I honestly don’t remember this commercial.  I remember the product, but not this, or any other commercial.  If that is the case, why review this commercial?  I remember some time ago, or at least I think I do, someone asking for this commercial.  Whoever you were, I can’t find your email, but if you are still visiting…this is for you!

There is nothing spectacular about this commercial.  It is a very standard informational commercial.  It explains it is like bacon, but healthier.  I myself never tried it, but from what I remember from the 80s, anything that claimed to be like something, only heathier, was usually pretty discusting.

It does have it’s corny catch phrase.  “Move over bacon, there’s something leaner.”  Not really spectacular.  Actually, I think it is rather lame, and I usually love these kind of things.

Well, below is the commercial from 1985.

In researching this add, I found one from 1978.  This one had actually had a jingle in it!  Kinda of lame, but I found this commercial much more entertaining than the previous one.  It caught my attention and kept it better.  This is why a good jingle, or even an average one as the case may be, can do a commercial well!

In advertising, you have to hook the customer and give them something to remember and hook that to you product, all in 30 seconds or less.  Commercials that do this can be remembered for a long time!  Time to Make the Donuts, Mikey Likes It, Oscar Mayer Balogna to name a few.  What they all had was a line, a hook, that was so ingrained in the commercial, the product, that when you heard the hook, you thought of the product, and many times, saw the product and remembered the hook.

In 1989, Elios Pizza came out with a commercial that is one of my favorite from growing up.  A “Hip” young boy is talking about his favorite pizza and how his older brother has to make it for him.  There is no catchy jingle, and the little boy though cute, isn’t very memorable.  What makes this commercial is one of the best hooks in all of commercials.

And all the cheese goes, blub blub blub.

Kids in school would quote this endlessly.  Myself with my friends would quote this all the time.  Too this day, I can’t think of Ellio’s Pizza and not think of the little boy going “Blub blub blub”.  Who cares if the pizza is square, and if his brother has to make it…”blub blub blub”  Yea, stupid and almost generic, but awesome none the same.  Watch this commercial and tell me that you will not think “blub blub blub” from this moment on whenever you see Ellio’s Pizza from now on and I’ll call you a liar!  I still to this day, much to the annoyance of my wife.  Now just have to get my kids on to it, and my life will be complete.

Such a simple commercial, yet it brings so much pleasure to so many people. This is the Hershey Kiss Christmas commercial where the Kisses play in bell-choir fashion “We Wish you a Merry Christmas.”

This commercial has been around since either the late 80s or early 90s. I’m not sure exactly when, but it feels like this has been around forever! It’s really hard to write about this commercial because it is so short and simple. The best thing about this commercial is that it’s been on for so long that I have so many memories associated with this commercial.

When I was younger, my Christmas was about getting, getting and more getting. I would scope out the catalogs for what I really wanted and this would take weeks! Now days, I have more fun watching my kids open their presents then getting them. This past weekend, I saw this commercial for the first time this year and saw it with my oldest daughter. She loved it, and it feels good to know that my children will hopefully grow up with this commercial and gather some wonderful memories like I did.

I hope everyone who reads this blog a very Happy Holidays. See you next week.

Ah, it’s Christmas time once again and that means wonderful Christmas Commercials! Maybe it’s me, but it seems like Christmas Commercials today just don’t have the same effect as they did back in the 80s. Then again, I was a kid back then, so Christmas in general had a different meaning. Back then it was all about GETTING the toys, now that I’m grown with three little ones, it’s about GIVING the toys. But today I have a commercial for a cereal that has been around for a long time. Actually, I believe that this commercial was on TV just a few years ago. It’s for Fruity Pebbles Cereal.

The Post Fruity and Cocoa Pebble commercials have always been fun. With Barney always trying to trick Fred out of his Pebbles, I never understood why Barney just didn’t go get his own box at the store. But with this commercial, we start with Fred trimming his tree, with carolers singing outside. Taking a break to check out his tree, Fred pours a large bowl of Fruity Pebbles. What the heck is with all the Fruit on the tree? I know the commercial is for Fruity Pebbles, but my goodness! If this was for Cocoa Pebbles, would he have chocolate bars on the tree? Anyway, who happens to arrive in time for this bowl of Fruity Pebbles? Why Santa Clause! Seems a little early in the evening, don’t you think?

