The good ones are always gone too fast, and we are left with a hole in our heart. Post here all the ads that are gone that you were still on the air.

For me it's the TARGET!DOG! commercial. LibrarianBro used to imitate it so perfect, but if I asked him to do it again he'd attack me.

The macho guy sitting on the couch: His phone rings and he quickly flips his remote while grabbing the phone. "Yeah, I'm watching the ga- FUMBLE!!!" all into the action.
Minute he hangs up, he switches back to the romance movie he's actually watching, and softly answers the meowing cat in his lap, "I know, baby, I know" as tears stream down his face.

And damn it, we hope for it every football season and it never comes back. Meanwhile, the threads with annoying ads are hundreds of pages long 'cause those never go away.

I've always enjoyed the beer ads, despite their controversary. The musical frogs were always a nice cheer me up.

I miss my Rubberband Man. He was such a cutie, and those commercials just left me so bouncy and happy. Glad that the guy who played him has gotten some good work since then, though.

The one I miss the most is an older Fisher-Price (?) commercial from the late 80s. This little kid's grandparents come to visit him at Christmas, and he's all excited that they're coming by train, so he gets to see the trains at the station. And what to they bring him? A toy train set! I don't know why, but I loved that one. I'd love to see it again.
But the weinerdog stampede is a close seconds. Damn, that was funny.

That reminds me of the Christmas one from a few years back. Cute little boy in foot pajamas downstairs Christmas night (not Christmas Eve). Living room is alive with the buzzes, beeps and blinking LEDs of modern toy technology, the kid is waist deep in toys, boxes and wrappings, yet he's looking around, pawing through it all clearly NOT satisfied.

Suddenly he dives forward and comes up with this battered old plain cotton-stuffed bunny rabbit. His whole body relaxes in relief and clutches it to him, heading back upstairs without another glance at all the cool new stuff.

There was a series of Round Table Pizza commercials back in the 80s or early 90s that I loved. I can't remember much about them now except that they all starred the same adorable sort of pudgy guy and they were all so funny and well done. I also miss a lot of the California Lotto commercials from the past, which were some of the best ads I've seen. And I never got tired of that HP ad with Francois and the picture frames and the Kinks song.

The stuffed bunny ad never fails to make me cry. That little bunny is so sweet.

Norelco-Santa riding on the Norelco razor through the snow.

Staples-"It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year," with the dad gleefully throwing school supplies into the cart while his kids mope sadly behind.

Coca Cola-"Santa trucks are comin' Santa trucks are comin'"

Geico-Tiny House

I miss the Budweiser frogs. It's one of the few commercials my family actually liked. My dad and I used to love watching the lizards complain about them, and then the bastards killed the frogs! It was so wrong.

I miss the Joe Boxer guy from K-Mart. He looked so HAPPY dancing around in his underpants. The faces he made were enough to crack me up for hours. Le sigh.

Super kristin, I loved that one too! So much I looked it up on You Tube. Here's the link if you feel the need to crack up for hours again:

Happy pants



Dammit I can't spell.

My favorite all-time commercial was the "cat-herder" commercial that was shown during the superbowl several years ago. I love that one! I also love the Budweiser commercials... both the frogs and the Clydesdales.

I love the cat herder! There was another one that was out right around the same time, I think for a Canadian brand of beer, which showed a guy enjoying a beer or something by a Canadian Rocky stream, and he starts fighting with a bear. Both of them, on their feet, duking it out fisticuffs style, complete with the bear doing this "fancy footwork" kind of thing that boxers do before he punches the guy again!

And I posted this elsewhere, but since it seems to be officially out of circulation, I already miss the T Mobile commercial with Ashley Hall, the Overly Caffienated Cheerleader! "I wanted to be the only one there with a white swimsuit, and then *SHE* had one too!" I would die - I would literally just sit there in front of the TV and giggle like a crazy woman.

I loved the old-school McDonald's commercials from when I was a kid in the 80's. They featured characters like Grimace, the Hamburgler, Birdie, and the McNugget Budies (sad that I remember all this).
The McNugget Buddies were my favorite. I thought they were so cute--IIRC, there was one commercial where they were dressed up as the three musketeers.

