrew 8-8000

    okay I’m old

    It ran on the radio all the time.

  36. 36.

    Trivia Man

    I’ve listened to talk radio for a lot of years. In about 1986 or so a weight loss gum was about 60% of every ad on talk radio.

    AYDS! The candy coated gum! It will help you lose weight! That’s A-Y-D-S! Try some today for free!

    poor timing

  38. 38.

    Tim Ellis

    The “excuse me, do you have any Grey Poupon?” ass have stuck with me even though “rich people like it” would no longer be a selling point for me

     

    That “I love chicken, I love liver, meow Mix meow Mix please deliver” jingle still gets stuck in my head

     

    And if you’re from Buffalo, you’ll definitely hear these words in tune if i type “mighty taco, mighty taco”

  41. 41.

    frosty

    “Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!!!” was for drag racing. We had it where I grew up in PA and I know it was used elsewhere. My favorite take on it was … Firesign Theater maybe?

    “Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! US Amphetamine Speedway!! See Timothy Leary, Superblown Head!!!”

    BTW a blower in a dragster is a supercharger that pressurizes the fuel/air mix.

  42. 42.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @bbleh: Ozempic is in short supply.  I can only get a 30 day supply from the VA at a time for Type II diabetes, not attempting to poke myself into weight loss.  Yet they’re advertising the shit to make it even more in demand and further crunch the supply, which of course leads, in classic Econ 101 style, to higher prices (and higher profits).

  48. 48.

    bbleh

    @What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    [hysterical yelling almost but not quite drowned out by sound of 50-cal. machine gun]

    @Villago Delenda Est: quite apart from the ad, this really irritates me.  It’s like Viagra: a pill for a particular but real medical condition being knowingly if not explicitly advertised as a “lifestyle” drug.  And Ozempic tinkers with a much more complex system, which makes it even riskier to use for off-label non-medical purposes.

  50. 50.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Kent: Oh, yeah, those take me back.  A guy a year behind me in high school was supposedly the one who came up with the motorcycle ad.

  53. 53.

    Alison Rose

    Oh man, I love that someone uploaded this. Anyone who grew up in the North Bay will remember this local ad for Windsor Waterworks, a waterslide park that closed a number of years ago but was located just a few miles north of where I am now. “You’re gonna get wet” is both a pretty lame jingle for a water park and also…you know. Maybe a little too innuendo-prone.

  54. 54.

    gene108

    From my 1980’s childhood, the Bud Light “Gimme a Light” ads, where some bar patron says “gimme a light” and they get some sort of illuminating light, like a table lamp, until they say “make it a Bud Light”.

    The Miller Lite “Tastes Great, Less Filling” ads also up there.

    Found both these ad campaigns humorous as a kid. Always wondering what whacky light the bar patron’s going to get instead of Bud Light, and the odd places Tastes Great, Less Filling argument would erupt in.

  62. 62.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    I can’t recall which beer it was with Real Men of Genius campaign. I only recall it because the band that sang the jingle was Survivor, yes “Eye of the Tiger” Survivor.

  67. 67.

    Trivia Man

    @gene108: Steve Mizerak shooting pool in a single camera shot for Miller lite.

    because it’s easy to work up a thirst, even when you’re just showing off

  69. 69.

    El Muneco

    @scav: John Landis put a Cal Worthington commercial on a TV in the background in a scene in the 1985 Jeff Goldblum/Michelle Pfeiffer film Into The Night.

    Apparently he had been big in Southern California even before expanding up the West Coast.

  75. 75.

    CaseyL

    Oh, these comments take me down memory lane!

    Among my memorable faves:  A family at breakfast.  The father, heartbroken when he discovers they’re out of his favorite cereal. Rice Krispie Opera!

    Also, and I am very sorry because it caused a huge kerfuffle over stereotypes, but it was gd funny: Alka Seltzer’s “Atsa Spicy Meatball.”

    In fact, Alka Seltzer had a run of hilarious ads – the Spicy Meatball one that got them into such trouble, and the “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing”…”You ate it, Ralph” being the ones I remember.

