This week’s prompt is: Commercials & Jingles

Do you remember any jingles or commercials from your past? Did you repeat them because you heard them so often? Did you and your friends recite commercials you had heard dozens of times? Were there any you particularly liked or disliked? If so, why? Did you ever bug your parents for something you saw advertised on TV as a kid?
Are there current commercials or jingles that appeal to you or do you find them all annoying? Do you think old commercials and new commercials have anything in common? Feel free to add the jingles or commercials if you’d like.

I think the subject of commercials came up in a recent SYW post. I, and many others said that the ads of today are sometimes hard to understand. What are they actually selling? I don’t actually see many ads now because I stream TV and use an ad blocker online. However, commercials of bygone years were often a lot of fun and yes, we knew the words to a lot of the jingles.

Sometimes Naomi and I find old ads on YouTube and it’s always fun to see them again. I’ve used Australian ads so I hope that YouTube will allow those of you elsewhere to watch them. If not, my apologies.

How could we forget Madge “You’re soaking in it.”, Rita the ETA Eater, or Mrs Marsh with her ink and chalk (“It does get in.)

QANTAS used the song “I Still Call Australia Home” in a lot of its ads. Got to admit that one brings a lump to my throat.

Catchy tunes always help us to remember an ad. Here’s one for Cottees Cordial we often used to sing along with.

We also liked the “Life Be In It” ads encouraging people to be more active. There were a lot of them featuring “Norm” the normal man.

Other Public Service ads were “Slip, Slop, Slap”from the Cancer Council and one we liked made for the South Australian government about saving water which had a catchy song about hot, thirsty dogs and dry dusty frogs. I’d love to see that one again. These days I don’t see so many ads I find funny but I do like the ones for Specsavers.

Ads I dislike, I don’t usually mind public service announcements but there are a couple that I used to find really annoying. One about pool safety which featured small children. Many of you might find it cute but I can only stand so much repetition. I also have a horrible image in my head of former Prime Minister John Howard and a bunch of kids singing this song together and that would put me off if nothing else did.

Aso on my public service dislike list was a frequently repeated one for electrical safety which featured a very officious young girl telling off various adults. The message was good but her manner was very disrespectful I thought.

I dislike political advertising. It’s always full of hate. I think it should be banned altogether. As for the current campaign by the United Australia Party all I can say is “Not Happy Jan”.