Edited to add the link.

I loved the old McDonald's commercials too! Remember when they had something called "Glasses to go"? They were drinking glasses with the characters on them. I hope I am not dating myself! I was in high school...my neice who is now 28 was about 2..so we are saying around 1979 maybe!
"GLASSES TO GO GLASSES TO GO MCDONALDS HAS MCDONALD LAND GLASSES TO GO..GET THE MAYOR BIG MAC AND EVEN RONALD... A DIFFERENT GLASS EVERY WEEK AT MCDONALDS!".....ahhhh memories...those glasses are probably worth something now.

I always liked the e-toys commercial; especially the one where the mom watches the little boy building a house with his asparagus spears, and decides to get him an erector set.

They always had such cute kids - and I loved the Hawaiian version of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" that they used (of course now that song is unfortunately associated with Mark Greene and his brain tumor, so perhaps its best that the commercials don't air anymore.)

I miss the commercial where the girl gets a lot of presents (including a car) for Christmas and when her parents comment that she must have left some very good cookies for Santa, she grins and says "I didn't give him cookies, I gave him cheese"

There used to be a commercial for Washington (I think, though it might have been multi-state) Lottery about the Gold Ball. It had Pulitzer-worthy lines such as "New, Gold, BALL! It's better. Because. It's. GOLD! Makes everything. So. GREAT!"

This commercial was so obnoxious, so aggressively stupid, I just loved it. Remembering it now never fails to cheer me (until I start thinking about the fact that somebody got paid lots of money to write that and nobody wants to buy my writing and...well, then, I just need to revert to childhood favorite commercials and miss the Zinger Zapper, instead).

I can't remember the product being pushed--probably beer, but not sure--but the ad featured horses playing football with a couple of guys watching. One of the horses kicks the ball over the telephone wires, and the one guy asks in awe, "Do they always do that?" And the other one says, "Nah. . . they usually go for two." I. love. that. ad. I haven't seen in it years though and am afraid I will never see it again. I love most any ad with animals.

I also love the one that's for, I think, partypoker.net (maybe these ads aren't so good if I don't know what they're for!) with the man playing poker with his German sheperd. I love the dog holding his cards in his mouth.

I think this ad aired about '94 or so, it was a kid's commercial for the now-defunct cereal Pop Tarts Crunch. This kid's in his garage, writing a song about it, and it goes like this:

"I thought Pop Tarts were really cool
but if you put 'em in a bowl it wouldn't fit
So...Kellogg's makes...a cereal called...
Pop Tarts Crunch! I love to munch!
*munch, munch* On them...
They're...like Pop Tarts only smaller
and you can pour milk on them...
They're...crunchy, and...
you can pour milk on them...
Pop Tarts Crunch!"

So awesomely funny.

I came to this thread to mention the exact same commercial! I loved it. The little girl was so cute, and I loved the way she said cheese.

My wife was was just saying how she missed the dogfood commercial (Pedigree I think) that had the Irish setter and the little girl and they go from pup and little girl to young woman and old dog. Watching it go from the young pup bounding up the stairs to the old dog just barely making it up is both sweet and sad that my wife teared up everytime. If anyone knows where we can find that spot my wife would greatly appreciate it.

Also we love the old sprint commercial with the stampede of dachschunds. Just cracks us up everytime.

What can I say, we love dog commercials.

That ad was so cute; all of them were, but I especially loved the half-sheepish, half-impish smile the little boy gives him when he catches them looking at him and takes a bite of his asparagus.

My much-missed McDonald's ad precedes the creatures (and Ronald M himself) by a few years; I guess it was around 1980, and I already posted about it in the "tearjerkers" thread. It was one of the long ones, a full minute telling (in silent action while we hear a slowed-down, wistful rendition of the "you deserve a break" song with new lyrics) of a family moving from a ranch to the big city. The boy (about 12, in cowboy hat and all) is overwhelmed by the tall buildings and busy streets, and by the first day in a new school, not knowing anybody. And just as he's packing up at his locker, ready to go home friendless at the end of the day, a couple of guys down the corridor call out to him, asking if he wants to come along (the only spoken words we can catch in the whole ad). And the music picks up, they're having a great time at McD's, and we know he's gonna be all right.

