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
“I can’t believe I ate that whole thing!” became one of those commercial lines everyone seemed to repeat, even if they had forgotten it came from Alka-Seltzer. Milt Moss played the painfully overstuffed Ralph, while Lynn Whinic delivered the perfectly dry response that made the 1972 spot so memorable.
The idea reportedly came after advertising writer Howie Cohen overate at a celebration dinner and complained about eating the whole thing. The commercial later entered the Clio Awards Hall of Fame and was even recreated decades later with Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts. Do you remember quoting this commercial around the house?
How many of you can still hear Geoffrey Holder’s booming voice and unforgettable laugh before this commercial even gets going? This 1983 spot came during the later years of his long association with 7UP, when he reminded viewers that the Uncola was “crisp and clean” with no caffeine.
Holder was much more than a memorable commercial spokesman. He was a Trinidad-born dancer, painter, choreographer, actor and director who played Baron Samedi in the James Bond film Live and Let Die. He also won two Tony Awards in 1975 for directing and designing the costumes for The Wiz. That voice and laugh were entirely his own, and they gave these commercials a personality few soft-drink campaigns could match.
The name 7UP remains one of the interesting mysteries in advertising history. Creator Charles Leiper Grigg apparently never explained it. The most repeated theories involve seven ingredients, the original seven-ounce bottle or lithium’s approximate atomic mass, but none has been conclusively proven. Even the familiar story that its original name was “Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda” has been challenged because researchers found little historical evidence that it was ever the product’s official name.
Did your family regularly buy 7UP, or was it something you mostly remember being served when someone had an upset stomach?
“Give a hoot, don’t pollute!” Those six words made Woodsy Owl one of the most memorable public-service characters of the 1970s.
The U.S. Forest Service introduced Woodsy in 1971 to teach children that preventing pollution was everyone’s responsibility. Harold Bell helped create the character with Forest Service advisers Glenn Kovar, Betty Conrad Hite and Chuck Williams while they were working on the television series Lassie. Williams supplied the slogan that turned an owl’s “hoot” into an unforgettable environmental message.
Woodsy appeared in television and radio spots, educational films, posters, coloring sheets, bookmarks, decals and classroom kits. The Forest Service even sent a costumed Woodsy into schools to teach children about littering and conservation.
One of Woodsy’s familiar voices belonged to Sterling Holloway, whom generations also knew as Disney’s Winnie the Pooh. Woodsy became so popular that he received his own Gold Key comic-book series and was soon recognized by most American families with children.
His message later expanded to “Lend a Hand, Care for the Land,” encouraging people to do more than simply avoid littering. Even so, the original slogan remains the one many of us immediately remember.
Did Woodsy Owl make you think twice before dropping something on the ground?
My wife handed me something tonight, and I said, “Thanks for the gumball!” Before I could even finish, she immediately answered, “Mickey!”
It’s fun when you both connect at exactly the same time with an old commercial from your past. One little phrase can bring back a memory neither of you realized was still tucked away.
These Hasbro gumball banks combined three things kids loved: cartoon characters, candy and collecting pennies. The colorful gumballs filled the clear heads of Mickey Mouse, Bozo the Clown and Popeye, making each character look funnier with every refill.
You inserted a penny, received a gumball and heard the memorable line, “Thanks for the gumball, Mickey!” Decades later, that silly commercial is still bringing back memories and apparently finishing sentences in our house!
Did you have one of these gumball banks, or do you still quote the commercial?
