Retro Reminiscing Video and Pictures – Do You Remember
online community focused on sharing and reminiscing about video, audio, and images that stir our memories of the past – old television, theme songs, commercials, print advertisements, the sights and sounds you remember
It was catchy, silly, and easy for kids to repeat, which is exactly what made old snack commercials work. A plain lunch suddenly felt more exciting when you added a bag of Fritos.
That was the charm of the campaign. It did not need a complicated story. It was just a happy little reminder that Fritos were salty, crunchy, and perfect next to a sandwich.
You’re singing it now, aren’t cha?
Before CGI, jump scares, and viral ads, Smokey Bear managed to give some of us a double take with one strange little public service announcement. Actress Joanna Cassidy calmly warned viewers about forest fires, then removed her red-haired “mask” to reveal she was actually Smokey Bear underneath.
It was supposed to remind us that everyone has a part to play in preventing forest fires. But if you saw it as a kid, you probably remembered the face-removal trick just as much as the message.
Effective? Absolutely.
A little creepy? Also absolutely.
Here’s another earworm from the ’70s to get stuck in your head for the rest of the day.
Ken-L Ration was one of the big names in dog food for decades, dating back to the 1920s. The brand became known for canned dog food and later dry food, but most of us remember it because of that insanely catchy commercial jingle.
The song was based on “My Dog’s Bigger Than Your Dog” by folk singer Tom Paxton, and the ad turned it into a playground-style brag between kids. The idea was simple: my dog is bigger, faster, shinier, and better because he eats Ken-L Ration.
It was the kind of jingle advertisers loved because you didn’t just hear it — you repeated it. Kids could sing it, parents remembered it, and the brand name was baked right into the hook.
Ken-L Ration was eventually owned by Quaker Oats and later sold to H.J. Heinz in the 1990s, but the product faded from store shelves. The jingle, though? That survived. For a lot of us, all it takes is one line:
“My dog’s bigger than your dog…”
…and suddenly the whole thing comes running back like a dog hearing the can opener.
Hai Karate was one of those aftershaves that sold the joke as much as the scent.
It launched in 1967 and the whole idea was that the stuff made a man so irresistible that women would practically attack him. That is why the package and commercials leaned into the gag that every man needed self-defense instructions after putting it on. The famous warning was: “Be careful how you use it.”
The commercials were pure 1960s and early 1970s male fantasy advertising. A regular guy splashes on Hai Karate, and suddenly a woman goes wild for him. He has to use goofy karate moves to fend her off. It was played for broad slapstick laughs, with the martial arts craze and the “irresistible aftershave” idea mashed together into one very memorable campaign.
The campaign came from the ad firm McCaffrey & McCall, and one of the people behind the marketing plan was George Newall, who later became famous as a co-creator and songwriter for Schoolhouse Rock!
Looking back, it feels like the granddaddy of those later body spray ads where one spritz supposedly turns you into a babe magnet. Back then, though, Hai Karate had the extra gimmick: not only would women chase you, but you might need to defend yourself afterward.
It was silly, sexist, over-the-top, and very much of its time. But that is exactly why people remember it. The bottle may have been aftershave, but the real product was the joke.
You Can Trust Your Car to the Man Who Wears the Star was one of those great old advertising lines that stuck in your head because it did exactly what a slogan was supposed to do: it made the brand feel safe, familiar, and dependable.
Texaco’s “star” was right there in the logo, and the “man who wears the star” was the service station attendant. Back then, gas stations were not just places where you pumped your own gas and left. An attendant might check your oil, clean your windshield, look at your tires, and give the car a quick once-over while you sat behind the wheel. The campaign sold Texaco as more than gasoline. It sold trust.
The slogan became closely tied to Texaco’s image during the full-service gas station era. The message was simple: pull into Texaco, look for the star, and you were in good hands. It fit perfectly with the time, when uniformed attendants and branded service stations were part of the American road trip experience.
The jingle is most commonly credited to Roy Eaton, a pioneering Black advertising composer who worked on major campaigns including Texaco and Chef Boyardee Beefaroni. One profile says Eaton created the Texaco jingle in 1962, and another notes it was recognized by Advertising Age as part of one of the top ad campaigns of the 20th century. As for who sang the original version, that part is less clear. The safest answer is that it was likely performed by commercial session singers over the years, with different versions used in different Texaco spots.
The line worked because it sounded almost like a jingle before you even heard the music. “You can trust your car to the man who wears the star” has that smooth, sing-song rhythm that made it easy to remember. Texaco also used another famous star-themed line, “Star of the American Road,” leaning heavily into the red star logo as a symbol of dependability.
Looking back, it is a reminder of when gas stations felt more personal. The “man who wears the star” was not just selling gas. He represented service, pride, and that old-school promise that somebody actually knew your car and cared whether you made it down the road.
Here’s another forgotten jingle to get stuck in your head: “You can take Salem out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of Salem.”
Salem cigarettes leaned heavily on that fresh, outdoorsy image, using country scenery, easygoing music, and a catchy slogan to make menthol smoking feel cool, clean, and almost wholesome. That was the magic of old cigarette advertising. They weren’t just selling cigarettes, they were selling a mood.
And like so many jingles from back then, once you remember it, it sticks. These commercials were polished little earworms, made to stay with you long after the TV was turned off.
That all changed when cigarette commercials were banned from radio and television starting January 2, 1971, after President Richard Nixon signed the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act. The ads disappeared, but some of those jingles never really left our heads.Here’s another forgotten jingle to get stuck in your head: “You can take Salem out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of Salem.”
