My Next 12 Favorite Christmas Commercials Ever

 So I was watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade when this ad came on:

It got me thinking, they don't make Christmas commercials anymore like they used to. There was a real charm and quality to those old ads. So, since it's been ten years since I discussed favorite Christmas commercials, it's only right to do another 12.

I did a whole article discussing Coca Cola's Christmas commercials. So it's about time Pepsi got some love. And is one of their better holiday ads. 

Five Forgotten Commercial Mascots

 Over the years I talked about my favorite commercial mascots and others that are creepy. But what about the forgotten mascots? It's funny to be as old as I am, and see some mascots have disappaewred that were common when I was a kid. And there are some that faded away so long ago that even I can't remember them! Here are five examples of characters who were a big deal once but now no one remembers them. And let's overlook cereals for now, that's another article!

Geoffrey (Toys R Us)

This could count as a cheat since the image of Geoffrey has returned in an cartoon form. But actually, the character has taken many forms. He was a live giraffe awhile back, and before that a more anthropomorphic giraffe who appeared in commercials. There were also animated versions. What happened to him?

10 Classic Symphonies Used in TV Commercials

It seems almost ridiculous that world famous music made centuries ago by world renowned composers would fit in with a modern commercial for some random product. But, it works! Not only does it work, but very often the music will suddenly be synonymous with the products its selling,

The William Tell Overture

This is one of the most overused pieces of music ever. Even appearing in everything from Lone Ranger to The Brady Bunch (twice!).

Ten Memorable Coca-Cola Christmas Commercials

Five Favorite Commercial Gimmicks

I’ve talked a lot about commercials, and when you watch commercials for as long as I have you notice certain things. Some of just tricks that the advertisers use to make their product more appealing, and others are just plain gimmicks which have no place in reality but damn it looks so cool!


Here are five tricks advertisers use that I can’t help but chuckle at.

That works fast!!
I always roll my eyes at medicine commercials that show a person suffering from some malady. And then they get handed some medicine. The scene changes, and suddenly the person is saying they feel great. Um, am I really supposed to believe this ad? Obviously the actor just changed his tone and he was never sick.

I love this one, are we supposed to believe they really waited nine hours and had the lady come all the way back to film her feeling better? The nine hours later is about as reliable as a Frank Miller time stamp, I mean you can slap any time on there what difference does it make?

Commercials with Celebrities Before They were Celebrities

Let’s continue my little overview of commercials with another category, when celebrities appear in commercials before they become famous!

While it’s common knowledge that celebrities appear in commercials before they’re stars, the fun parts is when you look back at a commercial you remember seeing and suddenly realize you know now the actor!  For example recognize the face at the end of this Oscar Meyer ad?

Yep that’s Jodie Sweeten before Full House fame.


Of course I could be here all day talking about celebrities in commercials before they were famous, but today here are ten ads that are special before either I remember seeing as a kid or found the ad on an old VHS and had to do a double take that I recognized that young face.


Matt LeBlanc
This is one ad I honestly remember, it was a great ad that they ran all the time. I was shocked when I found out years later that the guy getting the ketchup was Joey from Friends!

20 Memorable Super Bowl Commercials

One subject I spent a good deal of time on the last several months was commercials. However there is one special category I have yet to address-Super Bowl commercials! And since some of the ad’s I touched on last time were Super Bowl ads, and we’re a week away from the big game, this feels like this logical follow up.

It’s not a big secret that Super Bowl ads are a special breed. Since the big game is the biggest TV event of the year, the cost for an ad during that event is quite incredible. And since they’re spending so much money, and have such a large audience, usually advertisers go above and beyond to make an ad that is really special and memorable. Heck, there are people who watch the game JUST to see the ads! Well, and the half time shows. Do they always work? No sometimes the ads are either lame or just plain silly. But when it does hit the mark, you have an ad that people talk about the next day and never forget or tire of seeing.


