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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.
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.
Delk
588-2300
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
WaterGirl
@Delk: If you google, you’ll see that both come up!
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
WaterGirl
@Trivia Man: With your nym, this post is tailer-made for you :-)
WaterGirl
@Trivia Man: Do not remember that one.
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.”
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.
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.
MattF
And here is the 20th anniversary version of that ad. The athlete has an additional small piece of gear.
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.
Alison Rose
@Trivia Man: My parents loved that one!
scav
Go see Cal, Go see Cal, Go see Cal!
He’ll stand on his head til his ears are turning red!
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.
gene108
The original Apple iPod ads from twenty years ago.
Grabbed my attention and a lot other people’s too. Made people see Apple as a cool hip trendy company all the cool kids wanted to hangout with.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DjFgMyDtKSU
West of the Rockies
@Trivia Man:
Ah, the Pace Picante bit.
dexwood
I also tune out ads. I see them, hear the jingle, see the images, but can’t tell you what they are selling.
MagdaInBlack
“Charley Says Love my Good ‘n’ Plenty” , the whole damn song, is etched in my earworm playlist.
Eta: childhood tv commercial.
Alison Rose
Can’t forget the Fabio ads for I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter.
Phylllis
@Trivia Man: ‘Git a rope’ is a standard response by hubby and me for almost any NYC mention.
West of the Rockies
OMG, the JB Whiskey commercial where the grandfather helps his AMAB grandkids present as female!!!
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@West of the Rockies: Yes that was one. The Budweiser Clydesdale bell jingling while they hum their jingle being the other.
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
Kent
For anyone who grew up in the Pacific Northwest in the 1970s and 1980s, the beer commercials, especially for Rainier and Henry Weinhards are the absolute best.
Rainier classic ads
https://youtu.be/l0Vab5kkjH0?si=96oh8b0gTQviNzmq
https://youtu.be/2U3ICX6saHc?si=8HWn2IEbTchOb0vt
And one of my all-time favorites: Henry Weinhard’s Beach Babes
https://youtu.be/JU-_Sn2cDwI?si=BZ3MLYCDSyxGSU-z
There are dozens more on youtube
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.”
Phylllis
I have fond memories of this lovely season’s greetings from CBS in the mid-60’s. I believe they resurrected it a few years ago.
Delk
Here comes the tricky part!
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).
Trivia Man
@Alison Rose: similar- “it’s not nice to fool Mother Nature” fake butter ads
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@bbleh: O O O Ozempic you know
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
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.
eclare
This one really tugs at the heart, Bear Bryant for South Central Bell.
https://www.google.com/search?q=bear+bryant+southern+bell+commercial&oq=bear+bryant+southern+bell&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCAgBEAAYFhgeMgYIABBFGDkyCAgBEAAYFhgeMgoIAhAAGIYDGIoFMgoIAxAAGIYDGIoFMgoIBBAAGIYDGIoF0gEIOTM0NGowajeoAgCwAgA&client=ms-android-verizon&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:3f0c6ace,vid:eVfMuGVZcGI,st:0
Villago Delenda Est
“I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.”
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
Albatrossity
Pepsodent.
And Soaky!
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”
WaterGirl
@Alison Rose: I haven’t clicked your link yet, but I remember that ad. The dog looks like a golden retriever, yes?
Omnes Omnibus
“Time to make the doughnuts.”
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.
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).
Freemark
Alex, you better be drinking your water!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhHD_5F1I7g
Scout211
Yuban 1970s Jim never has a second cup
So sexist and far too memorable.
Kifaru1
@Trivia Man: My husband and I remember that one.
Wyatt Salamanca
120 Classical Music Masterpieces
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIMFhPyNKDs
Orson Welles arguing with director and engineer while recording a radio commercial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol5RpDEzLzY
piratedan
one of my favorites:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk7yqlTMvp8 – herding cats
but I was always appreciative of this campaign = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_1ASmweXYs
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.
eclare
@Kent:
Not sure I “get” those commercials. Maybe those are specific to PNW.
Ah, I see you wrote that in your post.
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.
steppy
@Villago Delenda Est: And the Alka-Seltzer “Spicy Meatball” ad from 1969.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DGFqdlr8AErI&ved=2ahUKEwjuk-eYssSBAxUxlGoFHdLXAR0QwqsBegQIERAE&usg=AOvVaw1g8tNNgrnwUjirk3jDRD7g
Scout211
I loved this one back in the day:
I’d like to buy the world a coke
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.
