Are they still being shown? I remember the ones with the C & H lyrics to the tune of Pearly Shells from the '70s and '80s, but I can’t remember seeing any C & H commercials recently. Maybe, if they’re being shown, they’re just not as memorable as the Pearly Shells ones?
I haven’t seen a C&H commercial since I was a kid.
Perusing the Wikipedia page, it may have something to do with the following:
C&H “operated from 1921 to 1993 as an agricultural cooperative marketing association owned by the member sugar companies in Hawaii. In 1993, the member companies sold their interests in C&H to Alexander & Baldwin in Honolulu, and the refining company’s status changed from a cooperative to a corporation.”
I never understood the point of advertising staples. Sugar is sugar, flour is flour. I can’t imagine the profit margin is very high on these things compared to prepared foods.
There are points to advertising staples.
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It’s called marketing.
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It’s called product differentiation.
There are (and I learned this from the Straight Dope books - Thanks Uncle Cecil) three type of sugars that can be used in cooking: Corn, Cane, and Beet.
Many sugar producers today use a mix of cane and beet or cane and corn to take advantages of fluctuations in commodity prices).
Each sugar has a distinctive taste and glycemic index (Sugar rush).
Two selling points that come from the commercials, as memory serves me:
- It’s pure cane sugar (not a mix)
- It comes from the United States.
Prepared foods? Bite your tongue. LOL
Well, ministryman already noted why you would advertise cane sugar (to try to encourage use of it over other sweeteners). In addition, in the case of C&H, they were, at the time, competing with other name-brand sugars (such as Domino), as well as the private-label store brands. They were probably more expensive than their competitors, and they wanted to create a reason for consumers to choose C&H over less-expensive alternatives.
I don’t recall any sugar commercial campaigns in years, let alone a C&H one. But thanks, now the jingle is stuck in my head. 
The one set to Pearly Shells.
That song was before my time, and I never knew the tune used by C&H was from an actual song until I picked up a CD by Big Kahuna and the Copa Cat Pack ten years ago.
The jingle from the first color ad. But the kids trading sugar cane for shih-tzu puppies is just about the cutest thing ever. Don’t remember that one…
I enjoyed these commercials as a kid. Happy people, pretty scenery, pleasant music, and sugar! Unlike most advertising jingles, I don’t even mind this one being seared into my mind.
- As a kid, I had no idea what was supposed to be special about cane sugar as opposed to any other kind, but I knew it must be special or they wouldn’t be mentioning it!
- Hawaii wasn’t exactly Nebraska, though. Although I was aware Hawaii was a state and it was less foreign than, say, China, it was certainly more exotic than, say, Canada. Note the commercials feature Polynesians, not Anglos. I think they’re selling the unspoiled tropical paradise association as much or more than the “made in America” aspect.
To my ears they all (except the first one) sound like variations on the same theme.