  76. 76.

    Abnormal Hiker

    Schaefer’s is the one beer to have

    When you’re having more than one

    Schaefer’s pleasure doesn’t fade

    Even when your thirst is done ….

     

    ETA not sure why it is double spaced

  78. 78.

    Another Scott

    I’ve mentioned before that one TV ad caused me to visit the hospital emergency room.

    Scene – Earnest mother in the kitchen talking about these new super-strong wipes (a Handi-wipe competitor). Earnest, tall, son had one in his hands, looped it over the top of the door, and hung on it to show how strong it was. Beaming mother smiled and gave the closing line about how strong they are!!1

    Young me decided he had to try it with a Handi-wipe that we had, but of course, I was too short to be able to loop it over the top of the door. So I got a chair and stood on it and jumped up to loop it over the top of the door…

    And the Handi-wipe immediately tore in half and I fell, hitting my jaw on the doorknob. Ouch!

    Concerned mother had to drop what she was doing and rush me to the hospital to get checked out. Fortunately, no obvious damage was done.

    Taught me to to be skeptical of TV ads (and probably explains why I have never been interested in Jackass-type humor)…

    I think they took that ad of the TV shortly thereafter – maybe I wasn’t the only one?

    Be careful out there!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  80. 80.

    Kristine

    I cut the cable cord, so I don’t see commercials anymore. But when I had it, I used to watch the channels that played all the bloody pharmaceutical ads. I noticed that the ads for Pediasure, a children’s nutritional drink, always featured little boys who were on the low end of the growth curve and needed a boost. I never saw an ad with a little girl. I guess no biggie if a girl is small for her age because small is okay if you’re a girl? Whether that message was intended or not, that’s the one I got.

    I used to enjoy the ads with James Garner and Mariette Hartley–yup, I forgot the product. (Polaroid–thanks, Stinger!)

    The Subaru ads with dogs always make me cry. Kinda glad I don’t see those anymore.

  83. 83.

    Brachiator

    @What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:

    Also loved the cartoon bear Hamm’s beer commercials “From the land of sky blue water, land of tall pines, mighty balsam! Comes the beer refreshing, Hamm’s the beer refreshing, Hamm’s.”

    I remember that commercial from when I was a kid. Very catchy. But I obviously was the wrong target audience. And when I was old enough to drink beer, Hamm’s wasn’t on the list.

  85. 85.

    TheOtherHank

    @El Muneco: I was just going to mention Cal Worthington and his dog Spot. For those not in the know, Cal W sold cars and his ads featured him with a different strange animal introduced as his dog Spot.

    I don’t know how So Cal these ads were, but I have vivid memories of Bandini fertilizer ads that featured “Bandini Mountain”, ie, a giant pile of manure.

    And a national campaign that’s stuck with me is Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups:

    “You got chocolate in my peanut butter!”

    “You got peanut butter on my chocolate!”

  89. 89.

    Trivia Man

    @Scout211: this week they tried to change it from wiener mobile to Frank Mobile. Immediate pushback do they changed it back.

    little know second verse:

    oh I’m glad I’m not an Oscar Mayer wiener

    that is what I do not want to be

    for if I was an Oscar Mayer wiener

    there would soon be nothing left of me

  90. 90.

    noncarborundum

    I can still remember the 800 number for Sheraton reservations, which I learned from their jingle more than 50 years ago.

  92. 92.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Brachiator: I think Hamm’s was no longer in the West Michigan market by the time I was old enough to drink. So I don’t think I’ve ever had it.

  94. 94.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @CaseyL:

    In fact, Alka Seltzer had a run of hilarious ads – the Spicy Meatball one that got them into such trouble, and the “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing”…”You ate it, Ralph” being the ones I remember.

    And the one with the sweet, new, never-cooked-in-her-entire-life bride, who whipped up a Marshmallow Meat Loaf for her hubby.

  102. 102.

