Tuesday, August 23, 2005

I can walk like a penguin

I'm going to see March of the Penguins tonight, and penguins always remind me of those old television commercials for the New England Aquarium, where the little girl says "I can walk like a penguin" and the little boy contemplates the wave tank, pondering aloud "I wonder what makes an ocean wave wave?". I had a few other favorite commercials from the 1980's, notably the Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti Day campaign, featuring a woman with a shrill voice yelling "Anthony, dinner!" and a boy, presumably Anthony, sprinting through the city streets. Apparently, Prince started running the ads back in the 60's as a way to popularize pasta products among non-Italians. I don't know if it was a national campaign or not, but it certainly worked like a charm in Massachusetts. Another favorite ad was a cartoon with a little man in a cheese and cracker factory- I have no idea what it was supposed to be selling, other than the fact that cheese and crackers shaped like wagon wheels make good snacks for kids. I think the most poignant commercials were those run by the Latter Day Saints, like when the girl steals her sister's necklace and feels bad about it (I feel so dark inside, I feel like I want to cry....) until she confesses, the boy who lies and gets chased around by scary men in trenchcoats singing "One lie leads to another", and the kids who make the pizza for the old man with his arm in a sling. Powerful stuff.

3 comments:

Jon said...

Latter Day Saints? "I learned it by watching YOU!!"

eileen said...

ooh, I had totally forgotten about that one!

Anonymous said...

wow, you are so on point with those commercials. i thought i was the only one who remembered those or it seemed that way anyway. did we watch tv together growing up?