Ads that linger forever

Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Mystery Worship Editor
edited March 28 in Heaven
The very best ads linger in memory forever, even (in some cases) after the product advertised is long gone.

Who can forget?
  • OJ Simpson falling out of the sky into the driver's seat of a convertible, while "Let Hertz put you in the driver's seat" plays in the background?
  • "Mikey likes it" as a testimonial for a certain breakfast cereal? (Giving rise to rumors about poor Mikey's untimely demise.)
  • "I'd walk a mile for a Camel" as a testimonial for a certain cigarette?
  • "I can't believe I ate the whole thing!" pushing a certain remedy for acid indigestion?

What ads will you never forget?
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Comments

  • SparrowSparrow Shipmate
    The aliens advertising Smash instant mash.

    The chimps advertising PG tips teabags.

    The radioactive glowing kid on his way to school after eating Ready-Brek for breakfast.

    The delivery boy pushing his bike up the hill advertising Hovis bread.
  • The Hovis ad is particularly irritating as the voiceover is in a Yorkshire accent and the hill is in fact Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset.

    The ones that stick are the songs, apologies for the earworms:
    Nuts whole hazelnuts, Cadbury's take them and cover them in chocolate
    Just one Cornetto
    Everyone's a fruit and nut case, which I hadn't realised was Frank Muir
  • jedijudyjedijudy Heaven Host, 8th Day Host
    Plop plop, fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is!

    Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener, that is what I'd truly like to be!

    I have a friend in Northern Ireland who streams, and sometimes I join her. We sing a lot of these ad jingles during her streams (and other silly things) which seems to amuse her viewers!
  • RicardusRicardus Shipmate
    The advert for some kind of trainers that featured a guy being chased around the town by a disembodied belly to a background of 'Belly's gonna get you, belly's gonna get you' ... because I was about 11 years old at the time and that was the most hilarious thing ever.
  • EutychusEutychus Shipmate
    For the Londoners and radio listeners among us:

    The Queensway Big Q sale must end soon.

    #Barrats, Barrats, come to Barrats, Barrats liquormart, yeah#

    #Come to Vogue Interiors for furniture superior, Vogue cash and carry, furniturely yours#
  • One from way back that's always stuck in the mind:

    Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet
  • LydaLyda Shipmate
    edited March 28
    "Cal Worthington and his dog Spot." Ford franchise owner who walks around the lot with large wild animals, starting with a tiger on a leash. Southern California business.

    "Western Airlines, the OHn-ly way to fly!" Debonair bird relaxing on top of an airliner.

    "Where's the beef?!" Wendy's burger commercial. Very tiny, very irate old lady peers under a hamburger bun at a practically non-existent patty.

    "Parts is parts." Another Wendy's commercial where someone questions what goes into a processed chicken sandwich.
  • The Hovis ad is particularly irritating as the voiceover is in a Yorkshire accent and the hill is in fact Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset.

    The ones that stick are the songs, apologies for the earworms:
    Nuts whole hazelnuts, Cadbury's take them and cover them in chocolate
    Just one Cornetto
    Everyone's a fruit and nut case, which I hadn't realised was Frank Muir

    Yup! I remember them all (no matter how hard I try to forget them). Reel bread! Reel bu'er!
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Mystery Worship Editor
    Lyda wrote: »
    "Where's the beef?!" Wendy's burger commercial. Very tiny, very irate old lady peers under a hamburger bun at a practically non-existent patty.
    The late great Clara Peller.

    After her moment of fame, she had a bit part or two in some decidedly B movies, including "The Stuff", about a dessert resembling vanilla ice cream that engulfed and smothered anyone who tried to eat it. She's sitting in a restaurant with an old gent who asks her, "Enjoying the meal?" to which she replies, "Where's the Stuff?"
  • PriscillaPriscilla Shipmate
    Carling’s Black Label - I bet he drinks Carling Black Label.
    Darllenwr and I were talking about this when he was loading the washing machine the other morning - no, he doesn’t drink CBL!
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    The ones from the very dawn of commercial TV (in the UK, the late 50s). There were relatively few ads plus there was no remote with a mute button (you actually had to walk across the room and twiddle a button on the set!) I can still recite the crime prevention one - “I don’t understand why Rufus didn’t bark!” “Don’t blame Rufus. Blame the absence of locks and bars on the windows and the ladder left out for all to see!”

    And all together now: “The Esso sign means happy motoring! Call at the Esso sign!”
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    First rule of beer ads - inversely proportional to the quality of the beer.
  • SparrowSparrow Shipmate
    Firenze wrote: »
    The ones from the very dawn of commercial TV (in the UK, the late 50s). There were relatively few ads plus there was no remote with a mute button (you actually had to walk across the room and twiddle a button on the set!) I can still recite the crime prevention one - “I don’t understand why Rufus didn’t bark!” “Don’t blame Rufus. Blame the absence of locks and bars on the windows and the ladder left out for all to see!”