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.
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: I think it was an Irish Setter. Same size roughly, but with that really pretty reddish-brown coat.
steppy
@frosty: Maaaple Grove Raaacewaaay!
WaterGirl
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: Okay, that one I remember!
Apparently when I was little I used to stand in front of the TV when that came on and rub my tummy or something they did in the ad.
japa21
Actually, although I have plenty of favorite ads accumulated in my 76 year old brain, my favorite isthis current one from Subaru.
eclare
@Scout211:
Me too!
Yutsano
“That’sa spicy meatballa!”
I don’t recall the antacid it was selling however.
(Of course beat to it at 51!)
Oh well. We’ll always have wine coolers.
Delk
You’re soaking in it…
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.
Kifaru1
How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop? https://www.google.com/search?q=tootsie+roll+how+many+licks+ad&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS721US721&oq=tootsie+roll+ad+licks&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0i22i30l2j0i390i650l4.25051j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#kpvalbx=_c8YQZZiZOdPU5NoP7Z-RyAU_34
bbleh
@Delk: “Dishwashing liquid?!?!11??” “Relaaaax …”
Phylllis
@Yutsano: Alka Seltzer.
Anonymous At Work
Anything by Ryan Reynolds. Sorry, but the man knows funny.
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
BellaPea
This is a new one, saw it last night while watching the UT-UTSA game on TV. If the link doesn’t work, it’s on You Tube as Meow Mix Boy Band commercial (with special guest appearance from Justin Timberlake):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3CWJVSDDxU
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.
stinger
The James Garner/Mariette Hartley Polaroid commercials. A series that went on for years.
Scout211
This one goes way, way back in the day. We would sing along, of course. LOL
I’d love to be an Oscar Meyer weiner
ETA: jingle correction
Scout211
@stinger: Oh, I loved those Polaroid commercials.
Phylllis
Bob Uecker’s Miller Lite commercial.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kent: “We’re not playing the Ducks this week!”
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.
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
steppy
There was a soda company in Philadelphia called Frank’s. In the 80’s, they had an ad featuring Patty Smyth of the band Scandal, and John McEnroe wife.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DVEJJumUq5hI&ved=2ahUKEwj5pc6jtMSBAxX6kWoFHVZPBR0Qjjh6BAgREAI&usg=AOvVaw0-J2e7_Evdm-JDmjfzqhqS
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.
lollipopguild
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: “And when they ask “who cut the cheese?” you can proudly say “I did!””
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.
steppy
@Kifaru1: One…Ta-hoooo…Thrrree…*CRUNCH*…Three.
eclare
@Scout211:
Also, “I love Bumblebee, Bumblebee tuna…”
Brachiator
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:
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.
Kristine
@stinger: I loved those (forgot the product. loved the ads)
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!”
steppy
@Abnormal Hiker:
The most rewarding pleasure in this whole world/For people who are having fun/Schaefer is the/One beer to have/When you’re having more than one.
Alison Rose
@steppy: I immediately said this in my head as soon as I saw the original comment :)
Timill
Being an immigrant-American: one from my childhood in the UK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3wacuIsdug
[Daddy, what’s half-a-crown?]
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
noncarborundum
I can still remember the 800 number for Sheraton reservations, which I learned from their jingle more than 50 years ago.
mrmoshpotato
Chicago-area ads:
Eagle Auto Insurance
Victory Auto Wreckers
Lincoln Park Zoo-oo-oo
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.
stinger
A Shirley Temple for modern times. Immediately sprang to mind when WaterGirl mentioned mixed race families.
SiubhanDuinne
@CaseyL:
And the one with the sweet, new, never-cooked-in-her-entire-life bride, who whipped up a Marshmallow Meat Loaf for her hubby.
TheOtherHank
Two all beef patties,
Special sauce, lettuce, cheese,
Pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun
Citizen Dave
@Trivia Man: The salsa ” New York City!” shtick is a big part of why I thought Orange Con Man would never be popular in the heartland. I was wrong but forever perplexed
That time Tom Waits sued Frito Lay and won $2.6 million.https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/when-tom-waits-sued-doritos/
Pete Downunder
I loved this Jeep ad with the border collie that figures out how to get his female owner to ditch her new boyfriend. https://youtu.be/u7Pn_m4C0tk?si=FdRt1JTo8tSFbd94
noncarborundum
“Crazy Eddie! His prices are inSAAAAANE!”
(NYC metro only?)
divF
Entemann’s bringing sugar-free baked goods down from Mount Sinai. You can eat cake!
Scout211
There’s not too many of us around here who would remember this one.
The first ever Barbie commercial in 1959!
mrmoshpotato
@Trivia Man: Haha, Pace.
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.
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?
stinger
An aspirin commercial with another adorable child. “Yeah, they are!”
Brachiator
@CaseyL:
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.
Delk
@mrmoshpotato: Hudson 3-2700
eclare
@Pete Downunder:
That is adorable!
stinger
@Scout211: Wow, I think I do remember that!
SiubhanDuinne
I loved the Bartles and Jaymes wine cooler commercials. Don’t think I ever actually tried the product, though.
divF
Stan Freberg’s ads for Sunsweet prunes. One with Ray Bradbury, and this one with a picky eater. They’re still rather badly wrinkled, you know.
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.
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
delphinium
Volkswagen had some fun car ads:
Da Da Da
Pink Moon
New beetle UFO
bbleh
The lonely Maytag repairman
EarthWindFire
@Kristine
And the ASPCA ones. I have to leave the room.
Old Dan and Little Ann
Crazy Eddie! The prices are INSANE
Edit. #98 beat me to it.
mrmoshpotato
@Tim Ellis: Wayne’s world, Wayne’s world, party time, excellent!
mrmoshpotato
@Villago Delenda Est: Ask your doctor if Ooga Booga Beluga is right for you!
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
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.
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.
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.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
“Mother, please! I’d rather do it myself!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GshovE9F3F8
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!!”
zhena gogolia
@noncarborundum: Wow.
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!
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!
Percysowner
The John Lewis Christmas Commercial with Elton John and The Gay Santa Commercial from Norway
gwangung
Joe izusu commercials were always fun for me.
EarthWindFire
Please don’t squeeze the Charmin
I don’t know if this one caused a similar kerfuffle, but I don’t think it’s aged well: Ancient Chinese Secret
Nelle
I got here late but have some favorites from New Zealand:
mrmoshpotato
@Anonymous At Work: The Mint Mobile commercials are hilarious.
Freemark
Who remembers Joe Isuzu?
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!”
NotMax
Scattershot sampling.
Bob & Ray’s Bert and Harry Piel
“It’s not how long you make it, it’s how you make it long.”
Joe Isuzu
John Houseman for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNqMQPnti4s"Smith Barney.
E.F. Hutton.
Karloff for Butter-Nut.
Philly area jingle: “Oh, there’s something about a Muntz TV. POplar 9-0303.”
PC vs. Mac
K-mart Xmas
CliosFanBoy
I wonder why this Calgone ad isn’t shown any more. Tis a puzzlement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djMjYgqFrrQ
And I actually remember this Mr. Bubble ad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDRtNuj-jNQ
The “Don’t Squeeze the Charmin” ads were so annoying that my parents refused to buy that brand.
zhena gogolia
@SiubhanDuinne: Wow, my father bought all his clothes at Robert Hall. They had them in Kansas City, so must have been a chain.
SiubhanDuinne
@Freemark:
Me! Me!
Trivia: the actor who portrayed him (whose name I’ve misplaced) was one of the Hare Krishna guys in Airplane!
There go two miscreants
@SiubhanDuinne: We had Robert Hall in Baltimore when I was a kid. Not sure when they disappeared. Same jingle, I think.
SiubhanDuinne
@zhena gogolia:
Oh, thanks. I think I’ve only ever known about them in Chicagoland. Did they have that jingle in KC?
lowtechcyclist
@SiubhanDuinne:
I remember that Robert Hall commercial from growing up in the DC area. (Had no clue what ‘low overhead’ meant, of course.)
zhena gogolia
Here’s the Mystery Date referenced by NotMax above.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9muUJczXc4
M31
Jim Hensen did some weirdly violent ads for a coffee brand:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvXYOFoOzZ4
lowtechcyclist
@CliosFanBoy:
“You better squeeze all the Charmin you can, when Mr. Whipple’s not around.” – Weird Al Yankovic, “Dare to be Stupid”
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.
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.
Alison Rose
Geico has had some great and some awful commercials (I fucking hate the gecko), but this one was probably my fave. GOOOOOOOOOLLLL!!!!
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.
zhena gogolia
@SiubhanDuinne:
Yep.