But as Santa is eating his well deserved bowl of Fruity Pebbles, who is working on tricking Fred out of his Pebbles? That’s right, Barney is at the top of the chimney, decked out in his Santa gear, ready to make his entrance. Where is the real Santa’s sleigh? You’d think that would be a tip off to Barney. Oh well, Barney makes his entrance and finds Santa eating “my pebbles!” Fred get’s upset and Santa has to remind him that it is the season for giving and Barney finally gets some Pebbles Cereal. Santa then fly’s away as Barney and Fred enjoy a bowl of Fruity Pebbles.

I love this commercial. Maybe it’s because it came out when I was younger, and everything associated with Christmas was magical, or I think it’s just a great commercial.

My sister has a Corolla she calls Smokey, but I like to call Adam, but that’s niether here nor there.

Don’t you love those old Toyota commercials when they would jump in the air and they’d do a freeze frame. I don’t know anyone who is THAT excited about owning a car, but I was jazzed when I found this t-shirt … the stylized geometic silhouette of the Toyota typeface works really well. (Note: A small toyota logo appears on the back between the shoulders).

$1 of the sale of this shirt is donated to the River Revitalization Foundation to restore urban river trails and waterways.

I was and still am a Chocolate Milk junky. I remember working for a local grocery store, and every Sunday that I worked, I’d buy a quart of their Chocolate Milk and down it in about an hour. Good stuff it was. But when I was younger, I’d have to make it myself, and my mom bought Hershey’s Powder. Now, it’s not the same kind they have today. They had a different kind and for the life of me, I can’t find anything about it on the Web. But I never saw commercials for it, but always did for Nestlé’s Nesquik. I begged and pleaded to try it, and when my mom broke down and got it, you know what my reaction was? “This isn’t the same as Hershey’s.” and I stopped drinking it. I know that drove parents mad, and my oldest is starting to do that to me now. Karma sucks.

But it’s commercials like the one below that got me wanting to try this. First off, it’s a cartoon. Kids love cartoons! You really could sell anything to kids as long as it is in cartoon format.

Second, the mascot is a rabbit. Let me change what I said before, you can sell a kid anything as long as it’s in cartoon format and has a loveable animal telling you to buy whatever it is selling.

Third, it’s rocking out baby! Being a kid of the 80s, the birth of music television, I was unlucky enough to have parents who thought MTV was crap and bared us from watching. Saying that, that made us want to watch it more, so anything to do with music was awesome to us.

So let’s rehash; the commercial is animated, with a loveable animal and has music. Yup, everything needed to mesmerize a kid. Later in life Nestlé’s Nesquik grew on me, but it’s this commercial that I will love more.

Life was rough growing up in the 80s. Homework, chores, and annoying siblings. We had so much crap to put up with it wasn’t funny. What could we do to just let our hair down? Sure we could play Atari or Nintendo, but you’d always have a parent yelling, “Go outside and get some sun! It’s too nice outside!” What a drag. And when you went out, you could ride bike or run around, but you really couldn’t “Let Your Hair Down.” I just want a place where we could be kids, you know? Then, on TV one Saturday Morning, as I was stuffing my face with my second bowl of Count Chocula cereal, what came upon my TV? The answer to all my problems! Chuck E. Cheeses!

I proceeded to beg my parents to take me there. I would pout, cry, wine, and be as annoying as I could, just thinking that my parents would take me there just to shut me up! No deal. But thankfully I had a best friend who got whatever he wanted. What did he want? His birthday party hosted at Chuck E. Cheeses! Oh what fun, oh what joy!

What is everything I dreamed of? Oh god no. The pizza was awful. So awful that I can remember it over 20 years later. A friend of mine, ex’s kid had a party there that I went to and I refused to eat the pizza off that memory. But that’s not why we went. No! We went for the games! They had video games, Skee-Ball games, and other ticket winning games. That is why we went! There were other things there, but I could care less about them. Video games were, are, and will always be my weakness and that is all I cared about.

