The internet is amazing.
It seems that all childhood memories are accessible with a few clicks of the mouse. Case in point: during dinner a few nights ago, I was telling the kids about these Crest toothpaste commercials that I remembered from when I was a boy. They had these superheroes living in some kind of tooth fortress fighting off the "Cavity Creeps." I always liked those commercials. I remembered that the animation was pretty good, very comic book-ish.
On a whim, I went to the laptop and sure enough, YouTube has a bunch of the commercials available for your viewing, or reminiscing, pleasure.
I had only vague memories of the actual content of the commercials, but when I watched it, every shot and every line of dialogue was solidly familiar. It was eerie.
I've also traveled through the mists of time on YouTube by looking up Yuck Mouth (I've never forgotten the lyrics and have sang it to the kids as I brushed their teeth for years), that yellow guy that was in a bunch of animated Saturday morning PSAs ("Time for Timer!" whatever that means), and good old Kenner commercials for my beloved Star Wars toys.
My kids have heard me groan with exhaustion "Time to make the donuts" enough to recognize the catchphrase, and now I can actually show them the commercial it come from.
It's wild, and a little scary, how parts of commercials can become permanently fused into your brain. Anyone else remember the commercials for the board game "Operation" with the kid that says "Buttuh-finguhs!" I haven't looked for that one yet. I did stump YouTube with my uncanny memorization of a Sucrets commercial. Allow me to set the scene. A man in bed is shaking his sleeping wife's shoulder. "Barbara? You up?" More emphatically now: "Barbara? You up?" "I'm up now," she says with exasperation. "I can't sleep with this sore throat," he explains. She starts to get out of bed. "I'll get the Sucrets."
The ad company hired by Sucrets would be thrilled. I can even remember exactly how the actors delivered the lines. I can impersonate it. I am pathetic. I watched way too much TV.
Do they even make Sucrets anymore? I know their stupid commercial by heart 30 years later and I don't think I've ever, not even once, bought their product. Irony, folks.
Can't find it on YouTube, though.
If anyone remembers any other mass media blasts from the past, especially from the 70's or early 80's, feel free to throw them my way. It's kind of fun, actually.
16 comments:
Brilliant. I remember all of those. The Crest one especially. Weird. It must have been on every Saturday though, throughout the morning.
Here's one from my childhood you probably won't recognise, but you might know the actor. Can you guess who it is?
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_Qnan37HiU&NR=1
It's none other than David Prowse, who played Darth Vader. Shame, looks like he was over-dubbed in the commercial too! I wonder what he sounds like in real life. Maybe he has a thick Irish accent, or a high squeaky voice.
Man, I think about that Yuck mouth thing all the time. I too have been singing it to my kids over the years. Actually, I remember all of the ones you talked about. Wicked!!!! I love it.
You are too funny! You only watched TV on Saturday mornings (with those older sisters for whom it was a habit to watch cartoons on Saturdays). The only other TV you watched was Sesame Street and maybe Electric Company (Morgan Freeman's beginning).
I remember the barbara you up, but I had forgotten the sucrets part. I thought it was Nyquil. maybe you coyuld find it if you typed in Nyquil?
I'm with Lynn, it was Nyquil. I can't sleep, this sore throat, aching stuffy head,fever Nyquil is the sorethroat, aching, stuffy head, now you can sleep medicine.
or something like that.
does time tell?
not an ad but....
when you're feeling bored or blue - watch out for the munchies.
they have ways of making you eat when you're not hungry.
here eat this. here eat that.
now you're not just bored. you're fat....
pop pop fizz fizz - oh what a relief it is....
i think that advertising agencies go more for the shock factor more than a slogan/song that you will remember. the problem with that is some of the funniest commercials die after their time while these old ads that you mention live on forever.
Wayne, I always liked the Parkay commercials (butter, parkay, butter, parka-ay...) with the ending "...it's not nice to fool Mother Nature!" Classic. And how about the one with the shampoo - can't remember which now, about how she'll tell 2 friends, and then they'll tell 2 friends, and it continues exponentially. Too funny!
~Pam Morrison Kellen from DMS
Oops - I mixed it up. The Mother Nature one was for Chiffon Margerine. See the link for the video: http://www.retrojunk.com/details_commercial/2903/
Enjoy! And have a safe road trip!
~Pam
mine is the Caramello commercial with the guy laying on a couch and things start to get all stretchy.
'stretch it out...out..out..out..out...
stretch it out...out...out...Caramelllllllo'
does anyone else remember this commercial? my husband thinks i'm crazy that i can sing EVERY word...and needless to say, it's my favorite candy bar to this day.
i can also remember the specific smell of a dunkin donuts near by house when i was younger. i've only been to a dunkin donuts recently and it didn't smell the same. i think because there was an ice cream shoppe attached.
weird!
Wow, I thought I was the only person who knew every word of the Sucrets commercial. I was searching for it when I came across your site. I have not found this particular commercial, but wil continue to look for it and others. Ancient Chinese Secret, huh!
After she stated, "I'll get the Sucrets", he responded, "Sucrets?". The moderator describes Sucrets a bit and then the scene cuts back to the snoring husband sleeping beside the wide-awake wife. It ends with her saying, "I'm glad someone can sleep!"
Actually, she says, "I'll get the asprin and Sucrets." To which dopey husband says, "Asprin? And Sucrets?"
Weird what our childhood memories retain. Shame it didnt work for school. Just last week, I was at dinner with a friend who looked at me and said jingle-like "Almost everything you wanted, but didn't get for Christmas..." Not missing a beat I responded "...is on sale now at Sears!" as if it were the next line to the National Anthem. Weird, hadn't heard that one since the early 80s.
I wound up here because I'm trying to find videos of the Joe E Brown Parkay commmercials. An ex was a marvellous actress and besides being beautiful, she could do any accent.
So sometimes she was the swedish, german, or spanish, or other counterpoint to Joe E Brown in them.
I've heard copies exist but have been unable to find them. Could anyone help ?
http://youtu.be/SkndyiEZ70c
I was absolutely sure that it was a NyQuil commercial, but it turns out it was aspirin and Sucrets. Every time I can't fall asleep, I'm tempted to shake my wife and with the lines from this commercial. But she is three years younger than me, and doesn't remember this commercial at all.
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