He Likes it, Hey Mikey!

There are some commercials that come out and quickly fade away, never to be thought of again. While others come out, stay around a while, then ride off to the sun set. Once and a while, a commercial comes out that is memorable and spawn sequels to the delight of the tv watchers. And every blue moon or two, there comes a commercial that transcends time! When I say transcends time, I mean it works when it comes out, it works the next year, it works the next decade; the same exact commercial. I can think of a few like that, and probably the most famous, is the Life Cereal commercial with Mikey.

Starting in 1972 and running until 1984, this commercial was the longest running commercial every! But what is more amazing, is that, if you look at it, if has the feel of an early 70s commercial, but even in the early 80s, a full decade later, it still works. How can that be?

Well, for one, the two boys not willing to try something new. Yea, their hair is dated, but their clothing wasn’t so much. I can look back at pictures of me and friends from the early 80s and we wore clothing like that. And when dealing with young kids, clothing isn’t the biggest of things. But I have three kids, two old enough to eat solid food, and it’s hard to get them to try new foods. Growing up, I LOVED eating Life Cereal, and I do to this day. I tried to get my oldest to try, just one bite, and she refused. No to different from this commercial.

Second, remember back to Elementary School. We all know some kid who would eat anything. And when I say anything, I mean ANYTHING. You could give him an Anchovy paste sandwiches and he’d eat it. (True story, but maybe for a later date.) But here is the genius of this commercial, they don’t give it to a kid who would eat anything, no, exact opposite. Mikey is the pickiest eater ever, no way he’ll eat it, let along try it. Wait, he tried it, and he’s going back.

“He Likes it, hey Mikey!”

Delivered perfectly! The kid who won’t eat anything, eats the cereal, and kids rush out to eat it! Ok, maybe they didn’t rush out, but they had to got out and buy a bunch, cuz that commercial was out there forever it seams.

Just a side note, did you know they had Raisin Life? Must have flopped pretty bad cuz I don’t remember it ever. Cinnamon Life? Wouldn’t try it growing up, but today, I’d eat it ever breakfast if I could!

But back to the commercial, this commercial lasted, and it lasted because it was great! Kids could relate to the kids in the commercial, and parents loved it because it got their kids excited about a healthy cereal.

 

 

My Bologna as a first name, it’s O S C A R

One of my favorite parts of the day growing up was lunch. I love sandwiches. When I was younger, and mom made the sandwiches, I usually had either the king of all sandwiches, the PBJ, or a turkey sandwich. But every once and a while, my mom would buy Oscar Mayer Bologna and when I got that as a sandwich, it was definitely a nice treat.

This commercial is not just a nice treat, but a wonderful trip down memory lane. Growing up, I remember seeing this commercial, as well as other commercials featuring kids singing the Oscar Mayer song and eating a Bologna sandwich. This commercial taught me how to spell Bologna. It’s not an easy word, but the wonderful jingle they created makes it just roll off your tongue. Too bad I have to sing the whole thing, but I don’t consider that a drawback.

First, lets look at the theme song:

My bologna has a first name, its O S C A R. My bologna has a second name it s M A Y E R. Oh I love to eat it every day and if you ask me why I’ll say: cause Oscar Mayer has a way with B O L O G N A.

What a fun and catchy jingle. Upon watching this commercial, I had this song stuck in my head for two or three days! And that isn’t a bad thing because every time I sing it to myself, I have a smile on my face.

Second, the actor they got is adorable! Look at him, he is cuter than cute and still has that little boy voice that comes across as innocent and pure! Listen to him sing, can you help but smile?

Third, the announcer they use has a very reassuring voice. You don’t hear him much, but the little you do is pleasant and reassuring. Makes you feel ok to buy this for yourself or your family.

Now tell me, do you not want to go out and get some Oscar Mayer Bologna and make yourself a sandwich right now? I sure do! And thankfully tomorrow is shopping day at my house, and you don’t need 10 guesses as to what will end up in my shopping cart.

 

 

Zips, they go on like a FLASH

Growing up in the 80s, we had all kinds of wonderful fashions. Original Jams shorts, shirts that would change colors with your body heat, (Technicolor Shirts?) and we can’t forget the shoes. I loved my Zips. They didn’t really save me any time tying my shoes since I just slipped them on, but they were the first pair of shoes that I was aware of that used Velcro. We would rip them open and put them back and open and back until our teachers would make us take them off until either recess or we had to leave the room. Man were they fun.

But looking back on this commercial, I do remember it, but looking at it now, I love it more then I did back then. It has such a wonderful 80s feel to it. The announcer, if anyone knows who it is please let me know, did a lot of 80s commercials, so he himself gives it a wonderful 80s feel to it.

The neighborhood looks like your typical 80s TV street. Notice how I said TV street? It seems like in the 80s, all streets on TV had nice front yards and the houses were two stories. Very nice feel, and very much like the street I grew up on, but there were also plenty of ranch style houses too.

