A
peppy jingle or clever catch phrase can make or break an ad campaign.
Occasionally, an agency will create a slogan or tune that resonates
so strongly with the public that it remains in play for years
or even decades. These TV commercials are prime examples of that.
MEMORABLE
JINGLES: Winston
"Winston
tastes good like a cigarette should." That slogan, set to
music, was one of the first hummable TV commercials, debuting
in the mid-fifties with variations continuing all throughout the
sixties. English teachers and language purists cried foul so Winston
answered with a new slogan - "What do you want, good grammar
or good taste?"
Speaking
of cigarettes and bad grammar, in the mid-sixties a man or woman
with a black eye would gleefully exclaim, "Us
Tareyton smokers would rather fight than switch"
in a ubiquitous series of print and TV ads. Cigarette
ads were banned from TV in 1971.
From
You Tube - a run of cigarette commercials:
Polaroid
/ 1968
You
gotta love these lyrics: "Meet the Swinger, Polaroid Swinger.
It's more than a camera, it's almost alive, it's only 19 dollars
and 95."
Catchy commercials were a trademark of the Polaroid corporation
in the Sixties and Seventies, known for cutting edge advertising
and clever re-inventions of their core product, a camera that
delivered a picture within a minute.
The idea of the instant picture was
hardly new in 1968, but the hip, swinging attitude was. The white
casing and black plastic strap handle gave the Polaroid Swinger
real pop-art appeal. And isn't that Ali McGraw romping on the
beach?
Another
Polaroid Favorite: In the mid to late-seventies, a holiday
commercial series featuring James
Garner ('Rockford Files') and Mariette Hartley as a bickering
married couple led to big sales for Polaroid 'One Step' cameras.
Variations of this campaign ran for several years. The glory
days of Polaroid are long past, years ago Polaroid filed for bankruptcy.
One
of the most celebrated and effective commercials of all time;
the jingle used here (and throughout a dozen variations) is unique
because there are no words, just humming.
Benson
and Hedges actually built a brand name and drove consumer demand
by making fun of their product, showing the "distinct disadvantages
of smoking a longer cigarette."
"Ajax
- laundry detergent - is stronger than dirt."
These
famous 1960s spots featured a white knight on a white horse who
would aim his lance at kids playing in the dirt and their clothes
would turn magically clean. This series ran for almost the entire
decade.
Today,
a man pointing his lance at children on the playground would be
seen in a slightly less favorable light, I suspect...
"Hungryyyyy,
Hungry Jack. They gobble 'em up and the plate come back for Hungry
Jack."
I
thought this was movie star Marjorie Main ('The Women', Ma Kettle),
but it's not - it's actually a look-alike actress named Fran Ryan,
who recently passed away. Fran's best known as the second Mrs.
Ziffle on Green Acres and as the art matron on an episode
of Taxi called "Elegant Iggy."
VD
is for Everybody
Can
you imagine everyone in mid-seventies singing along with a jingle
about venereal disease? That's exactly what happened when this
public service spot hit the airwaves (both radio and TV). And
no wonder - with lyrics like: VD — is for everybody
Not just for the few
Anyone can share VD
With someone nice as you...
My
aunt Rose was a wonderful woman. In the 1960s, she watched TV
wrestling and believed whole-heartedly that it was all 100% legit.
And whenever one of her kids broke a glass, she bought Duz laundry
detergent - because, even though it cost a bit more than other
brands, each box came with a free drinking glass.
Marx
Brothers Harpo and Chico appeared in a wacky commercial for a
woman's hair cream. Why? The commercial was filmed in 1960 for
broadcast on their brother Groucho's hit quiz program, You
Bet Your Life.
"All
- tempa - Cheer" was the clever campaign that made Cheer
laundry detergent a major seller in the sixties.
This
mid-sixties spot might be considered a 'lost' episode of Star
Trek! Check it out - a Vulcan (one of Mr. Spock's long lost
relatives, I suppose) beams down to tell this hapless housewife
about new all temperature Cheer. The guy is clearly a Vulcan,
note the distinctive ears and pointed eyebrows. (I'm a geek, I
know.)
