An insurance commercial says that "cars don't run red lights". They do if the brakes aren't working. Frankly the commercial seems to say that mechanical problems never happen. It's always the driver's fault.

The commercial with the singing belly buttons. Aren't belly buttons usually above the waistline of pants anyway. Belly buttons singing, 'I'm Coming Out' would seem to work more for short shirts than low-cut jeans. I think a more accurate thing would be to have the butt crack singing, 'I'm Coming Out'.

Jay Leno did that already.

I'd like to see the belly buttons with tongues next time (and maybe one with a big, toothy grin).

Tonight's episode of Smallville was sponsored by Victoria's Secret. At first I laughed at this, then I realized it made a certain amount of sense. When Clark grows up he's going to fly around in his underwear, while the commercial shows women walking around in their underwear. ;-)

A series of radio commercials for a clothing store (K & G?) has these cops. One of the first commercials has them interrogating a suspect who produces as his alibi a sales reciept from the store. The cop narrting says something like, "The old sales reciept alibi. I hate it when that works." So, the writer of this spot thinks that cops hate it when a suspect can prove they are innocent?

I think it's a Burger King commercial about Lord Of The Rings tie-ins. Collect the various figures and The Ring!

Hmmmmmm... Does Burger King want to turn children EVIL?

Mom: You got the Ring. Can I see it?
Billy: NO! My Precious. My Precious.

By Afix on Friday, December 3, 1999 - 12:03 pm:

Anyone know what the music is for those jewelry ads? Is it original music or a section of an existing classical piece?

Huh. I thought I answered this before.

Anyway, the DeBeers music (at least the famous music) is Palladio by Karl Jenkins. You can find it on a CD called Diamond Music. Amazon has it.

Belden Jewlers has "Staight for the heart" or whatever you call it. As I point out whenever I hear it, Roman Gladiators felt the same way.

From about now until Valentines we get the happy family/ loving couples commercials. Does anyone wonder why suicides peak this time of year?

TWS: Of course the DeBeers ads also don't mention that buying diamonds to give to your girlfriend in exchange for oral sex funds terrorists, but asking women to give up the shiny objects they love so much (and yet they complain about our attachment to baseball caps. Go fig). I forget the author's name but you relaly oughta read a book about the diamond trade and the various evil acts it funds, such as the dismemberment of children in Sierra Leone or the Congo. It's called Glitter and Greed.

...it's called Political/Legal Musings, Brian. Look into it.

Classic commercials I love:

The late '70s ads by Bob Abel featuring the "butterfly ladies" for Seven-Up. In the '80s, Abel also created some effects-laden ads for Levis. I especially loved the one where the man was walking a bouncing Levis logo.

In the nineties, I loved the creative and spectacular ads for the Oldsmobile Aurora. One commercial showed the car driving around on the "brushstrokes" of a modern art painting. A '95 ad, showed an 'alive' Statue of Liberty picking up an Aurora.

Of course, I loved the ad for a minivan with Leonard Nimoy. It showed the minivan driving around the rings of Saturn.

From a long time ago, I loved the 1970's ad that showed a dog running after a stop-motion animated Chuckwagon. I forgot the brand name (was it Chuckwagon too?).

A couple of years ago, Mercedes Benz ran some spectacular sci-fi style ads with men flying around in rocket-pakcks.

If there is a recurrent theme to the ads I love it is that they all featured great effects and a fun "mini-plot".

Yep, it was Chuck Wagon brand dog food.

Classic Commercials that I can remember:

Choo-Choo Charlie from "Good & Plenty Candy"
Madge the manicurist & Palmolive
Mr. Whipple & Charmin
Quisp & Quake cereals.
Slinky (Walks down stairs, alone & in pairs)
Clara Peller "Where's The Beef?!" from "Wendy's"
The "white tornado" from Ajax
Those "Ronco" & "Popeill" commercials

More to come....

Ron Popeill is still alive and marketing that stuff, though he has gone somewhat upscale. Catch his infomercials for his "Set it and forget it" rotisserie ovens some night, any night.

Those 7-Up ads are what won Robert Abel the contract to do the visual effects for Star Trek-The Motion Picture, although he had never done any prior movie work. Abel soon found out he was in way over his head. I assume you know the rest.
One of the best commercial spoofs was when Dan Aykroyd lampooned all those '70's Popeil ads by churning a dead fish in a blender. He called it the "Bass-O-Matic."
Mr. Whipple was played by an actor named Dick Wilson. He was a familiar face in many old sitcoms of the '60's and '70's, even while playing Mr. Whipple.

