Some men’s hair product from the late 60s. A guy in a car would say something ( I forgot what ) and his sexy looking girlfriend would growl in a sultry tone something like “You cut your hair and I’ll strip your gears!” and then break into a song/jingle about said product with the chorus “I love it long…” ( the hair, that is ) 
I barely remember the end of the 1950s, but I recall all of these except the Black Label one.
It’s not technically a commercial, but the end credits for Huckleberry Hound were basically an extended ad for Kellogg’s cereals, featuring the mascots for Rice Krispies (the elves Snap, Crackle, and Pop), Kellogg’s corn flakes (the rooster), Sugar Frosted Flakers (Tony the Tiger), Sugar Frosted Rice (remember THAT? Tony’s son), Sugar Smacks (Sammy the Seal), and Sugar Pops (the prairie dog).
While a Bod Squad PSA and not a commercial “Don’t Drown Your Food” or “Yuck Mouth” are the earliest I can think of. ABC PSA from 1974 it looks like.
This seems like the right place to call attention to this amazing Rice Krispies jingle with three-part counterpoint. I won’t say this was the first commercial I remember seeing, although I probably did see it when I was a little kid. But I was only made aware of its amazing musical achievement when I heard it performed live by a singing group a few years ago.
I’m not sure which one I saw first, but the ads I seem to remember best were for patent medicines and grooming products: Geritol, Pepto-Bismol, Brylcreem, Nair, Anacin, Kaopectate, Absorbine Jr., Mum deodorant, Bufferin, Alka-seltzer, etc.
Maybe it was because they all seemed so adult and unfamiliar and just downright weird.
Also, Ayds diet candies. I wonder how they could have ever possibly gone out of business?
Pabst Blue Ribbon beer on thursday night boxing. Brill Cream for the hair was another one.
Anyone here from the “Coastal Empire” region of Savannah GA and surroundings? Way back in the late 1960s there were local TV ads for the Hixon Battery Company. The ad would start by showing a drawing of a tough-looking ugly mug and the voice-over would say: “You wanna’ start somethin’?” “YEAH!” “Then get a Hixon”. 
Give it to Mikey he eat anything!
I fell for the exact same thing! I couldn’t believe it when the bubbles just sat there, and my mom told me I still had to scrub & then wipe anyway. Like, what’s the point, man?
Oldest one I recall: the early 80s Ford jingle. I just barely recall getting excited when the commercial came on, because I could sing/howl along with the end:
“Have you driven a Forrrrrrrrd … lately?”
(Man, so many of the best jingles look absolutely dumb, when written out like this.)
Oh, last one: I still remember the Lucky Charms one. Chatting with my current b.f. who’s 7 years younger about it … and he recalled a completely different jingle!
I guess when they added red balloons - and then all the heathen barbarian crap later - they changed the order around, too?
Cuz it’s supposed to be:
Pink hearts
Orange stars
Yellow moons
Green clover
Blue diamonds
AND
Purple horse shoes
… in fucking rainbow order like the baby Jesus intended. The version he sang, which would be very late 80s or possibly first years of the 90s, was all muddled around and out of vaguely ROY G BIV order.
I guess I never noticed that!
I remember when it was just “Pink hearts, yellow moons, orange stars, and green clovers.”
Then they added “…and new blue diamonds!”
Only Mustang makes it happen
Only Mustang makes it great
Mustang moves you, Mustang grooves you
Mustang, Mustang, '68!
I can still sing that. But I remember some great cigarette ad songs from before that.
Puffed wheat or puffed rice, one of them. I was 4 years old and watched the Howdy Doody show, and there was always a live commercial by the cereal sponsor - right in the middle of the show. A big cannon was brought out and Clarabelle the Clown climbed in, and was to be shot out of that cannon. (along with the cereal, I guess) . I would run out of the room and hide for 5 minutes till I determined it would be safe to go back and watch the rest of the show. I was utterly terrified poor Clarabelle would be rendered into bloody chunks all over the Howdy Doody set.
I’m not as old as a lot in this thread, the earliest commercials I remember would be from the late 70’s/early 80’s. Probably one of these (some already mentioned), though I don’t know the dates these came out or when I first saw them:
- Mikey from Life cereal.
- The crying Indian PSA.
- Calgon “ancient Chinese secret”.
- Palmolive dish detergent commercial with Madge (“you’re soaking in it!”)
I grew up in the Detroit area, and a local commercial from the early 80’s I still remember is for another car dealer: Mel Farr Superstar. There was another car dealership (though I don’t remember the name) where the commercial ended with a cartoon cowboy and dog singing “Me and dawg want you to go to Telegraph road…” One last Detroit commercial from the mid-80’s that still sticks in my head was for the Detroit Zoo, and the animals are all talking like actors preparing to go on stage.
Don’t know the exact year but it was a commercial for the sneaker brand “P.F. Flyers”. There was some boy/man hanging from a rope by his leg from a tower and someone with PF Flyers runs off to get help. I was little and the guy hanging disturbed me immensely, hence the memory. There was also a commercial for Mr. Bubble where some kid a tub torments his nearly blind grandmother by pretending to be different people (and a dog) by use of the foam from the bubble bath. I think that one is/was on youtube.
Thinking back, there was Micrin Mouthwash, there was Brylcreem and Williams Lectric Shave.
I seem.to remember Prell shampoo with a pearl, but that might be a hallucinogenic creation on my part.
Nope, that was a real thing. I don’t remember what the point of it was; maybe that the shampoo was thick enough to make a pearl float in it.
No, the pearl didn’t float, it just sank verrrrrry slowly.
And now that I think about it, they compared it sinking in Prell with another pearl sinking in a different shampoo. Because clearly thick shampoo is better than thin. :dubious:
That I actually saw run on live TV? Probably “Mikey.” The original spot pre-dates my birth by 5-6 years, but they were still running it well into the 80s.
I don’t recall the whole commercials, but there were a series of them that ended with the booming voice singing HUDSON THREE TWO SEVEN HUNDRED