Kids these days are missing a big part of shared experience: commercials. When we were growing up, there was no DVR. We had VCRs, sure, and fast forwarded through commercials if we taped something, but we rarely taped anything. We watched everything when it aired, and we only missed commercials to get food or take a leak. So there are commercials that are simply part of the DNA of the people who watched them over and over and over. Here are a few that come to mind.
Note: you’ll notice that some (most?) are regional. I’m sure they ran on local affiliate and independent stations at cut rates, during reruns of whatever syndicated show my brothers and I were watching for the millionth time.1
Please post your own choices in the comments (you may need to log in to embed).
I heard it was neither beautiful nor airy. It may have been mount, though.
Promotional consideration provided by…
It may have been the freshest, but I preferred Baskin Robbins. Although the ice cream cakes were the best.2
His tax evasion was INSANE! And geek alert: check out the Apple IIe at 1:20.
And to think, I just bought Junior Mints.
This song will be stuck in my head forever. Still, it’s better than I Just Called To Say I Love You.
The greatest PSA of all time:
My all time favorite PSA. “Why yes, you are prejudiced, ya little bastard.”
Wow, talk about being dragged down Memory Lane !! Oddly enough, I recall half of these but the rest are unfamiliar to me. Perhaps I stopped watching the right shows and missed them.
Missing from this list, however, is the immortal Johny Williams and his Classic Masterpieces commercial (“and did you know that this timeless melody is actually the Polovetsian Dance No. 6??”).
Also interesting were the Time for Timer PSA commercials that extolled the wonders of eating cheese and freezing juice. They were not as well produced as the SchoolHouse rock, but they made a lasting impression:
“Hanker for a hunk’a cheese”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3jgo5ea_zc
“Sunshine on a stick”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaVWM1mqG74&feature=related
They were shown often enough that I think we may all have caught them, no matter our generation.
I definitely remember the cheese one, but not the frozen juice. Apparently both were produced by the UCLA School of Public Health. The first video was even parodied in a family guy:
However, I do remember Mom making orange juice ice pops using Tupperware ice pop kit. (Apparently called “ice tups”: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=tupperware+ice+tups&aq=f&oq=&aqi=&start=0)
The ones that stick in my mind the most are:
Don’t drown your food:
Exercise your teeth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVG1OAz2t_c
And I remembered yet another NYC commercial jingle. Take the train to the plane!
Being a TV nerd growing up, I remember all of these, and started singing along with most of those jingles before the commercial was half over. You’re right though, some are regional. There’s no way anyone in Florida remembers that Mount Airy lodge one.
It almost sounds like Billy West in the “drown your food” commercial, but I think that was before he did any voice work.
ArchAngel – The juice/stick commercial was just as popular as the other ones. Look up “The Munchies”, another one in that category. The reason you don’t recall some of them is because THEY FAILED. America (me too) just got fatter and fatter. Even though eyes, arms, legs, on my food kind-of freaks me out. Take the egg in the “drown your food” commercial for example: Every time they slice it, a new set of body parts grows, or does the egg start with a set of four appendages that must be cut just right to separate them? Oh and they talked too. Great. I would HAVE to drown them to shut them up! (oh the horror!)
Anyway, I totally blame these uncool jingles for all my current health problems. When in doubt, blame the 80’s.
All these commercials are awesome. I remember every one of them.
By coincidence, I was looking at this one the other day:
When I saw “Tootsie” in the title, I immediately thought of this one: