Television shows from the 90s have become so iconic but so have the commercials. Nearly 30 years later and we can still sing the jingles from these classic 90s commercials. Lets take a quick walk down memory name with these 8 classic 1990s tv commercials.
1. The Duracell Battery Commercials | The Puttermans:
This plastic robot family was the cast of a long-running Duracell Batteries commercial campaign from the 90s. They became the new face of Duracell after the drama that surrounded their previous bunny commercials. You may not know but Duracell created the first "energizer bunny" but after a decade, accidentally let the trademark lapse. Energizer battery seized the opportunity and stole their mascot. You can read more about that, here. Duracell, needed a fresh face for their commercials so the Puttermans were born.
Fun fact about the Putterman cast: Many people don't know that the son, Zack, was played by a female actress named Debi Derryberry. You might not remember Debi's face but you might recognize her voice from some popular 1990s cartoons. Debi was the voice of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Wednesday from the Addams Family cartoon and Jackie in Bobby's World. Want to learn more about the Puttermans'? Check out their Wikipedia page, here.
2. The Mentos Commercials | "The FreshMaker" Fresh Goes Better In Life:
Debuting in 1991, these cheesy commercials included a catchy jingle and strangely optimistic behavior. Characters would run into a problem that would typically ruin someone's day. Then they eat some Mentos and are inspired to creatively solve their problems. This video shows a man who sits on wet paint in his nice suit. After eating Mentos, he rolled around on the bench to create more stripes on his suit. When life gives you wet paint, make a pinstripe suit.
Shut up! It's realistic, okay?
The rumor about this commercial is that the song lyrics don't really make sense because it was written by two German men and then translated into English. I am not sure if that is true but "Fresh Goes Better In Life", makes very little sense.
You can read more about this fresh and full of life story, here.
3. The Anheuser-Busch Budweiser Commerical | The Wassup (Wazzup) Guys:
Although these commercials debuted in 1999 and ran through 2002, they are iconic enough to mention. They had adults and kids everywhere saying wasssssupppppp, on a regular basis. It instantly became a pop culture catchphrase.
Fun fact about these commercials, they were actually based off a short film that was named True. It was written by Charles Stone III, who actually ended up starring in the wassup commercials. (he is the guy on the couch, below) You can read all about this cinematic story, here.
This series of commercials were so popular that they were parodied several times over the years. Most famously, the movie "Scary Movie" did an iconic wasssupp parody.
4. The California Raisins Commercials | "I Heard It Through The Grapevine":
The wildly popular California Raisins were a last-ditch attempt to advertise raisins for the California Advisory Board. These claymations, blues singing raisins were a household hit in the 90s. You can read a lot about them, here, on their Wikipedia page.
In 1997, the raisins became so popular that they won Entertainment Weekly's "Best 50 Commercials Of All Time". The California Raisins were more successful than most real like people. These raisins produced 6 hit albums, had their own Nintendo video game and have starred in the Simpsons.
Don't even get me started about their swag television series that you can see here.
5. The Toys R Us Commerical | "I don't wanna grow up, I'm a Toys R Us kid" :
The original Toys R Us jingle was actually written in the 1980s and used from then on. The commercials ran straight through the 90s, burning the lyrics right into all of our childhood brains. None of us ever wanted to grow up because if we did, we wouldn't be Toys R Us kids.
This Devastatingly glorious jingle was written by Linda Kaplan Thaler. It was her first big marketing campaign and she didn't think the song was good enough. She was encouraged by her boss to pitch her jingle anyway. He even noted that the jingle was instantly stuck in his head too.
6. The Bagel Bites Commercials | "When Pizza's On A Bagel, You Can Eat Pizza Anytime":
The Pizza Bagel company wasn't joking around when they were trying to compete with Tostinos Pizza. What better way to smash the competition than with a commercial with a catchy jingle. They adapted this jingle from a song from 1957 called "Sugartime" by the McGuire Sisters. You can check out the song, here.
It is such a well-known commercial that it has been parodied by Jimmy Fallon and Meatloaf. They sang their original song, "Ode to Bagel Bites".
7. The Pizza Hut Commercials | The Pizza Head Show:
The Pizza Head show was a spoof commercial that Pizza Hut came up with to parody an SNL skit called "Mr. Bill Show".
(check out the Mr. bill show here)
Pizza head was always put in harmful situations in these commercials and his nemesis was a pizza cutter. The episodes were meant to convey the message that pizza hut was weird but fun and I think it worked.
8. The Pillsbury Commercials | The Pillsbury Doughboy :
I bet there is a pretty good chance, that if you grew up in the 90s, that you have poked someone'ss belly and they have shouted "hoo hoo". That's because the Pillsbury Dough Boy became a baking icon in the 90s.
There are a lot of cool facts about the doughboy but one great one is that he has starred in over 600 commercials for 50 different products. You can read more facts about him here.
Michael Cera and Kirsten Dunst both starred in commercials with the Poppin Fresh Doughboy, in the 90s. He was so popular that they even made a Doughboy doll and t-shirts.
Remember a classic commercial? Drop a comment and tell me which one!
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