Normally I would do my favorite ads, but  I’ve been watching these games since the 80’s, assuming I watched at all,  so I’m not going to pretend I really remember these ads (with some exceptions). Plus it’s tough to find clips on YouTube that aren’t spliced half hour blocks (and feel free to check those out if you want to see more). So, here are some examples of great Super Bowl ads I did find in no particular order and organized by the companies that created the ad.



Budweiser
This beer company set a standard for these ads, from the Clydesdale’s to the silliness of the Bud Bowl to the absurdity of those “wassap” ads. This is one that was very popular, though I don’t get why. Who remembers these?

Ten Favorite Music Star Soda Commercials

There was a time when soda companies would go all out with their advertising. They would be pretty impressive productions taking a popular artist and either using one of their newest hits to make big time commercial, or giving them an all new song that they could make a new household slogan. This doesn’t happen so much anymore (Kendall Jenner notwithstanding) but here are some of my favorite soda campaigns from the 80’s and 90’s.




Michael Jackson “Pepsi Generation”

This may be the granddaddy of these kind of commercials, I could be wrong however. When Pepsi landed the rights for Michael Jackson to star in their ads it was HUGE! This was the first as he did, and yes there is a story about an accident he had filming these ads but that is a story for another day.

Michael Jackson “Bad”

Now one thing I didn’t mention was that sometimes, this can be a bad a idea. The creators will rush the ad together without ever really hearing the song. And when the song is violent or religious (see next example) things can get a little sticky. Here is a later Pepsi ad Michael did which didn’t air long. How huge was this ad? It was in parts!

Five Christmas Commercials That Have Run Forever

What’s that? A week before Thanksgiving is to early to discuss Christmas commercials? Hey, if these stupid networks can begin playing Christmas commercials BEFORE HALLOWEEN EVEN ENDS, then I can discuss this today.


Now then….


It’s always amazing when something becomes so much part of a holiday that it’d hard to believe there was ever a time when it wasn’t. Yes Santa wasn’t around the way we love him today until the 1900’s. Rudolph came years later and became just as big a part of the holiday. Even It’s a Wonderful Life came out in 1946 so there was a time when people didn’t watch it every single year. But something that truly fascinates me are the commercials.


Christmas commercials are always a cut above the norm, especially back in my day when actual thought and effort was put into them. They were clever, they were cute, and they were memorable. But usually they aired during one Christmas season, ok maybe for another year or two, and then disappeared. Oh sure we remember them, but most ads come and go and are never seen again (aside from YouTube and old VHS’s of course). That is except for a few ads which are so memorable that they seem to air year after year and never go away.



Now I could do (and have done) a list of all the memorable ads out there but here are five Christmas ads that are so simple and yet so perfect that they’re more than just memorable. They have almost become synonymous with the holiday!




Norelco Razor
Oh sure this as has been updated, from black white to color to CGI. But these simple ads, Santa riding on a Norleco Razor, are pretty popular and well know. I’ve even seen sitcoms make references to the famous ad. To be fair these kind of come and go a little, I dont think they air every single year, but we all remember them.

Top 10 Creepiest Commercial Mascots

I’ve talked a lot recently about commercials. And while a lot of commercials mascots are memorable and very well done, some make you tilt your head a bit. Some are so odd you wonder what the hell the company behind them was even thinking! Since I talked about my favorite mascots waayyy back in 2013, it’s way overdue to discuss the one’s that I don’t like very much. In this case, because they're creepy or just plain weird!

Ok couple rules. I only wanted characters that had reached some kind of iconic status, not a lame gimmick that disappeared and was forgotten. And they had to be some sort of three dimensional character, not just a picture on a box. And as always, this is all opinion.


Here are ten commercial mascots that are just creepy.



#10.The Green Giant
The Green Giant brand has been around for ages and a big Green Giant being the mascot makes sense. Except for one thing. The Giant has ZERO personality. All he does is stand there and shout HO HO HO. Why? The company must hare figured this out to but rather than try to develop the giants character they gave us a new one; Spout who was a kid version of the giant. I never got it. And to be fair the giant was more animated in the old days..and even creepier! By the way Mr.Clean almost made this list for the same reason, but at least he has a cute jingle.