After that experience, I wanted to go back. No for the food but for the video games. A year later, I found a wonderful video game hangout that was a five minute bike ride from my house. At that point, Chuck E. Cheeses became old business. But the commercial below brought back these cool memories, and that is the purpose of this site. Excuse me, my daughter just saw this and now I got to calm her down. She now wants to go to Chuck’s house. I guess that’s ok, as long as she doesn’t want their pizza.

Kellogg’s first created Pop-Tarts back in the 1960s. It was a hit from the beginning. Why? I have no idea. I was never a fan of them. They were to dry if you don’t toast them, and I could never toast them to make them taste good, so I stuck with cereal until Toaster Strudels came out. Now those were the bomb! But my guess at why they were such a big hit would be that they are a quick breakfast. Just open the box, pick out a pack, and two Pop-Tarts will hold you over until lunch.

But as much as I dislike Pop-Tarts, I must say this commercial is a good one. It really shows off what the 80s were about in 30 seconds. The neon lights, the new age sound music, and the long shirt pajamas the gals were wearing.

I have two sisters and growing up, when ever they had sleepovers, I swear my sisters and their friends all wore those long shirt pajamas. Ok, so did I, but it was the 80s, and messed up stuff like that was acceptable. I’m not apologizing for it, hell no!

Even though I hate Pop-Tarts now, seeing commercials like this back in the 80s actually made me what to try them. Growing up, we didn’t have tons of money to throw at just any type of food. So watching commercials like this, knowing I won’t be eating a Pop-Tart anytime soon, really made me want one. When we finally had the money and got these, YUCK! Anyone else hate them as much as I do? And if you do like them, please tell me why? Is there anything I can do to actually like them?

I think most Public Service Announcements, PSAs, are lame. Most are so dumbed down or idiotic that they just don’t hit home. Not only that, but they are unmemorable. For a PSA to be effective, it needs to be memorable. Very few are memorable. Smokey the Bear commercials are memorable and who doesn’t remember his tag line; “Only you can prevent forest fires.” But the most famous of all PSA’s is the Anti Drug on from the 1980s that featured a concerned dad, confronting his son with a box that is full of drugs and drug paraphernalia with the son delivering his phrase: “From you alright! I learned it from watching you!”

The 80s brought us many memorable Anti Drug slogans and commercials. “Just say NO!” was brought to us by Nancy Reagan. I don’t know if it worked very well, but it was memorable. Also the Anti Drug one where the gang member turns into a werewolf or monster or something. That was scared the shit out of me when I was younger. But let’s face it, the one below is the most memorable.

Growing up, I think I like the messy room the most about this commercial. My parent’s never let me have a messy room and I always wanted one. And the box the father carries in, I was always wondering what was in it. Now that I’m older and understand things better, I look at it now and see exactly what was in it, but when I was younger and extremely innocent I had no idea what was in it.

Looking back on this commercial, it was VERY memorable, but when this came out, for me, I was too young and too innocent to have been affected by drugs. But later on in life, if this would have been out, it wouldn’t have done anything anyway. Why? That’s a subject for another article.

Growing up in the 80s, we had all kinds of wonderful fashions. Original Jams shorts, shirts that would change colors with your body heat, (Technicolor Shirts?) and we can’t forget the shoes. I loved my Zips. They didn’t really save me any time tying my shoes since I just slipped them on, but they were the first pair of shoes that I was aware of that used Velcro. We would rip them open and put them back and open and back until our teachers would make us take them off until either recess or we had to leave the room. Man were they fun.

But looking back on this commercial, I do remember it, but looking at it now, I love it more then I did back then. It has such a wonderful 80s feel to it. The announcer, if anyone knows who it is please let me know, did a lot of 80s commercials, so he himself gives it a wonderful 80s feel to it.

The neighborhood looks like your typical 80s TV street. Notice how I said TV street? It seems like in the 80s, all streets on TV had nice front yards and the houses were two stories. Very nice feel, and very much like the street I grew up on, but there were also plenty of ranch style houses too.

