1960s commercials Archives - Retro Reminiscing Video and Pictures

Muriel Cigars — Edie Adams Made “Hey Big Spender” Her Own

Here’s one where the commercial spokeswoman may have become better remembered than the product.

Edie Adams spent an incredible 19 years selling Muriel cigars on television, and the Television Academy says Muriel’s sales increased more than tenfold during the years her commercials ran.

This spot uses “Hey, Big Spender” from the Broadway musical Sweet Charity, but with one perfect advertising change: instead of “spend a little time with me,” Edie sings “spend a little dime with me” because a Muriel Corona cost ten cents.

And apparently that little change caused quite a stir. I found that Universal filed suit in 1968 trying to stop the cigar company from using the Big Spender parody in its advertising.

Edie herself had quite a résumé. She was Juilliard-trained, won a Tony Award for Li’l Abner, appeared in movies including The Apartment and It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and was married to television comedy pioneer Ernie Kovacs.

Here’s the part I really didn’t know: she never smoked. Adams later said the Muriel cigars never even touched her lips, and she devised a special ring to hold one convincingly for the commercials.

She also did something television historians owe her a lot for. After Kovacs died, Edie fought to locate and preserve his old programs at a time when networks were routinely erasing or throwing television recordings away. More than 1,200 items from the Kovacs-Adams collection eventually went to the Library of Congress.

Not bad for someone many people simply remember as “the Muriel cigar lady.”

Do you remember Edie Adams herself, or is it “Hey, Big Spender” that immediately brings these commercials back?

Did You Walk A Mile For A Camel?

If you grew up watching television in the 1950s or ’60s, cigarette commercials weren’t unusual or something that jumped out at you — everybody saw them. Camel, Winston, Marlboro, Salem and the rest were mixed right in with the cereal, cars and laundry detergent.

And Camel was certainly no little brand. It was introduced by R.J. Reynolds in 1913, became the company’s first nationally marketed cigarette and within four years was America’s number-one seller.

The commercial I’m showing comes from Camel’s revival of one of advertising’s most famous lines: “I’d Walk a Mile for a Camel.” What surprised me is how old that slogan actually was. Smithsonian records show it appearing in Camel advertising back in the 1920s, and Reynolds brought the idea back again near the end of the 1960s.

There’s also a future TV connection. Geoffrey Scott, who later played Mark Jennings on Dynasty, became one of the faces of the “Walk a Mile” Camel campaign. Scott made nearly 100 commercials during his career and also wound up doing ads for Old Spice and even portraying a Marlboro Man.

Then everything changed. Federal law ended cigarette advertising on American radio and television after January 1, 1971.

Do you remember the Camel commercials themselves, or mostly just the line “I’d Walk a Mile for a Camel”?

The Monkees, Bugs Bunny and Kool-Aid

Talk about putting two things together that you wouldn’t expect — The Monkees and Bugs Bunny selling Kool-Aid!

But the first thing I noticed was that there are only three Monkees here. Peter Tork had already left the group in December 1968, leaving Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones and Michael Nesmith to carry on as a trio. By this point their NBC television series was over too, but that wasn’t the end of The Monkees on television.

In the fall of 1969, CBS brought the show back as Saturday morning reruns, and General Foods’ Kool-Aid was a sponsor. That explains a lot about why these commercials exist. The Monkees were suddenly being introduced to kids all over again, and Kool-Aid had three very recognizable spokesmen ready to go.

Bugs Bunny wasn’t new to Kool-Aid either. I found that the “Make Friends with Kool-Aid” campaign was already using Bugs several years earlier, so pairing him with The Monkees was really a combination of two existing advertising ideas.

There’s another interesting connection from this period. Their 1969 album The Monkees Present was also tied into a Kool-Aid promotion. The group was well past peak Monkeemania by then, Peter was gone and Michael Nesmith would soon leave too.

And for anyone wondering where the Kool-Aid Man is — he wasn’t the television star yet! That familiar walking pitcher didn’t make his big TV debut until 1975.

Looking back, this commercial is almost a snapshot of The Monkees right near the end of their original run.

Do you remember this commercial, or do you remember The Monkees more from their Saturday morning reruns?

Flatsy Dolls: They Were Flat and That Was That!

Here’s one that really could only have come out of the late 1960s — Flatsy, the doll whose big selling point was that she was…flat!

