The Christmas Song

This is the real deal, right here...Nat King Cole singing his signature holiday tune - The Christmas Song.



Nat King Cole believed that smoking cigarettes gave his voice the nice crisp, low tone he was known for. He was known to chain smoke several cigarettes in a row before recording, often smoking three packs a day. He died in 1965, just a few months after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

Classic Commercial Sunday - #74

15 Minutes, I Say 15 Minutes Son

The fine folks at Geico Insurance have produced some fine commercials. What do they, put out like 8 new commercials a week, or something like that? It's always cool when they bring a classic animated character into the mix. Check out Looney Tunes star Foghorn Leghorn getting into the act. This spot features some really nice animation too!


Since we're talking about Geico, let me also run one of my favorite commercials in a long time. The timing in this spot is so dead on! There's also a :15 second version of this commercial and it totally ruins the pace. Both the actors in this spot are so good.

Bizarro Flintstones

This video got some attention this week on various sites and we feel it's our duty to present it here for our All Things Flintstones archives. This is a 1986 commercial...for something...featuring teenaged Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm along with Dino, who apprently now has a job as a soda jerk. Oh yeah, and did we mention it's from overseas...

Good Grief! It's Laundry Day, Charlie Brown

While surfing the internets this morning, I came across this neat Woolite ad which is being run in various print media in Puerto Rico. It's pretty cool. However, it should have about 20 of those shirts hanging since that's all Chuck ever wore!

A Retired Captain Sails Again

Just saw these new Retro designs on the latest boxes of Cap'n Crunch cereal. They feature the original Jay Ward designed characters from when the cereal first came out. Very fun!

Snoopy Sunday Matinee

Fred Vs. Hulk

It seems wrestling superstar Terry "The Hulk/Mr. Nanny" Hogan is dragging our good friend Fred Flintstone into the ring. Not the wrestling ring, however. Hulk is suing the makers of delicious Cocoa Pebbles cereal over a commercial that features a Flinstones style parody of Hulk Hogan getting his butt whooped by Bamm-Bamm Rubble. Let's go to the tape...


From an article in The Tampa Tribune:
"Hulk, the federal lawsuit states, "is shown humiliated and cracked into pieces with broken teeth, with the closing banner, 'Little Pieces…BIG TASTE!'"

The commercial character goes by the name "Hulk Boulder," which Hogan's lawsuit says is a name he used early in his career until wrestling promoter Vince McMahon decided he should have an Irish name.

The lawsuit says Post Foods never sought or received Hogan's permission to use his likeness to promote the cereal. Hogan says he raised his objections with Post in August, but the ads continued.

Hogan says he is marketing his own products, including the Hogan Energy drink and Hulkster Burgers, a line of microwaveable hamburgers and chicken sandwiches sold at Walmart.

The wrestler contends he has been harmed by, among other things, "the unauthorized and degrading depictions in the Cocoa Smashdown advertisements."

Shame on you Hulk Hogan! You do not rock...get it? Rock!?!

Classic Commercial Sunday - Think Pink

Classic Commercial Sunday - Hand Over The Chocolate And Nobody Gets Hurt

Classic Commercial Sunday - 1/10/10

Rudolph's First Flight

Here's a print ad for the original airing of the classic Christmas special Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer. It was first broadcast on NBC December 6, 1964 as the General Electric Fantasy Hour and has been shown on television every year since! (click to enlarge)

The Flintstones Meet The Jetsons and Then Sell Computers

Here's a nifty piece of modern animation featuring Fred & Barney along with George Jetson as they pitch some new laptop computer. This short cartoon was produced for stores to play on their wall of TVs or I guess computer screens. See if you can identify the different movie clips used in this short. The last one is pretty sweet!

Classic Commercial Sunday:Sometimes You Feel Like A Jingle

A trio of some of the greatest advertising jingles of all time...

Heartbeeps Beats On

I was listening to the radio the other morning and they were playing some game where they read the description of a movie and then everyone was trying to guess the name of the movie. They were all pretty easy until they got to the last one and everyone was stumped. The film in question was a certain little robot caper from 1981 that was mentioned on here on WWoB's Robot Movie List earlier this week. Oh, how I was delighted! In case you still don't know what fine film I'm talking about, here's the original teaser trailer that audiences saw in the Summer of 1981....

Old Burger King Logo

Here's how lame I am...yesterday while at a Burger King in Mt. Airy, Md I was delighted to find the umbrellas near the kids play area branded with the old Burger King font. The sign on top of the building is also still sporting the older round font. I then spent the next 20 minutes ignoring my kids on the playground and noting the subtle differences between the font in the new BK logo vs. the old way of writing it. Kinda sad...ain't I!?!



original logo... (older than the one above)
current logo...

You've Heard of 'Old School'...This is Old Hut

This is (allegedly) the very first nationally aired commercial for Pizza Hut, going all the way back to 1965. It's amazing the chain is still around today with a start like this. Judging from this commercial, in 1965 you could get your pizza topped with meat, veggies or LSD!?!


WHAT????

"It's Mine"

I didn't see seven seconds of the Super Bowl but since the internet was flooded with Super Bowl commercials yesterday, I didn't miss any of the real entertainment. I really liked this new Coke ad which blends classic cartoon characters with a modern star. I love when cartoons get a grown-up treatment like this:

Have A Nice Flight!

Here's yet another reason why I love YouTube! Somebody posted an inflight video from Delta Airlines plugging Walt Disney World. The commercial is from 1987, and it drips with 80's-ness. Besides featuring the Kids of the Kingdom (an Up With People style musical act that performed in front of Cinderella's Castle in the early days) listen closely to Mickey Mouse and Goofy. This video is shortly before Disney had the somewhat obvious idea that the characters should have the same voices all the time. Whoever is providing Mickey's voice sounds like he just found out who Mickey Mouse was five minutes earlier. However you can't go wrong with this video's winning combination of variety show costumes and old school Disney cheer!

Disney Holiday Record Offer

Here's a nifty commercial I found for a Christmas record offer from Disney. Good ol' Disney had lots of success in the 70's & 80's selling music through mail order ads on television. Anybody who watched cartoons on a regular basis back then has at least one of these record commercials tucked away in their memory banks somewhere. This one is a little bit before my time...

The other record offered here is called (in it's entirety) An Adaptation of Dickens' Christmas Carol Presented by the Popular Repertory Company The Walt Disney Players and was released in 1974. The record was very popular and led to the 1982 animated featurette Mickey's Christmas Carol. The film version is very similar to the record, with the same lines of dialogue in several parts. The biggest difference between the audio recording and the filmed adaptation is the Ghost of Christmas Past is played by Merlin from The Sword in the Stone on the record and Jimminy Cricket in the movie. The record's Ghost of Christmas Future is the Witch from Snow White while in the cartoon it's played by Pegleg Pete.

I picked up a copy of the record (complete with the book) at a Flea Market last summer for $1.00! A Happy Day!