I also love the neon Z streaking across the screen. Neon was big in the 80s. I’m sure it was around for a long time, but since I grew up in the 80s, and it was EVERYWHERE, I always associate neon and the 80s.

As I mentioned before, I loved my Zips, but god where they hideous looking! See that second pair? Is that the ugliest brown you ever seen? And the style, today they look like the kind of shoe the class geek would ware, but back then, they were awesome. Either that or we loved the Velcro that much.

At the end, they show stickers you got! YIPPEE! Makes me want to go out and get a pair. Ok, back then I could have cared less, but I do remember those stickers, so I must have gotten them with mine. Probably put them on my sisters Barbies.

Anyone out there have a pair? Share your memories of them in the comments!

NOTE: Sorry for the lack of updates last week. My third child was born last Tuesday, and needless to say, I was busy. I should be back to my normal schedule.

Back in the mid 1980s, when I thought of fast food, I thought of McDonalds. Their cheeseburgers, fries, and chocolate shake were the perfect meal back then. Add another cheeseburger, and it still ranks up there with my favorites today. Their commercials were fun, and made me want to go there even more. Out of the three other fast food restaurants in my area, Burger King, Wendy’s and Hardies, none of their commercials ever appealed to me. Burger King’s commercials were so boring that today I have very few memories of their commercials. I don’t even know if Hardies even had commercials, and if they did, I don’t remember them. But in 1984, Wendy’s hit the map with maybe one of the most famous commercials ever, and they did it with an old lady and a very simple question.

Where’s the beef?!

Shortly after this commercial came out, I can remember every day at lunch, kids would come out of the lunch line with their tray of food, plop it down, look at it and would look at everyone around and spout off, Where’s the Beef? We’d all crack up laughing, because, come one, simple things like that set off kids.

The commercial below is the very first to use that catch phrase. It’s a simple commercial with three older women who are looking at this monstrous bun and when they look in it, there looks to be something dark, maybe meat, but they just aren’t sure. Then actress Clara Peller steps up and udders her catch phrase “Where’s The Beef”! And from that moment, and the next few years, she was the star of Wendy’s commercials. She’d be everywhere complaining, “Where’s the Beef?”

In 1984, when this came out, I was 7, almost 8, and I don’t remember just how huge this commercial was. I remember it being big, but looking around for this article, the commercial, and maybe more the catch phrase, was huge! It was even used in the Democratic Presidential Debate in 1984.

For those of you who remember this commercial, and for those of you who were kids and would udder the catch phrase any chance you got, here it is below. Ahh, what wonderful memories.

There are few foods I’d say I love. There are tons I like, but only a select few I’d say I love. Steak, done Medium Rare, I love. Chinese, yea, I love! Benihana’s, love it too! My mom makes a two cheese casserole that I’d kill for. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups? There is no other candy I’d rather eat!

If you checked out my About Me page and dug a little, you’d find out I grew up in Hershey, PA. In Hershey, there are two famous candy factories. Hershey’s Original Chocolate Factory, which just happens to be the worlds largest and it is also home to the Reese’s Factory. Yes, it is the factory Mr. Reese himself built and ran until Hershey bought him out. With two chocolate factories in town, the air all around Hershey smells like chocolate. There was nothing like being in Middle School, first period gym and going outside to do whatever and smell chocolate. That was awesome!

I don’t know if that is why I like Reese’s, or maybe, like the majority of candy fans, Reese’s Cups are just the best, and that is why I love them. In the 80s, their tag line in Commercials was, “Your Peanut Butter hit my Chocolate. No, your Chocolate hit my Peanut Butter”. They never showed the peanut butter cups until the end, it was always someone carrying peanut butter (who does that with the cap open?) and another eating a regular chocolate bar and they trip, or bump, or get scared and the chocolate bar and peanut butter mix. I’ll tell you what, I love to take a Hershey’s Bar and jar of peanut butter and dip the bar in the peanut butter and eat it. Not as good as a Peanut Butter cup, but pretty damn good!

