I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing: The Commercial Jingles of Our GenX Childhoods

Kristin Nilsen 0:00

McDonald felt like Oprah there for a second. Yeah, we warned

Carolyn Cochrane 0:07

you. Listeners, it's going to be one of those episodes today.

Unknown Speaker 0:16

Hold on.

Unknown Speaker 0:24

Here, we'll make you happy.

Kristin Nilsen 0:28

Welcome to the pop culture Preservation Society, the podcast for people born in the big wheel generation whose cats were all outdoor cats. Okay, were they an outdoor cat? I don't like cats, so we

Michelle Newman 0:47

can take all that out. Yeah, but yes, pregnant all the time.

Kristin Nilsen 0:52

Did you say pregnant all the time? Yeah,

Michelle Newman 0:57

we didn't follow Bob Barker's advice.

Kristin Nilsen 0:59

Yeah, that was the 80s. I think we didn't get that advice until the 80s. We believe

Michelle Newman 1:03

our Gen X childhoods gave us unforgettable songs, stories, characters and images, and if we don't talk about them, they'll disappear, like Marshall will and Holly on a routine expedition.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:14

And today we'll be saving those iconic commercial jingles that are permanently tattooed on our brains. Those songs that convinced us we were a pepper made us crave Big Macs and somehow made baloney adorable. I'm Carolyn,

Kristin Nilsen 1:30

I'm Kristin,

Michelle Newman 1:32

and I'm Michelle, and we are your pop culture preservationists.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:36

Okay, everybody buckle up, because today we're diving into those commercial jingles that we grew up listening to, those irresistible little ear worms that lived rent free in our brains and honestly still do right? These were the songs that sold us cereal and shampoo and sneakers and soda and somehow made us love them for it in just a few seconds, they could make a brand feel like a friend, a feeling even a lifestyle, whether it was have a coke and a smile. You deserve a break today or I'd like to buy the world a coke. These jingles were the soundtrack of our Saturday mornings, our after school TV time and family evenings watching Happy Days in La Verne and Shirley. So today everybody, we are going to explore why these tunes stuck with us and why they have become such a beloved part of the pop culture memories that we share. We will be sharing our own favorites, as well as those of you listeners who told us what you loved. We're going to talk about how the jingle has evolved, or, in my opinion, devolved from those catchy little original ditties of the 70s and 80s to today to today's attempts that just reuse tunes from pop hits. Oh, Zen pic we're looking at you. So buckle up for a fun filled and most likely singing filled trip down memory lane,

Michelle Newman 3:01

I would argue that many of the jingles from the 70s and 80s I know and love just as much as I loved the songs I was listening to on the radio. Oh, my God,

Kristin Nilsen 3:12

that's exactly what I was gonna say.

Carolyn Cochrane 3:16

Well, I would argue that we heard them more even than we maybe heard the songs on the radio. We heard them all the time. And you know, some, some of our friends might not have been listening to all the same radio stations or songs we were listening to, but you guys, we were all tuned in on Tuesdays, watching Happy Days in Laverne and Shirley, yes. And

Kristin Nilsen 3:36

these were things, these little songs were about, things that we cared about, like candy and cereal, like we cared it wasn't just car insurance and pharmaceuticals,

Carolyn Cochrane 3:52

about that got those pharmaceuticals? Well, first of all, those were not allowed when we up until what the 2000s like you, were not allowed to advertise prescription meds, and now, my goodness, they're making up for lost times. I know, yeah, I

Michelle Newman 4:06

was just gonna say, also, they were so fun to see so many of them that I think, I think I have a memory, and if I don't, I'm just gonna pretend I do of we would sing them, like on the playground, like when we were on the swings, like, yes, like, when you're in fourth and fifth grade, they're like, fun little ditties to sing that everybody knows, and everybody might not know, all the lyrics to a bee, gee song, especially a bee, gees,

Kristin Nilsen 4:36

it's more fun. Candy is more fun than singing about diabetes or broken, we know.

Michelle Newman 4:44

But yeah, they were, they were just fun. F you,

Kristin Nilsen 4:47

yeah, and they were really aimed. They were really aimed at us, and they had children in them. Like, when was the last time you saw a commercial with a child in it?

Michelle Newman 4:57

Why don't it's a great commercials

Carolyn Cochrane 4:59

question. No. Hmm, yeah. Well, now we pay to not have to see them, right? And yet they still somehow wiggle those in. Because I think I thought I paid for the no commercials, but now they're commercials on my Amazon Prime, the

Kristin Nilsen 5:12

fine print is not very clear, right? And these jingles were crafted by real musicians and real composers, not just marketing people. There was musicality. There were hooks. Sometimes you had full orchestras and real singers. Sometimes you had famous singers like Paul Anka or Carly Simon. They were like 32nd masterpieces. And here is that. This, here is how that came to be. So let's go in our way back machine. It all started. This is such a no doubt moment.

Carolyn Cochrane 5:43

Do we have to buckle up to go on our way back? We're going

Kristin Nilsen 5:47

in the way back. Machine backwards. It all started with the advent of radio. Because think about it. Before radio, our dominant medium was the newspaper, and you can't do jingles in the newspaper. But when radio rose to dominance in like the 1920s and the 30s, then jingles emerged as a tool for companies to get the attention of audiences and kind of foster brand recognition. They were very short, they were simple, and they were memorable, and they could even tug on your heartstrings in a way that you couldn't by just talking about a product, right? Let's make a little song about our product, and that will make people happy and associate happiness with us. So then when TV came along, you could mix visuals with the music, and the effect was even bigger. And this is when jingles really cemented themselves as a fixture in American culture, creating kind of what is known as, according to the jingle writer.com, a shared auditory landscape. I know, I knew she's elevated. So just like you said, Carolyn jingles, not only it not only shaped advertising, but also became a communal experience, and because we all knew them, it fostered a sense of belonging with one another. And even from a business perspective, there's lots of evidence that catchy jingles significantly influence consumer behavior, mostly by enhancing brain recall, brain recall, brand recall, mostly by enhancing brand recall. But I think it's that sense of belonging that is sort of like the mind blower right there, these things that were intended to sell us, things gave us a sense of belonging with one and

Michelle Newman 7:28

connection. It's like everything we talk about on here, and like all the things that connected us, I mean, the jingles that we're about to talk about. I mean, that was a strong, powerful connection for us,

Kristin Nilsen 7:40

yeah, and everybody knew it,

Carolyn Cochrane 7:42

I just had a memory. Oh, go ahead. I was just gonna say I just had a memory, actually, of my parents singing jingles that they remembered. And so they get all excited together. And so now I know those like, yeah, brush up, brush up, brush up.

Michelle Newman 7:58

There's Yeah, remember in Greece,

Carolyn Cochrane 8:02

that's right, but my parents would sing that one, and they would sing something about the Texaco man, because Milton Berle had like his show was sponsored by Texaco. You can trust your car to the man who wears the star, the big, bright Texaco star, yay.

Unknown Speaker 8:19

I can't believe you know that. Well, that's

Carolyn Cochrane 8:21

catchy, and, you know, my parents were singing it and all of that. So they really were, like, we've said several times here, just bonded people,

Kristin Nilsen 8:30

yeah, didn't grow up together. Our parents grew up in like, like, my parents grew up on two different coasts, and they both knew the Pepsodent commercial, and they would sing it, yeah.

Michelle Newman 8:40

And there's got to be some sort of witchcraft involved in the people that write these, because Carolyn, that just came from somewhere in a deep fold of your brain. You probably haven't thought of that one in years. And these jingles, like when I was thinking of the two I'm about to talk about, I didn't have to go look up the lyrics. They just want they just come out. And I haven't thought of them in years. And so I don't know what kind of magic and witchcraft, witchery they're they're using when they create them, but there has to be some science behind it, I bet, like the writing pattern or

Kristin Nilsen 9:11

something, yes. And some of these jingles even went on to be legit songs and even charted on the Billboard Top 100 and perhaps this is because they were written by award winning songwriters, like real songwriters, like Paul Williams, who wrote, we've only just begun, for the Crocker bank. And then, of course, the carpenters went out to sing that, and Paul Anka, who sang the time of our lives for Kodak, for Kodak, and that went to number seven on the charts. And then, to our great surprise, Barry Manilow. Phil wrote too many to list. And how did we find out about Barry Manilow, writing our favorite commercial jingles because we all had his number one best selling album, Barry Manilow Live, which included a song medley called VSM, which stands for very strange. Change medley. Everybody's nodding. There both Carolyn and go like nodding, nodding, nodding. Barry Manilow live is known. It's, I mean, probably the most known thing about Barry Manilow live, it's the blue one where he's standing there like a starfish, is known for spilling the tea and revealing to the world that before he was Barry Manilow, he either wrote or performed the commercials for Kentucky Fried Chicken, State Farm Insurance, stridex, Band Aid, Dr Pepper, Pepsi and McDonald's, because you deserve a break today. And he tells us that he decided to include this on his album or in his concert that would eventually become an album, because his arts, his artsy, fartsy friends, were like, do not do this. Do not include this on this album. Are you crazy? But it was a brilliant move. It was straight out of the pages of a PR Secrets handbook, because number one, we're still talking about it. It was like, it was like a secret he was letting us in on, and we all knew those songs like the backs of our hands, and it actually made us feel closer to Barry Manilow, we're like you wrote that. I've written that my whole life, and plus, it was really entertaining, and many people bought the album just for VSM

Michelle Newman 11:15

alone. Oh, for sure, I love singing that didn't you guys love. Just like performing that and singing it. And, like you just said, I remember realizing, like, I just thought I was in on something so cool, knowing that he wrote

Unknown Speaker 11:28

it, like, it's a secret,

Carolyn Cochrane 11:30

gosh, and VSM, I listen to that over and over and over again, like, I know right where he stops the one jingle and goes into the next one, like, if I was actually gonna sing, and how much of a positive?