Ten Commercial Jingles I love, for Products I Hate

So I was talking about cereals the other day and as I went through the various ad’s for them it got me thinking. I talked awhile back about ads which were so memorable we can’t forget them, and not so long ago about ad campaigns that aggravate us. But some commercials are nothing more than a song or jingle. And it’s a true sign of a great jingle when you remember and even love it- even if you have no use for the product being advertised.

For example, who never heard of this one:

Yeah it’s a great little jingle which we all know and love. Even though I can’t stand Almond Joy or Mounds. But damn that ad is memorable. Here are ten more examples of what I mean. Most of these are ear worms which I talked a lot about before. And let me be clear about one thing, there is nothing wrong with these products. I’m sure many people enjoy them it’s just that I do not.




Sprite
I hate sprite, it’s like a half ass version of 7-Up and i can barely stand that. But this jingle from the 80’s is fantastic. It’s catchy, it’s simple, and it’s well done.

Top 10 Craziest Breakfast Cereals

Ah, cereals. We all know the mascots that have been around for ages. Tony the Tiger, Captain Crunch, that crazy Cocoa Puffs bird,,,. But what’s really fun is when a breakfast cereal comes out just to be part of a craze. It exists because something is popular a the time, usually a movie or cartoon, and we eat it up because we were stupid kids. No, just kidding we tried because it was on based on a character or franchise we couldn’t get enough of. Usually these were awful and never lasted long, but some were just so out there I decided it was worth discussing them.



Now to be fair, most of these novelty cereals were really just typical cereal with funny marshmallows in them (Pac-Man for instance which kind of worked actually, Ghostbusters which was just fruit loops with marshmallows). Some just simply threw a face on the box which had zero to do with the cereal and that was it (Wheaties may be the worst offender of this, Casper appeared on Chex boxes for some reason, Yogi Bear on OK’s in the olden days). And other cereals were named after the character or property but they did nothing special with the cereal at all (Mr.T and GI Joe is just Honey Combs in different shapes, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was Chex with marshmallows, Rainbow Brite was just a Lucky Charms rip off, and the two Simpsons themes cereals were nothing special).

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So here are ten crazy cereals from the 80’s and 90’s which either just make no sense or was such a lame cash grab that it’s just amazing!



#10.Wonder

Why would anyone come out with this? Ok I suppose cereal isn’t that far from bread, it is just grain, but Wonder Bread is a pretty bland product (heck the term “Wonder Bread” is often used as an insult) so who thought making a cereal out of it would interest people? At least Dunkin Donuts Cereal sounds like it could be tasty. Yeah Rice Krispies is just as boring but that had a brilliant marketing campaign "Snap, Crackle, Pop!"

Ten Awesome Ad Campaign’s That I Just Love!!

Last week I talked about advertising campaigns which just drove me nuts. So it seemed only fair to look at the other side of the coin. After all a good ad campaign does more than just inform you about the product. It gives ads you almost look forward to seeing, and in some cases the slogan and/or sales mascot in the ads become so popular that they become icons, growing beyond the ad, and become part of pop culture.



For example, can you believe there is an ad that was made in the 70’s that I remember seeing in the 80’s? Impossible! Not if it’s this one..

Once again this has to be a series of ads. Also no cartoon mascots, I’ve covered that before in another list (so no Energizer Bunny which is the best example ever!)



This is NOT you’re Father’s Oldsmobile
If I’m wrong please correct me, but these are the ads that made the phrase “it’s not your father’s…” popular. Of course in this case these were not your father’s Oldsmobile. To highlight this they would have children of celebrities talking about how much cooler their car is than their parents. A great idea, and the actual celebrities even appeared! Here’s an examples :

Ten Annoying Ad Campaign’s That Drive Me Nuts!!

