Ironically, I’ve heard that ad is actually considered kind of a flop in advertising circles (although I’d have to search for a cite). Because even though viewers love it, and it won a lot of awards when it first came out, it didn’t actually result in increased sales for Nissan. And it was expensive to produce. And it got them sued by Mattel.
How about commercials whose music you didn’t realize was a takeoff on a real song until much later in life:
Ahh, Joel Sedelmeyer! He really hit it out of the park with his commercials. In a landscape full of over-produced, slick ads with insincere actors, he would cast unknowns. Often (like never acted before, but just looked and acted quirky.
My Goodwill has huge signs “Swimwear”, “Formal Wear”, “Outer Wear”, and I always mentally pronounce them with a Russian accent ("Sveeeem Vare…") All because of my favorite ad of all time.
eta: and now I see kenobi beat me to it. Took me way too long to find it and type this. Oh, well, watch it twice!
(One reason I love it is that I saw a documentary on the history of commercials, and they interviewed the guy who had to show this to the Soviet embassy just to make sure they wouldn’t start an international incident. The ambassador was in stitches, all the Russian staff were crying with laughter. As soon as it was over, the ambassador tried to compose his face into a frown as he stiffly intoned “Is not funny.”)
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Love that commercial! And I also think “Russian accent” when reading signs in a store: “eveningk-vare,” and so on.
And that dramatic violin playing really adds a neat touch too.
The Got Milk? commercial with the Aaron Burr trivia question is very nostalgic for me. Probably still one of my favorites.
I find the commercial introducing the IBM Selectric to be pretty fascinating. It’s well before my time but I like it:
I had this toy:
It’s one of my favorites, too. One of the seminal books about my field, account planning (advertising strategy development), “Truth, Lies, & Advertising,” was written by Jon Steel, the strategist who helped develop that campaign, and it’s one of the big case studies in his book.
Have you seen this tribute to that ad?
My main TV watching age was the 80s-90s, but there were a few that stuck with me. The first were ones that had freakishly earwormy jingles that defied all efforts to eliminate them. Two from two different eras come to mind.
From 1984
From 1998 (okay, may not be as vintage as others, but 20 + years is good enough for us slightly younger ones).
And then ones that were completely, unrepentantly weird - a key factor of success in the 80s. I give you my favorite TV commercial (was actually several different similar spots) -
To this day, when something just freaking weird happens, I will sometimes say “Leeevises!” Not that anyone got it before we had the internet to send clips to explain (poorly).
Wait? That’s real? I thought it was somethinbg they made up for that one episode of L&O Criminal Intent. Goren used it to coerce the store owner to talk. It seemed over the top.
It was before my time, and I never saw the commercials contemporarily; but I had a Marx (?) M-16 and the OMA was typical of the time.
There was that entire series of Lite beer commercials.
A feel good advert from Pepsi:
Fast talking Fed Ex…classic.
The Grey Poupon commercial was ok…
This followup was epic
I still have not gotten this jingle out of my head. In fact, this was the first thing that popped into my head when I read the OP.
It’s been decades, but it’ll still get stuck my head without any obvious stimulus to trigger it.
MTV had a lot of great self promo spots. But my favorite was Jimmy the Cab Driver.
Probably one of my all time favorites! I used to drive my parents nuts singing this around the house…
I used to love these Stroh’s beer commercials featuring Alex, the golden retriever.
I wanted one of those!
Kent commercials are the ones that keep popping up in my head.
This Jeno’s pizza rolls commercial, directed by Stan Freberg, spoofs a popular commercial for Lark cigarettes, and as a bonus, references a famous crime-fighting duo in the old West.
I used to feel sorry for the gray haired old lady in a Anacin (?) commercial from way back when. When she tries to lend a hand in the kitchen, her daughter snaps, “Mother PLEASE, I’D RATHER DO IT MYSELF!!!”
Here’s two classics which ran in the UK (I don’t know if they reached the US):
(Guinness - Surfer (1999, UK) - YouTube)
Levi’s 501 commercial with Nick Kamen (Laundrette) (1985) - YouTube
When Volkswagen was producing the original Beetle, they used to tout how having the engine over the (rear) driving wheels gave better traction. They had a television commercial that showed the car (from the driver’s perspective) driving through a landscape completely covered in snow. There was no dialogue until the very end when the car pulled up to a large garage: “Do you ever wonder how the snowplow driver gets TO the snowplow? He drives a Volkswagen.”
According to Volkslore, people in Florida LOVED this commercial and would call their local TV stations to ask when it would be on.