Kristin Nilsen 11:40

Yeah, and

Michelle Newman 11:43

then at the very end, you

Kristin Nilsen 11:50

like the finale.

Kristin Nilsen 11:58

Felt like Oprah there for a second, yeah, we

Carolyn Cochrane 12:02

warned you, listeners, it's gonna be one of those

Kristin Nilsen 12:04

episodes today. Yeah. And you remember, like, even, I would say, probably the biggest one being McDonald's. You deserve a break today. When you heard that, you were like, what wrote that? It was just, it was like, he wrote the Pledge of Allegiance, basically, yeah. Basically,

Unknown Speaker 12:40

to McDonald's.

Michelle Newman 12:57

It was, it was so fun. And the ones that and I sounded like and the ones that he wrote, we're going to be talking about still, because many of those are going to show up in our listeners top 10 lists. So hang on, everyone. We're still talking about them. Your favorite, like you didn't say this one for this particular soft drink. Just hold your horses, slow your roll. We're going to get there, but first, before we do that, what we want to do is kind of give you guys a glimpse into the jingles that have stuck with us the longest. Now, many of the ones on this top 10 list we're about to share clearly are some of our favorites, but we're going to save those, because there's way more than 10 right that we know and love, yeah. So we're gonna just kind of share some that maybe didn't make the list, but we really felt like, should maybe like the PCPs host honorable mention. Could we call it? And I want to start things off with this classic from the early to mid 80s. And I think instead of telling you what is, I'm just gonna sing it, because

Carolyn Cochrane 13:58

why not? Right? And I bet we'll be able to join right? My God,

Michelle Newman 14:03

I don't want to grow up. I'm a Toys R Us kid, they got a million toys of Toys R Us that I can play with. I don't want to grow up.

Speaker 1 14:22

Because, baby, oh, boy. Can't

Kristin Nilsen 14:26

just see the draft running like

Michelle Newman 14:29

That's right, but if you do watch the 1983 commercial in particular, you will be so Hoosier, dude. I'm gonna put it in the Weekly Reader this week by the kids who each sing a different verse. There's a little girl it starts, and she's surrounded by stuffed animals, and she's the one who starts, I don't want to grow up. I'm a Toys R Us kid. For me, I about lost my mind this morning when I saw the curly haired boy with the big glasses playing with like, the robot thing. Like it looks like a robot spider that jumps up and down. Yeah. Totally hoosker Dude. It was like, I saw that commercial last night, and you just start singing it. You just know all the words, and I feel like this is one we probably sang on the playgrounds, or, I don't know, it was just, it's pure joy that,

Carolyn Cochrane 15:14

I mean, gosh, and a toy store is pure joy. I mean, just, it was the perfect combination of joy and catchy phrases and just thinking, I love Toys R Us. What a dream to go there

Michelle Newman 15:26

lyrics. The lyrics are genius. I love that last line. I don't want to grow up, because, baby, if I did, I couldn't be a Toys R Us. Isn't that just so cute? That is incredible. Disagree, because, yeah, I feel like I could still be a Toys R Us. Kid, and I'm, look at what we're doing. I get it. Yeah, I get the idea.

Kristin Nilsen 15:44

I always said. I always said it was, I'm a Toys R S. Kid, I thought it was Toys R s because r s t, right. You A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, on, a, p, q, r s t, u, q, r s t, u, v, Toys R Us. Because Toys R Us doesn't make sense. There's no nobody's it's we aren't That's incorrect. It's toys. It's not correct grammar. That's true. So Toys R who would say Toys R Us? And so I just assumed it was Toys R Us.

Carolyn Cochrane 16:16

Could you not read?

Kristin Nilsen 16:19

Maybe it was after I could read that, I figured that out. But there are also times where I just didn't believe things like, that's not it. Oh, really, imagine that. Yeah, I know, I know it's toys. R we okay?

Michelle Newman 16:35

My second very favorite one, I love I love this jingle, and I love the commercial, and as I start to sing it, y'all are going to remember the commercial. So just pretend you're watching the commercial, and first you get the voice over, no little cinnamon gum freshens breath longer than Big Red. So kiss a little longer, laugh a little longer, stay close a little longer, longer with big red, big red, freshness. Freshness.

Michelle Newman 17:15

And if you guys remember the 1985 commercial, it's the so good the bride and groom start kissing, and they keep coming back to him throughout the whole commercial, and they're still kissing. And like the maid of honor and the best man are like, Oh, Jesus, what? And my favorite was the teenage boy and girl kissing. Like his car is all like state like he's leaving for college, you know, state or bust. It literally says like, state or bust. And they're kissing, and his friends finally just get exasperated and drive off without him, and she's not like the chair. I just love that. I love that whole, like, that big red freshness last right through it your fresh breath. It was like clean cut smut. Yeah, so good.

Kristin Nilsen 17:58

It was sexy, but clean and good hearted all at the same time. I just remember when Big Red came out, and it was such a big deal, and it's so cinnamony. And just literally recently, like four weeks ago, I just had a craving for big red, and I left the house and I went and I bought big red, and I didn't even need to chew it. I just put it in our junk drawer, and our junk drawer smells like Big Red. Like, what is the What's with the big red in the drawers? Like, I don't know. I just needed it. I just

Michelle Newman 18:27

want we talked about it in our 19 75/50 birthday celebration episode just recently, and Big Red was invented brand new, premiered, whatever you want to call it, released in 1975 and yeah, you were telling us about that. So that's that's pretty cool. Yeah, fun. Yeah. So those are two of mine that didn't make our list, but I think they, they're really, they're solid choices,

Carolyn Cochrane 18:50

don't oh, they're solid and they're good. You know what else? I think there's a very good chance we could have a part two of this jingles episode, because there are so many jingles. And I also differentiated between a jingle and a slogan, like there could also be tag lines that we all know, but we kind of stayed away from those, although I am going to say one and when I'm breaking all the rules,

Kristin Nilsen 19:13

but if I sing it, it's still a jingle. There you go. That's

Carolyn Cochrane 19:17

right, put a little tune to it. And I also broke the rules to almost everything you said, Michelle, because I wrote this outline, and so I just, I can change the rules, break them whatever, make them up. Because the first jingle that I'm going to share with you guys was maybe the most mentioned of all in our listener when we asked you guys, our listeners, but it has such a special place in my heart that I wanted to get to devote a little time and make put a little personal spin on it. So I am going to share with you that my probably top jingle would be plop, plop, Fizz, fizz. Oh, what a relief it is for Alka Seltzer. I. Ah,

Speaker 2 20:08

those lovely bubbles bursting into action instantly soothing your upset stomach and speeding relief to your aching head. Alka Seltzer works fast,

Carolyn Cochrane 20:21

and I will tell you that it's much more than a jingle to me, okay, because my poor dad had some digestive issues when I was growing up. Okay? My dad, we either had Alka Seltzer, Rolaids. How do you spell relief, R, o, l, a, i, d, s, or my dad would just sport a Maalox milk mustache around a lot. My dad smelled like peppermint a lot. Alka Seltzer was very special, though, because when my dad wanted to take some, he let me open up the wrapper and drop in those tablets. I pop plopped, and then I watched this, and I sang, and then it was like a magic trick, you guys, because it would all, you know, Bubbles, oh my gosh. And I remember once, like my dad said, you want to take a sip. And I was like, Okay. And, you know, I guess I thought it was gonna taste like Sprite, because of all the effervescence and everything, and you got to take it, and it's just like, it's like, chalk. Yes, it doesn't.