    NotMax

    Probably gonna end up doing these in little bits and pieces, trying not to duplicate any above. (as of beginning to type this)

    Stuck in the brainpan forever and a day:
    “Sorry, Charlie.”
    “”At-sa spicy meatball.”
    .
    Ubiquitous yet annoying for one reason or another:
    Mr. Machine
    Mystery Date
    creepy Burger King king
    .
    Remembered in spite of themselves:
    Quake & Quisp
    “Brush-a, brush-a, brush-a”
    “Show us your Lark pack.”
    .
    Classics:
    Crying Native American at littered roadside.
    CBS Christmas.
    Coke: Harmony.

  103. 103.

    noncarborundum

    My beer is Rheingold, the dry beer. 
    Why not try some the next time you buy beer? 
    It’s refreshing, not sweet; 
    It’s the extra-dry treat. 
    Why not try extra-dry Rheingold beer?

  105. 105.

    Brachiator

    @CaseyL:

    Also, and I am very sorry because it caused a huge kerfuffle over stereotypes, but it was gd funny: Alka Seltzer’s “Atsa Spicy Meatball.”

    This was an award winning commercial.

    But for me, it was too good. The false commercial was so captivating that for the longest time I didn’t know that it was really a commercial for Alka Seltzer.

    Again, I wasn’t the target audience. I was a kid and could pretty much eat anything, so I didn’t have a clear idea about food giving you an upset stomach.

    But I remember kids and even adults repeating variations of the “speech meatball” line.

    There was some other product with a very catchy jingle that was based on a 1940s instrumental tune. But for decades I never knew what product was being advertised, until I saw it mentioned on some summer fill in TV show about famous TV commercials that also featured the Alka Seltzer ad.

  111. 111.

    noncarborundum

    Do you know exactly how to eat an Oreo?
    Well, to do it, you unscrew it
    Very fast.
    ‘Cause a kid’ll eat the middle of an Oreo first
    And save the chocolate cookie outsides for last.

  112. 112.

    Rachel Bakes

    Memorable ads for me: York peppermint patty/mounds/almond joy add, during Peanuts holiday specials.
    mcDonalds did really good ads in thr 80s

    shop Rite’s Can Can sale ads set to the Can Can were amazingly catchy, they still use them 30 years later.
    Driving through PA 16 years ago with no hotel room booked and a new flip phone my husband recalled the 1800 number for Best Western off a 20 year old commercial memory. That was useful

  119. 119.

    zhena gogolia

    I like Don Draper’s pitch for the Kodak Carousel.

    Seriously, I don’t know most of the ads being referenced here, because I haven’t watched television with advertising for many years.

    I know the old ones, but don’t have any particular fondness for them. Let me think if there are any ads I have fondness for. I like Diane Keaton running around her kitchen before she got famous.

    ETA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edWAES1atO8

  120. 120.

    There go two miscreants

    As teenagers in Baltimore we used to listen to WYRE AM from Annapolis. The “Sunday! Sunday!” ads were, as I recall for “beautiful Capitol Drag Raceway, the drag racing capital of the nation!!”, and the lead-in music was Rat Race (composed by Elmer Bernstein).

    And I miss James Garner — an actor who really seemed to enjoy himself in the roles, as well as in the ads.

  121. 121.

    zhena gogolia

    @NotMax: I loved the Mystery Date commercial. They used it on Mad Men in an episode centered on the Chicago nurse murders. Pretty clever.

  122. 122.

    noncarborundum

    @zhena gogolia: OT, but speaking of “before they were famous”, YouTube just showed me a video of a 1972 episode of To Tell the Truth with Brent Spiner as one of the impostors pretending to be (of all things) a cornet-playing taxi driver.

  124. 124.

    lowtechcyclist

    “Silly rabbi, kicks are for Trids!”

    “Winston tastes bad, like the one I just had”

    OK, those aren’t the originals. But you know them.

    And of course, MAD Magazine had fun with the Winston commercial(s), with a conversation carried on amongst tombstones in a cemetery:

    “Winston tasted good, like a cigarette should’ve!”
    “You mean, as a cigarette should’ve!”
    “What did you want, good grammar or good taste?”
    “I wanted to live a lot longer!!”