Note to everyone: If you ever have the chance to have a fresh Peanut Butter Cup, and by fresh I mean no older than a week, DO IT! The peanut butter is so creamy and delicious!

Back to the commercial, this commercial uses the “Your Peanut Butter hit my Chocolate. No, your Chocolate hit my Peanut Butter” phrase, and done with two young boys playing a video game. I don’t know who would play the game they are playing, but then again, this came out in the Atari 2600 days, and lets face it, many of the games on the Atari, especially near it’s end, were very lame. Yea, there were some greats, but remember ET? But if you were a kid back when Atari 2600 was king, then this commercial rocked! Hell, it still does! Excuse me now, I’m going to search around and see if we have any Reese’s Cups!

Today, with the Ninendo Wii, Playstation 3 and the Microsoft Xbox 360, game systems are more advanced and games are more realistic and bigger! Games are so complex that manuals for the games can almost be mini books. And the controllers are so complicated, that you need to use your thumbs and two to three fingers to play, Wii excluded. I find myself longing for the days of the original NES. Games for the NES don’t look very advanced or are as complicated at today’s games, But I think that is one of the reasons they were so fun! But if you compare the NES to the Atari 2600, it looks amazing! And the following commercial does a great job of making the NES look “Futuristic!”

This commercial is from 1986 I believe, and I swear that back then, “The Future” meant that everything is going to be grey and dark or brightly colored and everything flys. Well, Nintendo’s take with this commercial is grey and dark. Quietly, the five darkly grey clad people walk though, I guess, a space ship. BAM! Out flies a monitor and a NES Controller and Super Mario appears. Is the man up to the challenge? But before we find out, BAM, an arcade hit like Kung Fu! Hogans Alley and Duck Hunt challenge next. Oh dear god, what will pop up next? Baseball and Excitebike? Holy Shit these guys are doomed!

Ok, I’m exaggerating, they were all, and I could argue still are, great games. But it’s the wonderful cheesiness of the commercial that is so awesome. I loved this commercial growing up and the games they showed were some of my favorites. The big thing that gets me, especially looking back on it today, is that they make the future look dark and dreary. I know that was the fad back then, but it kinda erks me that they did that. I do understand why they do that, but still people, couldn’t the future be brighter? Oh yea, they did that with Back to the Future 2, kinda corny and Jetsony huh?

There are many icon’s in TV commercial history. Mr. Whipple for Charmin, Lucky the Leprechaun for Lucky Charms, Cap’n Crunch for Captain Crunch and many more. Very rarely do we get to see the birth of one. But I can still remember the humble beginnings of the Energizer Bunny.

Starting in 1989, the Energizer Bunny started as a bunny, playing the bass drum, that crash a party of snare drum playing bunnies, in reference to the Duracell Bunny. I never knew about the Duracell Bunny, or if I did, I totally forgot about them. I’m going to have to research them some day. But anyway, as all the bunnies playing snares slowly lost power, one remained, and then incomes the Energizer Bunny, throwing his nose up to the others by playing a base drum. Yea, that’s the way to crash a party.

But still, as a youngster, I loved this commercial. Well, maybe not this one, it’s ok, nothing special, but the following ones. After this commercial, that bunny just kept going, and going, and going, and it was kind of fun to watch where it was going to keep going next.

For those of you who see the Energizer Bunny Commercials now and wondered how it started, here you go. For those who knew, but forgot, enjoy the show!

This week, my future articles may be late. My wife is due with our third child anytime, so I might not get a chance to post on my normal days. Hopefully I’ll finish up this weeks articles in advance, that way I can just log in and post.

When I search for a commercial to write on, I look all over. I search retro sites, 80’s themed sites and news sites. In searching, I saw an article linked on Fark for Hydrox Cookies. I remember these cookies being like Oreo’s, but crunchier. Because of that, I didn’t like them. When I eat cookies like these, as soon as I get the pack home, I open them up and let them sit for at least a week before I start eating. I love them stale, because when they are stale, they are soft, and I love them that way! Back to the article I read, it goes on to talk about how Sunshine Biscuits stopped making Hydrox and how many fans of the cookies are bummed, and doing all they could to bring them back. I don’t really feel their plight, since they were a sturdy, crunchier cookie, and I like mine stale and soft, but I though maybe I could reach a few others to either join in their cause, or at the very least, bring some memories with a retro commercial.

