Writer's Block: Commercial Appeal

[figmo]

[Error: unknown template qotd]I can't find video of it, but there was a commercial in the 1960s they showed a few times during Saturday morning cartoons.

The setting: A group of kids, both male and female, run out of the house and onto an outdoor swingset -- only dressed in underwear. As they do this, some lady is singing the following to "Happy Birthday:"

Happy Underwear to you
Happy Underwear to you
Long wearing, easy caring
Happy Underwear to you.

I will never know where tehy found a bunch of kids willing to go running around in their undies on national television

Comments

[daisy-knotwise.livejournal.com]

Given how content Katie is to go running around in only her Pull Up, I doubt it was a problem. : )

GHR

[figmo.livejournal.com]

Katie is only a toddler. These were kids who looked to be around 9-11 years old.

And making real money as an ***ACTOR***

[capplor.livejournal.com]

No, I don't think this was a problem.

Re: And making real money as an ***ACTOR***

[figmo.livejournal.com]

My cousin Beth Anne and I used to wonder how these kids fared when they went back to school and got the snot beaten out of them for showing up on national TV in their unmentionables.

For her and me, anyway, no amount of money would have gotten either of us to go on national TV in our underwear. Period.

Re: And making real money as an ***ACTOR***

[capplor.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's your school, and maybe it's you. My younger sister has always gotten away with wearing stuff that would make me look like a clown, and the only comments she gets are "How stylish!" If the kids have whatever that quality is; no problem.

Re: And making real money as an ***ACTOR***

[figmo.livejournal.com]

Um, trust me; there was nothing particularly outstanding about this underwear. It was standard white children's underwear.

The kids in that commercial did not have that quality. It wasn't just me who laughed at them, either; we used to joke about it at school. To this day I can crack up my cousin by singing the "Happy Underwear" song.

Re: And making real money as an ***ACTOR***

[capplor.livejournal.com]

On TV and in person are two different things. For all you know, everyone in their grade-school class got invited to a release party with cake & ice cream.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

My all-time favorite commercial remains Kodak's "Turn Around" ad from the early 60s. I doubt anybody will ever make one better.

[howeird]

[wcg.livejournal.com]

That's it. Thank you.

[archiver-tim.livejournal.com]

Which way did they go?
Which way did they go?
They went for Faygo Old Fashioned Root Beer.
(with the Faygo kid and the stage coach)
It's on youTube I think.

[ifics.livejournal.com]

One of my many favorites was similar to this one.



The one I remember would be from the early 60s.

In the same era

[capplor.livejournal.com]

there was a very politically-incorrect Pepsodent toothpaste commercial.

[banjoplayinnerd.livejournal.com]

Hard to sort this one out, since a bunch of commercials made enough of an impression on me to stick in my memory for 40+ years (although it could be argued that I'm well into multiple overlapping second-third-fourth-nth childhoods). A couple that stand out:

Various Alka Seltzer commercials: "I can't believe I ate the whole thing," "Mama-mia, that's'a spicy meatball," "Poached oysters."

Crispy Critters: "The one-and-only cereal that comes in the shape of animals!"

Maypo: "Good stuff, Maynard" (to this day my 50+ sister, if she finds something she likes, will say "it's got Maynards in it")

Cap'n Crunch commercials (the ones done by Jay Ward)

And Homer & Jethro telling corny jokes in time to their music toward the end of "The Beverly Hillbillies," finishing up the commercial with "Corniest flakes / anybody makes / is Kellogg's"

[figmo.livejournal.com]

Wow! You named a bunch of 'em!

I don't remember the "Poached Oysters" Alka Seltzer commercial, but I definitely remember the other two and having to act them out in elementary school.

My ex-husband (whose last name was Crispin) loathed the Crispy Critters commercial because kids used to taunt him with it. When he was abusive towards me, I used to sing that phrase.

I don't remember the Maypo ad; perhaps it only ran in Canada.

The Cap'n Crunch Jay Ward commercials were inspired.

I also remember the slogans at the end of "The Beverly Hillbillies." Occasionally Nick at Nite will preserve some of those old endings.

[capplor.livejournal.com]

They also did the Maypo Commercials in California. I distinctly remember "Good Stuff, Maynard!" & the tag "sweetened with real maple sugar," on my TV.

Someone once told me that the guy who wrote those Alka Seltzer commercials came up with the Concept while at Woodstock. Is so it would definitely lend a different spin to them. ("Don't use the brown acid ...")

Anything involving Homer & Jethro was corny, by definition. There are some of those spots preserved on You-Tube.

[banjoplayinnerd.livejournal.com]

Well I saw the Maypo ad in eastern Washington, so it couldn't have been Canada-specific. :)

The "poached oysters" commercial starred a newlywed bride reading the 1960s equivalent of "Cooking for Dummies" as her husband is in the bathroom frantically searching for the Alka-Seltzer. I am typing this from memory, so I can't vouch for complete accuracy:

She: "Honey, did you like the giant dumpling?"

(no or unintelligible answer)

She: "I got the recipe from my mother. She said it would really stick to your ribs."

He: "That's about where it stuck."

She: "What was that?"

He: "I said I'm sorry we had to throw it away."

She: "Oh, I froze it."

(Having found the Alka-Seltzer, he drops two tablets into a glass of water. They begin to fizz up and he puts his hand over the glass to try to silence them.)

She: "Is it beginning to rain in here?"

(He drinks the Alka-Seltzer)

She: "Let's see. For tonight . . . heart-shaped meat loaf . . . marshmallowed meatballs . . . "

(He comes out of the bathroom just as she stabs her finger triumphantly at a page in the book)

She: "Poached oysters!"

(He turns around to head back for more Alka-Seltzer. And . . . scene.)

TV Guide actually ran recipes for some of these atrocious-sounding foods in 1970. Actually their marshmallowed meatball recipe sounded pretty good -- it was a fairly normal meatball with some kind of sauce, topped with a miniature marshmallow and baked to create a sort of glaze. I don't remember my mother ever trying to cook it, though.