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)
Craig
The new toilet paper ads with the bears wiping their asses are creepy.
zhena gogolia
@SiubhanDuinne:
Alison Rose
@SiubhanDuinne: That was David Leisure! A name which sounds fake but apparently wasn’t?
mayim
Here in Maine, the Bangor Savings Bank ad from Christmas 1980 is a classic ~ kittens!
Alison Rose
@Craig: Agree. I mean, we all know one of the jobs of toilet paper is to clean crap from your ass, but we don’t need to address it quite so directly in the ads.
SiubhanDuinne
@zhena gogolia:
LOL, GMTA!
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.”
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)
SiubhanDuinne
@Alison Rose:
Right!! That’s it, thanks!
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
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.
SiubhanDuinne
@mayim:
Oh … my … gosh. That is too damned cute.
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.
piratedan
@SiubhanDuinne: my second link higher in the thread has an entire series of the Joe Isuzu commercials…
Kristine
@EarthWindFire:
At least they stopped using the Sarah McLachlan song–that was too much.
eclare
@Alison Rose:
That’s great! I’d also love to see golf get the soccer announcer treatment.
Alison Rose
@SiubhanDuinne: The Airplane! movies were on regular repeat in my house growing up :)
mrmoshpotato
@Craig:
So true.
eclare
@Craig:
Agree. Those ads are just…ugh.
SiubhanDuinne
@piratedan:
Thanks! Working my way up from the bottom, but I’ll find them.
eclare
@mayim:
So cute!
frosty
@frosty: Found it (thank you internet!) I heard it on Dr. Demento, from an album by the Conception Corporation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WflJ825ngjk
The original “Sunday etc” was from a DJ/Announcer named Jan Gabriel for US 30 Drag Strip in Indiana and other guys all over the US copied it. Here’s his obit:
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122527075
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
Kayla Rudbek
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: did you grow up in Minnesota as well?
And the ones that I remember are: “plop plop fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is Alka-seltzer to the rescue” and “Save big money at Menard’s”
NotMax
Several more variousities:
Hiney wine.
Jim Henson’s Wilkins and Wontkins.
Chock full o’Nuts.
John Cameron Swayze ad-libbing for Timex.
Berlitz Fritz.
“Knock on any Norge” (re-creation).
Saw Orson Welles mentioned above. Here he is after indulging copiously in the product.
CliosFanBoy
@kalakal:
I <LOVE that ad! Thank you for sharing it. (and that song is one of my all-time favorites as well.)
So, here is an American ad from the early 1970s for suitcases. With a much more excitable gorilla.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5sEIWlQO7A
mrmoshpotato
@kalakal: Hahaha! My favorite are ads that make you ask, “What the hell is that an ad for?!”
Ben Cisco
2023 and I’m still looking for what I was promised.
lowtechcyclist
@NotMax:
One of the greatest commercial lines ever.
mrmoshpotato
@Kayla Rudbek: “Save big money at Menard’s” is still around.
CliosFanBoy
Hebrew National hot dog ad.
We answer to a higher authority.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URfbjgnrYO0
WaterGirl
@CliosFanBoy: Oh my god, those ads are shockingly awful. Puzzlement, indeed!
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.
mrmoshpotato
@Ben Cisco: I still want size-adjusting clothes and automatic dog walking leashes. We’re far enough beyond 2015.
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.
Richard
Ed’s Cat Herders:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Herders
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx1jdgTs03U
WaterGirl
@mayim: @SiubhanDuinne: So sweet! I could watch that all day.
stinger
Liberty Mutual insurance has a bunch, some of which are great (some are emphatically not).
Not holding grudges: “How mature of them.”
Here’s a set of outtakes: Liberty Bibberty.
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.
kalakal
And the greatest pet adoption ad ever
Every home needs a Harvey
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.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: Oh, God, how could we forget James Mason for Thunderbird?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xY7mBQrzXU
WaterGirl
@Richard: That was great!
P.S. Welcome!
MagdaInBlack
@Memory Pallas: Yes! I used to do that voice “IT’S BACOOOOON!” when I gave the dogs treats ( regardless of the treat )
WaterGirl
@kalakal: That was awesome!
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato:
Yes!
WaterGirl
@Memory Pallas: Great job. I could hear the commercial as I read what you wrote.
eclare
@kalakal:
Awwww
WaterGirl
@kalakal: Clever!
NotMax
When toys were toys: Tonka.
Worked as well in print ads as on the tube: Levy’s rye bread.
raven
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?
Villago Delenda Est
@mrmoshpotato: Big Pharma probably spends more money on advertising than research.