Kristin Nilsen 21:23

I thought it was like a treat. I didn't realize it was medicinal. So I'm like, Can we get some of that? Well,

Carolyn Cochrane 21:29

it's a fun, you know, song, and it's really catchy. And the ad before, you know, we had the kind of fun ones in the 70s with, like, kind of the overweight who ate too much, and he's like, you know, I can't believe the whole thing. I would say that to my dad, like, Dad, I bet you can't believe you ate the whole thing, or he'd be eating this thing at dinner and be like, Dad, are you sure you want to eat the whole thing? Poor Dad. I love you, dad, but your, I don't know what do I want to call this your medicines, or whatever this is, you know, before Prilosec and all those kind of things of now, this was it just, is my dad so much I

Kristin Nilsen 22:10

have a moment. I have I have an Alka Seltzer moment when my mom brought me as a guest. I think I was five, to a luncheon. Luncheon was a new vocabulary word for me. Luncheon was like lunch, but fancy, and it was with, like, I don't know if it was a church group or something, but it was like 20 women around a big table in someone's home, and I had to dress up. And when I finished eating, I leaned back in my chair and I went, I can't believe I ate the whole thing and I got in so much trouble. I got in big trouble. And I was like, I did not understand. I thought I was making a funny joke, and I didn't know that that would I just, I still kind of don't understand a little bit. Everyone would chuckle. Oh, they totally laughed. Everybody laughed. But also I didn't really understand why they were laughing. I thought I was quipping, but I didn't understand that this five year old, like mimicking this commercial would be funny after eating little cucumber sandwiches or something. But my mom did not find it funny, and I think she was probably trying to impress all the luncheon ladies, and her her snarky five year old was not helping.

Carolyn Cochrane 23:18

Gosh, Kristen, you've always been Kristen, how are you? I got never been anybody but Kristen. Well, I do want to share some fun Alka Seltzer, plop, plop, Fizz, fizz facts with you guys, because I did go down a little bit of a rabbit hole, and I wanted you to know that, yes, it debuted in 1951 Okay, so it was around a while, but not until the 70s and 80s did it really get catchy where it was used in kind of everyday lingo, but earlier, before this kind of 70s commercials that we remember there the little guy? Do you remember there was, like a little cartoony guy with, I think he had, like a staff cane, and he would, like, dance around the bottles and everything. But yes, so the 70s, of course, when we're coming of age and my poor dad needs some Alka Seltzer, is when I remember that. Okay, you talked earlier, Kristen about musicians creating the jingles and how they can, you know, obviously the catchy tunes that stick in our minds. So this jingle was composed by Tom Dawes, okay, I didn't know his name, but he was a former member of the 1960s band the circle spelled C, y, r, k, l, e, and that same recorded red rubber ball. Oh, no way, yes and yeah. So he had a real gift for melody, which is why that Alka Seltzer ad in that tune feel so like humble, like you could just Yes. Now here's my super fun, fun fact. Okay, everybody this, this might win you a million dollars on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. So that catchy phrase, it was written by Paul Margolis. He's an advertising copywriter, Raider. No. He. Okay, it's right here everyone. He's an advertising copywriter who later became a major force in advertising lots of major creative campaigns, but we might know him best for helping birth weight and birth he is Julie and I to Lisa's dad.

Michelle Newman 25:21

I knew that because I listened to her. She's got the greatest,

Carolyn Cochrane 25:24

oh yeah, that's right, you did listen to

Michelle Newman 25:26

that something sunshine. I forgot now, but I love that. So when you're saying that, that was recalling that back

Kristin Nilsen 25:32

to me. Yeah, that's the wildest connection. Here's this woman who's like my dad made, plop, plop, Fizz, viz, yes.

Carolyn Cochrane 25:38

And what an iconic again, you know, it was so classic in such a pop culture moment, that she could say that at any party, and people would be

Kristin Nilsen 25:47

like, Wow, everyone knows. So cool. That's right, everybody knows

Carolyn Cochrane 25:51

every age, every you know. And that's the thing too. Like, you know, it was obviously targeted to our parents when we were growing up. I mean, we weren't, you know, wanting and yelling, buy me Alka Seltzer. Well, I was, this is true, but it was still, nonetheless, something that just weaved its way into our lives, and, you know, singing it and making, obviously recognizing when it's at our house and all that stuff. So yes, again, Alka Seltzer and again, because it had special place in mind.

Michelle Newman 26:23

And some of these that have that shorter kind of tagline, like the, you know, I'm a Toys R Us kid, you might say, or plot his fish, you might, you might shorten down. Those truly became part of the lexicon of those those decades. Yeah, you didn't have to sing the entire plop, plop, fizz fist song, you know that was just all these little phrases became things you could just say to people, and it's very recognizable, exactly like this next great, great crowd, you know, great party, great crowd, party track,

Carolyn Cochrane 26:54

yes, because you might remember this one, you're not fully clean until you're

Kristin Nilsen 27:00

Oh, zestfully clean.

Carolyn Cochrane 27:05

My next favorite only because, and I'm saying favorite, and I'm favorites in quotation marks, because I really want to talk about bar soap. You guys, I wanted to talk about this for a while. There are so many bar soap and bar soap commercials when we were growing up. Were we dirtier back then? Are there even as many bar soaps on the shelves today? Like, think about it, we had Coast Irish Spring, which have the fakest Irish accents. I went back and watched it. You know it's like, and they whistle through the whole thing. They're great commercials. Usually, yeah, and and lava. Do you remember the lava soap? And, like, Dad came home after, like, working on the, I don't know, the oil platform somewhere, his hands are all black,

Michelle Newman 27:48

and he's, I had a font thing flash through my head, yes, the way it looks,

Carolyn Cochrane 27:54

yes, the packaging and and then, like, for Coast, even the color, like we always had Growing up palm olive, either the green or the gold. It was just one solid color coast. You guys, it kind of swirls in it. In Irish Spring, they would cut the soap Michelle when you're so they wanted to show you that it went all the way through like it was layers. They take that, yes, and then we had caress, remember, had the baby oil, and

Michelle Newman 28:25

then we showed the oil, yeah. I mean, like when we used it, like when we got it to try, it was nothing slippery, yeah, it would make the whole bathtub slippery. So then your bathtub was like a danger zone, like, you know, you it was everything that kind of oily residue.

Carolyn Cochrane 28:42

I'm just gonna name a couple other ones, just because soap. I just

Michelle Newman 28:48

like bar soap. There was a lot of dial

Carolyn Cochrane 28:51

family. Yep, I've got dial next. And then there was Jergens. There was life boy, there was safeguard. And tone,

Kristin Nilsen 28:59

remember tone? One? Oh, anymore, like most of these we still have on the shelf, but not tone,

Carolyn Cochrane 29:07

yeah, I don't know what happened to tone or life? Boy, I'm not sure that's right. And it was life. Boy, but it was like, buoy, buoy,

Kristin Nilsen 29:14

like, buoy. And I don't know what did it float? It floated it? Did it Oh? And ivory floated on

Michelle Newman 29:21

top of it. Like, if you're with your weebles in the bathtub, you could, like, have it wobble on the those of you listening who also were dial families. What was wrong? It was almost like, that color yellow, like, came from the nuclear power plant or something. It was just a little it's a 70s color. We were allowed

Carolyn Cochrane 29:41

to use it because my mom thought we'd get a UTI. I think that fell into the UTI category. Just thought things that were weird, colored and yeah, and heavily scented, could give you UTI. So, you know, no bubble bath for me, no fun soaps. I think when I got coz dad in June. Your high it was a big deal. I was, like, so excited.

Michelle Newman 30:02

And cam a that was mom, Oh, for sure. I want to ask you guys this. So now we are liquid soap, people like, we just use the pump like a vino because, you know, you so you don't get dry, itchy skin, especially in Colorado, it's very dry. And then, like in your guest bathroom and stuff, you can always have pump soap. So if someone comes over, they're not at the not it That's gross. Did I don't remember liquid soap back in the 80s? Do

Kristin Nilsen 30:27

you I? Do? I remember when

Michelle Newman 30:30

just this is it like a splurge, though I am very excited he had it.

Kristin Nilsen 30:35

So I always remember when new things come out. So I remember when liquid soap came out and you're like, it's in a bottle.

Michelle Newman 30:41

Even by our kitchen sink, we had a little soap dish with a bar of soap to wash your hands, like playing outside, yeah, yeah, on it, or something, or the hair

Michelle Newman 31:02

by the Yes, because I was talking about by the kitchen sink. I hope you guys were watching this on YouTube, because I was just like

Carolyn Cochrane 31:14

Kristin, a little different.

Michelle Newman 31:15

I don't know what you guys were watching by your kitchen sink. Bath in the kitchen anyway, in the soap dish, you guys have to remember this that. So then when you put your wet soap back, and then all the water runs off, then it kind of dries, or it's kind of still wet. Sometimes that would be kind of dirty, because the dirt that would be on the soap would kind of, you know, so that's probably, yeah, so, but we didn't have liquid soap. I'm just imagining if it was available in the 80s, and I saw it, I probably thought that was for someone like Elizabeth Taylor.

Kristin Nilsen 31:44

Just fancy. Yeah, it's fancy. I think the first one was soft soap.

Michelle Newman 31:50

Oh, yes, but that wasn't, that was it was that in the 80s, I do remember soft

Carolyn Cochrane 31:55

was probably, I think it was 80s soft. Okay, what are you reminding me? I'm, I'm like, having this moment, like a deja vu thing with Oh, soft, what? Oh, like the Saturday live, Saturday Night Live, yes, yes, yes, that was it when they're doing like the PBS or NPR, NPR, dusty muffin.