If you look at this commercial, it has a very corny 80s feel to it. Using a bad Sammy Davis Jr. impersonator, they changed The Candy Man song to this jingle. Not bad, but it isn’t one that you will get stuck in your head, and if you do, you’ll probably get the original song stuck and thus you won’t remember the cookies.

Gosh, there really isn’t much to this commercial to review. I know Sunshine didn’t have a lot of money to spend on commercials, and that is one of the reason’s Hydrox never became a serious competitor to Oreos, and why they discontinued them, but man, this commercial is very forgettable. This was in the 80s guys, make it lively or something! Well, the commercial is forgettable, but to the Hydrox fans, the cookies never will be.

If you’ve been following my other articles, you’ll notice it doesn’t take a whole lot for me to fall in love with a commercial from the 80s. Maybe it was just the way I was, or maybe all kids in that era were the same, but if I saw something entertaining, I wanted it or wanted to try it. Case and point, Domino’s Pizza.

Where I grew up, we didn’t have Domino’s. You either had Pizza Hut, or a Mom and Pops pizza. For my family, it was whatever we had a coupon for. But after seeing The Noid commercials, I wanted it! To bad it wasn’t until about 8 years after this commercial came out until there was a Domino’s in my area. I tried it once, and never again. I’ve hear the saying, “Pizza is like sex, even when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good.” Who ever said that never ate Domino’s.

But this commercial had me hooked! If I would have tried the pizza when I was young enough to be influenced by a commercial, I might have liked it. The Noid was around as the Domino’s mascot for most of the 80s. He tried and tried to get to your pizza, to make it cold or disgusting, but Domino’s said they won’t let him get to your pizza. He was very popular, and even had his own video game, Yo! Noid for the NES. That game was harder than hell!

But the great thing about this mascot, he made you want to eat Domino’s! Every time I saw this commercial, I secretly wanted it! I use to think about all the kids out there that were lucky enough to get this pizza, and secretly would curse them.

Check out the commercial below, and tell me, those of you who saw this commercial when it first came out, that you don’t wish you had a slice of Domino’s? Hell, I’m thinking I might want to try it again. Who knows, in ten years, maybe they got better?

When the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) came out, I was enamored with it. It seemed like all my friends had one before me, so I was forever begging them to have me over to play. I remember kids in school carrying Nintendo carts with them to take to friends house, or to trade or share. All this while, I was obsessed with the NES. The case was very stylish. Nintendo executives even said that they designed it to look a part of your entertainment area. I loved the loading slot, though once I got mine I learned to hate it. The power and reset button were awesome. The controllers had a magic about them and felt right in my hand. So anytime I was at a friend’s house, I’d be more than happy to watch them play a game, or when a commercial came on, to me, they were instant classics.

So up comes the commercial for Nintendo’s Mike Tyson’s Punch Out. It starts off showing Mike sitting down and putting his game in the console. I love that shot. To this day, the original NES case puts me in awe. Then comes the game. I loved it and at the same time loathed it. It was a very fun and addicting game. Easy enough that you can make it pretty far in on the first time playing, but hard enough that getting to the later fighters was a note worthy achievement.

The commercial then goes on to show you some of the other fighters you’ll face. It’s amazing how many of the fighters in this game are easily remembered. Piston Honda, Glass Joe, Soda Popinski, Mr. Sandman, and Super Macho Man to name a few. And for some people, this commercial is the only glimpse of Mike Tyson in this game. Getting to him, with out the special password, is hard. If you though getting to him was hard, lasting 30 seconds was near impossible, let along beating him. Once punch in the first minute and thirty seconds would instantly put you down. And he was fast, super fast!

After much practice, I was able to beat him on a routine basis, but rarely by TKO. If it wasn’t for the 5000 point decision, I’d never win.