Quisp & Quake cereals. - John A. Lang

Remember Quangaroos? Quisp and Quake had a contest; a race from Long Island to Long Beach. The one who got there the fastest won. I think it was a contest kids could call in their votes on. Quake won and introduced a new cereal: Quangaroos.

I still have fond memories of the old Calgon commercial. ("Ancient Chinese secret, huh?") and the Tootsie Pop ad where the kid asks the turtle and the owl how long many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop? Thanks to TVLand, I've gotten to see that commercial in more recent years.

"I can't believe I ate the whole thing!"

"Ancient Chinese Secret" is *Calgonite*. Calgon is bath salts ("Calgon, take me away!")

Re: your tagline: "You ate it, Ralph!"

Calgonite? Funny, I still remember the guy's wife saying, "We need more Calgon." That is so etched in my mind. And I'm wrong?

Re: your tagline: "You ate it, Ralph!"

"Not sold in any store!"

My dad's cousin is married to Ron Popeil. Strange but true.

A quick google search proved me wrong, Benn. It was Calgon. I guess Calgon made both bath salts and laundry detergent.

Calgonite was a dishwasher detergent.

Whew! I thought senility had finally hit me.

"Act now! Operators are standing by."

It probably has anyway .

"But wait! There's more!"

Calgon was a(n) (epsom?) salts product that could be used either as a water softener (which is how it was a laundry aid: you still neede detergent and bleach) or as a bath salts. Colgonite the dishwasher product had Calgon salts in it to reduce "spotting."

The "Whisk" commercial: Some kids dancing around some laundry on a clothes line and singing "Ring around the collar"

There was also a "Whisk" commercial in which a parrot sang "Ring around the collar" from its cage

"Wisk" They pay lots of money for you to remember the name...

Oooey-gooey
rich and chewy
inside

Tender flaky cakey on the outside

Put the inside in the outside,
It's a good darn tootin'

It's the big... Fig... Newton
(one more time!)
It's the big... FIG... NEWTOOOOOON!!!

Here's a link to classic TV cigarette commercials (Fred Flintstone smoking??).

(Not to promote this unhealthy and deadly habit, but interesting from a historical perspective.)

TV cigarette ads

CLASSIC:

How about the commercial that has the orchestra playing "The William Tell Overture" with a choir singing: "Pizza Pizza Pizza Rolls".

At the end, The Lone Ranger & Tonto show up.

At the end, Tonto asks, "Want a Pizza Roll, Kemo Sabe?"

Commercial they need to show today:

The one where the father throws a stone and then the kid throne a stone.

Then the father gets a cigarette and lights up.

The commercial ends with the kid looking at the opened box of cigarettes with a voiceover saying: "Like father, like son? THINK ABOUT IT!"

er, JohnA, whats throne a stone? Sounds like a new commercial

I meant...Throws a stone.

I don't know how many people watched 'Mystery Science Theater 3000' but they had done a skit about smoking jackets (jackets that billowed smoke) and one of the characters says "Like father, like son? think about it won't you." Someone had to explain that to me (sad thing is I'm 36, I should have known that!)

This ad for the Suzy Homemaker doll that many girls (and boys) loved is interesting because the kid has makeup on and looks like she's escaped from the little house on the prairie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ70VuVqCj4

they only stopped running the Yellow Pages Mistletoe ad a few years ago.

A short commercial I never saw before from 1992 but worth a smile;

https://youtu.be/Saajf46ai6o

What was that Financial Commercial on
American TV years ago around
1994 to 1995 with this old White Guy
With White Hair named Bud Bash ?

What about Bud Bash ?

We are not your personal search engine.

Let me tell you something important, Jeff.

There's this thing called "Google". It's a website that lets you search for things... Things like -- oh, I don't know -- "commercial with Bud Bash"

But he’s extremely busy Scott! Didn’t you read his post in the Martin Luther thread? We’re only sitting around twiddling our thumbs doncha know?

Doing actual research is too much like work for Jeff.

I looked online and didn't find anything about those commercials with
Bud Bash ?

Since none of us care about this, why should we bother searching for you?