I just saw the ad showing the character “Speedy Alkaseltzer”-which hasn’t been seen for about 20 years.
It seems that the advertising community periodically re3cycles old ads, as a new generation comes up…what other advertising figures have made it back? Has “Mr. Clean” been spotted recently?
I would like to see the old lady who used to say “Where’s the beef”-I belive she is dead, alas.
Maybe GM has some plans to resurrect their olf Chevrolet jingle (“see the USA in your Chevrolet”).
Anybody spotted any more old ads making a comeback?
The current creepy “King” on Burger King ads was originally part of an 70’s advertising campaign for the “Burger King Kingdom,” a parallel to McDonalds “McDonaldland,” except with the King as an actual person instead of a big plastic head. This photo is the only one I can find of him online.
ETA: Here we go - found a video of the original. 
My god I used to watch that dreck when I was a toddler?
Not exactly the same thing, but the Lipton soft drink “Brisk” revives one of the company’s wordmarks from the '40s - though it was originally associated with their actual tea:
Did Mr. Clean* ever leave? I know he’s gotten a few makeovers over the years, but I don’t ever remember them using another campaign…I mean, when the name of your product is Mr. Clean, how do you advertise without using Mr. Clean?
*First name: Veritably. I’m not making that up.
The Pepsi Max commercial where a Pepsi deliveryman and a Coke Zero deliveryman trade sips of their respective colas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX0fmBHiZy4
It is a remake of a 1995 commercial (except with new elements like the cell phone recording the video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy4_XKYo0rQ
Mr. Proper in Russia (and various other markets). I was disappointed that he wasn’t Господин Чистый.
Mr. Clean was never spotted. He is always clean.
Charlie the Tuna was removed from Starkist ads in the mid-80s, but returned in 1999.
These haven’t come back, but I liked the characters.
Homer and J.R., Miller’s Outpost
Shadoe Stevens as Fred R. Rated (an others).
They need to run some of the commercials with Mr Whipple telling people not to squeeze the Charmin.
They could digitally clean them up, enhance the colors, and not look dated.
Vegemite have recently started re-using an old (black & white!) ad from The Fifties which has had some '90s Electric Colour splashes strategically added into it, resulting in something that looks like a cross between a Don Draper creation and a Dire Straits video.
The Tootsie roll commercial, with Mr Turtle & Mr Owl, that was first shown in the 70s, is still on the air.
And has never left, as near as I can tell.
I think the Spotmaker is due for a gritty reboot. And speaking of Calgon, although I haven’t seen it in a long time, that old “ancient chinese secret” commercial from the 70’s ran on and off well into the 90’s.
The current Jack-In-The-Box mascot is based on their old drive-thru speakers. I wonder if anyone under 40 has ever even seen one of those. (And yes, the buildings used to actually look like that).
I remember an ad in the 90’s for some cold medicine that was a take-off on the old Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups commercials. A husband and wife crash into each other in the hallway, and start arguing back and forth, “You got decongestant in my cough syrup!” “You got cough syrup in my decongestant!”.
The funniest reference to an old ad I heard recently was during the radio broadcast of a San Diego Chargers game. Just as the game kicks off, the announcer says, “Alright, time to make the doughnuts!”
They could always remake the Soviet Fashion Show, except set it in Saudi Arabia, and just have the same woman in the same burqa walk out.
Didn’t they try to bring back Joe Isuzu about ten years ago?
The king looks a lot like Will Ferrell to me. Maybe it’s more the mannerisms, though. If Ferrell were still on Saturday Night Live, a Burger King sketch would look awesome. (I don’t know if Funny or Die could pull it off, except as a BK promotion.)
Now a word from our sponsor:
Moved thread MPSIMS --> Cafe Society