But there was actually more thought put into these than I remembered. The dolls were made of soft vinyl with wire inside so you could bend and pose them, and some came mounted in decorative frames that could actually be hung on the wall. You could even wear some of the dolls on your clothes.

I found something interesting in a 1968 issue of Broadcasting magazine: Ideal was already planning network and major-market advertising for its new Flatsys beginning February 1, 1969. The line lasted until 1973 and grew well beyond the dolls in this commercial, with Fashion Flatsys, mini versions, Flatsyville, Candy Mountain and different playsets.

Even the company behind them has a great story. Ideal traced its beginnings to Morris and Rose Michtom, the couple associated with creating the original American Teddy bear after Theodore Roosevelt’s famous 1902 hunting incident.

And somehow that little jingle did its job — “Flatsys, Flatsys, they’re flat and that’s that” is still being remembered more than 50 years later.

Did you actually have a Flatsy, or is it the commercial and jingle you remember most?

You Get A Big Delight In Every Bite

This early commercial takes us back very close to the beginning. Ho Hos were introduced in 1967 after first being made by hand in a San Francisco bakery, with mass production following soon afterward. Ding Dongs arrived that same year, making 1967 a pretty important one for the Hostess snack aisle

I like how simple this commercial is. Long before Hostess surrounded its cakes with cartoon characters, the selling point was basically right there on the screen — chocolate cake rolled around crème filling, covered in chocolate, and the promise that “you get a big delight in every bite”

A few years later Hostess advertising became much more colorful. Happy Ho Ho arrived as a little Robin Hood-style character with a feathered cap, bow and arrows, joining Twinkie the Kid, Captain Cupcake, King Ding Dong and the rest of the Hostess gang. (popicon.life)

And Ho Hos certainly caught on. By their 40th anniversary in 2007, Americans were eating around 100 million a year. Pittsburgh was even declared the Ho Ho capital of America, eating more per person than any other city

The brand has survived quite a journey since this commercial. Hostess shut down in 2012 and Ho Hos disappeared from stores for a while, but new owners brought the familiar cakes back nationwide in 2013. Today Hostess is owned by the J M Smucker Company

For something that started as a hand-produced little cake in a San Francisco bakery, Ho Hos certainly became part of a lot of lunchboxes

Were you a Ho Hos kid, or did you reach for Twinkies or Ding Dongs instead?

Who remembers when Bugs Bunny was actually on the Kool-Aid package?

This commercial takes us back to around 1965, when Bugs and Elmer Fudd weren’t just Saturday morning entertainment — they were helping General Foods sell the relatively new Pre-Sweetened Kool-Aid

What I love is that they didn’t just drop the characters into a generic ad. Elmer is still chasing that “wascally wabbit,” Bugs is still one step ahead, and somehow the whole thing turns into a Kool-Aid commercial

Legendary animator Tex Avery, who helped shape Bugs Bunny’s personality years earlier, returned to direct some of these commercials. Mel Blanc was still Bugs, but Elmer was voiced here by Hal Smith, who many of us remember better as Otis Campbell on The Andy Griffith Show

Pre-Sweetened Kool-Aid itself was fairly new, introduced in 1964 so you no longer had to add your own sugar. Bugs became so closely tied to the product that his picture appeared right on the packages

And then this commercial gives us another nearly forgotten memory — Kool-Pops. The frozen treats had been around since at least 1960, giving General Foods another way to turn Kool-Aid into something kids could beg Mom to buy

It’s funny how one short commercial can bring back so much at once — Bugs and Elmer, the old Kool-Aid packets, Kool-Pops, and the days when cartoon characters regularly helped decide what ended up in the grocery cart

Do you remember Bugs Bunny on the Kool-Aid packages — and does anyone remember Kool-Pops?

It Was More Fun the Colorforms Way

As requested by a number of viewers, here is the Raggedy Ann Colorforms commercial I remember from childhood. I have since discovered just how many different Colorforms kits were made, and I will share more of them over time.

Colorforms used colorful pieces of reusable vinyl that clung to smooth surfaces without glue. Children could dress the characters, rearrange the scenes, peel everything off and begin again. The Raggedy Ann kit shown in this 1967 commercial allowed kids to change her dresses and accessories as often as their imaginations allowed.

