Does just a crazy ad count as a gimmick? This only goes back about 20 years or so, but here’s a taste of British crazy advertising.
3 Likes
I actually meant that one. I should’ve been more specific.
Ironically, Warner owned TMC before the Showtime merger in the early 80s.
2 Likes
I am 97% sure that I still have this record, though I am too lazy to check.
2 Likes
“I’m tellin’ ya, Pepe: these Comedy Central contests are a waste a’ time!”
2 Likes
Remember Juan Valdez for Colombian coffee? I saw this guy in print ads and TV commercials.
Created in 1958 and used by the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia (say that 3 times fast!), Juan Valdez serves as an ingredient brand to denote 100% Colombian coffee as being distinct from other coffees that used a variety of beans from other countries.
P.S. His donkey is named Conchita.
5 Likes
Folgers did a series of ads in the '80s and '90s where they’d go to restaurants and switch the coffee there with Folgers crystals and capture the moment diners found out on a hidden camera. Today, this would be a TikTok ad.
4 Likes
Don Collier (1928-2021) is someone I remember best for the TV commercials he did from 1979 to 1984 for Hubba Bubba Bubble Gum. Here is one with fellow Western actor Dub Taylor.
You don’t see many commercials anymore for gum (bubble, chewing, etc) possibly due to health concerns. Anyway, the gimmick was that Hubba Bubba was a bubble gum that wouldn’t stick to your face when bubbles burst.
I loved these commercials but preferred Hubba Bubba’s competitors either Bubblicious or Bubble Yum.
2 Likes
I don’t know, I mean Quake seemed like a nice enough guy, worked hard, had a lunchbox, he just got put in an impossible situation, like Sam J. Jones in Flash Gordon. Quake is clearly an inferior shape for the same cereal, and Quisp just chews scenery like Brian Blessed. Quake, cmon, what were those, like, nuggets?
3 Likes
Remember Chex Quest?
3 Likes
Yeah, see Quisp was really annoying though, he’d buzz about like a housefly, and had that irritating voice… whereas Quake was mighty, a he-man with a firm strong voice, and a cape!
3 Likes
Well that’s fine, but I’m pretty confident that Quake was just the shake left over from making Quisp.
2 Likes
I believe I had Chex Quest but never actually played it.
1 Like
I loved Quisp… not sure I ever even had Quake.
I liked a wide variety of cereals, but my favorite was probably one of the less sugary ones… King Vitaman. I liked the early commercials when they had a live actor playing the king.
2 Likes
Trading stamps. 
Can you imagine if the mom from Mr. B. Natural had been a believer in that claptrap? Poor Buzz would’ve still been waiting for his first trumpet at age 45.
2 Likes
Ok, I went downstairs and looked. Found it in about a minute.
In the same envelope, I found this other contest record.
5 Likes
I wanted one when I was 9 going on 10 so bad.
3 Likes
Back in the 1960’s, Coca-Cola hired many of the top musical stars of the day to record radio commercials for them. Each commercial had an original song crafted to fit each performer’s musical style, but always including the “things go better with Coke” refrain.
3 Likes
Well great, now I’ve got this going through my head:
Actually, thanks. This Coke commercial was my jam in college.
1 Like
The Who?
One of these things is not like the others…
1 Like
Jim Henson sells coffee. With the power of incredible violence.
6 Likes