The ones I remember most fondly were the public service announcements of the early '60’s. Seat belts were just coming into vogue then and I remember a men’s chorus singing, “Buckle up for safety, buckle up!” Smokey the Bear would tell us that only I could prevent forest fires. Also, we were reminded that “Every litter bit hurts.” In other words, don’t dump your trash wherever the heck you please. That’s what trash cans are for.
I remember Josephine the Plumber but not which drain cleaner she hawked. Probably Drano. Even at the tender age of 6 or 7, I realized that she held a nontraditional job for a woman. She was sort of my role model back then.
The coolest commercial was for Shell gasoline. There were a series of them that all ended with a car bursting through the center of the scene, which had suddenly, seamlessy, become a giant paper panel. I never expected it. I think even nowadays it would be an impressive special effect.
Speaking of cars, I remember the “Wide-Track Pontiac” of the mid-sixties and that we were encouraged to “See the USA in a Chevrolet.”
The toys I remember advertised most fondly were Slinky and Silly Putty. The part where the Slinky walked down stairs and the Silly Putty lifting the ink off of comic strips impressed me the most.
I was an original viewer of the commercial that asked, “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?”
Oh, and I remember John Cameron Swayze demonstrating in various ways that “Timex takes a licking but keeps on ticking.”
I remember a commercial for I think Right Guard deodorant where a man opens a medicine chest and there is another man looking through the other side, the dialogue always started with the phrase “Hi, guy!”
I also remember a commercial for beer (maybe malt liqour?). They were wordless each one featured a man calmly pouring and drinking a beer while narrowly avoiding catastrophe. For example, the front of a house would fall on him, but he would be seated so that an open window would keep him from being crushed. The commercials had a whistled tune that I can still remember.
Bonomo Turkish Taffy; Here’s a place for all you’d ever want to know about it. Ahhh, the good old days!
Doan’s Pills – I was surprised to find out these are still around, but yup, they are. What is most memorable about these commercials to me is the tag line “with gentle diuretic action to the KIDNEYS.” I was pretty much an adult before I realized what diuretic action was, never mind that the action was not for the KIDDIES.
I’ll place my first ones in the early 50’s on somebody else’s TV, since we didn’t have our first set until 55. Lucky Strike on Your Hit Parade. Others from that era:
Bardahl
Mohawk Carpet
Carling’s Black Label beer
Miller… High Life
Schick razors
Brylcreem
Revlon cosmetics
Kaiser foil (it’s quilted)
Old Gold cigarettes
Chesterfields
Pall Mall cigarettes (outstanding…and they are mild)
M&M’s
Kellogg’s Sugar Corn Pops
(I’ll leave room for others, but I could go on like this for quite a while)
Commercial for Good-N-Plenty candy played during the morning cartoon programs in the mid-to late sixties:
*
Once upon a time there was an en-gin-eer,
Choo Choo Charlie was his name, we hear.
He had an engine, and he sure had fun!
He used Good-N-Plenty candy to make his train run.
Charlie says,
Love my Good-N-Plenty!
Charlie says,
Really rings the bell! (Ding!)
Charlie says,
Love my Good-N Plenty
Don’t know any other candy that I love so well!
Good-n-plenty, good-n-plenty, good-n-plenty, good-n-plenty…*
The earliest I can seem to remember are for Brylcreem and Pepsodent:
Brylcreem!
A little dab’ll do ya!
Use more
Only if ya dare!
But watch out!
The gals will all pursue ya!
They’ll love to stick their fingers in your hair! *
Brycreem was a hair oil for men. It’s still made, but I don’t recall seeing it in stores anywhere (not that I look for it.) The jingle accompanied a stop-motion animation ad which I thought was really well done, but of course I was only a kid at the time.
You’ll wonder where the yellow went
When you brush your teeth with Pepsodent. *
How come I can remember this stuff, but I can’t remember my basic geometry or chemistry from high school??!?
I believe the earliest I recall well was the commercial for Mr. Bubble. It was animated by the same folks who did Mr. Magoo and featured a little boy in the bathtub while being babysat by his Magoo-sighted grandma.
The boy would use the suds to construct a beard or some dog ears and fool grandma into thinking a man or “Finky” the dog had gotten into the bathtub.
“Madam, how do you do?”
“A man! Operator, there’s a man in the bathtub!”
“Grandma, it’s just me!”
“Why, so it is, and you’re so clean, your mother won’t know you!”
Hey! I got color TV
RCA Victor color TV
I know what I’ve been missing now
WOW!
I got color TV!
I always thought it was weird that they advertised cigars during my kids’ shows:
A hundred thousand times a day
Someone lights up a Santa Fe!
(Then someone’s cigar would get shmooshed and the announcer would chime in with “Well, maybe 99,999…”)
Woodsy the Owl…“Give a hoot! Don’t pollute!” And for some odd reason, I have a strong memory of the Calgon “Ancient Chinese secret, huh!” commercial. Also the Dolly Madison ads that ran only during the Charlie Brown specials on CBS. Those ads were very effective, at least to me!
Also, for some reason when I was about 4 or 5, I began to memorize and parrot back a life insurance ad that I believe Ed McMahon starred in…“you cannot be turned down…” My mother found that very odd, indeed…
I remember the tootsie pop commercials and the Mr. Bubble commercials too.
I also remember Madge soaking her customer’s fingernails in Palmolive.
“You’re soaking in it”
“DISHWASHING LIQUID?!?”
“Relax, it’s Palmolive.”
“Mild?”
“More than just mild, it’s (something something)”
Pearl Drops tooth polish commercial with the hot blonde licking her teeth. It aired during that pre-pubescent time when my sexuality was just beginning to form and the provacative tooth-licking really got my attention.
Alka-Seltzer’s plop-plop, fizz-fizz commercials.
Pepto-Bismal “I can’t believe I ate the whooole thing”
Ring-Around-The-Collar. I think the product was Whisk, but I’m not sure.