Colorforms began in 1951 after Harry and Patricia Kislevitz experimented with colorful vinyl originally used to make handbags. They discovered that the pieces clung to the glossy walls of their bathroom and began cutting them into different shapes. What started as a creative experiment soon became a successful toy.

FAO Schwarz placed an early order for 1,000 sets, helping turn the small project into a real company. The first kits featured basic geometric shapes, but licensed characters soon followed. Popeye became the first in 1957, opening the door for hundreds of television, comic book and movie characters.

Even the familiar Colorforms logo has an interesting history. Legendary graphic designer Paul Rand, who also designed logos for IBM, ABC and UPS, created it in 1959.

I also remember watching the local weather forecast as a child. The station used happy, smiling suns, large red H’s for high pressure and other colorful symbols that looked like oversized Colorforms.

Before computer-generated weather graphics, forecasters physically moved reusable symbols around a large map. Depending on the station, those symbols could be made from magnetic rubber, felt or another cling-on material. Whatever they were made from, they looked remarkably similar to the Colorforms we played with at home.

Maybe that is why those old weather maps remain so memorable. The smiling suns, rain clouds and giant H’s and L’s made the forecast feel like a giant Colorforms set coming to life on television.

Do you remember your local weather forecaster moving those colorful symbols around the map?

Madge and the Palmolive Soak

Madge worked at the fictional Salon East Beauty Parlor, where nearly every manicure ended with the same surprise. After listening to a customer complain about dry or rough hands, Madge would calmly reveal that her fingers were already soaking in Palmolive dishwashing liquid.

The famous line, “You’re soaking in it,” first became part of the campaign in 1966. Actress Jan Miner’s perfect delivery helped turn a simple product demonstration into one of television advertising’s most recognizable catchphrases.

Madge became so well known that A&W later parodied the commercials. Instead of Palmolive, she soaked her hand in a mug of root beer, proving just how deeply the character had become part of popular culture.

Did anyone ever try soaking their own hands in Palmolive after watching Madge?

Don’t Squeeze the Charmin Fun Facts

Beginning in 1964, shoppers were repeatedly warned, “Please don’t squeeze the Charmin!” The commercials followed grocery store manager Mr. Whipple as he tried to stop customers from squeezing the soft toilet paper, even though he could rarely resist squeezing it himself.

Copywriter John Chervokas created Mr. Whipple for the Benton & Bowles advertising agency after noticing shoppers squeezing produce such as tomatoes and melons. Actor Dick Wilson brought the character to life in more than 500 commercials, making Mr. Whipple one of the most recognizable advertising personalities in America.

The first Mr. Whipple commercial was fittingly filmed in Flushing, New York. In a 1978 survey, Mr. Whipple was reportedly ranked as the third-best-known person in America, behind Richard Nixon and Billy Graham.

The original campaign ended in 1985, but Dick Wilson returned when Charmin revived Mr. Whipple in 1999. Another lesser-known connection came later when future MythBusters host Adam Savage appeared as Mr. Whipple’s stock boy, Jimmy, in several commercials.

Wilson also appeared in television shows including Bewitched, Hogan’s Heroes and The Bob Newhart Show, but Mr. Whipple remained his most famous role.

Did you ever squeeze the Charmin when nobody was looking?

Quisp Cereal

What other cereal commercial could turn a giant ball of space yarn into an 87-mile-long necktie? This Quisp ad feels more like a miniature Saturday morning cartoon than a commercial, with Quisp flying through space to deliver cereal before encountering a very “knotty” problem.

Quisp was not just a cereal mascot. He was the Crown Prince of Planet Q, and the propeller on his head allowed him to fly through space. He occasionally traveled with a furry sidekick named Quunchy and competed against Quake, a musclebound miner voiced by Cannon star William Conrad.

Quaker Oats introduced Quisp in 1965, with crunchy corn pieces shaped like flying saucers. The commercials were produced by Jay Ward, creator of Rocky and Bullwinkle, which explains their fast jokes, wild characters and cartoon-style adventures. Daws Butler, also famous as the voice of Yogi Bear, provided Quisp’s voice.

Quisp never starred in a regular cartoon series, but its animated commercials often appeared during children’s programming and became almost as memorable as the shows they sponsored. The cereal disappeared and returned several times over the decades before Quaker discontinued it again around 2024.

Do you remember eating Quisp, or were the crazy commercials more memorable than the cereal?