Which was stupid and manipulative as hell, but just insidiously expert and effective at tugging at the heartstrings (which of us hasn't felt displaced and alone at some time in our childhoods?) and making us all happy at the end.

I just looked it up, figuring it must have won a Clio Award. It did!... in 1981, it's the 60-second spot called "Moving." I wish I could find it online somewhere.

One I miss is the holiday commercial where an office store created a robot to help sell gadgets, and the robot won't sell--something--cause he's fallen in love with it. "He can't have her, I love her. Weeping, weeping." Hee. Loved. I wish I could find this one online.

ETA: Rinaldo, I don't think they've got the Clio winner, but here's a bunch of old 1980's McD's commercials.

I always enjoyed, and currently miss, a couple of the Sprint cell phone ads, all playing on how clear their signal is and how scrambled the others are, with hilarious results. The first was the one where one cowboy said, "I told him to get a herd of oxen, and he heard, get a herd of dauchshunds." And then it shows all of these weiner dogs running around, trying to be herded by another cowboy. Loved it!

The other one had two football coaches: "I told him to get a back-up for O'Neil, but he heard, get The Captain and Tennille." It then shows The Captain and Tennille at a football practice, with all of these huge linemen swaying along to "Do That To Me One More Time."

Why don't they make commercials like that all of the time?

Thanks for the link, TheLibrarian. You're right, they don't have the one I was talking about (one had a very-close title, First Day, but was a different premise... had me going for a minute). At least they have "Mac Tonight"! That was a cool one in a very different way.

Mine is a Sprint commercial/campaign from a few years ago where this very hippie 60's band is standing in a blah office singing, "Sprint is in here, Sprint is in there, Sprint is everywhereeeeee" . Suddenly, they break out into this funky change and the office workers are JAMMING.

"My business, is beautiful; handle my business, my business is beautiful."

I would WAIT for that commercial to come on at 7:16 every morning during Sportscenter. Color me disappointed when they stopped running it.

WOW! That McDonald's Glasses To Go ad still pops into my head when I'm fumbling around for my glasses in the morning!

Some years ago, I was listening to a tape of a sales seminar, and the speaker asked the audience how long McDonald's "Two All Beef Patties" campaign for Big Macs originally ran. People were generally guessing 6 months or a year, and were pretty much shocked when the guy revealed the answer: 3 weeks! I'll bet "Glasses To Go" didn't run much longer than that, and people still remember it, too.

Say what you want about McDonald's, but their advertising is second to none.

An ad I miss is for Meow Mix, where the husband sees the cat do the Meow Mix jingle, and the wife gets kitty Meow Mix. He tries to do the same, but with beer.

I was doing that "beer, beer, beer, beer" to the Meow Mix jingle for weeks, annoying the crap out of everyone.

This is stupid, so incredibly stupid, but I miss those old Gap commercials where incredibly trendy beautiful young people would sing, rather dead-eyed, popular 80s songs, like, "I just can't get enough" and the like. I'm glad they gave it up before it became incredibly irritating, but I really liked them. Which is sad.

Cadbury clucking bunnies, RIP.

Whatever happened to those bunnies? I love the "dark chocolate" bunny with his James Earl Jones-esque "bok bok"s.
I hate Cadbury creme eggs, but those ads always made me want to buy them.

A few years ago for Easter I bought my teenaged son one of those toy Cadbury bunnies that had the deep "Bok bok bok" voices. I thought it was a nice silly toy to get him that at least sounded "manly."

I can't believe that the two all beef patties spots for Mc Donalds only ran for 3 weeks. I remember a local radio station giving out prizes, probably Big Macs, for being able to recite it within a certain amount of time. And yes, I can still recite it.

Found a video for the clucking bunny. And here's a post of mine from more than a year ago on the topic. You can see I care deeply about my clucking bunnies.

Office Depot or Staples? One or the other. Then the sales guys cheer up the robot by showing him a new power strip and he growls.

