Childhood memories through advertizing

Thinking back to my childhood and the hours of TV viewing (how was it possible I had enough time to spend all day outdoors playing and still log in hours of TV viewing?), I am amazed at how many memories are not of the programs themselves, but of the commercials that paid for them.  Many of these commercials were related to Saturday Morning Cartoon or after school syndicated shows (cartoons, game shows).

Some of the highlights include adverts with jingles such as for the Big Mac (2 All beef patties...), Slinky (It's slinky, it's slinky...), Transformers (More than meets the eye); Toys (Transformers again, the Six million dollar man), Cartoons ads (Tootsie Pop, which also had a memorable copy),  and those with celebrities (Mean Joe Green Coke ad, Bill Cosby for Jello).  There were also ads geared towards adults whose jingles also stand out, in part, I suppose because they were so long standing ad campaigns.  These included ads for Alka Seltzer, and Dunkin Donuts (Time to make the donuts....).

In some cases, the ad campaigns are still in use to this day.  For example, the Maytag Repair man ads, where the machine never requires repair.They continually replace the aging actor with a younger one.

There is also a nostalgia factor.  The Tootsie Pop commercial was remade using modern, 3D animation techniques.  This will appeal far more to adults and parents, rather than today's younger generation.

Perhaps the commercial that stands out the most, again because it played unchanged for years, was the Life Cereal commercial with "Mikey".

Ultimately, despite the engraved memories, I was not always influenced into purchasing their products.  To this day I still hate the taste of Life cereal, and I am an "anti-" Mikey.