I also love the neon Z streaking across the screen. Neon was big in the 80s. I’m sure it was around for a long time, but since I grew up in the 80s, and it was EVERYWHERE, I always associate neon and the 80s.

As I mentioned before, I loved my Zips, but god where they hideous looking! See that second pair? Is that the ugliest brown you ever seen? And the style, today they look like the kind of shoe the class geek would ware, but back then, they were awesome. Either that or we loved the Velcro that much.

At the end, they show stickers you got! YIPPEE! Makes me want to go out and get a pair. Ok, back then I could have cared less, but I do remember those stickers, so I must have gotten them with mine. Probably put them on my sisters Barbies.

Anyone out there have a pair? Share your memories of them in the comments!

Where’s the Beef

NOTE: Sorry for the lack of updates last week. My third child was born last Tuesday, and needless to say, I was busy. I should be back to my normal schedule.

Back in the mid 1980s, when I thought of fast food, I thought of McDonalds. Their cheeseburgers, fries, and chocolate shake were the perfect meal back then. Add another cheeseburger, and it still ranks up there with my favorites today. Their commercials were fun, and made me want to go there even more. Out of the three other fast food restaurants in my area, Burger King, Wendy’s and Hardies, none of their commercials ever appealed to me. Burger King’s commercials were so boring that today I have very few memories of their commercials. I don’t even know if Hardies even had commercials, and if they did, I don’t remember them. But in 1984, Wendy’s hit the map with maybe one of the most famous commercials ever, and they did it with an old lady and a very simple question.

Where’s the beef?!

Shortly after this commercial came out, I can remember every day at lunch, kids would come out of the lunch line with their tray of food, plop it down, look at it and would look at everyone around and spout off, Where’s the Beef? We’d all crack up laughing, because, come one, simple things like that set off kids.

The commercial below is the very first to use that catch phrase. It’s a simple commercial with three older women who are looking at this monstrous bun and when they look in it, there looks to be something dark, maybe meat, but they just aren’t sure. Then actress Clara Peller steps up and udders her catch phrase “Where’s The Beef”! And from that moment, and the next few years, she was the star of Wendy’s commercials. She’d be everywhere complaining, “Where’s the Beef?”

In 1984, when this came out, I was 7, almost 8, and I don’t remember just how huge this commercial was. I remember it being big, but looking around for this article, the commercial, and maybe more the catch phrase, was huge! It was even used in the Democratic Presidential Debate in 1984.

For those of you who remember this commercial, and for those of you who were kids and would udder the catch phrase any chance you got, here it is below. Ahh, what wonderful memories.

Your Peanut Butter hit my Chocolate

There are few foods I’d say I love. There are tons I like, but only a select few I’d say I love. Steak, done Medium Rare, I love. Chinese, yea, I love! Benihana’s, love it too! My mom makes a two cheese casserole that I’d kill for. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups? There is no other candy I’d rather eat!

If you checked out my About Me page and dug a little, you’d find out I grew up in Hershey, PA. In Hershey, there are two famous candy factories. Hershey’s Original Chocolate Factory, which just happens to be the worlds largest and it is also home to the Reese’s Factory. Yes, it is the factory Mr. Reese himself built and ran until Hershey bought him out. With two chocolate factories in town, the air all around Hershey smells like chocolate. There was nothing like being in Middle School, first period gym and going outside to do whatever and smell chocolate. That was awesome!

I don’t know if that is why I like Reese’s, or maybe, like the majority of candy fans, Reese’s Cups are just the best, and that is why I love them. In the 80s, their tag line in Commercials was, “Your Peanut Butter hit my Chocolate. No, your Chocolate hit my Peanut Butter”. They never showed the peanut butter cups until the end, it was always someone carrying peanut butter (who does that with the cap open?) and another eating a regular chocolate bar and they trip, or bump, or get scared and the chocolate bar and peanut butter mix. I’ll tell you what, I love to take a Hershey’s Bar and jar of peanut butter and dip the bar in the peanut butter and eat it. Not as good as a Peanut Butter cup, but pretty damn good!

Note to everyone: If you ever have the chance to have a fresh Peanut Butter Cup, and by fresh I mean no older than a week, DO IT! The peanut butter is so creamy and delicious!

Back to the commercial, this commercial uses the “Your Peanut Butter hit my Chocolate. No, your Chocolate hit my Peanut Butter” phrase, and done with two young boys playing a video game. I don’t know who would play the game they are playing, but then again, this came out in the Atari 2600 days, and lets face it, many of the games on the Atari, especially near it’s end, were very lame. Yea, there were some greats, but remember ET? But if you were a kid back when Atari 2600 was king, then this commercial rocked! Hell, it still does! Excuse me now, I’m going to search around and see if we have any Reese’s Cups!