  126. 126.

    SiubhanDuinne

    This is distinctly Chicagoland regional, but for several weeks in the 1950s, there was a teaser campaign that consisted of a man’s voice saying portentously: “I WILL BRING A MOUNTAIN TO CHICAGO.”

    That was it. And nobody could figure out WTF it meant. It was a huge guessing game, even among strangers.

    Turns out, a new brand of coffee — Folger’s — was being introduced into the Chicago market. Clever, to get a whole city talking about it before they knew what “it” even was!

  127. 127.

    CliosFanBoy

    For my fellow Dayton, Ohio peeps. Ahem.

    BHA means better home appliances, better home appliances, better home appliances
    BHA means better home appliances,
    Music and appliance store,
    Once more!
    Music and appliance store,
    BHA!

  131. 131.

    Nelle

    I got here late but have some favorites from New Zealand:

    1.  Jonesy is Australian (Aussie), the other two are Kiwi;  https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&ei=UTF-8&p=mitre+10+ad+Aussies&type=E210US714G0#id=1&vid=f0ef9e6e0207bf8bd1f05f5adced52e3&action=click
    2. Summer can be confusing in casual New Zealand:  https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&ei=UTF8&p=ad+nz+togs+or+undies&type=E210US714G0#id=3&vid=338cfed704feadf0f835498631a7c952&action=click
    3. More of the Aussie/NZ joshing back and forth.  NZ has had an ad campaign that it is 100% pure.  https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&ei=UTF-8&p=ad+australia+nz+is+there+for+the+taking&type=E210US714G0#id=2&vid=f4c92b571fbcaf46946d25c459b56ca1&action=view
  134. 134.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Also (I think) Chicago-centric:

     

    ”When the values go up – up – up,

    And the prices go down – down – down,

    Robert Hall this season

    Will show you the reason:

    Low overhead, low overhead!”

  138. 138.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Freemark:

    Who remembers Joe Isuzu?

    Me! Me!

    Trivia: the actor who portrayed him (whose name I’ve misplaced) was one of the Hare Krishna guys in Airplane!

  144. 144.

    lowtechcyclist

    @CliosFanBoy: ​

    The “Don’t Squeeze the Charmin” ads were so annoying that my parents refused to buy that brand.

    “You better squeeze all the Charmin you can, when Mr. Whipple’s not around.” – Weird Al Yankovic, “Dare to be Stupid”

  145. 145.

    zhena gogolia

    @SiubhanDuinne: I don’t remember the jingle. I’m really having trouble remembering local jingles, except we had SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY too, and Marilyn Maye advertising cars, but I can’t find that on YouTube.

  146. 146.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @There go two miscreants:

    You and @zhena gogolia have convinced me that my assumption was wrong. Now I feel compelled to look up the Robert Hall entry in Wikipedia (there’s bound to be one, right?)

    EDIT: Based in CT. Here’s the beginning of the Wiki piece:

     

    Robert Hall Clothes, Inc., popularly known as Robert Hall, was an American retailer that flourished circa 1938–1977. Based in Connecticut, its warehouse-like stores were mostly concentrated in the New York, Chicago and Los Angelesmetropolitan areas. According to a Timemagazine story in 1949, the corporate name was an invention. The founder and head was garment merchant Jacob Schwab, who “plucked the name out of the air.”[2] It started as a single store in Waterbury, Connecticut in 1937.[2]Schwab had been treasurer of United Merchants and Manufacturers, the parent company of Robert Hall, since 1922.  By 1946 Schwab was among the highest-paid executives in America, earning more than $440,000 a year.

  148. 148.

    MagdaInBlack

    @SiubhanDuinne: If it hasn’t been mentioned, Bruce Willis did a Seagrams Golden Wine Cooler commercial that made my heart go pitter-patter, back in my crush on Bruce days.

