This is pretty mundane and pointless so here goes.
What are your favourite memories of commercials from years ago? Or even little spot-lights on stuff?
Some of the ones I still remember are the goofy ones telling kids to be careful about what they put in their mouths and not to take presciption drugs without their parents permission and them there. The others I remember were on CBC… I’m sure others remember The Cat Came Back and Log Drivers Waltz.
I still remember the whole song from the don’t put it in your mouth commercial. You know the little puppets singing with one echoing
“Don’t you put it in your mouth
Don’t stuff it in your face
Though it might look good to eat
Like a muffin or a beet
If you don’t know just what it is
Remember boys and girls
Don’t put it in your mouth”
The old Alaska Airlines commercials were always funny to me. Often times they’d show (for a generic “competitor” airline, of course) exaggerated examples of the discomforts we are often prone to dealing with when traveling via air.
A few years ago there was a commercial for Honda that featured a singing cat sitting on a fence, and then sitting on top of a Honda. He didn’t start singing until he was sitting on the car.
I can’t think of any more, but I’m sure others will come along to post the ones I can’t recall right now.
There ain’t many. Let’s see…
OK, there was a taco shell manufacturer, damned if I can remember the name, let’s say it was “Juan Garcia’s Taco Shells”. And he comes on with taco in hand and touts the quality of his shells, how they are fresh and perfectly textured with just the right corn meal and…someone comes onscreen with his own taco, interrupting him to say “Nobody cares about the shell, hey say? It’s just a cover made out of corn meal. The important thing is good quality meat, sharp cheese, my excellent spices, fresh jalapeño, finely sliced onion…” --Juan Garcia lets him burble on a moment then says “OK, you eat yours and I’ll eat mine” and takes a bite of his taco. The intruder bites into his own and the shell disintegrates into little chips, raining taco meat and lettuce and cheese down the front of his shirt and onto the floor. Juan Garcia says “How was your taco?” Intruder looks down forlornly at the mess on his shirt and on the floor. Cut.
The Got Milk? commercial which was wordless, featuring a little boy on the porch steps with a spoonful of peanut butter which he feeds to his dog. The dog licks and licks and licks, repeatedly, and still has peanut butter on its tongue. It’s the sound of the licking that’s as funny as the action itself.
With the Christmas season approaching, I am reminiscing about the old Norelco Santa Claus commercial, where Santa is zooming along through the snow-covered hills and meadows in his shaver. Do they still show those old ads? I don’t watch TV anymore.
The Toys 'R Us Christmas ads from the '70s, featuring toys turning into snowflakes drifting down the screen - because it meant Christmas was coming.
A local furniture store’s ad had an announcer who could rattle off the list of locations in a single breath, in less than five seconds! It was better than the famous Federal Express ads of a few years later. “BaltimoreNationalPikeBaltimoreYorkRoadCockeysvilleOrdnanceRoadGlenBurnieandourgrandopeninginBurtonsvilleUSRoute29andRoute198!!”
“Roy Rogers! Come on in! Roy Rogers! We’ve got platters!”
Does anyone remember “We’ve got crab legs! Sea Galley!”? A dancing line of cooks and waiters, each wearing foam-rubber crab legs over his lower half!
Oh, I liked the Alaska Airlines ones too. SkyHigh Airlines was parody. The guy was on the phone tree and he kept getting transferred to a different computer. Finally he gets a human being and he asks her “are you a computer?” and she says brightly, “no, but I can connect you to one” and does.
I also like the Wheaties commercials
(baseball player) “before I swing for the bleacher seaties, I get the eaties for my wheaties”
OK, who hasn’t laughed to the Staples spot run every August and September featuring, yes, Christmas Music???
You hear the song It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year, showing a dad leaping in joy, followed by the two kids, looking like they’d just lost their best friends, moping along behind them?
Or the Sprint PCS ad, where the mom called the babysitter to ask “how are the kids,” but the babysitter heard flour the kids, and you see the two kids sitting next to Mom with flour on their faces and in their hair.
That reminds me of the AT&T ad back in the early days of deregulation and the possibility of using someone else for your long distance calls. The guy who kept getting a pay phone in the Fiji Islands every time he tried to make his call.
For months after that, I used to answer the phone “Baku Vanaka Beachside!”
Mean Joe Green. The little boy hands Mean Joe a Coke which he promptly chugs down. He then starts to walk away but turns and throws the little boy his football jersey.
Also, the “I’d like to teach the world to sing” commercials.
Isn’t there a parody of this one where the kid hands a sumo wrestler a coke and after the sumo wrestler chuggs it down he walks away, only to turn and throw the kid his dripping wet sumo-thong?
Sadly, I really liked the “Where’s the beef” commericals …
*Oh I wish I was already there
Instead of here
Playing this song.
Then I could have my chocolate shake
My cheeseburger
And also (whoops) and also fries.
And I would eat
My fries myself
And not give any
To my dumb brother
And fries and fries and fries and
Now my recital is almost done.
It wasn’t bad.
I’m still alive.
Now I can have my chocolate shake
My cheeseburger
And also (whoops) and also fries.*
Thank you, McDonalds, for supplying lyrics to the only song I can still play on the friggin’ piano.