Michelle Newman 32:18

Kristin, do you have any favorite jingles tasty?

Kristin Nilsen 32:24

Just in the background, you can hear Michelle talking about someone's balls being tasty. I like you guys. I also have tons, but there are some that just bring me joy, that absolutely make me giddy. And I have to mention just too quickly before I give you my two real ones, because they're more like utterances. They're not actual jingles, but they are set to music. And the first one is uh oh spaghettio. And I think, walk around saying that all the time.

Michelle Newman 32:53

Of course, you don't ever like trip and stumble or whatever, yeah.

Kristin Nilsen 32:58

And sometimes you would just say it, like, if somebody fail, you'd be like, Oh, spaghettio. It's always like, you're helping them

Carolyn Cochrane 33:04

out. Clever is that? Because it's all about like, you know, getting your as an advertiser, getting your product name out there, and like, people hearing it and recognizing it. So how many of us were just spaghettioing it all over the place?

Michelle Newman 33:17

That's as common, like, if someone in the 70s or 80s would go see you later, and you might go alligator. Or they would say it. If someone just said Uh oh, without it, someone is bound to throw in spaghettio.

Kristin Nilsen 33:29

Spaghetti Oh. What

Speaker 1 33:31

do kids say when they're hungry at noon? What do kids say when they pick up a spoon?

Kristin Nilsen 33:41

Spaghettio? Okay. How about this one? This one, I can hardly do this through face, because I love it so much. I know there's nothing more to the song. That's all there is. They were like, it's almost like they had to film the commercial, and they didn't have a jingle yet. And they're like, oh my god, we're filming and they're like, oh my god, we're filming okay. What are we gonna do? Somebody sing it?

Michelle Newman 34:08

But they're like, no, they first started it like this. And someone's like, no, no, you know what? We're going down with. The pet makes it sound so much more musical. It's got more musicality

Kristin Nilsen 34:23

that way. It's so musical. It is so musical. Okay, but my two favorites, we'll start with, again, I'm so happy. I love this so much. Sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don't

Speaker 1 34:38

enjoy that. Nut mounds don't almond. Joy's got films of chocolate coconut and munchy nuts too. Mountains got deep, dark chocolate and chewy coconut. Sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don't want moms don't sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don't.

Kristin Nilsen 35:00

Oh, like, I'll just sing that for the hell of it. Joyce, no, I don't even eat them. I don't care. I don't mount, I don't eat either one

Michelle Newman 35:08

of those things. No, I didn't either. But, and also, the commercial I'm remembering was so funny. It was almost like, remember in highlights magazine, where you had Goofus and gallant, yes, and one was always doing the wrong thing. And then gallant came in to say the commercial was very much like that. Sometimes you feel like and it was someone doing something.

Kristin Nilsen 35:28

So sort of my favorite was, like, the jockey riding the horse backwards yesterday. I'm singing it, and I'm going, like this, like I'm writing, like I'm a jockey and I'm riding a horse backwards. And Mike is like, what are you doing that one, because it was all people doing nutty things. They were nutty. Sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don't. And then, for some reason, at some point, and I could not find out any information. Why this is they switched it to Peter Paul almajoy, got nuts. Moms don't because, like Peter Paul Alma joy, get the company in there, Peter Paul Almond Joy. Nobody calls it Peter Paul's Almond Joy. Nobody cares. And I couldn't figure out why they did that. So here was the brilliance of this commercial, besides being ridiculously catchy and funny, one commercial, two candy bars, almond Joy's got nuts, right? Mounds, don't they saved so much money by they only did one commercial. That's right, yes, and they did all the and

Michelle Newman 36:28

it made sense, because, you know, when you are like me, I remember you go trick or treating, and you'd always get the little Almond Joys or the mountains, right? And I actually was kind of a weird kid who liked coconut. I feel like a lot of people were like, That's trash. Get that out of my candy bag. But my I didn't like nuts at the time. Now, I could eat, you know, my weight and almonds and be happy, but at the time, I didn't, but my mom loved them. That was candy, so it was an Almond Joy mounds thing with me and my mom, which was kind of fun. So when I'd go through like my so that commercial was kind of fun too, because, you know, you're like, it's both of them, yeah, here you go. We're all harmonious. We're all

Kristin Nilsen 37:08

living in harmony. The whole, the whole concept of, sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't. It started in 1970 but the whole song and the jockey writing backwards, that's 1977 so that's one reason we remember that so well. And it wasn't just catchy. It was iconic, and according to chefsource.com It was this is a quote a master class in concise branding, instantly associating the two candies with their distinguishing features. It success lay in its memorability, repetitive nature, and sing song quality that it made it easy to hum along to. And in 2003 the lyrics sometimes you feel like and that sometimes you don't, were included in the advertising slogan Hall of Fame

Michelle Newman 37:54

deserve, well deserved.

Kristin Nilsen 37:57

I totally agree, and now today, they still have that. There's still a thread of it, but at some point they thought that what we experienced was outdated, and the branding people thought that younger people were evolving to require more sophisticated musical arrangements and performances, which is that it, you guys, it's so boring. It's so freaking boring. That's what you'll see today, and it's positively boring. It's not at all nutty. They replace nutty with tropical now it's like, sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't like they're being literal. It's

Michelle Newman 38:34

also that's also that's BS. Today's kids would love to walk around singing, yes, sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don't good one that I was gonna mention that I didn't, but now, because this is a good reason to mention it, with the candy bar theme, also very quick and catchy, is give me a break. Give me a break. Break me off a piece of that totally that's it, yes, but it just shows you breaking it off, which was also a very cool concept. As a kid, you're like, I want to break off a piece of my candy bar, but that's another thing you would just sing along, like, or, what about

Kristin Nilsen 39:13

this one? This was one of my favorites, and it's actually one of my favorite candy bars. And just see, tell me what image you see when I sing this $100,000 bar. It's like they hope, right? They're taking a bite and they're stretching a caramel is stretching up.

Michelle Newman 39:30

Always, always get that this time of year. We always have many ones love them to get out well, they're really low calorie. They are. Oh, really, no, they truly are. They're like, if you get because we always get the big mix of Halloween candy that has those in it for this reason, because I love them, but they're way less calories than other ones. It's just caramel and then the chocolate. It's not like, it's all the huh. It's not, yeah, you know what it is. It's basically good for you, yeah.

Carolyn Cochrane 39:54

Watch your skin. Like Three Musketeers. That's supposed to be another one, like, has a lot of air in it, not supposed. Be bad for you.

Kristin Nilsen 40:01

And so then, of course, $100,000 bar changed its name to 100 grand. And 100 grand bar like it just doesn't work.

Michelle Newman 40:08

Grand Bar doesn't work is stupid,

Kristin Nilsen 40:13

stupid. And then the other one that makes me giddy is this one. It walks downstairs alone.

Speaker 3 40:20

Makes a slinky sound, a spring, a spring, a marvelous thing. Everyone knows it's linking. It's slinky. It's slinky.

Michelle Newman 40:35

I love and I can picture the commercial, and then it goes down the stairs. And how exciting, how exciting. Well, ours didn't do it like that, but sometimes we could get it to go, like, one two, yeah, yes, before it fell over. And that was like, freaking. That was like, Christmas, yeah, you felt like you were at like, watching an Olympic event.

Carolyn Cochrane 41:00

Did you ever like, pull it so far that it didn't really go back, or it got like,

Kristin Nilsen 41:07

twisted, it got twisted and, like, tangled in back on each other? Yes, and then it's like, over, then it's just over. The same

Michelle Newman 41:15

tried to make that plastic slinky trash. Oh, where they made it out? Lame. No, don't stupid. Don't give them your money.

Kristin Nilsen 41:23

So this is interesting. The Slinky, like so many things, in the age of the golden age of television, was invented accidentally, when an engineer of some kind, like knocked a spring off of his work table, and instead of just falling to the ground, it walked, it walked down the stairs. And so the isn't that crazy. And he was like, Hey, I'm gonna sell springs. So the jingle was created in the early 60s, but, like, I this is gonna be a common theme, I think. But it wasn't until the 70s that the jingle was tweaked just a little bit, and then it became the song that we know, just a few different notes, just a few different words, and it was so much better. And not coincidentally, it also the sales were also much better. There's even one jingle version that mentions a great gift for a girl and a boy. So it was clearly airing around Christmas time. And I think everybody got a slinky in their stocking at absolutely

Michelle Newman 42:18

target, like the actual or and I should, you know, I don't want to give target, but with no jail, you can still buy them the metal ones today at your favorite small toy store, because I've seen them, and I think more kids just need a simple toy like that. Yeah, no batteries. Or,

Carolyn Cochrane 42:38

can I ask you, I'm trying to remember, besides going down the stairs, all I can remember doing with it is that all you could do, what else

Kristin Nilsen 42:49

could you do so you can have races, have races down the stairs?

Carolyn Cochrane 42:55

Never worked, really. And if you lived in a ranch house, what were you gonna do? That was also the other joke.