  149. 149.

    zhena gogolia

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    Yep.

    Robert Hall Clothes, Inc., popularly known as Robert Hall, was an American retailer that flourished circa 1938–1977. Based in Connecticut, its warehouse-like stores were mostly concentrated in the New York, Chicago and Los Angeles metropolitan areas. According to a Time magazine story in 1949, the corporate name was an invention. The founder and head was garment merchant Jacob Schwab, who “plucked the name out of the air.”[2] It started as a single store in Waterbury, Connecticut in 1937.[2] Schwab had been treasurer of United Merchants and Manufacturers, the parent company of Robert Hall, since 1922. By 1946 Schwab was among the highest-paid executives in America, earning more than $440,000 a year.

  150. 150.

    M31

    Northeasterners of a certain age will remember the home-made ads for Carvel’s Ice cream by Tom Carvel and his gravelly chain-smoked voice:

    Every Wednesday is Sundae at Carvel’s

    and “FOR A WHALE OF A DAD”

    (Fudgie the Whale shaped cake)

  157. 157.

    CliosFanBoy

    @NotMax:

     

    Because I’m interested in beer history, a few notes.

    1. The Bert and Harry Piel ads are blamed for the brewery’s demise. The ads were so popular that lots of people tried the beer. Alas, by then it SUCKED.

    2. Hamms tried being a national brand in the early 60s, buying breweries in Baltimore and San Francisco. They could advertise “From the Land of Sky Blue Water” only if that batch of beer was made by the original brewery in St. Paul. The other Hamms breweries had to use “Refreshing as the Land of Sky Blue Waters.” The Baltimore brewery failed as locals resented Hamms buying out and killing the most popular local beer (Gunthers), so drinkers switched to National Bohemian. Hamms tried bringing Gunthers back but then sold the brewery to Schaefer.

    3. Schaefer was a HUGE brand for decades. I go digging for old beer cans a couple of times a year, and you can’t dig an old pile of cans in New York or western Mass. without pulling out Schaefer cans repeatedly. We joke Schaefer “is the can to dig when you’re digging more than one.”

  158. 158.

    zhena gogolia

    @Craig: I gave up on trying to watch Mad Men on Freevee because of some truly disgusting toilet paper ads. (with people, not bears)

  160. 160.

    kalakal

    As an import I can only give UK examples.

    The ones I remember were either funny or super high production values

    eg Baldy Man

    Tick follows Tock

    The other stuff I remember were all the public information films telling kids not to go off with strangers/electrocute themselves etc.

    For anyone who wants to see Darth Vader in a previous incarnation here’s Dave Prowse* as Green Cross Code Man

    * And now you know why they didn’t use his voice

  161. 161.

    jackmac

    Apple’s “1984” commercial is certainly one of the best of all time.

    And while this thread is mostly devoted to TV ads, a collection of Volkswagen print ads from the 1960s also should get a nod for their simplicity, irreverence and self-deprecating charm.

  163. 163.

    Geoduck

    Ads that have run forever..

    Someone already mentioned Tootsie Pops.

    Discount Tire Co. did a very short ad where an elderly lady rolls a tire up to one of their offices and throws it through the front window. It was filmed in the 70s and evidently is still run in some areas to this day.

  173. 173.

    kalakal

    The UK also specialised in adverts that had no concievable connection to the product.

    Here’s a CGI gorilla playing Phil Collins doing his most famous drum break to sell Cadbury’s chocolate. Never managed to forget it

    In the air tonight

  183. 183.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Kayla Rudbek: No Grand Rapids MI but Hamms was available there for awhile during my childhood.

     

    @CliosFanBoy: Calgon…I have an aunt and uncle in Cleveland (technically Shaker Heights) and they have this bathroom in their house with a collection of toiletries that date back to the 1980s when their kids were still in the house. Front and center is a bottle of Calgon. Every time I pass through to visit I check to make sure it’s still there.

  185. 185.

    NotMax

    Ran for years and years and years:

    “I’m Earl Scheib and I’ll paint any car any color for only $29.95.”