Any great memories you have of this commercial or this game? Let me know of them in the comments!

I remember as a kid, the constant fight between my sisters and myself and my parents over breakfast cereal. In one corner was my sisters and me. We fought for fun, taste, and toys! In the other corner were my parents. They wanted healthy and nutritious, and not to expensive. We wanted sugar and marshmallows, they wanted whole grains. It was a long and grueling battle, and compromise was a must. If we could find something sugary that also had some nutritional benefits, we’d take that to our parents and lay on how good it was for you. They always saw past this, but if the cereal was healthy enough, they’d let a little sugar or marshmallows in. And that brings us to today’s commercial; Marshmallow Rice Krispies.

I believe this cereal was first produced in the late 70s or early 80s. I’m not so sure on this, and from my research, there isn’t much out there on this cereal to begin with. I do know that this cereal was discontinued in the mid 1980s. That was sad, because, from what I remember, this was a great cereal. I loved Rice Krispies, and to put marshmallows in them, can you get any better? And when I say marshmallows, I’m not talking about those boring white ones in your hot chocolate mixes, no! I’m talking about brightly colored ones! And what better way of showing off the colors then by this wonderful commercial.

It starts off with a balloon guy at a park. It is rain and dreary. His balloons look pitiful and the kids ignore him. Balloon guy sinks further into depression. In comes Snap, Crackle and Pop to the rescue! Snap comes in with four boxes of Rice Krispies. The Original Flavor, Cocoa Krispies, Frosted Krispies and Marshmallow Krispies. Crackle and Pop quickly agree that this man needs a dose of the brightly colored Marshmallow Krispies. And the announcer completes it by stating so elegantly; “Hey, Marshmallows!”

The commercial ends on a sunny day with Balloon Man handing out brightly colored balloons to the kiddies. Now, did this man really need that bowl of Marshmallow Krispies? Hell no he didn’t! I believe he purposefully bought those dull balloons, because he knew that Snap, Crackle and Pop would come and give him free breakfast. I would!

Sadly, as I mentioned earlier, this cereal wouldn’t make it out of the 80s. It’s too bad, because, from what I remember, it was a very good cereal. But it sure was fun to watch this commercial and have all those wonderful memories of mornings watching cartoons and eating Marshmallow Krispies come rushing back. Anyone else remember this cereal? Let me know in the comments!

Yes, that is just my view, but damn it, this commercial rocks! The more I watch it, the more I feel like I’m back in the 80’s. Unfortunately, the more I watch it, the more I want to go back and relive those carefree days, and that isn’t going to happen. But I digress. I found this commercial a few years ago on X-Entertainment and upon first viewing it, I found that I have a huge passion for Retro Commercials. So what makes this commercial THE BEST EVER? Let’s look.

1. Watch the video and it has an 80’s feel to it. I’m not talking about the looks of the people or the clothing or anything like that, but the quality of the picture. Exactly how it was in the 80s. Love it!
2. The music. The kids are singing it, regular sounding kids, and they do a smash up job. There are other commercials for Hi-C that use the same jingle, but use a professional singer and it just doesn’t have the same feel that this one does.
3. The kids! They are dressed like normal kids in the 80s. Their hair is in the 80s style and most importantly, they act like the kids in the 80s. In the 80s, we rushed home from school and if it was a nice day, what did we do? We went outside and played! Yes, we had Atari and Nintendo, but we didn’t rush home to play. We rushed home so we could go outside with our friends and play sports, ride bike and/or skate board, talk, or just be goofy! How they show that in this commercial is awesome, and totally reminded me of what I use to do.

So go ahead and watch it. If you grew up in the 80s, does this not take you back? And for those born after the 80s, this gives you a quick 30 second peak inside what we did after school back then. Now excuse me, I need to watch this commercial a few more times. God I love it!