Michelle Newman 43:03

There was a way it could do that, almost even if it wasn't on stairs. I don't know. I just you have to have stairs out of just going like this with that. Listen, very

Kristin Nilsen 43:14

sensory. It's like we're juggling,

Michelle Newman 43:16

unless you're watching on YouTube. So listeners, we're doing our hands like up and down, like you have one half of the slinky. And why, I have a feeling

Carolyn Cochrane 43:23

they all know they're in their cars and on their walks right now they're doing that same movement, because that's all we could

Kristin Nilsen 43:28

do. But yeah, it was when we moved into a house that, when we moved to Minnesota, we moved to a two story house, and that was like, banger, like, now the slinky is gonna go all the way down the stairs. Got a slinky down.

Carolyn Cochrane 43:42

Yeah, gosh. Well, thank you everybody for sharing your favorites. And when I say everybody, I mean Kristen and Michelle, because we are getting ready to share your meaning, our listeners and our followers, your top 10. And this is in no particular order. And like I said, I've already shared one of the biggest ones, and that was the Plop, plop, Fizz, fizz. So that's not even in this top 10 list.

Kristin Nilsen 44:04

So it's really 10. It's just 10 of them. It's just the top

Carolyn Cochrane 44:10

tennis that got the most, you know, was repeated the most. I guess you're

Michelle Newman 44:14

a big time author. Now, Kristen, you don't have time to do math, right? Yeah.

Carolyn Cochrane 44:22

Two. Was just like, not too many ties, too many times, way too many eyes. You'll even see that I put two together on some of the, you know, things

Michelle Newman 44:33

while looking at this list. And I think we're going to add, like I said, ours are honorable mention. So it's more like, you know, it's more like 1618, 20. I don't know how you would even bring these. They're all agreed,

Carolyn Cochrane 44:45

right, yes, right,

Kristin Nilsen 44:46

exactly, yeah. And so iconic, every single one of them, yes.

Carolyn Cochrane 44:49

And once you sing them, or, you know, remember them, just like when you were doing I think it was the slinky one Kristen. I just got goosies. I just got nipple lightning. It was just like, it felt so good. And I hadn't even thought about that song, but it just the endorphins, whatever, dopamine, I don't know where all those chemicals are surging through me, but it just made me feel so good. And so, yeah, it's like, 1820 30, because you forget about them, but the minute you hear them, you're like, oh my gosh, yeah, that's one of my

Michelle Newman 45:19

favorites. And like I said, they come right back the one you're about to talk to talk to talk about Carolyn. All of a sudden, I was singing it to Brian the other day, and I was like, doing all the little descriptors of all the people. And I was like, he was looking at me, like, where's I? Was like, I don't know. I don't know. And they're coming out of my mouth. Wouldn't it be so fun if we could have a VSM of all of these, like all these 2025 that when you're when you need that dopamine hit, you know, when you're feeling a little blue, you could just play this in your car.

Carolyn Cochrane 45:52

Yeah? Try to do that. Well, yes, let's go right to the first one that our listener shared. Many of you did, and Michelle just remembered the words recently. And speaking of the words or the lyrics, I got to tell you guys, these are pretty cringy hot dog song, which we would just belt out. And as soon as again, as soon as I read, like the first couple of words, somebody that one of you all that shared it with us wrote, hot dogs, armor hot dogs. And then I'm like, what kind of kids eat? Armor hot dogs,

Unknown Speaker 46:34

even kids with chicken pox. The kids love to fight.

Michelle Newman 46:43

So fun, though. But when I was singing it, I did. I it came out of my mouth without me. Think about it, and I go, fat kids. And then I was like, Oh, I like, come to my mouth. Like, Oh, I know in sissy kids,

Kristin Nilsen 46:55

I'm so bad something you say. And they're like, smiling. Like, Carolyn, kiss.

Carolyn Cochrane 47:04

But we all remember it, and it is giving us a little joy right now, seeing it. But yeah, this is like hoosker dude in a different, a different way, almost remembering these jingles because they're right there. Yeah, no hesitation at all, remembering, yeah, like these next two. Oh,

Michelle Newman 47:20

for sure. Yeah. So this first one I'm going to talk about is a jingle my friend, when I lived in Washington, fifth grade to ninth grade, my friend Lisa and I would sing this song all the time. And you know what? Y'all, there's really nothing quite as endearing as two little fifth grade girls walking around going, or I can bring on the bacon. Forget. Man, because I'm a woman, literally, you're like, 11 years old. What's interesting about this jingle for Anjali perfume is Carolyn, you know, he said at the beginning of the episode that now they're just kind of repurposing songs. This one and another one I'm going to talk about in just a little bit. I was so surprised to learn like like this, I can bring home the bacon fried. It's actually a modified version of a 1966 song by Peggy Lee called I'm a woman, and that's part of it. Yeah. And that commercial that we're talking about first aired in 1980 coincidentally, when I was in fifth grade. This is probably why Lisa and I are singing it in fifth grade, because they're airing it all the time, right? And it became very, very popular. And then the phrase where the voiceover says the eight hour perfume for the 24 hour woman was a very key part

Kristin Nilsen 48:41

of, oh my god, Marshall. And just think about that. Like, think the message that, I think they thought they were being feminist, but really they were introducing us to the second shift, right? That you can, you can do anything you want to, and you can also cook, and you can also satisfy your husband. Like, Welcome to hell, right?

Michelle Newman 49:02

But you got it. You got to be cooking. You got to fry up his bacon. Gotta fry up bacon. But you know what's funny? Let's just think about this. My mom, very strong, very feminist woman. In 1980 we're in, like I said, in Washington. This is one of our living with the stepfather times. And when I woke up to go to school in the mornings, me and my sister, my mom would be back in bed asleep. I mean, that sounds like now, it sounds like she's terrible. Honestly, we didn't care. We love to eat fruit loops and whatever. So I know she'd probably get up to say goodbye to us and get us out the door. I mean, I'm certain this was our preferred thing. I would have never wanted to eat bacon and eggs before I went to school in fifth grade. In a million years, I wanted a pop tart and for you know, but my stepfather, when we got up in the morning, you could smell the bacon and the eggs, because at like, 6am she was up cooking him bacon and eggs every morning before he left for work. And then it was like everything was still dirty in the kitchen, you know. I mean, I can still picture it was like a black cast iron skillet with all that bacon grease still sitting on the stove when I'd go down to pour my lucky charms or whatever. Again, this is no shade to my mom, because, like I said, preferred for sure, but, but then you look at like this commercial, and it's kind of what my mom was living and it makes she wore, she wore Norell perfume, but she did find where, actually, yeah, I know, like it's current.

Kristin Nilsen 50:29

I think it thinks it's being current, but it's really being retroactive, or maybe it was just introducing the time in which we started to do all of the things I don't know, I don't know it's and I remember being a little confused, like at first I was at first it was, it was empowering, because she just exuded power she got all right, but then it was a little confusing,

Michelle Newman 50:50

feminine, but she's also subservient.

Carolyn Cochrane 50:57

When you're fifth grade. Yeah,

Michelle Newman 50:59

we thought we loved singing that. But How funny is that to think of two little fifth graders going and never, never let you forget you're a man. Okay, I can really wail on that. Another perfume commercial that our listeners wanted to make sure that we knew they remembered was there's a fragrance that's here to stay, and they call it

Carolyn Cochrane 51:28

Cheryl. Yes, Cheryl,

Kristin Nilsen 51:30

with her with her trousers on, she's like, walking across the street with her hair like swinging, and then she turns around like, yeah,

Carolyn Cochrane 51:37

yeah, but that's still exist, does Anjali or Charlie? Are

Michelle Newman 51:43

they still question? I don't know, Kristen, did you sell them in your kiosk? But it was called, like gnarly

Kristin Nilsen 51:51

bon. Jolie Kristen

Michelle Newman 51:53

worked in the knockoff perfume kiosk at them all. That's so funny. I'm sorry that's so funny.

Unknown Speaker 52:04

Carolyn was fake.

Kristin Nilsen 52:07

Okay, the next one, I thought Michelle was doing, so I didn't do any work on this, but I'm going to tell you what it is anyway.

Michelle Newman 52:13

There are two of my very favorites. Okay, do you want to talk about this one? Heard it and I'll chime in. Okay, so this one,

Kristin Nilsen 52:20

even if I don't do per this. The point of this whole episode is, without doing any research on this, I can say it for you. I wish I was an Oscar Meyer wiener. That is what I really like to be. And if I were an Oscar Meyer Wiener, everyone would be in love with me. I mean, talk about memorable, brilliant, and it's brilliant.

