Commercials that had a continuing story line.

Cafe Society
1

They don’t seem to have these much any more, but I remember back in the day when they’d sometimes make commercials that had ongoing, continuing story lines.
Now, I’m not talking about commercials in a series, I’m talking about ones that actually had the start of a story and that had other commercials continue the same story.

For example, the Budweiser frogs…and later the lizards joining, eventually showing jealousy, and eventually planning to get rid of the frogs through nefarious purposes (even hiring a ferret for a few commercials, at one point). None of this happened in just one or two commercials., though…no, it went on for at least six or eight or ten. A lot of them, over about a year or so…
And then I’m reminded of an early 90s series of GI Joe commercials that featured live action actors in small scenes, each of them ending in “To be continued…” for quite a bit. There were at least four that I know of, but maybe more (Here was the first one, in fact).
Then I remember when Energizer did two or three commercials (two or three that I know about, but it might have been more) where a hired assassin came in to try to stop the bunny once and for all.
Oh, and there was another three parter one where everyone kept passing along a dime in a Sprint commercial (I think it was Sprint, but it may have been AT&T).
And lastly, every year around the Superbowl, they’d have the ongoing saga of the Bud Bowl being played out for five or six years, and have continuing commercials showing the game as it progressed.
Anyway, I was just reminded of “ongoing story line continuing” commercials with this new series by Prius…“The Longest Drive” ones. So far it’s been featured in two or three and they are mildly interesting. They feature the cops trying to capture a Prius with four people inside.

Anyone else remember any examples of commercials that had continuing or ongoing story features? Not really talking about two parters…after all, there has been many times that some cereal commercials like Trix or Lucky Charms has ended in “To Be Continued” due to a contest they were running or something like that…
…I’m talking about commercials that have at least three or more in an ongoing arc that continues one to the next, overall.

2

Taster’s Choice (Nescafe Gold in the UK) coffee in the early 80s, starring Anthony Stewart Head pre-Buffy. Here’s an example.

3

In Australia that would be the AAMI car insurance “Kiss Me Ketut” campaign. Over several ads it told the story of Rhonda and her Bali lover Ketut. And later Trent Toogood complicated matters. Several phrases from the scripts rose to common usage. A racehorse was later named Kiss Me Ketut.

4

The Rhonda - Ketut sag can be found here.

5

One of the most famous was the Old Home Bread series about a romance between a trucker and a truck stop waitress, created by C.W. McCall of “Convoy” fame. When they first ran, they were supposedly so successful papers in the area would list commercial premiere times!

6

The Gold Blend commercials ran from 1987 to 1983 in the U.K. They were remade using the same couple in the U.S. from 1990 to 1997 where the coffee was called Taster’s Choice. They changed their accents and the storylines were slightly different:

7

The old James Garner, Mariette Hartley Poloroid commercials come to mind first to me.

8

How about the recent Toyota Prius commercials with the bank robbers.

I get what they are going after “still great mileage, now has some sportiness”, but I’m not sure using it as a getaway car is the best way to covey that.

Brian