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.
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
NotMax
U.K. ads? A smattering.
Heineken I.
Heineken II.
Turkish Delight.
Aliens!
First beans on the Moon.
Fruit & Nut.
And a tatery earworm.
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
eclare
@Villago Delenda Est:
They do. It’s not even close.
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.
Timill
@Mai Naem mobile >44: Jake from State Farm…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx6ZJ7Fm-A
Not to be confused with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t198m0YPwfw
AM in NC
Any New Orleanians here:
“1825 Tulane!” Rosenberg’s Furniture
And
“Fight the Uglies” – LAS Aluminum Siding
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???
NotMax
Weird insurance ads.
Ladder I.
Ladder II.
stinger
And of course the single funniest TV commercial of all time.
stinger
@Mai Naem mobile >44:
Oh, that was a good one!
@Timill:
Thanks for the link!
Freemark
@SiubhanDuinne:
David Leisure. He was also a regular on the TV show Empty Nest
Memory Pallas
@Memory Pallas:
this is one we worked on from around that time in 1996. Video quality not super great.
https://www.google.com/search?channel=fen&client=firefox-b-1-d&q=staue+of+liberty+looks+at+Oldsmobile#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:a55367ff,vid:MCPScVnfy1M,st:0
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.
Timill
Larn yahsel Bahston
Villago Delenda Est
On the subject of Rainier Beer ads, here’s an interesting video!
NotMax
Can’t leave out Hawaii.
Blue Wave.
Andy Bumatai.
Frank DeLima.
Don Ho.
Trivia Man
@Percysowner: those are both incredible, thank you
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?
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)
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?
Timill
Another UK advert: Handbuilt by Robots with an ending straight out of The Italian Job.
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.
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.
NotMax
And then there’s … Oddbins.
Penguins.
Vote!.
Have an Old Fashioned Whipmas.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack: Now I can hear the whole thing. “Sunday! Sunday! At Kansas City International Raceway!”
Steeplejack
Among current ads, I hate, hate, hate the multimedia off-Broadway production for Jardiance. And it’s on all the time on my bottom-feeding third-tier TV channels. “A little pill with a big story to tell!” I’m still not sure what it’s supposed to cure.
Freemark
@Memory Pallas:
Part of the same series, Top Gun
Kent
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.
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!”
Steeplejack
@japa21:
That is a great ad!
NotMax
Bert Lahr for Lay’s.
And again.
marklar
Very late to the party…was at Kol Nidre.
The one ad I remember very well from my childhood…Jacques Laperriere hawking “Instantine”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p_lomudSys
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!
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
Czar Chasm
This one has stuck in my head for so many years:
https://youtu.be/bYvLahRzabs?si=_Dv1yVfzinwWvWR4
Steeplejack
Yet another one: raunchy Smirnoff Ice commercial that eventually led me to Twelve Caesars’ “(I’m Gonna) Kick You Out.” Can’t find the original video—which was better, in my opinion—and it looks like they rebranded themselves at some point.
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
Wow, that’s a deep cut. I vaguely remember a young Dustin Hoffman in a VW Beetle ad.
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!”
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.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kent: If there is a single thing that unites Oregon and Washington, it’s disdain for California.
NotMax
Couple of innovative VW print ads from back when.
1959 —— 1962
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.
NotMax
No one made note of Gunilla Knutsson for Noxzema?
@Craig
For some reason made me recall the Joe Namath ad hawking pantyhose.
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!
Glidwrith
And risking the mayonnaise wars: A sandwich just isn’t a sandwich without the cool creamy taste of Miracle Whip!
NotMax
Half a Tbogg unit. Yay!
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Can’t believe I dredged this up! The music in the Range Rover ad (“The Scent,” high-def version) is a stripped down piece of Nicola Conte’s “Bossa per Due.”
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…)
WaterGirl
@TheflipPsyd: That would be the definition of a good ad!
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
Ida Slapter
Probably too late for anybody to see this, but I grew up in Detroit and this is still my favorite ad!
And I’d still drink Red Rose Tea if it was decaffeinated.
Impossible to make today because of PETA , etc but it’s still a treasure!
https://youtu.be/prVRwXAWFeA?si=JlkWSX618Sg1NdIv
NotMax
@Ida Slapter
That’s wild!
Nelson
@MagdaInBlack: Yeah. It’s longer “bacon” for me; it’s always “BACON! BACON!! BACON!!!”
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
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)
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.
Tehanu
never mind…