Michelle Newman 52:45

Now, unlike the armor hot dog jingle writer who was shaming children, this one is just just lovely and delightful and so funny. I love

Kristin Nilsen 52:56

it. Oscar Mayer wiener and thinker

Michelle Newman 53:00

really was doing a good job with they really

Kristin Nilsen 53:03

were, and just the syncopation of that, I wish she were on Oscar Mayer wiener. I think that's what's really attractive on singing on the bus,

Carolyn Cochrane 53:14

like the Oscar Mayer March, yes, get your little whistle. Or, like, we know all about the car whatever, but yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 53:24

and we didn't stop think about what we were saying. I wish I were a hot dog. We didn't care

Michelle Newman 53:30

so cute and funny, because then everyone would be in love with me. And also, now for pitting armor against Oscar Mayer, I'm for sure gonna go with Oscar Mayer, because they're not like I just said, shaming the children and Oscar Mayer kept it going. It going with this other one that we love, right? My baloney has a first name. It's Oscar because that's

Unknown Speaker 54:08

Wow. Oscar Mayer, the first name in Bologna. All

Carolyn Cochrane 54:14

right, we're gonna move on to some more foods, because two bird jingles made our list that you all shared. One was the iconic and I guess this isn't really Islam but it kind of is, and we can't not have it. Two all beef patties, special two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun. And do you guys know that McDonald's actually had a contest during this campaign time? Whoever could say that the fastest, fastest, they got a lifetime's worth of Big Macs.

Kristin Nilsen 54:52

I do remember because it like it, because everybody tried to do it super fast. Yes, yes, yes. In fact, I can't even do it. I can't I. Think that's why

Carolyn Cochrane 55:02

you go, Okay, what you

Michelle Newman 55:04

guys do? You even question that I can do it? How fast? No, I don't question you ready. And I guarantee you my sister could do it 10 times faster than I could, or my younger daughter. Okay, here we go, two I'll be petty special sauce, cheese pickles. I know this says PC button, no, didn't sound right. To all be petty special sauce with cheese, pickles, no.

Kristin Nilsen 55:22

And I've never been able to do it. Never done it a single time. Well, I know guys just got scared.

Carolyn Cochrane 55:27

Well, I can tell you someone else who did it, our follower, Mary rice, oh, she shared this was her favorite. And she said, as a kid, I could sing that pretty fast. I'm not sure, but I may have trotted out that party trick at family get togethers, because it seemed to leave an impression on one of my aunts. She gave me a t shirt with the slogan on it, and as as Mary, Mary's saying this as I'm tapping this out, I may have unlocked a memory, because I think that was part of my First Communion gift from her. Nothing celebrates the body of Christ like two. All beef. Better special sauce. Let me cheese pickles, onions on it, sesame seed fun.

Michelle Newman 56:03

May God be with you, Mary, exactly. You go to commute, you start, you start going to church and for communion, they're just giving you tiny, Big Mac pieces. Oh my gosh, but we all make sure a little wine after

Carolyn Cochrane 56:20

and then Mary actually went on and found on ebay the t shirt. She found a t shirt that was for sale for ladies and gentlemen, hold on, for $180 for the t shirt, a vintage t shirt like the OG that Mary got for First Communion. So if you have one of those, if you got one for First Communion, hold on to it or sell it. Alrighty. Well, we gotta be out done. It can't be all about McDonald's. We gotta go to Burger King, right? So now we're gonna go to Burger King. Now Burger King, you guys had a good one, and they were so nice, because, you know what? They said, Hold the pickle, hold the lettuce.

Speaker 1 57:03

Don't upset us all. We ask is that you let us

Unknown Speaker 57:07

serve it your way.

Carolyn Cochrane 57:16

You guys, I got a confession to make. As you may recall, I donned that brown and orange polyester Burger King uniform in high school, and I made the burgers and special orders most definitely upset me. I want you to know, okay, because this was pre computer days. This is when that little microphone and you know, the cute little girl at the register, which I was not, they put me at Burger duty. She would be taking him with order, and then she would lean over and grab the mic and say, Whopper extra cheese, no pickles, extra may out. And I had to remember that, hey guys, no computers and undiagnosed add. We did have a little grease pencil we were allowed to use. So you quickly pull the little box off of the thing and start marking, because it had like, P in a little box next to it, so there was, like, a thing for plus, for extra. Oh my gosh. It was so stressful. And no sooner would she finish, you know, the Whopper, than she'd say, Whopper Junior extra pickles, no onions. Yeah, you guys, I get excited. I'm shaking everything, you guys, because it's making me so nervous. And then I would wait, and I would dread, because I would see out of the corner of my eye somebody walking back up to the counter with their

Carolyn Cochrane 58:37

Oh, I just wanted to shrink. It was just the most awful,

Kristin Nilsen 58:40

feeling stressful. That's horrible. So

Carolyn Cochrane 58:44

hey, that jingle, it might have been true for some of some of the people, but it wasn't true for me. I did not like when people had a special order. It very much upset me. And yes, so that those are our two

Michelle Newman 58:59

related Burger King that and going, Oh no, look, there's that burger maker again. Let's go over to McDonald's burger duty,

Carolyn Cochrane 59:11

still recovering from that, because, you know, it was a brand new burger king that was opening. I'm just going to tell you the story again, everyone, because you can feel sorry for me and all the girls there was. This was a really sexist Burger King, but I think all the Burger Kings work because it was only girls that worked at the registers. At least in the 80s, you never saw the guys there. They were always in the back in the frying machine or whatever. Well, there was an excess of girls that got jobs at this particular Burger King. So a lot of them got the counter duty and the cute little cash register, and just lean over into the mic where I was back flame. And these are flame broiled your acne. This like conveyor belt that went into this thing with fire on it, and then it came out, and that's when I had to do this. Oh, it's

Michelle Newman 1:00:01

got, like the sweat flops from not just the flame bro, but also from the anxiety.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:00:06

Yes,

Michelle Newman 1:00:09

pimples are popping up every shift. So, okay, another, another. We're going back to another jingle that was also inspired by an oldie, an old song, and this one was inspired by a 1958 hit song by the Royal teens who I had never heard of before, called short shorts, that reached number two on the US R and B chart and number three on the US pop chart in 1958 who wear short shorts. If you dare wear short shorts, Nair for short shorts, that campaign, the Nair campaign, launched in 1975 so many years after the royal teen song was on the charts, but you guys will remember it features the women with the smooth legs. This became a very lasting part of pop culture. The 1985 version is the one I remember very well, and they're all sitting on the counter stools at like a diner, and their short shorts could basically be panties, and they're all polka dotted, but different colors, and the guy who works at the diner is like Zowie. At one point, they all turn around, and in unison, we wear short shorts, and then they all do their butts, like back and forth. It's very cute and Boppy and I mean, it's a fun song to sing. I had no idea it was a real song. I just did I know. So I listened to it. When I found it on YouTube, it actually showed the American Graffiti album cover, which is like 48 songs on that album, or something, and I didn't see it. Then when I went to the album, I then I searched the album and looked up the playlist, and I didn't see it on there. But doesn't mean it wasn't maybe included in the and at some point in the movie, but it's very much the same. It's the same tune. It's the same. They start by saying, Who wears short shorts, we wear short shorts. And man, just catchy and fun and sticks with you, makes you think about using Isn't it called a what's it called? So

Kristin Nilsen 1:02:22

give

Carolyn Cochrane 1:02:26

a rash, did you guys

Kristin Nilsen 1:02:29

did not work. Didn't work, didn't know. I'm like, what's happening here? I'm just wondering about the auditions for that ad.

Michelle Newman 1:02:36

Like, show us your have good legs. Probably,

Kristin Nilsen 1:02:40

yeah. I mean, there is only one thing we're looking at, show us your legs, and those are games. I think that's what, where the word Gam comes from, is from that out there. And those are real nice

Michelle Newman 1:02:50

legs. Let's just say they're real like, Well, like I said, I'm watching the 1985 commercial, and they're basically sitting on the bar stools and panties. And it's kind of zoomed in on their butts, because you want to see their thighs are so nice, although it's almost obvious to they're wearing, like, you know the what's it called? Toast,

Kristin Nilsen 1:03:05

toast. Oh, legs, the color toast, yeah, oh,

Michelle Newman 1:03:09

there's another one legs. And I wasn't offended at all. I was like, Wow, cute. Yeah, you got those legs? Man show up. Okay, moving on and going doing like a 180 from legs guys. This is perhaps just one of the most endearing, hilarious commercials that I had completely forgotten about until it was on this list and I went and watched it. Y'all, this man is dressed up like a fig. He is a giant fig. Hi, big fig, here how. And then he starts singing rich

Speaker 4 1:03:47

and chewy inside, golden, flaky, tender, cakey outside, wrap the inside and the outside is a good charm, too. One more time. See

Michelle Newman 1:04:06

is his little face and his little arms, but he has his hat that looks like the top of the fig, and he'll go the big fig newton one more time. Newton and his impose is so iconic, and all I know is I want to dress up as a giant fig for Halloween, and I need to find that costume. But I remember, and he's only in a spotlight. I don't know if you guys remember, it's all dark, and he comes up into the spotlight that he's like, Hi, gang, big fig here. How? Then he's doing his little dance, but he's in his big it's sort of like, do you remember the the Fruit of the Loom guys. And they were, oh, yeah, that's exactly 100% if there was a fig and Fruit of the Loom, that's exactly the cost. So it's the same exact thing. It's just his face, and then he's got this giant and he's got tights on, and he's just got these little arms that stick out anyway. It's classic. No. Thank you.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:04:59

And I may. Making this up, or did my mom, if we were constipated, I could be making this up. I swear she would let us eat Fig Newton. Honestly, it's like a prone Yeah, yeah, although I didn't really want to, maybe that's why I didn't really want to eat them. But you're like, you could have these cookies, and they were Fig Newtons. And I think she liked Fig Newtons, but anyway, I digress, but I associate them with constipation.

