Iconic Commerical Characters

Flo

Here’s a twofer, Sarah Tucker and Bill Cosby

Don’t squeeze the Charmin!

I think women like Madge and Mother Nature made me love "sassy broads" as a young gayling.

Mr whipped

Josephine the Plumber

R3 Pictures are worth a thousand plys.

Nancy Walker's Rosie the Waitress for Bounty Paper Towels

Miss Katy Winters...

Lucky Vanous - Diet Coke Break

Candi Bergen as THE DOIME LADY!

I think you mean Mr. Whippets.

The Marlboro Man

Didn't the Marlboro man die of AIDS?

The famous Cal Worthington (1920-2013) and "his dog spot," who was never a dog in any of the commercials. It could be any other animal, from a spider to a bear or anything in between, but never a dog. He became fabulously wealthy from his chain of used car dealerships, which were mostly in California. He would buy up entire nights of TV commercial time on the cheaper stations such as KCOP (channel 13) in Los Angeles. The same "Go See Cal" song set to banjo music ran endlessly in these commercials. His sales in 1988 were over $300 million. He lived to be 92, with 6 children from 4 marriages.

R10, it is embarrassing how much they objectified the male body in the 1980s. I'm glad that we have evolved past that.

Unlike the eons of objectifying the female body, right ?

Clara Peller: “Where’s the beef?”

Speedy Alka-Seltzer

Ahem!

Margaret Hamilton- Maxwell House

Newbies likely to include:

Flo from Progressive.

The "Can You Hear Me Now" guy Paul, from Verizon / Sprint.

Jan from Toyota.

Jake from State Farm.

And my personal fave-rave, Mayhem from Allstate.

I’ve Fallen And I Can’t Get Up Lady

Fuck each and every one of you...I AM A DL ICON

OH YEEEEAAAAAHHHH!

I never really took off. Maybe because they kept telling people to avoid me.

r18 — fun fact about Clara Peller: her son was a notorious tearoom and dirty-bookstore queen in Chicago who would boast of his naughty adventures.

FLAVAAAAH

Mrs. Olsen for Folgers coffee

Robin in Plexiderm.

WESSO - fuckin - NALITY

Time to make the donuts.

I can't believe I ate the whole thing.

A timely reminder from an old DL fav!

Crazy Eddie.

R35 - do you remember the earlier Do-Wop commercial?

Mikey the Life Cereal Kid

The late Mr. Peanut

R25 I don’t remember the Kool Aid commercial Chrissy Metz did

Snap Crackle Pop

Keebler Elves

Toucan Sam

Tony The Tiger

Diggum

Lucky The Leprechaun

The Trix Rabbit

HoneyNut Cheerios Bee

Maytag Repairman

Charmin Bears

California Raisins

Ronald McDonald

Burger King King

"You gon eat dat pickle?"

Really this was bad parenting, that child should have been eating something healthier than dill pickles.

r1, Ya'll know that Flo used to be on the first season of Mad Men. She would be a serious tv dramatic actress if not for Progressive commercials.

All of you need your gay cards revoked. 40 comments in and no mention...

Bula Vinaka, Beachside

R44

Not sure where you got your gay card honey, but you should try to get your money back.

R43 Instead, Flo is rich as fuck for making all those commercials.

Dina Martina for Bryman College

Call me now!

R48

Saw her in P-Town a couple of years ago for the first time. So stylish and classy. She kept wandering past my table and scaring the shit out of my partner and me. Laughed so hard my face hurt. Crazy bitch!

Patricia Neal was the Maxim Coffee spokesperson for years

until her asshole husband Roald Dahl (who was cheating on her) insisted on being in the commercials

and then demanded too much money from the sponsor - so they dropped Patricia

Nobody bodder me! Nobody bodder me either!

This may have been more of an east coast commercial.

Miss Cleo knew you were going to post that R49

Jacko

Spuds McKenzie

Hamm's bear

Miss Lauren Bacall for High Point Coffee

Rula Lenska for Alberto VO5

Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner for Breeze laundry detergent

As a little kid growing up in Chicago their southern accent was the first I'd ever heard

Not an icon, perhaps, but I certainly liked Rob the Dentist from this Oral-B commercial. What I could see of him, anyway.

June Allyson for Depends

"It's Shake 'n' Bake! An' ah helped!"

Why I nevah in all mah life ^^

Call now!! The psychics are waiting!

Clara Peller

Ritz Thrift Shop lady looking like a jet-setteuse

Full-figured gal Jane Russell for Playtex bras!

R48, that is hilarious.

I remember this jingle - "Here's Buster brown, he lives in a shoe. There's his dog Tie and he lives in there too"

R65, meet r18.

" Flo is rich as fuck for making all those commercials."

I'd venture to say the woman who plays Flo has made far more money off these commercials than she would have made as an actress.

Whoever came up with this campaign is brilliant. Flo is a character in 30 second commercials, but over the years, we've been introduced to her extended family, her arch rivals, and her coworkers.

