One of my all time favorite was an ad for a chain of trade schools that featured a dopey looking guy talking about how great his life was after he went to the “Flurbner School of Cheese Straightening” or whatever it was. The commercial would end with him looking straight at the camera and saying “No wonder I’m so well paid!” in a really asinine/pseudo-sincere voice.
Plunging like stones from a slingshot on Mars.
The Kodak commercial, showing a young family man planning to cut down an evergreen tree in his yard…he looks at some pictures his parents took of him planting the tree, when he was little. The commercial ends with the man, his wife, and their own kids decorating the tree–still stuck in the ground outside. My eyes get teary whenever I even think about it…
This isn’t really a commercial that I miss, but I thought it had a powerful image:
It’s the Xmas season following the Fall of the Berlin Wall.
You see people hammering and chipping on the Wall, probably to get a souvenir, and metaphorically to “aid” in its eventual removal.
The voiceover is saying (to the “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s 9th) “In this season of giving, FREEDOM is the greatest gift,” or something like that.
Chanel No. 5 perfume commercials. Any and all. I’m glad they’re showing one this season (little red riding hood and the wolf). Just gorgeous!
I sometimes miss the commercials with the Pillsbury Doughboy. I usually get them after two or three shots, though.
“That’s entertainment!” —Vlad the Impaler
There’s a really cheesy one I remember from growing up in the “Chicagoland” area. It’s for a local junkyard called (I think) Victory Auto Wreckers and it would open with a guy walking up to a total beater and when he opens the door it comes off in his hand and clatters to the ground. The voice-over booms “That old car is worth money!” and the next scene is some guy handing him a fanned out handful of bills as the pathetic car is towed away. It was so priceless the look on the guy’s face as the car door falls away. LOL! I was chatting online with some guy in Chicago who swore they still show this!!! Is it true? That was always a fave of mine.
Vogue, yep they still show it and I used to watch that commercial when I was 5 years old and watching Underdog. It’s for Victory auto wreckers. I also once counted the amount of cash he gives the other guy and it’s like $45.00 or so. A twenty, a ten, and three fives or something like that.
That said, I heard a Budget rental car radio commercial once and have never heard it again. It was some calm voiced announcer saying:
“Did you see that? That guy just cut you off. What a jerk. But you don’t care, do you? Now, if you had rented a Ford Ranger for only $19.99 per day from Budget, you could give that guy the finger while you run him off the road and watch him crash into a flaming wreck in a ditch. Of course, we at Budget would never condone that you do something like that…
But it’s nice to know you could.”
First time I heard that, I thought “wow, that was pretty amusing.” I also thought “Bet that gets pulled in under a day.” I guess it did although they have other commercials with the same guy.
I also kind of miss the jeans commercials with the girl taking all the quarters out of the laundry room coin changer so the guy would have to ask her for change and the guy in the coffee shop drinking 18 pots of coffee while he gets up the courage to ask out the waitress. For a cup of coffee.
“I guess one person can make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”
Actually, I do miss one commercial I once saw on MTV or someplace. I only saw it once, and I don’t know what it was for, but it opens up with an announcer saying “…and now, Ms. something-or-other will dance for you!” Some funky music starts playing, and this really pretty girl comes on and does a very sexual dance, with lots of up-the-skirt shots and turning her back to the camera and opening her shirt. Finally, she turns around, flashes the camera, and surprise! She’s a he! As I said before, I never saw it again. But damn! He sure was pretty!
“That’s entertainment!” —Vlad the Impaler