My husband and I are both children from the 1970s. The ’70s were great as a kid: the colors, the toys, the service announcements! Where Oscar the Grouch was grumpy and Cookie Monster only ate cookies. I think we were the last generation to see uncut Looney Tunes cartoons. (Helloooo, the violence was the funny part!)
So, today’s post is a fun one. See, my husband is the perfect specimen to study how branding and marketing affects kids long after they grow up. He’s a grown man, yet he still remembers most everything that he saw as a child 30 years later. Powerful stuff!
Back in Time
Rewind to last week, when the dentist called. My husband gave me the message and I said something about not feeling like getting my teeth cleaned. So what does he do? He calls me a Yuck Mouth and proceeds to sing this whole song from a commercial I hadn’t seen in 30 years. He hadn’t seen it in 30 years either—and he remembered every word!
So, what do total geeks do nowadays when something like that happens? Yep, we looked it up on YouTube. And lo and behold: we found Yuck Mouth!
So, of course, that got me thinking…the ’70s were loaded with these types of characters!
Do you remember Mr. Yuck?
Talk about a creepy commercial! I don’t remember it being that creepy, but I didn’t drink anything under the sinks either. Maybe that’s because that commercial got it into my head that I was going to get sick, Sick, SICK, or that my mom would spank me on my bum (which was not such a big deal back in the ’70s).
We continued to explore…
Yet again, my husband remembered all the words to this guy’s song too! Remember Time for Timer?
Try getting THAT out of your head!
…and how about his little sunshine on a stick recipe?
Obviously those smart service announcement people knew that an animated character with bright colors would catch a 1970s kid’s attention!
Get ‘Em While They’re Young
How about other brands of 70s? Well, kids’ commercials in this era were stellar at tapping into the psyche of adults as well as children. I bet you ’70s kids out there still remember these commercials—and I bet a lot of your parents do, too!
Oscar Mayer
Incorporates cute kids singing a jingle that includes a learning tool: spelling b-o-l-o-g-n-a, and, more importantly, spelling the name of the brand!
Life Cereal
Also features kids being kids—making the youngest kid the food-tasting guinea pig. Lucky for Mikey and Life cereal, Mikey liked it. Instead of using food coloring in their cereal, they used vibrant Crayola box colors and a LARGE sans serif font on their packaging to convey the brand’s kid-friendly appeal.
Coke
Coke paired up with iconic footballer of the time, Mean Joe Green, in this touching commercial in 1979. A kind kid offers a Coke to a seemingly less-mean football player and receives a jersey in return. I didn’t even like football as a kid, but I remember thinking, Man, it would be cool to be THAT kid!
StarKist Tuna
Everyone remembers “Sorry Charlie.” (Although, let’s admit it: Charlie was probably lucky!)
Trix Cereal
“Silly rabbit! Trix are for kids.” Why? Who knows? But kids loved it!
Tootsie Pop
“How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop? …The world may never know!”
Were YOU a kid of the 1970s? What are your favorite ’70s commercials that you still remember today? Leave a comment below!