As a kid, I was addicted to chocolate milk. I’d drink it with breakfast, with lunch and dinner as well. I’d even drink it after breakfast, in the afternoon, and before bed. Unfortunately my mother wouldn’t allow that. I was lucky to get it once a day. So when I watched commercials for Hershey’s Syrup, I’d pay attention, drooling at the chocolate goodness on the screen and be envious of whoever was lucky enough to be drinking the chocolate milk. In the early 80s, Hershey used Peter Billingsley, Ralphie from A Christmas Story, as Messy Marvin, a boy who made a mess out of everything, to sell it’s Hershey’s Syrup to the kids.

So, what is the premise of this commercial? You have:

1. A child who makes a mess out of everything.
2. A Chocolate Syrup that is easy to pour without making a mess.
3. Child proving that he can pour the chocolate, into a nice cold glass of milk, to prove it is easy and mess free.
4. The child, after proving the syrup is easy to pour without making a mess, proceeds to make a mess out of everything else.

As a kid, I loved the Hershey Syrup commercials with Peter Billingsley. He reminded me a lot of myself. I was short and had very blond hair. I wasn’t the neatest kid in the world and I made a lot of messes. Oh, and I loved chocolate milk. Looking at it today, it definitely is lame, but that 80s lame. You know, the lame that is lame, but really cool at the same time. It’s the kind of lame that you have had to live through, love, and now think lame. Does that make any sense to anyone but me? Oh well, I’m off to get some chocolate milk because I’m an adult now and can have it anytime I want. And right now, I really want some. Damn commercial, makes it looks so good and chocolaty and refreshing.

I was planning to do my normal Friday “Anything Retro” Blog, but it didn’t get done. Maybe I was being to ambitious, I don’t know, but it needs more time. I think it’s a case of to many good ideas and I’m trying to do them all to fast. Need to make a list and stick to it!

So, continuing my McDonald’s week, here is a commercial in the lines of the High School themed one from Monday. Kids, look to be in Middle School, or early High School, have to deal with a bunch of homework and how they cope. Let’s look at this beautiful, but short, commercial.

First three segments are the kids in three different classes, not sure if it’s the same group of kids in three classes or three classes and each one has different kids. It doesn’t really matter. Let’s look at what they do:

1. You see two girls starting their Insect Collecting. Come on, you can do better than that girls. Another uses a glass bottle to catch on, but is just a bit to slow.
2. Another kid is at home and the dog spills milk on his work. Watch the dog, he does it purposely! If that was my dog, you’d be off to the pound. Ok, maybe not, but I’d be sorely tempted.
3. You see the one kid trying to do homework in a playground and other kids bothering him. Kid, you have a boom box, just crack the mother up! But it seems the kids were doing that to get his boom box so they could practice the Preamble. Sly, very sly. Looks like the girl took the boy’s fries as well as his boom box. Pussy.

But after all is said and done, they just meet up at McDonald’s and study there. I wonder what the other 498 words were? Ok, no I don’t.

This commercial has a wonderful jingles, a neat premises but is just to short. I know most commercials are only 30 seconds, but this seemed rushed and missing something. Have any ideas what they could have done to make it better? If so, leave a comment or two.

Some see this commercial as a stroke of genius by McDonald’s, while others see this as the creepiest commercial McDonald’s has ever created, excluding the original Ronald McDonald commercial. I love this commercial. The moon man, dubbed Mac Tonight by McDonald’s, doesn’t scare me. The song is actually a play on the old Frank Sinatra song Mack the Knife. Interesting song, but I like this version for McDonald’s better.

This commercial started off in 1986 and they picked Mac as a moon guy to show adults that they were open late. They tried to show him as a lounge singer, or jazz singer, but many people thought it was freaky. Not me, I loved it! Moon figure, throw it in with a catchy tune, and I was hooked! Ok, in 1986 I was 10 and I don’t know too many kids who, when 10, didn’t like McDonalds, so it really didn’t take a lot for me to like this commercial.

All in all, they used Mac in 29 commercials. I can only remember 2 or 3, maybe they did more in Europe and Asia? Who knows, but last year, can’t believe I have to say that for 2007, they reintroduced a CGI version. I personally think the new one sucks major donkey balls, but hey, I’ll let you view it and make up your own mind.

Below, see the original commercial, and after that, check out the new one. If you use to be freaked out by it, are you still?