"Please
don't squeeze the Charmin!" As hard as poor Mr. Whipple tried,
he couldn't get the daffy ladies in his shabby grocery store to
stop their fetishist behavior over the Charmin toilet tissue.
Undoubtedly,
this is one of most effective ad campaigns of all time, if not
THE most effective. Think about it - in 1964, the Benton &
Bowles ad agency succeeded in making toilet paper sexy. "Please
don't squeeze the Charmin" became instantly recognizable
all over the country, across all age groups.
If
you can get your brand name inserted in a catch phrase that takes
off with the public you're a double winner, another reason these
ads worked so well.
This
durable campaign lasted for more than 20 years (1964-1985). Here's
a spot from 1969 that demonstrated it wasn't just
crazy white folks that were squeezing the Charmin. (These commercials
also show you what a grocery store looked like in the 1960s.)
2 Charmin commercials from the 1960s from You Tube:
By
1979, according to one poll, Mr. Whipple was the third best known
American, behind Richard Nixon and Billy Graham.
The
actor who played Mr. Whipple, Dick Wilson, retired in 1985 (the
commercials continued to run until 1989) after over 500 pitches
for Charmin; he was entered into the Guinness Book of Records
as the longest-running television pitchman.
In
1999, Wilson returned as Mr. Whipple in a new series of Charmin
commercials, teasing that he might come out of retirement to,
"spread the word about the new Charmin," which, apparently,
was stronger and more absorbent - and squeezably soft, no doubt.
Wilson
died in 2007, he was 91.
How's
this for an airline slogan: "Because even an airline hostess should
look like a girl."
It
must have seemed like a good idea at the time - an airline marketing
their stewardesses as sexy seductresses. What a great way to meet
chicks!
In
this commercial, the Braniff stewardess removes her Pucci designer
outfit to a playful strip tease number - until she's slipped into
something a bit more comfortable for those long, cozy evening
flights. I kid you not!
It
took decades to remove the stewardess/slut connotation that commercials
like this bestowed on a noble profession, and that prejudice still
exists today with some people.
Proving
that advertising does work, Joan Rivers made a career in the eighties
telling trashy stewardess jokes.
I was surfing your web site and was amazed that you missed the
most famous of all airline commercials that sparked N.O.W. women
to picket our airline.
The commercial, shown constantly across the U.S. was "Fly
Me" showing our stewardesses in skimpy two piece bathing
suits and our very short mini-dress uniform. We have been written
up in two articles, interviewed by Discovery Times, and
will be in a book on stewardesses released next year. We were
the most famous little airline with this slogan that enabled National
Airlines to have tremendous profits while this commercial ran.
Our
last slogan in 1976 was "Take Me, I'm Yours", which
almost sparked the same response but then we merged with Pan American.
To this day, National Airlines, based out of Miami Florida, is
known for "Fly Me" girls.
Thank you,
Suzanne C. Johnson
www.NationalSundowners.com
Assistant Director
ROCK
AND ROLL JINGLES FOR RADIO:
McLean's
Toothpaste
- [audio] Frankie Lane
had a huge hit song (Rawhide) in the early Sixties that
an ad agency ripped on for a wild toothpaste commercial. Just
who is he slapping with that whip, the background singers?
The
Chiffons, a famous 60's girl group, sings an anthem to early designer
jeans in this early-Seventies radio
spot for HIS Jeans. [audio]
Jerry
Lee Lewis Coke Commercial - [audio]
Jerry Lee is known as a raucous rocker who virtually ended his
career by marrying his cousin - eventually making a comeback as
a country artist. This commercial finds 'The Killer' in rock mode
for a version of "It's The Real Thing" for Coca-Cola.
"This
Is The Place To Be - on ABC." Hey, networks have to sell themselves,
too.
