Who holds the record for being the spokesman for a product or company for the longest time? I’m going to say that guy on the Empire Carpets commercials. I swear that guy was doing commercials for Empire Carpets when I was a kid (a long time ago).
Human beings or characters? For characters, Bib, the Michelin Man, and Aunt Jemima both date from the 1890s. They’re generally considered among the longest, if not the longest, continuing characters.
Col. Sanders was promoting Kentucky Fried Chicken in the mid-1950s. He’s dead now, but still being used. For that matter, I think the *Saturday Evening Post * still claims Benjamin Franklin.
What about Jack Lalane, the exercise guy? He is as old as dirt, and has been slinging his exercise plan since I was a kid.
From here: http://www.jacklalanne.com/
In terms of numbers of commercials made, Dave Thomas holds the record. 800+
The guy with the bad dentures who plugs 1000 Flushes seems to have been around too long. Maybe it’s that the second commercial was too long.
And Billy Mays with his screaming about Oxy-Clean.
Dennis James plugged Old Gold cigarettes a long time until he finally relented to the Surgeon General’s campaign and made PSA about the dangers of smoking.
Dinah Shore was a big advocate of Chevrolet.
Kellogs’ Tony the Tiger has been around since forever.
Is that guy “Bert Wyman, your TV Ford man” still on in Chicagoland? He must be in his 90s if he is.
Jesse White was the lonely Maytag repairman for a very long time.
Since the 1950s, according to Thurl Ravenscroft’s obituaries. And although Tony is a gr…well, you know…spokesanimal, there are some older than him. As mentioned earlier, Bibendum (the Michelin Man) dates back to the 1890s. The Smith Brothers of cough drop fame are pretty old, too. As for live actors playing fictional characters, I believe the Guinness record is tied between Palmolive’s Madge the manicurist and Charmin’s Mr. Whipple.
Well I definitely remember the Empire Carpet guy when I first moved to Chicago in 1980 - so it’s been at least 25 years for him. Plus - that guy hasn’t changed a bit.
If I remember one phone number on my death bed, it’ll be 588-2300.
This thread has made me wonder if there’s some “character” type who makes it to multiple markets without ever getting to a national ad campaign. The Empire Carpet guy sounds like maybe being one of them.
On Nashville TV there have been a few who seem to have the attribute I’m thinking of:
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an old jewelry shop proprietor named Harold Shyer, who always had on handloads of bling and who would wag his finger at the camera and reel off, “If you don’t know diamonds, know your jeweler. And if Harold says it’s so. it’s so.”
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This bombastic used car peddler whose big grabber-words were “Gawjus” and “…but you’ve got to call me NOW.”
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Another used car dealer who looked like a snake oil salesman whose line always included “…and if you didn’t but it at <sponsor’s name>, you probably paid too much.”
The Jim Varney character Ernest that went on to “fame” and fortune was originally a shill for a local dairy. I believe he became franchised in other markets soon thereafter and eventually made movies. IIRC he was from Kentucky, but I’ll check IMDB to be sure.
I do know that whenever I travel and watch TV in other locales, there’s always some commercial or promo (or even the themes and catch-phrases used by the stations themselves) that are common to multiple markets, as if they buy those things from some shop or something like it.
I did a little Googling, and the Empire Carpet guy is named Lynn Hauldren. A WWII veteran, he’s been doing the ads since 1973 according to this site. There an entry on that site dated yesterday that says Hauldren just passed away, however I haven’t found anything to confirm that.
Here’s a CBS 2 news article on him from this past May: http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/local_story_150181822.html
Eight-hundred-588-2300. Empire!
Today.
Paul Harvey seems to have been shilling the same old crap on his shows forever. But maybe it just seems like forever. (I don’t listen to him but I have these relatives that I visit …)
I think the last Empire Carpet commercial I saw “he” was an animated figure. Maybe he did pass away, but now they are using a cartoon character that looks just like him. There must be a new saying in all of this, something like … old carpet baggers never die, they just morph into animation. 