The Nestlé Quik Bunny

r70 The dog's name was TIGE.

Thanks, r36! That ones a lot classier than the ones I remember.

R70 - Buster Brown was one of the earliest Sunday newspaper comics, starting in 1902 in the NY Herald. Like his mega-popular predecessor The Yellow Kid, drawn by the same artist RF Outcault, they were early examples of pop-culture / product advertising tie-ins. From Wikipedia:

“Outcault traveled to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, selling licenses to up to 200 companies to use the Buster Brown characters to advertise their products. Buster Brown's association with shoes began with John Bush, a sales executive with the Brown Shoe Company; he persuaded his company to purchase rights to the Buster Brown name, and the brand was introduced to the public at the 1904 World's Fair.

Little people were hired by the Brown Shoe Co. to play Buster in tours around the United States. These actors, each accompanied by a dog, performed in department stores, theaters and shoe stores from 1904 until 1930. Richard Barker played Buster Brown in many of these Brown Shoe Company advertising campaigns; his story is told in a biography called Buster Brown and the Cowboy.”

The character of Not-A-Cunt Betty Bacall for High Point

As a very little kid I would always get left and right mixed up. I finally figured out a foolproof way to tell - right was the side that had the foot that had the shoe with the Buster Brown sticker in it.

"Disinfected Daily"

oops

Toppie Smellie.

Joe Isuzu

My aunt just [italic]loves[/italic] the cold turkey!

This was considered stealth marketing in the 80s.

I always confused Fido Dido with Futzie Nutzle.

Who can blame me?

Jim Backus (Mr. Howell) voiced the Wally Bird character in the series of Western Airlines commercials. "The only way to fly!"

Mayhem guy from All-State makes me thirsty as hell. The commercials in which he wears a collar while pretending to be a cat or dog make me all moist down there.

This salty old cunt.

Jan Hooks for Compulsion

Yo Quiero Taco Bell!

Ivanka Trump for Complicit

The Eastwood Insurance cowboy was so hot, and this was the sexiest of his commercials.

r71 Meet my fist. With your face.

r44 It's the guy, right? But who is he?

R91 Men showering together, were they going for the bathhouse demographic?

Not that I'm opposed to such things......

R86, Mayhem is Dean Winters. He's perfect in that role. He was also great on Oz. The cat commercial is the best one.

DL Fave Robert Conrad

And his colleague.

That yoga lady from Orange is the New Black played a hillbilly waitress hawking mayo in the 80s.

Canadians will remember the Philadelphia Cream Cheese Angel. She sat around eating it by the tub for a decade

Grey Poupon

Bow down...

That's a Spicy Meatball!

Iconic in this case evidently translates as "Fucking ancient."

Maxim coffee? Wtf is that?

[quote] Iconic in this case evidently translates as "Fucking ancient."

That’s because there are far fewer icons in commercials today. With a rare exception, such as Flo and Mayhem, there’s no one character associated with the brand.

The GEICO gecko excluded.

R66 Big win. A a youngin, no commercial got me more excited than Marky Mark in his Calvins.

Hey Jerry, what's the story?

Luba Potempkin!!

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful.

The Ty-D-Bol Man

Joe Isuzu!

Crazy Eddie. Not only his prices, but also his commercials were "IN-SANE".

Annoying, but eternally memorable.

The Carvel Man (Thomas Carvel)

^ Fudgie the whale!

We’re in repeats already?

The LiMu Emu and Doug (and Doug's pornstache.)

Liza's schpooky boobs for Revlon.

117 replies and no mention of DL icon Greg Wrangler aka Peter...

I now know I'm not the only living soul who remembers "What's the story, Jerry" Thank you R107

r105, Bitch please.

Back at ya, r120.

Mrs Fletcher

The fast-talking FedEx guy.

Dude! You're gettin' a DELL!

WEHT the Dell guy?

Wasn't he in jail at one point?

Madge, the manicurist was hilarious. Those Palmolive commercials are classic. They still hold up well today. I always looked forward to Madge’s blunt and catty remarks.

[quote] WEHT the Dell guy?

Oh, dear!

The Dell guy got fired after he got caught with some weed. I believe he later did a stint in rehab.

Madge the Manicurist - Palmolive commercial.

Madge - targeting the lesbian audience...There’s a plug for the Colgate Dinah Shore Golf Tournament.

Smell my asshole

Now why would a member of the LPGA need soft hands? Hmm... That's a puzzler, that one is.

Mother/daughter douche duo.

It's so obvious and yet I had never noticed: how many of the these come off as lesbians--from Madge to Mrs. Olsen to Josephine the Plumber, on and on and on. I guess lesbians are typecast as "the pal."

Messy Marvin

Ernest (and Vern)

Morris the cat

Max Headroom

MANNERS THE BUTLER MANNERS THE BUTLER MANNERS THE BUTLER

THANK YOU

R139 do you have a learning disorder?