Ten Commercials You’ll Never Forget
by Nicholas Pendergast
Pretty soon America will be sweating all of the new commercials that will advertise during the country’s largest marketing event, an event which just so happens to also be the National Football League’s annual championship game. This had me thinking about all of the excellent commercials of my youth, and not necessarily just Super Bowl advertisements, but everything that ran year round. In honor of the excellence of well placed marketing advertisements, here is a compilation of ten magical moments in commercial history.
- Cindy Crawford’s 1992 Pepsi commercial
Nothing sold Pepsi quite like this tantalizing 60 second spot that premiered during the 1992 Super Bowl. In a sense, the commercial has endured far longer than memories of the game itself. The commercial was intended to focus on the new Pepsi can look, but anyone could guess what drew many people to watch this commercial again and again.
2. Burger King Kids Club
The Burger King Kids Club was introduced in 1990, and throughout the ’90s BK promoted the children’s advertisement with the BK Kids Club Gang, a rowdy multi-ethnic group of kids which included a paraplegic and a dog. The obvious memo was to conjure inclusive sentiments among hip youngsters who would be drawn to the comic aesthetic of these commercials. The debut of the BK Kids Club Gang was really pretty magical, at least it was through the eyes of a 5-year-old version of myself.
3. Pizza Head Halloween commercial
Who wouldn’t want to go trick or treating with a slice of pizza? Pizza Hut was nailing it with their commercial advertisements in the ’90s, and Pizza Head was no exception. Between 1993 and 1997, Pizza Hut used The Pizza Head Show to promote their new pizzas and special deals, however, how can any other Pizza Head commercial top this excellent Halloween ad?
4. Crossfire
“It’s sometime in the future, the ultimate challenge — Crossfire!”
Bad Ass Commercial Check List:
Excellent visual of two kids battling it out in an arena with explosions, smoke, and lightning.
Leather jackets.
Edgy theme with unforgettable hook .
Some guy shouts HOOAH at the end.
Hell yeah, I’m caught up in it and I’ve never even played the game.
5. Coca Cola Polar Bears
Cindy Crawford may have owned the fantasies of young males with the 1992 Pepsi commercial, but Coca Cola brought us all down to earth — or to the North Pole, specifically, with these adverts that began in 1993. The soda company has been sporadically using polar bears in ads ever since the 1920s, but it was not until the “Northern Lights” commercial that the bears became common place in televisions across America.
6. Mortal Kombat
Video games may sell extremely big numbers now, but I can’t think of any game in the last 23 years that had half of the hype that surrounded Mortal Kombat when it first came out. People would line up in every arcade around the country just to play or watch others play this game. It became the subject of discussion in newspapers and television news broadcasting for nearly a year. Politicians were talking about it and used it as a scapegoat for violence in our culture. If a magazine printed Mortal Kombat on the cover, then that magazine would fly off of the shelf faster than a bicycle kick would send Liu Kang across your screen.
If this commercial doesn’t make you want to run outside and put everyone you meet into a bone crushing Fatality, then I don’t think we can be friends.
7. The Simpson’s Butterfinger commercials
Nothing says the ’90s quite like The Simpsons, and no one sold a candy bar quite like Bart. “Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger” became as popular a catch phrase as any other uttered by the spiky haired resident of Springfield. Since 1988, Bart and Butterfinger candy bars have enjoyed a consistent and fruitful business relationship. Also, there are now 150 Bart Simpson Butterfinger commercials in total. The commercials have been included in several Simpsons DVD sets, or you can watch most of them on YouTube.
8. The Talking Taco Bell Dog
Everybody loved this dude. I seriously cannot believe it’s been almost 20 years since he came into our lives. Whenever Taco Bell had a deal that they wanted to promote to the nation, they brought in Gidget the chihuahua, voiced by Carlos Alazraqui. Gidget helped edge Taco Bell into the “Burger Wars” of the 1990s, and created a lasting impression on the entire culture. Sadly, she passed away in 2009 at 15-years-old, which is supposedly 76 in dog years.
9. Blockbuster’s Carl & Ray commercials
It was the final era of America’s video rental giant. How can such a staple of our culture fall so fast? Sadly, a tragedy fills our land wherever there is a corner that once was the location of a neighborhood Blockbuster, however, they did not leave without some excellent promotions.
Carl & Ray were an amusing duo between 2002 and 2003, however, the creative wit behind Blockbuster’s marketing campaign was not enough to keep the company from going into a black hole.
10. Budweiser Wassup!
Yo, where’s Dookie?
True. True.