Yeah, you got the right one, sarcastico. As to whether it was Office Depot or Staples, I couldn't tell you to save my life.

Oh, god, the "Weeping! Weeping!" robot. That was effing genius right there.

I had totally forgotten about that one but now I have the voice in my head and I'm laughing, laughing...

I miss a very old beer commercial from probably the 1970's, for Narragansett beer. The song they sang was just beautiful. The only line I remember is "I can see the sunlight shining over Narragansett Bay".

After being reminded of it in the "Commercial Crushes" thread, I'm missing the Will Kemp GAP ads. Sadly, I downloaded "Stuff Like That" so I could daydream about him. I loved how he moved in the commercial. I think GAP had it on their website or something, because I remember watching it on-line, possibly upwards of 20 times.

One of my favorites growing up was the one for Toys 'R' Us, with the kids singing "I don't wanna grow up/I'm a Toys 'R' Us kid..." I used to wait for that one to come on just so I could sing along.

I don't want to grow up
I'm a Toys 'R' Us kid
There's a million toys at Toys 'R' Us that I can play with!
From bikes to trains to video games
It's the biggest toy store there is (Gee whiz!)
I don't want to grow up, because maybe if I did
I wouldn't be a Toys 'R' Us kid!

Yeah, that one's still in my head from time to time. I also miss Lucky the bulldog. "I'm a lucky dog. Got my own bed, got my own sweatshirt..." Then at the end a girl sang, "Make your dog a Lucky dog to-day!" Which damned brand of dog food was that for again?

One of the ones that I miss is the Airtran commercial with the old couple thinking they are coming to visit the new grand-babies and as soon as they get out of the taxi the parents hands them the babies and takes off in the taxi. "Call you when we land" and "Don't leave us with the babies!!" kills me every time.

Sorry about the double post.

I think the ad is for a sparkling wine. Martini and Rossi, perhaps? It would always air during the Christmas season in the late 70's/ early 80's when I was growing up in New York.

You make me sparkle.
You make me tingle.
Even the stars are brighter
When I'm with you.
And when I surrender
To a tasty kiss or two...
You make me sparkle.
Yes, you do.

This commercial ran for a few years and it used to put me in the holiday spirit. I'd dance around to it and sing along. Since I was a young impressionable kid when it came out, it's ingrained in my memory, and every December, I still think of it, and I still sing along.

You know you make me wanna laugh.
I like the funny things you do.
You've got a style that's all your owwwwn.
I like the Sprite in you.


Yes, I still sing that on occasion. Jingly.

They still did commercial spots on the Tonight Show into the 70s.

And while I do remember Johnny always pulling out such-n-such product from behind the guest's chair, the good ones were when they would cut to Ed McMahon "nearby". I loved the Chuckwagon spots. And speaking of Chuckwagon, anyone else out there ever wish they had that animated chuckwagon as a toy?

There were so many great pet food commercials (and so many really bad ones lol)

But Morris (9-lives), tops the "best of" list for me.

Honourable mentions:
Meow Mix (Meow, Meow, Meow, Meow...)
Kibbles and Bits (I loooong for the Kibbles, I loooong for the bits, bits bits...)

I also miss the McDonald's crew, though I wasn't much of a fan of birdy, the early bird. It felt like they were "dumbing them down". The loss of Mayor McCheese, Officer BigMac, and Captain Crook.. Just took away some of my fun : (

(Loved the competition's courtroom scenes where his accomplices were "Captain Crook and the Hamburglar" : )

Honourable mention: The original "Where's the Beef?"



Not sure about that, but: "Martini and Rossi, on the Rocks, say Ye-e-es."

Or how about the "7up Guy" laughing through the Uncola commercials?

And finally: The Hamms Bear (From the land of skyblue water (echo) water)

I always wished they would come out with a cartoon series of that... lol

(And don't get me started on Toy or Cereal commercials : )

My favorite one of those was when the Hamm's bear had a kid and they asked what his name was and the Bear said: "Bud! Uhhh, I mean Hamilton, of course."

Stupid Double Post