    @SiubhanDuinne

    Robert Hall ads all over the radio dial in NYC area.

  189. 189.

    Memory Pallas

    *snore* sniff “Hey what’s that smell? Smells like? BACON! Just one thing smells like bacon and that’s BACON! baconbaconbaconbaconbacon, Where? THERE…in that bag. What’s in the bag? I CAN”T REEEAAAAD! Please please give me whats what’s in the bag!?! IT”S BACON!”
    “It’s not bacon its Beggin’ Strips. ”
    Pet treat (probably not as yummy as bacon) commercial from the 80’s. Live video from dog’s POV with a great voiceover.​​

  191. 191.

    prostratedragon

    Wwwoww, even later to the game than usual. Evidence that intrusive advertising is a global pandemic: The Icicle Thief (1989). In this Italian movie, an earnest young director strives mightily to presnt the classic movie of thr title on a commercial tv station. As the situation dissolves into an incomprehensible mashup, the director is pulled into the action clownishly, while a boy in the at-home audience builds a 1:30 scale Lego of St. Basil Cathedral.

  202. 202.

    Mai Naem mobile >44

    @Scout211: loved that hippy dippy ad. It was an international ad.

    There was an insurance ad(Farmers?) with the husband quietly talking on the phone in what looks like a basement and possibly at night. The wife walks down and assumes the guy is cheating on her and asks him who he’s talking to?

  204. 204.

    Memory Pallas

    I worked at a special effects studio in the 90s and we watched all super bowl commercials as a job requirement (we made some too.) This one was the pinnacle of CGI/live action combination in 1997. In terms of social progress it was more of a step backward, but it was thrilling and probably sold many cars. Relevant again today because of Barbie movie.

  205. 205.

    raven

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    Robert Hall Clothes

    Industry
    Retail

    Founded
    1937 [1]

    Founder
    Jacob Schwab [2][3]

    Defunct
    1977 [1]

    Fate
    Bankrupt

    Products
    Clothing

    Parent
    United Merchants and Manufacturers Inc.[1]

    Robert Hall Clothes, Inc., popularly known as Robert Hall, was an American retailer that flourished circa 1938–1977. Based in Connecticut, its warehouse-like stores were mostly concentrated in the New York, Chicago and Los Angeles metropolitan areas. According to a Time magazine story in 1949, the corporate name was an invention. The founder and head was garment merchant Jacob Schwab, who “plucked the name out of the air.”[2] It started as a single store in Waterbury, Connecticut in 1937.[2] Schwab had been treasurer of United Merchants and Manufacturers, the parent company of Robert Hall, since 1922

  207. 207.

    raven

     

    Robert Hall Clothes, Inc., popularly known as Robert Hall, was an American retailer that flourished circa 1938–1977. Based in Connecticut, its warehouse-like stores were mostly concentrated in the New York, Chicago and Los Angeles metropolitan areas. According to a Time magazine story in 1949, the corporate name was an invention. The founder and head was garment merchant Jacob Schwab, who “plucked the name out of the air.”[2] It started as a single store in Waterbury, Connecticut in 1937.[2] Schwab had been treasurer of United Merchants and Manufacturers, the parent company of Robert Hall, since 1922

  209. 209.

    JimV

    My ad-blocker (AdBlock Plus) lets me allow ads on a specific page (not the whole site) and refresh the page, with a couple of clicks. Often I get an interesting link from the Mad Biologist or Atrios which I wouldn’t be able to access without that capability. The next time I follow a link to the site the ads are blocked again.  Works for me. I submit this in case WaterLady didn’t know about this option, which I now feel silly for having entertained that assumption.

  211. 211.

    AM in NC

    Any New Orleanians here:

    “1825 Tulane!” Rosenberg’s Furniture

    And

    “Fight the Uglies” – LAS Aluminum Siding

  212. 212.

    FelonyGovt

    For some reason I remember this ad for Anacin pain reliever that shows a hammer hammering inside a head.