Hey have you seen those Chevy commercials where “real people” stand around a Chevy and act as if they’ve never seen a car before?

Yeah Chevy has been running these ads for awhile now and they drive me nuts. What am I supposed to think, that a random women said the car was “the jam” that means I have to get myself one??? Either these are not “real people” or they are coached because their reactions are not how people react (there are parody videos all over YouTube which illustrate this).


However, this is not the first ad campaign that drives me nuts. It’s one thing when we get a commercial that sucks, it’s one ad and you know it will go away eventually. Sometimes it’s so bad it never even air (Kendall Jenner anyone?) But a  “campaign” is another story. Endless ads with the same message all more annoying then the rest. Here are a few that I hated over the years. These aren’t necessarily controversial or even the worst out there, they just aggravated me :




The Burger King Guy
There are a lot of things that scream 90’s, this annoying jerk is one of them. As awful as that plastic Burger King thing they show is, at least he didn’t talk! He just glared at you…maybe that’s not better. Amway, this guy was Dan Cortese and he was so damn annoying! By the way in the ad below Burger King brags about bringing the food out to you. Yeah, how long did it take them to get over that stupid idea?

Top 5 Canine Commercial Mascots

It’s easy to have an animated animal in a commercial, having a real live dog appear is a little hardly. Sure having a dog appear in your commercial seems to be a very popular idea since dogs are cute and trainable. Except for Morris you don’t see many big time cat icons because cats pretty much just, lie there (which is why established characters like Garfield are often used). But it still takes a special something for the mascot to become popular.  Even harder when they appear in ads for things other than dog food, though the chuck wagon dog is funny. Sometimes these ads are so popular and the characters do so well liked that they are merchandised and become as popular as any celebrity.



Here are five dogs that appeared in commercials who became so popular that they eclipsed the product they were advertising!




#5.Cottonelle Dog

The one dog on this list who is here because he’s just cute. He doesn’t really have a gimmick, he’s just a Yellow Lab doing his thing. These ads aren’t the most remarkable, but they’re a lot better than those awful Charmin animated bear ads where they seem to be enjoying going to the bathroom WWAAAYYY to much!

Six Great Commercials for Stupid Products

A few weeks ago I talked about memorable commercials, and one of them was for the Colgate Pump. I noted that it was a really good commercial…for a really stupid product. It doesn’t even exist anymore. For the record I had the Crest Pump and it was..Ok I guess.


Don’t remember it? Here is the ad:

But this product wasn’t the first time, or the last time, a great ad was made for a product that turned out to be a dud. Of course a new product needs heavy advertising but sometimes the great commercial is about the only good thing about the product, which vanishes never to be heard from again.


Here are five examples of what I mean:

Ten Commercials I Can Never, Ever Forget

I talked awhile back about commercials with mascots which became so famous that they ae almost household names. (Don’t remember it? Here it is)


However, a good commercial doesn’t have to have a silly cartoon character to be remembered. A catchy jingle and/or catchphrase is enough to make people remember it. In some cases, you never forget it.


Here are ten ads that I never forgot, in no particular order.



10.Verizon
Give Verizon some credit, they took a small ad and made a catchphrase out of it. I still think of this ad when I am having trouble with a cell phone and asking the caller if they “Can hear me now”.

9.Old Navy
These commercials were so stupid, so inane, so nonsensical….that I loved them and still remember them. They are cheezy, goofy, and just fun.

Five Favorite Transitions & Bumpers From Kids Shows

We talk a lot about TV shows we love but sometimes one of my favorite things are  little things we often overlook. For instance the commercial bumpers. On most shows it’s just a person announcing that they would be right back after these messages over a shot of the title, and sometimes it can be extremely lazy as they will just Photoshop an image over the title announcing the ad break. You see this a lot in syndicated re-runs. But once in awhile they can be a little extra special. Like on Alf when he usually had a clever joke. Or on A Different World which would tease the second half of the episode rather than just say “We’ll Be Right Back”. Of course Linkara on AT4W came up with clever ways to announce those annoying midrolls.