Salem cigarettes leaned heavily on that fresh, outdoorsy image, using country scenery, easygoing music, and a catchy slogan to make menthol smoking feel cool, clean, and almost wholesome. That was the magic of old cigarette advertising. They weren’t just selling cigarettes, they were selling a mood.
And like so many jingles from back then, once you remember it, it sticks. These commercials were polished little earworms, made to stay with you long after the TV was turned off.
That all changed when cigarette commercials were banned from radio and television starting January 2, 1971, after President Richard Nixon signed the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act. The ads disappeared, but some of those jingles never really left our heads.
Before the internet gave us endless cat videos, we had to take them wherever we could get them, and sometimes that meant a Purina Cat Chow commercial. This old ad feels almost like the Joe Weider offers in the back of comic books, where you were always being promised something special if you paid attention, mailed away, or bought the product.
The Funny Face drink mix commercials from the early 1970s are a classic slice of Saturday morning nostalgia. Produced by Pillsbury as a direct competitor to Kool-Aid, the “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot” campaign leaned heavily into the popular culture of the era to sell their powdered refreshments.
The tagline “When you’re hot, you’re hot… and when you’re not, you’re not” was actually borrowed from the 1971 crossover country hit by Jerry Reed. The commercials adapted this catchy hook to suggest that when kids were hot from playing outside, the “coolest” thing they could be was a “Funny Face.”
The brand was famous for its anthropomorphic fruit characters, each with a distinct personality. During the 70s run, you would typically see:
Goofy Grape: The unofficial leader of the group.
Rootin’ Tootin’ Raspberry: A cowboy-themed character.
Freckle Face Strawberry: One of the most popular flavors.
Loud-Mouth Lime: Known for his wide grin.
Choo-Choo Cherry: An engineer-themed character.
A Bit of Trivia
Interestingly, Funny Face underwent some significant changes before that 70s jingle became famous. Two original characters, Injun Orange and Chinese Cherry, were discontinued in the late 1960s due to their stereotypical nature and were replaced by Jolly Olly Orange and Choo-Choo Cherry.
By the mid-70s, Funny Face began to lose ground to Kool-Aid’s massive “Kool-Aid Man” marketing blitz. While the brand eventually faded from most grocery shelves, the “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot” jingle remains one of the most recognizable pieces of 70s advertising.
If you’re looking into 70s beverage history, you might also remember Wyler’s or Great Shakes, which used similar high-energy animation to grab the attention of the “cereal commercial” demographic.
The Pillsbury Company officially discontinued the brand in 1994.
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You ever look back at some of these old commercials and just shake your head?
This is one of those for me… the one where they made a big deal about a cigarette being just a little bit longer. We’re talking a millimeter… something you’d need a ruler to even notice. But back then? They sold it like it was a game changer.
Even as a kid I remember thinking, wait… that’s it? But the way they presented it, you’d think you were looking at a luxury item. Zoomed in shots, side-by-side comparisons, and that smooth voiceover selling the idea like it mattered.
Brands like Virginia Slims leaned hard into that image. It wasn’t just smoking… it was style, confidence, sophistication. And tied into that whole “You’ve come a long way, baby” vibe, it all felt bigger than it really was.
And then there’s the music.
That jingle always hit my ear like La Bamba… that same upbeat, bouncing rhythm that sticks in your head whether you want it to or not. Not the actual song… but close enough that your brain grabs onto it.
And somehow they wrapped all of that together and made cigarette size a trend.
Think about that.
There was a time when a slightly longer cigarette felt like a status move. Longer, slimmer… like you were keeping up with something. They took something barely noticeable and turned it into a whole thing.
Different times, right?
But here we are… still talking about it.
Let me ask you…
Were your parents into the trends… or once they picked a brand, that was it?
I have vague memories of Farfel the dog himself, but that Nestlé’s jingle? That’s burned in there for life.
You know exactly what I’m talking about.
🎵 “N-E-S-T-L-E-S… Nestlé’s makes the very best…” 🎵
…and then that voice comes in to finish it…
“…chaaawwwwclit.”
Come on… you just heard it in your head, didn’t you?
That’s the part that stuck. Not the puppet, not even the commercial itself half the time… just that drawn-out delivery that somehow made it impossible to forget.
Now Farfel, for those who might not remember him as clearly, was this floppy-eared puppet dog created and voiced by Jimmy Nelson. He wasn’t flashy, wasn’t over-the-top… just kind of laid back, almost like he couldn’t be bothered to finish the word properly. And funny enough, that “lazy” delivery wasn’t even planned—it came from a mistake where the puppet’s mouth snapped shut early, and instead of fixing it, they kept it. Best decision they ever made.
And here’s something I was thinking about… back then, puppets didn’t creep us out the way they seem to today. You look at some of the comments online now and kids are like, “That thing is nightmare fuel!” Meanwhile, we were sitting there in the living room, probably on the floor, completely fine with it. No second thought. It was just part of the show.
Different time. Different mindset.
The commercial itself was simple. No crazy effects, no fast cuts, no overproduction. Just a catchy jingle, a memorable voice, and a brand like Nestlé making sure you never forgot their name. And it worked—because here we are, decades later, still singing it like it aired yesterday.
And that’s really the magic of those old commercials. They didn’t need to hit you over the head… they just slipped in, nice and easy, and stayed there.
Now I’ve got to ask… do you remember Farfel more, or is it the jingle that stuck with you like it did with me?