    ETA and there is a current commercial for Bark Box- WHY did they need to include the guy sitting on the toilet???

  218. 218.

    WaterGirl

    @JimV: Oh, I  can do that, too, with my ad blocker, but I won’t.  I feel like I’m being bullied when they are going to make me deal with all the crappy ads and all the busy-ness of what they’ve got going on.

    It’s on principle, I don’t want to reward their bad (bullying) behavior.

    I do not like bullies.

  223. 223.

    Cliosfanboy

    I’m on my phone, but there was a European ad with beetles having sex in a car that was funny. Was ot Fiat? VW?

  224. 224.

    Trivia Man

    @jackmac: and the national lampoon VW ad – “If teddy Kennedy drive a VW, he’d be president today”

    (Image of the car floating in a lake from the actual print ad)

  225. 225.

    Trivia Man

    @CliosFanBoy: as a beer historian, maybe you can answer a mystery for me. Earlier this year I was on vacation in San Francisco. Lounging in a park, I found a pull tab. I thought they stopped making those 40 years ago. Is it possible  it just sat there for 40 years? Do new beers use them at all?

  227. 227.

    prostratedragon

    @FelonyGovt:  Was it Bufferin that showed the trail of little pills flowing through a schematic of the g.i. system?

    In line with the ETA, I get incrwasingly hostile hearing at random from some vaguely idiotic person about what I can do with a peasized amount of something. If this thread were good for nothing else, it would be for letting me get that off my chest.

  228. 228.

    Steeplejack

    @frosty:

    Yes, “Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!” was drag racing in the ’60s. I used to hear the ads from San Antonio for some strip in New Braunfels. “Nitro funny cars!” Cool surf guitar riff in the background. And always a mention that some (varying) guy would be there with his souped-up custom car. Like Ed “Big Daddy” Roth and his Rat Fink Mobile. (Dunno if Roth actually ever did that, but he’s sort of the archetype.)

    We had a big discussion here on this some years back. I’ll see if I can look it up.

  233. 233.

    Kent

    @Villago Delenda Est:“We’re not playing the Ducks this week!”

    Another classic Rainier ad with Mickey Rooney!

    https://youtu.be/64-Ieeu7oIA?si=6AmJMg4Hp-3YLvK5

    For those not from the Northwest, Rainier Beer was from Seattle home of the UW Huskies.  The brewery was a landmark in south Seattle.   The perennial rival of the Huskies is the Oregon Ducks down south in Henry Weinhard beer territory.  so they were dissing the Ducks in a beer commercial.   And Weinhard commercials would diss the beers from Washington.  Although they spent a lot more time dissing California.

  234. 234.

    akita

    As a young public defender, prior to the start of jury selection for a trial, I always reminded myself of two commercial axioms:  “You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression,” and “Don’t ever let them see you sweat!”

  238. 238.

    Steeplejack

    @delphinium:

    There are certain ads, many of them for cars, that drive me nuts because I have to hunt down the music. “Pink Moon” was one of those. (I think Volkswagen did a companion ad around the same time with another great song, but I cannot remember it now for the life of me.)

    Here’s another one: Range Rover Evoque. It’s a great ad, and the music really hit me. Drove me nuts that the ad ended right when the song was taking off. It took me forever, but I think I traced it down to Paolo Conti. Not sure now. And now I want to hear the whole song again!

  239. 239.

    TheflipPsyd

    Local Philadelphia ad from 70s and 80s

    If you have a  passion for fashion

    And a craving for saving

    Take the wheel of your automobile

    And swing on down to Ideal.

    Located in Hammonton NJ

    Still remember the tune and words after 40 years

  243. 243.

    Maxim

    The earliest ad I can remember showed a man “driving” (but there was no car, it was just him hovering above the road in the proper seated position). He pulls into a gas station and they “service” him (cleaning his glasses instead of the windshield, etc.). I suppose it must have been an ad for whichever gas station it was.

