We’ve all seen the ads for Halls Mentho-Lyptus cough drops – a white middle-aged middle-class American is suddenly transported to a steam bath where he’s flanked on either side by two huge, swarthy, bearded white dudes, who slap him on the shoulder and shout, in vaguely foreign accents, “Breathe, my friend!” “Breathe, my pasty friend!” Are these guys supposed to be Turks, Russians, or what?
Turkish Baths
I thought it was supposed to be a Scandinavian sauna.
I love those guys! I can’t help laughing hysterically whenever I see that ad. And now when someone has a coughing fit or chokes on something, I tend to say with all the foreign accent I can muster and gesticulating for effect, “Breathe, my pasty friend!”
Yes. I am easily amused. 
I think there should be a full-length Hollywood feature film about these guys. Make it all dramatic and shit. Score by John Williams. Get Philip Seymour Hoffman and Steve Buscemi involved as supporting characters. It can be a riveting epic.
Anyone got twenty million dollars they can lend me?
My sister always thought they were saying “tasty.” I guess she thought they were cannibals.
I LOVE that ad. It’s so over-the-top. That’s up there with the Speed Racer Volkswagen ad as one of my all time favorites.
I thought they were supposed to be Russian. But a Turkish bath makes more sense.
I thought they were saying “Tasty” the first few times I heard this ad as well.
Of course, I didn’t think they were cannibals… I just thought the two large men were going to make the little fella thier bitch. :eek:
Until I figured out what they were actually saying, I was kind of surprised they got that on TV.
They’re undoubtedly Russians. I don’t know how I’m so sure about it (haven’t seen the ad in two years) but it never crossed my mind that they could be something else. It must be the burlyness. Those are two seriously burly guys.
Russians are big on steam baths, too.
Whenever I saw this, I thought of the steambath scene in Red Heat when Schwarzennegger fought with that Mongolian guy.
I LOVE THAT COMMERCIAL. Finally, real looking men selling something!
Is it bad that I would pay money to keep one of those large…muscular…hairy…powerful men chained up in my bedroom?
Yeah, it’s bad, but I’d be waaaaay happy.
Let me have the other one in the same manner, and I don’t think there’d be anything wrong with that.
Yep, I read it as “Russian” right off the bat, too. Must indeed be something about that bear-ish quality, and the vaguely Boris Badenov accent.
Y’know, the last class of big Soviet nuclear subs actually had a steambath among the accommodations. That’s what I call being big on steambaths.
Think I can have one when you have had your wicked way with him? they both look like, big, hearty, muscular, sweaty…masculine…hairy, umm excuse me for a minute.
What’s really funny is that since the advent of that ad, I’ve met and become pretty good friends with someone who reminds me of those guys. He has an accent and everything (although his is Portuguese rather than Russian). But he’s big, burly, hairy, bearded, dark, brooding, deep-voiced, big, burly…um…
Damn…we have to visit Pittsburgh sometime…
Wow, I am glad I am not the only weirdo who really loves that commercial.
Like Cinnamon Girl I always look for the opportunity to say that to someone. I have been known to say it to patients with respiratory problems but they’re animals so they are not amused.
Oh, my. Well, considering the sort of person my sister is, if she had a thought like that, she’d kill herself.
No, that was a cloud of radiation leaking from the reactor. 