    And all together now: “The Esso sign means happy motoring! Call at the Esso sign!”

    Didn't you have a tiger in your tank?
  • Oh the Whyte's lemonade - "I'm a secret lemonade drinker!" ad.

    I was a gullible enough child that I thought it was terrible that companies were allowed to market such an addictive substance.

  • Armadilloes! Crunchy on the outside, smoth on the inside.
  • DavidDavid Shipmate
    Yesterday evening, while watching David Coulthard's touching tribute to the late Murray Walker on Channel 4's Formula One highlights programme, I discovered that Walker had been an ad executive at one time, and was responsible for the unforgettable: "Opal Fruits — made to make your mouth water". Who’d have guessed?
  • DooneDoone Shipmate
    Murry mints, murry mints, the too good to hurry mints!
    The ‘shake and vac to get the freshness back’.
  • mousethiefmousethief Shipmate
    OJ Simpson falling out of the sky into the driver's seat of a convertible, while "Let Hertz put you in the driver's seat" plays in the background?

    Are you sure that was OJ Simpson? My research suggests the ad was in 1963, when OJ would have been 16 years old.
  • Jengie JonJengie Jon Shipmate
    Clunk Click every trip
    The Hovis ad - the one with a lad peddling up a cobbled street
    Cadbury's fruit and nut case


  • Didn't you have a tiger in your tank?
    [/quote]

    I remember going into the bathroom at a party and seeing that they had placed a fake stuffed tiger tail hanging off from under the lid of the toilet tank.

  • jrwjrw Shipmate
    I'll never forget these:

    Wotsits
    Nik Naks
    Double Decker
  • GarasuGarasu Shipmate
    Birdseye ready meals? Although that may have been a slight crush on Ben Whishaw.

    I can't claim the same excuse for Lynda Bellingham's Oxo adverts!
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Mystery Worship Editor
    mousethief wrote: »
    OJ Simpson falling out of the sky into the driver's seat of a convertible, while "Let Hertz put you in the driver's seat" plays in the background?

    Are you sure that was OJ Simpson? My research suggests the ad was in 1963, when OJ would have been 16 years old.
    You are correct. OJ did Hertz commercials in the 1970s. It was someone else who fell into the driver's seat.
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Mystery Worship Editor
    Firenze wrote: »
    “The Esso sign means happy motoring! Call at the Esso sign!”
    Over here it was:

    Happy motoring starts at the Esso sign,
    It starts at the Esso sign.

    And who can forget (sung to the tune of Auld Lang Syne):

    Shell Oil acquaintance be forgot
    And never brought to mind, Lee?
    You know that at your Shell dealer
    You are treated very kind-ly!

    or

    Oh, we're the Texaco men,
    Tonight we might be showmen,
    But tomorrow we'll be servicing your car!
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    edited March 28
    Sparrow wrote: »
    Firenze wrote: »
    The ones from the very dawn of commercial TV (in the UK, the late 50s). There were relatively few ads plus there was no remote with a mute button (you actually had to walk across the room and twiddle a button on the set!) I can still recite the crime prevention one - “I don’t understand why Rufus didn’t bark!” “Don’t blame Rufus. Blame the absence of locks and bars on the windows and the ladder left out for all to see!”

    And all together now: “The Esso sign means happy motoring! Call at the Esso sign!”

    Didn't you have a tiger in your tank?

    That was later, past the threshold for formative childhood experiences. There used to be one for a local bakery with a happy family chanting "Kennedy's bread - good to eat! Kennedy's bread family treat!" To which we children would add lines like "Kennedy's bread - smells like feet!"

  • And who can ever forget Campari
    "You truly wafted here from Paradise."
    "No! Luton Airport!"
  • Firenze wrote: »
    Sparrow wrote: »
    Firenze wrote: »
    The ones from the very dawn of commercial TV (in the UK, the late 50s). There were relatively few ads plus there was no remote with a mute button (you actually had to walk across the room and twiddle a button on the set!) I can still recite the crime prevention one - “I don’t understand why Rufus didn’t bark!” “Don’t blame Rufus. Blame the absence of locks and bars on the windows and the ladder left out for all to see!”

    And all together now: “The Esso sign means happy motoring! Call at the Esso sign!”

    Didn't you have a tiger in your tank?

    That was later, past the threshold for formative childhood experiences. There used to be one for a local bakery with a happy family chanting "Kennedy's bread - good to eat! Kennedy's bread family treat!" To which we children would add lines like "Kennedy's bread - smells like feet!"