Michelle Newman 1:05:23

Maybe going for this would be a fun one, because we probably can't put the actual jingles in all of them. It'll be crazy. But this would be maybe a good one to put the actual jingle in, because I don't think I sang the right tune. So that would be coming, because it's so funny, where he goes, like, here's the tricky part, and then he does, like, a little shuffle he does, and then it zooms in on his feet, and he's doing, like, the box step as he as he sings, and his feet have like out, like the shoes with the curled toe. Oh yeah, yeah, I'm not kidding. I need to be, I need to be a fig.

Kristin Nilsen 1:05:55

Okay, what are you you'll be like, I'm a fig.

Michelle Newman 1:06:00

No, I'm not a fig. Kristin, I'm big fig. Big fig. Hi, everyone

Kristin Nilsen 1:06:06

hit it. Hal, then everyone how hit it. Al, Okay, our next one, everyone's going to, for better or worse, is going to remember this one, and it started in 1974 with the tagline, tastes so good, cats ask for it by name.

Kristin Nilsen 1:06:33

And this is actually a funny story. It's like, it's, it's such an ear worm. It is such an ear worm, which, I guess, more power to them. Maybe that's what you're going for. But the ad agency who created this campaign wanted a jingle that could accompany footage of cats eating the new cat food, and when they filmed the cats eating Meow Mix for the that's what it is, it's Meow Mix, right? Meow, meow, meow, yeah, when they picture, when they filmed them eating Meow Mix for the commercial, one of the cats, like, was barfing up a hairball and was choking on it. And just proving that, again, all iconic things are accidents. When they reviewed the hairball footage, they were like, it kind of looks like he's singing,

Michelle Newman 1:07:20

oh my god, it does kind of actually when it comes it.

Kristin Nilsen 1:07:24

So they just looped it. They just kept looping the film, and they did, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, Eureka. And that's where we get the Meow Mix thing. And so we enjoyed that jingle. Yeah. We enjoyed that for over 20 years until it was finally retired. It was retired in 1996 Yep, exactly. You're going,

Michelle Newman 1:07:46

oh, right, I beg to differ, because I think we're all still singing it in our heads,

Kristin Nilsen 1:07:50

as we did, still in your heads. And this is the proof. It was such a catchy jingle that people thought it was still running, even though it had been retired. And in a survey done 16 years after the jingle was taken off the air, 81% of respondents claimed that they had heard the jingle in the last 12 months on TV, and it had not been on for over 16 years. Wow.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:08:15

What did that say? I know it's pretty amazing. That's science staying power, power. Yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 1:08:21

ball from a hairball kid. He was joking on a hairball. And I thought this was an urban myth, but it appears to be true. It has been confirmed that the CIA officially used the Meow Mix jingle as part of its interrogation program, aka torture. I know. Is it torture? Yeah. I mean, maybe they would play it on a loop for hours on end to wear prisoners down and to keep them from falling asleep, because sleep deprivation is also one of their techniques. And they chose this very specifically because it was either offensive or incredibly annoying, and they thought that they would annoy people to death until they're like, fine. I'll give you the information. Here are the secrets for sure,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:09:06

yeah, oh, yikes, yeah, maybe all those people that they talked to and thought they'd just heard it in last 12 months were like, war criminals or something. It would be interior,

Kristin Nilsen 1:09:16

but I am a war criminal.

Michelle Newman 1:09:19

I have heard it, okay?

Kristin Nilsen 1:09:21

Next we have so many food related jingles so much there's no insurance anywhere on here. There's no wigovie anywhere. There are no pharmaceuticals anywhere. The next one is from 1966 it started in 1966 but again, gained speed in the 70s, because I think they tweaked things with I'm just making this up. But because things, these jingles, became so much more successful in the 70s, I feel like the composers and the creators were just nailing the melody or nailing the lyrics in a way that made them more successful. So this is from 1966 ask Annie mermaid you happen to see? See what's the best tuna, chicken of the sea. I don't know why there's a mermaid there. And is the mermaid like trying to I mean, aren't they friends with the tuna? I don't get it. But anyway, no, why is it chicken of the sea? Okay, I do have that information for you. Okay? Because Have you ever we just say, you just say chicken of the sea. You don't think anything of it. But what a ham handed looks like. It. Title that is chicken. Chicken of this. Why does it chicken of the sea? Okay? So we just thought it was one word, right? We never thought a thing of it. This was made abundantly clear, like the ridiculousness of it was made abundantly clear in an iconic episode of newlyweds Nick and Jessica, when Jessica Simpson finds herself, like actually, genuinely confused about whether she's eating chicken or fish. She's like, I don't get it.

Michelle Newman 1:10:44

Does it chicken or is it chicken on this day?

Kristin Nilsen 1:10:48

Yes. I mean, I'm sorry. Jessica Simpson, to bring that up, I'm sure you wish that would just go away, but it's never going away. Chicken of the sea, it turns out, is a fisherman's term. It's sort of like an inside joke for tuna, and they call albacore tuna, specifically chicken of the sea, because, like you said, Michelle, because of its delicate white meat, it's more palatable. It looks more like chicken, and it's less fishy. And marketing people grabbed that and ran with it, because they needed to convince wary people, people who were like, I don't really like fish. They needed to convince those people that this is barely fish. It's almost not even fish. You should try it. It's just, like, chicken of the sea. It's just chicken of the sea.

Michelle Newman 1:11:31

Picture a chicken. Yeah, and it works. And it worked. It did yeah. It did

Carolyn Cochrane 1:11:38

work, yeah, oh yeah. I mean, I remember the little the fish down there, like talking and stuff, and I think they had merch, that's right, yeah, of course. Gosh, yes. Well, thank you, Kristen for that fun little info about chicken of the sea. Okay, this was another one that I had forgotten, or thought I had forgotten, until I was reading through all of your listener and followers choices, and it all came back to me like it was yesterday when it says Libby, Libby's, Libby's on the label, label, label, label, you will like it, like it, like it on your table, table, table. Yes, you guys. And so immediately, when I know the song, and I'm thinking of, like Libby's, like a fruit cocktail, you know, something like that, I think, in a fruit so I went and watched a commercial, just to kind of, you know, refresh my memory and listen to the jingle again. And watched a commercial on YouTube, and it was cousin Oliver. He was actually singing, that's right, yes, he's singing on the commercial, but yet, as it goes on, then the adult comes on, and the commercial is for corned beef hash. I'm sorry, I didn't know that. And then the voiceover says, You will love Libby's selection of canned meats. No, no. So obviously, I didn't really, necessarily remember the product.

Kristin Nilsen 1:13:03

Juice. I thought Libby's was

Carolyn Cochrane 1:13:05

juice, and they probably reused that little jingle on other products that they had, but I've always associated Libby's with, yeah, fruit and sweet, not cash and canned meat.

Michelle Newman 1:13:18

I need to do the now mix Pat barf, I know.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:13:26

It barf. And I mean, what kids like corned beef hash and canned meat, and it just seems like a very kid friendly little jingle.

Kristin Nilsen 1:13:37

I felt like it was kid focused, well, Oliver, it was aimed at us. Well,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:13:41

maybe they wanted us to eat more canned meat, I don't know. All right, last, last, but not least, you guys, we are going with two iconic ads that have to do with soda. A lot of these were sugary, weren't they? A lot of Oh yeah, trying to Yes. So first is the be a pepper. What a happy little everybody wanted to be a pepper. Everybody could be a pepper. If you were fat or skinny or a sissy or tough armor, you could. Everybody was accepted. Yes, that's right. So the ad agency, young and Rubicon, which Young and Rubicam, which is always to me, the ad agency, that if you said, what's an ad agency from the 80s, that's like the only name that comes to mind. It was just that iconic of an agency. So yes, they are giving Dr Pepper its own identity in a cola centered world. Okay, they're like, this isn't cola. This is unique, just like all of you and we can all be a pepper. The jingle was written by Randy Newman, our little friend of, I love LA and short people. Yes, he had that knack for catchy and, you know, personality driven melodies. And also he was, I think he was short, and he had a thing, you know, he sings about, said, short people. He wants everybody to. Feel included people they weren't. So he wanted everybody to be a pepper, and everybody could. So it's, I'm a pepper, he's a pepper. She's a pep and who's our friend that sings that song? David Naughton. David Naughton Kristen, that's right. And American Werewolf in London, yeah, poor guy. He had a varied career, didn't he? He

