FoxTrot Classics by Bill Amend for December 09, 2024

Oxygen thief

A lot of commercials are like that- breathtaking scenery, catchy tunes, beautiful people galore- but blessed if you can remember the product.

I vaguely recall a commercial from the 1960s, but I have no idea what the product is. The commercial was something like, “The first trick you should teach your pet hippo is how to roll over.” The hippo rolled forward instead of sideways. “The next trick you should teach your pet hippo is how to get off.”

For some reason the Fox Trot media campaign bombed.

Probably the one Paige is consuming right there and then.

This commercial Probably Missed the Mark, unless the viewers look forward to seeing it and knowing which product it was actually for!

I remember a commercial for some DIY product – their pitch was how easy it is. They showed a guy installing a garage door opener saying how he used to be underconfident and never tackled improvement projects on his own… but since trying – whatever they were selling – he has built the confidence to try bigger things. At the end he is standing outside the garage and hits the remote… the garage door comes flying out of the garage and lands on top of his car.

Only saw it once… heck… beginning to think I dreamed it… except I’m not that creative

What amazes me is how many commercials use music from the era of us boomers. I could see it for pharmaceutical products, but not for some others. Do marketeers still think we are a big buying group?

I remember that Volkswagen hired some agency that refused to mention the product. Their ads were confusing and looked like they were selling jeans. They were fired soon afterward.

Famously the Taco Bell commercials featuring Gidget the Chihuahua were very popular indeed, but sold very little of Tacky Hell’s alleged food. My favorite was one of the Godzilla movie tie-ins: Gidget is hunting lizards: “Here, lizard, lizard” and is using Tacky Hell tacos as bait. And a big, but not big enough, box for the lizard. Yeah, Gidget, you need a bigger box.

Of course, what the ad really said was that Tacky Hell tacos were only good as lizard bait…

Probably a kamalalalala/watz ad.

To this day, I have never forgotten the grammar lesson inherent in :

“Winston tastes good like a cigarette should.”

“You mean, AS a cigarette should.”

“What do you want, good grammar or good taste?”

perfect! :D

Didn’t the one for spicey meatball have that problem?

On some TV Show about funny commercials was a foreign one I will never forget. I have no idea what it was for, but it involved a woman and some Ping-Pong Balls…

(☉˳☉)

One that stuck with me was the ‘83 Miller beer commercial, Fleisher, the voice of Roger Rabbit, playing a redneck farmer, “on my tractor teachin’ m’dog Luther how to read”. Beamed up by aliens saying “Rellim reeb, rellim reeb”, drank his beer with their fingers and they’s is comin’ back! Lock up your Rillem Reeb!

I remember a fair number of funny commercials from the early 00s, when this strip ran—and quite a few annoying ones too, but they were all very ambitious. Looking back on it it was kind of the last hurrah for TV advertising. Within a few years, between DVR and premium subscriptions to streaming services, the viewers with the most disposable income would become very difficult for advertisers to reach most of the time.

I am recently recalling toy commercials from when I was a kid in the 1980s. Maybe it’s a middle age mind set I’m developing; but I feel most of those we should not have wanted anyway.

I liked the one with the rapping hamsters for Kia cars, I think

One of the best, IMHO, was the “Herding Cats” commercial with cowboys driving a herd of cats across the plains. It was hilarious and won several awards. It was only shown once during Super Bowl XXXIV (30 Jan 2000). When viewers were asked, they remembered the ad, but had no idea what it was for. It was for Electronic Data Systems (EDS), founded by Ross Perot.

At a super bowl party back in the 90s, we saw a funny Pepsi commercial. Then his dad came over and remarked about the funny Coke commercial. My friend said, “there’s $10 million down the drain!”

People were dancing and singing and telling me to take drugs…..?! Just give me a funny jingle about a black and white cookie or Rainier Beer croaking frogs.

I was a VP of Marketing much of my career. I recall a Masters degree level marketing course that made it clear that a commercial was a failure if they can’t recall the product it’s for. Long since retired, I still watch commercials and judge them for that one specific feature.

Is it a product that treats memory troubles?