    When I was a kid, we had a local bakery called Selwood's. The school chant was, sadly:

    "Selwood's Bread
    Makes you Dead!"
  • Q. What's got a hazelnut in every bite?


    A. Squirrel shit! :smile:
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Q Why does Tarzan wear plastic underpants?

    A To keep his nuts jungle fresh.
  • SparrowSparrow Shipmate
    Go to work on an egg!
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Or as the graffito had it during a rail strike- “Go to work on an egg - it’s quicker”.
  • MooMoo Kerygmania Host
    I don't remember what this commercial was for, but it ended with, "Till the cows come home" and showed several cows in a convertible pulling up to the barn.
  • rhubarbrhubarb Shipmate
    The Cancer Council's ad : Slip, slop, slap. Slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen and slap on a hat.
  • jedijudyjedijudy Heaven Host, 8th Day Host
    I want a bee and a bi and a bo and a bop, and a Dairy Queen with a curl on top.

  • My best is Popamatic Trouble, which we recite periodically. Right before singing the Slinky advert.
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Mystery Worship Editor
    Speaking of ads with naughty versions . . .

    There was a cola beverage named Super Coola. The jingle went:

    Mommy, mommy, mommy
    Won't you buy me Super Coola
    And those other super soft drinks
    They're in cap top cans.
    No return and no deposit,
    No more empties in the closet.
    Get me Super Coola
    In those cap top cans.

    Now, in Italian, cula is a rather naughty part of the human anatomy. I understand the same word exists in other languages too. A common slur for us ethnic Italian kids to hurl at one another was Festa mi cula (roughly, venerate my ass).
  • It's the Milky Bar Kid - and one of the really early ones was Dennis Waterman!

    Consulate menthol cigarettes - Cool as a mountain stream.
  • LydaLyda Shipmate
    I've shared this before but this is my favorite Super Bowl commercial:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qola8nvoZm4

    Herding cats!
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Circus Host, 8th Day Host
    A later Milky Bar went to the boys' school next to my girls' school. His name was Anthony Eden, like the Prime Minister.
  • I detested the Milky Bar Kid ...

    "1001 cleans a big, big carpet
    for less than half-a-crown".

    (Later amended to "50p" - didn't sound half as good!)
  • The Martini adverts.
  • It's the Milky Bar Kid - and one of the really early ones was Dennis Waterman!
    Aged 8 my classmate came up with this:

    The Milky Bar Kid is outer space
    He isn't a member of the human race
    He spends his time crashing motor cars
    And stuffing his face with MILKY BARS


    Said classmate is now a playwright (though sadly we're not in touch) so early creativity clearly indicated.
  • "I'll have a Babycham"?
  • SparrowSparrow Shipmate
    Hands that do dishes ....
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Mystery Worship Editor
    Of special interest are ads for companies that have changed their name.

    1. Citibank was originally called First National City Bank. The ad jingle consisted simply of an instrumental flourish with the words "First National City" sung. Toward the time of the name change, the jingle went:

    First National City Bank,
    City Bank,
    The only bank your family ever needs.

    Later, voices were added to the background singing "Citibank" over and over again.

    2. Chevron gasoline was originally called Calso. At the time of the name change, the ad consisted of two cartoon characters talking to each other. One said, "Calso stations are now Chevron stations." The other replied, "Hmm. I wonder what they're gonna do with all the old Calso signs."

    Shortly after that, I was traveling somewhere by train and happened to look out the window as the train passed a scrap yard. There in the scrap yard, in a neat pile, was a heap of . . . you guessed it . . . old Calso signs!
  • America, of course, is the land of the Burma Shave sign, pop culture references to which confused the hell out of us UK-ians before t'internet meant you could look it up.
  • You'll wonder where the yellow went, when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent.

    Or the kid's version:
    You'll wonder where your toenails went, when you wash your feet with Pepsodent.
  • EnochEnoch Shipmate
    - The St Bruno adverts, where a chap smoked a pipe and was pursued by girls through exotic locations. It may have infringed just about every modern sensitivity, but in those less woke days, we all wanted to be like him..

    - An early TV advert for Shippam's Paste where the voice mispronounced Shippam's and then corrected himself.

    - One from when my children were small and used to join in a song which started "We are happy cows".

    - More recently I agree with @Sparrow on the radioactive glowing kid on his way to school after eating Ready-Brek for breakfast.

    - Also the Tiger in your tank and 'the Esso sign means Happy Motoring'.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited March 29
    Sparrow wrote: »
    Hands that do dishes ....

    My father hated those ads. "Mummy why are your handth tho thoft?" Etc.

    His version continued

    ...can be soft as your kids
    And you've got
    Very soft kids
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