    I remember two PSAs from when we went to visit family down in southern California one year. I only saw them once each, so I guess they made quite an impression. One was a white cartoon man with a crew cut, scowling and marching in place, with swastikas for pupils that spun around and around. There was a little jingle that ended, “And when you hate, who does it hurt? Hate hurts you, hate hurts you.” The other was anti-drug. Another animated spot; a young person makes friends with some anthropomorphized drugs, and when they try to say so long and walk away, the drugs drag them back, and then underground, and then there’s a tombstone. Probably 15 seconds each.

    I remember several of those that have been mentioned. Alka Seltzer, StarKist, Coke, etc. The cat herding one is one of my favorites, and the gay Santa. An ad that I haven’t seen mentioned yet was for a pizza chain; Round Table, I think. It’s very ableist, so it wouldn’t have aged well. (“Go to the shelf; get the can.”) The tagline was “I’m helping!”

    @japa21: Love that.

    Oh, and a commercial jingle from a paper — the Sacramento Bee? “444-5555 — that’s the number for the classifieds!”

  244. 244.

    Maxim

    “Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat”

    “Hot dogs, Armour hot dogs, the dogs kids love to bite”

    This one for Cracker Jack

    “Wouldn’t you like to be a Pepper too?”

    I was trying to find a car repair jingle that’s hovering at the edge of my brain, but it didn’t come up.

  247. 247.

    Craig

    Coming in late, cause after the Stillers win.  Has anyone mentioned the Mean Joe Green commercial for Coke! Legend! On the twisted side Bill for Quaaludes Cosby had a big commercial with -if I remember- kids and candles and Coke bottles/cans on a hill: Have a Coke and a Smile. At least Richard Pryor/Eddie Murphy got who he is. 

  249. 249.

    Glidwrith

    California Raisins: I heard it through the grapevine!

    And risking setting off a mayonnaise war: A sandwich just isn’t a sandwich without the cool creamy taste of Miracle Whip!

  250. 250.

    Glidwrith

    And risking the mayonnaise wars: A sandwich just isn’t a sandwich without the cool creamy taste of Miracle Whip!

  253. 253.

    Chris T.

    @frosty: For me, when I first moved to the SFBayArea, the weird thing was hearing commercials for Fry’s Electronics with the announcer speaking in the “SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY” rhythm-and-tonality sequence at the end. Computer parts being advertised like a monster truck rally? Who would have thought it!

    (As a computer nerd from the 1970s, I loved it…)

  255. 255.

    Shana

    @What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: when I cleaned out my parents’ house after Dad died I found a solidified box of Mr Bubble under the bathroom sink. It had been there since the 1960s and Dad died in 2013. Also found an evaporated bottle of merciracrame (I know that’s spelled) of similar contents

  259. 259.

    Ida Slapter

    @NotMax: Detroit is right across the river from Windsor, Ontario so we sometimes saw Canadian TV ads too. I’ve never seen one like this before or since, so maybe it originated from there.

    Red Rose also gave out little Wade ceramic animal figurines in its boxes. It was a thing
    My cousin has dozens on display from when we grew up in the 50s – 60s.

    Hah! I just looked on the website and you can still get a free figurine online with proof of purchase of a box. Tradition! And they make decaf! I may have to buy some.

    https://redrosetea.com

  260. 260.

    Watership

    @El Muneco:

    Yes yes yes! Cal Worthington and his dog spot! (variously a shark, a pig, an anteater … any animal but a dog).

    Also Earl Sheib auto paint w/ the tag …”I’ll paint any caaaaar, any color for $99.95!” (actually just looked at one from the 60s. Same tag, but they did it for $29.95. Wow)

  261. 261.

    Nelson

    There was a 90’s Listerine ad featuring “Tarzan Boy” by Baltimora; loved that song. The visual was a computer animated bottle of Listerine swinging through the jungle. For me, this was one on the early examples of the potential for computer animation.

    Also,…

    When commercials for mainstream products first started including gay and mixed race families, I originally was “Huh, that’s interesting.” Now I hardly notice. I think this is doing a good job of helping normalize these relationships for middle America.

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