This
film utilized a kaleidoscope of the various shows that the network
had on the air at the time (an amazing array of still recognizable
classics like 'The Mod Squad' and 'The Brady Bunch') along with
sophisticated special effects of couples dancing and having a
good time. ABC once again used a version of this theme for their
winter, 2003 schedule.
Awesome
animation that simulates a tiger speeding confidently through
hilly roads thanks to paws that grip. Tiger Paws even advertised
tires for kid's bicycles under the same brand name.
"Mr.
Bubble gets you so clean your mother won't know you." After this
commercial began running relentlessly on local and national kid
shows, Mr. Bubble became a household name.
"Live
better electrically!" Why advertise electricity? You've got me,
but this snappy tune had Fifties' audiences (and transformers)
humming.
"Live better Electrically? I remember
the old days, when we watched our old gas-powered TV!"
- Ray D.
Colgate
Dental Cream - from the early-fifties, "Cleans your breath
while it cleans your teeth." [audio]
On
Milton Berle's hit variety program in the early fifties, the broadcast
started out with a line up of male dancers dressed as gas jockeys
singing the Texaco
jingle.
Keds was
the predominant sneaker brand in the sixties. They captured audience
share by emphasizing many of the same attributes that athletic
shoe makers push today - the ability to make you run faster and
jump higher.
This
is the first commercial featuring Froot Loops icon 'Toucan Sam',
and no one who saw this commercial as a kid ever forgot the jingle.Warning:
don't play this clip unless you want to be humming the tune all
day!
"Chocolate
tastes like Bosco." This chocolate syrup (big in New York and
Philly) used animated bunnies for their commercials in the Sixties.
Here's
another Bosco spot in color - Bosco
/ 1967
Effective
ads for children often utilize music as a key component. In this
commercial for Milton Bradley games, two jingles are molded into
a corny kiddy mega-mix, ending with the company's slogan "Milton
Bradley Makes The Best Games In The World."
The
battle between Peter Pan and Captain Hook was played out for the
benefit of a jar of Peanut Butter - "If you believe in peanut
butter," the jingle went, "You gotta believe in Peter Pan." Believe,
fine - but what about BUY?!? The slogan and tune had a longer
life than these cartoon characters did.
This
incredible edit (I don't know where it came from) contains almost
every great commercial catch phrase during a thirty-year span,
including: "I can't believe I ate the whole thing", "Where's the
beef?", "My wife, I think I'll keep her", "I've Fallen and I can't
Get up!", "Are those Bugle Boy Jeans that you're wearing?", "Look
Ma, no cavities!" and lots more.
Slogans,
gimmicks and nifty jingles
from the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies!
Footage from video collector's archives.
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This
is credited as being the very first negative campaign ad for television.
In
an effort to get Lyndon B. Johnson elected President in 1964,
his campaign ran this simple ad. It showed a little girl holding
a daisy, innocently plucking the petals and counting to ten.
Cut to a
different kind of countdown - leading to an atomic explosion which
(presumably) obliterates the darling little child.
The
narrator (the president himself) somberly intones, "These
are the stakes. To make a world in which all of God's children
can live. Or to go into the dark. We must either love each other
or die."
Basically the pitch was - vote for Johnson or you die a horrible
death. It worked, ancient history buffs tell us that Johnson was
elected President in 1964.
This
ad was considered so shocking it was only run twice, during a
football game and on The NBC Movie of the Week. Another
milder variation was filmed and used in its place.
Catchy commercials were a trademark of the Polaroid corporation
in the Sixties and Seventies, known for cutting edge advertising
and clever re-inventions of their core product, a camera that
delivered a picture within a minute.
The idea of the instant picture was
hardly new in 1968, but the hip, swinging attitude was. The white
casing and black plastic strap handle gave the Polaroid Swinger
real pop-art appeal. And isn't that Ali McGraw romping on the
beach?
Mr.
Bubble / 1963
"Live better Electrically? I remember
the old days, when we watched our old gas-powered TV!"
- Ray D.
Cut to a
different kind of countdown - leading to an atomic explosion which
(presumably) obliterates the darling little child.
