Often when I’m hanging out with my wife and puppies or running down some weird nostalgic rabbit hole, I remember commercials. And I especially remember their jingles. And sometimes it makes me crazy because I often only remember a part of it. And it’s always the part that keeps the actual, real memory at bay as the jingle rolls around in my head. If only I could figure it out, I know I would scrape it off my brain.
So without further ado, here are some commercials that will really make you crazy!
10. Dr Pepper Werewolf Commercial (1984)
Dr. Pepper may have had David Naughton on contract in the late 70s and early 80s, but they decided to go in a different direction in 1984. They combined the 80s love of roller skating, a sexy blonde Little Red Riding Hood, and one of the better werewolf-to-human changing sequences of the period.
9. Wendy’s “Parts is Parts” chicken commercial (1984)
When McDonalds came out with Chicken Nuggets in the 1980s, the competition was feeling the heat. And both Burger King and Wendy’s struck back with a “real chicken” approach. But it was Wendy’s that hit “where’s the beef” paydirt in the chicken war with a processed fast-food mantra “parts is parts.”
Makes me want to watch Motel Hell again to see what kind of critters make up Farmer Vincent’s fritters.
8. Pace Thick & Chunky Salsa (1994)
This ad had a resurgence in recent years due to meme culture calling out salsa shaming. Of course, it’s hard to know where something is designed, sourced, assembled, processed, shipped, and sold nowadays. So maybe all salsa on the Walmart shelves really does come from New York City or somewhere in the darkest heart of California. But hopefully the price of production hasn’t moved facilities from Texas and New Mexico, or even better, from Mexico itself.
7. Hamm’s Beer with Bear Commercial (1970s)
This is quite literally one of my favorite commercials of all time. There is something so weirdly absurd and frighteningly authentic about a dude in a Jeep with his bear-buddy driving to his logging job so he can drink Hamms beer with his logging buddies. I also like that it showed the popular practice of popping the top and dropping it down into the can as a little throat-slicing treat for later.
It is probably also appropriate with Cocaine Bear hitting the theaters!
6. Duracell – Backyard Barbecue with the Puttermans (1995)
Before Burger King revealed their creepy-ass molded plastic king watching people shower, Duracell hired the New York ad firm Oglvie & Mather to create the Puttermans. The Puttermans were a plastic robot family who outlasted other plastic robot families because they had Duracell batteries instead of that “other” brand. The other brand being the extremely popular Energizer bunny.
5.Me and My RC Cola (1979)
Jingles have always been considered the make-it or break-it in commercials, and the Me and My RC certainly broke it for me. Not only did I not like RC, but I would turn down the volume when this came on. I guess advertisers can’t win them all. At least not with 10 year-old me.
4. Rachael Leigh Cook – This is Your Brain on Drugs commercial (1990s)
I remember seeing this commercial late one night, and when I told my friends about this cute girl absolutely wailing on everything with a frying pan, they were skeptical. In fact, the commercial was moved to late night and then removed due to complaints about it. But it was a much better anti-drug PSA than the “I learned it from watching you” ones my stoner friends would laugh about.
Plus: RACHAEL LEIGH COOK
3. Spuds McKenzie – Bud Lite Commercials (1987)
Bud Lite went hard on the personification of female bull-terrier Honey Tree Evil Eye as that partingest brah who gets all of the hot beach bunnies. Needham, Harper, and Steers in Chicago let Jon Moore off his leash to create the bro-iest of all dude-bros who could skateboard away with your girl while chugging a Bud.
I don’t know what’s weirder, that all of the girls in the commercial wanted to get with that sexy stud or that no one watching seemed to care about the casual bestiality references.
2. Whatchamacallit Candy Bar Commercial (1980s)
Whatchamacallit commercials were the “Who’s on First” sketches of daytime commercials to Nut & Honey’s evening fare. The basset hound really makes this commercial pop as the confused rednecks ask and answer the eternal question, “what you eatin’?” Whatchamacallit.
1. Conker’s Bad Fur Day (2001)
The 90s had their fun with sexy gaming commercials, and the 2000s tried to continue the trend with one of the more befuddling commercials of its time for a game that ended up being Banjo-Kazooie if he peed on everything and farted a lot. Which meant it was a lot of fun, stupid rude, and had all of the control issues of every Nintendo 64 3D platformer. Even though it was not nearly as fun or dialed-in as some of Rare’s other work, I love this weird-assed platformer.
At least it wasn’t BMX XXX.