I also like clever scene transitions. It’s one thing to change scenes, with adult shows it’s simple a dissolve followed by a new location shot. Oh, some shows do different things. Home Improvement used silly animations of the Home Improvement logo to break the scenes up, Roseanne shows pictures of various locations around Lanford, Big Bang Theory uses a shot of a molecule to transition between locations, Caroline in the City used to use cartoon drawings to establish new locations which was kind of different, and of course 3rd Rock From the Sun used those cool animations of the solar system as transitions and those were always clever and well done.



About two years ago I talked about famous network bumpers. For that article click HERE. But when kids show and cartoons do these kind of things they become, in their own way, as much a part of the show as anything else. It sounds silly but just hearing a silly scene transition is enough to make you smile. Here are five examples of scene transitions which I love!




He-Man

He-Man’s transition image was a shot of the sword, and that was Ok. But I loved the bumpers, which had Orko announcing the commercial. My favorite one is when he breaks through the wall announcing the break, and when we return we see Orko taping up the damage as he announces it’s back to the show. By the way,  yes She-Ra did the same gimmick with Kowl or whatever his name was, but since that was the girl show I of course did not like it as much.

Top 5 Craziest C3PO & R2D2 Appearances

Who doesn’t love C3PO and R2D2? They were the comic relief in the Star Wars movies but were so much fun to watch. Especially R2. I still remember the C3PO action figure I had that came apart (ala Empire Strikes Back). To this day I can hear the clanking noise the parts made when they fell off onto the table. R2D2 was always my favorite to, I loved the way he charged in and saved the day! I know had an R2 toy or clock or something growing up.



I bet you’re thinking this is going to talk about all the great moments of these two from the Star Wars movies.


NOPE!


C3PO and R2D2 were so popular that they were all over the place in TV of the 70′s and 80′s. Don’t believe me? Check this out!



#5.Commercials

I guess it makes sense, if you’re going advertise the movie do it with most likable stars. C3PO and R2D2 have hawked a kinds of stuff. They were in a commercial for the Star Wars toy line. They appeared in an add for a Burger King knock-off in the 70′s. Yes, really. They have done some car commercials overseas. They were in ads for an appliance store named Curry’s. R2D2 introduced the TRS-81 personal computer. They both appeared in an Underoos ad (with Boba Fett!). But the craziest and my favorite? How about C3PO hawking his own cereal? I am almost sure I tried C3PO’s and liked them. The commercial is a classic of the 80′s. Hey that’s not so bad, Darth Vader has done ads for Energizer, Priceline, and Target. Yes I’m serious.

The cereal ad is HERE
The burger ad is HERE

Top 5 Nostalgic Network Bumpers

It's nostalgia time!

Yeah this is a strange idea, I admit it. But even the little things can bring back fond memories. I have talked a lot about tv shows and commercials from the good old days, but what about the little program bumpers used to advertise the network being watched? These aired right before or in the middle of the show, and some of these are so memorable that wacthing them now still makes me feel like a kid again.

#5.Saturday Morning Cartoons

It makes sense, you have kids as your audience you want to keep them interested as possible. The ad breaks were usuallty very clever, and while there are dozens of examples here is one I always remember from NBC

#4.MTV

Oh hell yeah. This one is so famous it has been parodied to death. It really got you pumped and ready for the coolness to come

#3.HBO Feature Presentation

I freaking loved this! I swear I would turn the channel on just to see the bumper HBO used before their movies. It brings chills everytime I see it.

 :

#2.Nickelodeon

Ah, Nickelodeon in the golden age. I loved that network and most of the shows on it. The bumpers made it even better, with cool animation. Check it out :

#1.CBS Special Presentation

I am not saying a word, just click the link. If you are my age or older, I know this wil bring back fond memories of great times. Nothing else needs to be said, when you saw this you knew awesomness was coming.

Ah, memories.