Michelle Newman 1:15:20

sure did. But

Kristin Nilsen 1:15:21

I was a pepper and a werewolf. Yes,

Michelle Newman 1:15:24

he probably got the most money from be a pepper, being a pepper. Think of the residuals, and

Carolyn Cochrane 1:15:30

think of all those people in those commercials. Those were, like, choreographed, synchronized. They were all dancing in the street. It was kind of flash dancy, like when they did that Flash Dance, and they're on the car and whatever that was,

Kristin Nilsen 1:15:42

fame. Oh, sorry, but flash mob and fame because, yeah, like a flash mob, and they've all got their bottles of Dr Pepper, and they're doing like that, hop skip to the right and left. Hop, skip, hop skip. And I just wanted to live that life. Yes,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:15:58

who wouldn't? I was so happy. And it really, it became a movement, actually. And those, there are these red, iconic, I'm a pepper T shirts again, probably go for a pretty penny on eBay, but they were must have items. Everybody wanted one, and everyone wanted to belong. I loved it. Everyone wanted to belong. Okay, we're gonna end with maybe, should we say, I don't know if Ad Age has ever said this, but maybe the number one campaign single song, yes, beloved that went on to become a beloved song and hit on the charts. It was a chart stopper, maker, whatever they do, okay, born out of frustration. You might not know the story of, oh, did I tell you guys what you probably know everybody this is, I'd like to buy the world a Coke, yeah, or I'd like to teach the world to sing. Is probably what we know from the song that was on Sunday school. Oh, I didn't sing that in Sunday school. You didn't, well, the Catholics wouldn't sing, like, probably things that weren't, oh yeah. Lutherans are a little crazy. Yeah, you guys kind of step out there a little bit. Well, the ad was actually born out of frustration in 1971 by Coca Cola executive Bill backer. He was stranded at an airport in Ireland, of all places, due to bad weather, and everybody was all grumpy, as we get. You know when flights are delayed, and he starts watching them bond over bottles of coke, is what he says. And he scribbles down the idea I'd like to buy the world a

Speaker 5 1:17:30

Coke, to buy the world a home and furnish it with love grow up on trees and honey bees. So I turn honey,

Speaker 1 1:17:45

I like to teach the world to sing with me.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:17:58

Wouldn't it be nice if we could all just buy the world a coke. If it was as easy as that, I think the world could all use a little coke right now, a cola, Coca Cola. And maybe that's why I love this song so much, because you guys remember the commercial. The actual commercial often tie up, or it's often referred to as hilltop, and it's filmed on a hill, which was outside of Rome. Real American students, who were international students studying abroad, are the people you see in the commercial. And you know, they're all holding those Cokes, and they're all singing. And then, do you guys remember, like, the Christmas one? There's the Christmas one, and then it, like, lights up. They missed a tree. Oh, my God, yes, it was pretty twinkly.

Michelle Newman 1:18:44

Go skiing in the winter. They though there's like, one night a week, they do night skiing, and I haven't done it yet. I'd really like to do it, but they I'm not that. I'm not that confident yet. But I was sitting watching, and you see the skiers come down the hill with the lights, and then pretty you see like, one and two, and then pretty soon you see a lot. And last year I was watching it, and in my head I was singing that song because of the commercial. I

Carolyn Cochrane 1:19:08

bet it's so beautiful. Yeah, you know what is so interesting? When they film the commercial, there is no product shot of, like, an actual Coke or Coke bottle or anything, till the very end. And the executives from coke. We're like, this isn't gonna work. You're supposed to, like, have what the actual thing is in the ad much earlier than at the very end. And of course, again, we know what the result of that ad was. No. Viewers loved it. Everybody knows it's coke. And if you watched Mad Men, which I think both of you did, yes, talk about a pop culture icon, mainstay we realize at the end of the series finale of Mad Men. And what was his name again, everybody.

Michelle Newman 1:19:52

Don Draper. Oh yeah. Don Draper, yes, is,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:19:57

you know, we think he's left the ad war. Old and is just kind of finding his end there on the, you know, mountainside in California. And supposedly that's when he got the inspiration for that campaign, which we know now is not true, because it was actually in Ireland, and Don Draper isn't real. It's the end of the episode, and

Michelle Newman 1:20:17

you shut your mouth,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:20:22

really, truly. But it is a cultural phenomenon. I think, if you think of the 70s, and you ask people a top commercial from the 70s, I would

Kristin Nilsen 1:20:30

guessing from the 70s, like, what do you remember? Yes, 70s,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:20:33

yes, that would be right up there. Yeah, for

Kristin Nilsen 1:20:37

sure. And we're still talking about it today,

Michelle Newman 1:20:39

right? Yeah, right here, right now. It just fills you as such,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:20:43

yes, at a time when, yeah, we need that. Okay, you guys, truly, these jingles were mainstays of our lives, right? They were there. There was just think how often we heard them, like I said in the beginning, more than probably any top 10 song on the radio. We heard them all the time, every day, multiple times a day, probably, and they really became shorthand for that era, and proof that jingles were everywhere. And seriously, you guys, I think we said this earlier, but I think we should play Kristen's favorite game next time we're at a cocktail party, and just go up to someone and say, hey, my baloney has a first name, and see what happens,

Kristin Nilsen 1:21:22

you have to sing it. Don't go up to somebody and say that.

Michelle Newman 1:21:28

If you came up to me and just said, Hey, has her first name, I'd be like, is it Ralph?

Carolyn Cochrane 1:21:40

Oh my gosh. For the first time, I learned that baloney actually came as

Kristin Nilsen 1:21:44

thought it

Carolyn Cochrane 1:21:47

was always like just being sliced. But, yeah, so I

Kristin Nilsen 1:21:51

but it's true, Carolyn, because when we talk about our culture, whether it's, you know, Gen X culture, or whatever, like, we have to include everything that warmed its way into our lives, and that includes paid advertisements that we actually enjoyed. Like, can you can you imagine enjoying a commercial today? There's nothing that I enjoy, but these little ditties were quirky and they were fun and they were singable. And most importantly, and I said this at the top, a little bit, we identified with them, like I don't identify with ads for diabetes drugs, but it doesn't feel like anything is being marketed to me as it was when we were children, despite the fact that I make all the purchases for my family. And now I'm realizing that it sounds like I'm complaining about not being targeted for advertising. That sounds like a discussion for another time. We hope you found your favorite jingle in today's episode, and if you didn't send us a message and tell us what it is, you might just hoosker do us. Thank you so much for listening today, and we will see you next time.

Michelle Newman 1:22:53

We could add it to a list, we should start keeping a list for part two, right? That's right, yes. Well, we'd like to give a huge thank you to all of our incredible patrons. You help keep the mics on and the memories alive, and because of your generosity, we're able to keep bringing you new episodes. Invest in equipment and the subscriptions we need to produce this podcast. Today, we're giving a special thank you to these patrons. Johanna, Leanne, Kimberly, Robert Mendel, Megan, Melanie, Allie, Sharon, Felicia, Carmi, Alexis, Steven and Christina. And if you enjoy our show and you want to help us grow and continue, consider becoming a patron yourself. You can find out more about the different tiers of support and the exclusive perks they offer just by visiting our Patreon page at patreon.com/pcps and every contribution, honestly, big or small, makes a difference. We deeply, deeply appreciate it. You can even go on our website and make a one time donation. You're like, I want to give them five bucks. Great. We could use it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:24:08

Thank you. Yes, another way that you can support us is by leaving reviews. You guys, we've been stuck at the same amount of reviews for a while. We haven't a new review since September. So if you haven't reviewed us yet, it really, really does help. Just go on to wherever you listen to podcasts, and, you know, give us five stars. And like we say before, otherwise don't, yeah, otherwise you don't have to. And write some wonderful write a jingle about us. How about that? Could be your review? Write a cute little jingle. Because those really, those reviews and those star star ratings help us get noticed by others. And yeah, we're great. We want other people to find out about us. So share the love.

Kristin Nilsen 1:24:48

Share the love. In the meantime, everybody, let's raise our glasses for a toast courtesy of the cast of Three's Company, two good times,

Michelle Newman 1:24:56

two Happy Days,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:24:58

two little house on. The prairie. Cheers,

Michelle Newman 1:25:02

cheers, plop, plop, fizz. That was

Carolyn Cochrane 1:25:06

always there was always a New Year's Eve, one where they needed it like the next day after they were and I

Kristin Nilsen 1:25:10

didn't understand why they were so tired after New Year's Eve so much. I didn't understand the information, opinions and comments expressed on the pop culture Preservation Society podcast. Belongs solely to Carolyn the crushologist and hello Newman, and are in no way representative of our employers or affiliates. And though we truly believe we are always right, there is always a first time the PCPs is written, produced and recorded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, home of the fictional wjm studios and our beloved Mary Richards, Nanu. Nanu, keep on truckin, and May the Force Be With You. You.

Speaker 1 1:25:39

Little loving it will keep moving on.