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Cola Wars: Awesome Vintage Coke commercials

Posted in 80s, Coca Cola, New Coke, pop culture, soda with tags Coca Cola, commercials, nostalgia, pop culture, soda, sodapalooza, TV on February 26, 2010 by Paxton

Yesterday I was reminiscing about the Coke/Pepsi “Cola Wars” back in the ’80s and ’90s. I took a look back at a bunch of Pepsi’s most famous commercials from that era. If you missed it, I urge you to check it out.

Now, let’s take a look at the other side of the coin, Coca-Cola. They have come up with some pretty famous commercials of their own. Let’s take a look back in time at some of Coke’s most famous TV ads.

Coke’s 1971 Teach the World to Sing commercial (video above) is undoubtedly their most famous advertisement. It is so famous that it received two official sequels. First, during the 1971 holiday season, Coke released a Christmas version of the commercial that ended in darkness with all the candles the people were holding in the shape of a Christmas tree. Then, in 2005, Coke inexplicably allowed singer/songwriter G Love to create a horrible douchebag hipster alternative rock version called Teach the World to Chill. Might have been a worse idea than New Coke.

If the “hilltop” commercial above isn’t Coke’s most famous, then this 1979 Mean Joe Greene commercial is. It’s still today a fantastic commercial. Of course, in 2009, Coke filmed a sequel to the Mean Joe Greene commercial with Troy Polamalu.

The 11:30 Diet Coke break from 1996 is another popular Coke commercial. I remember it airing what felt like every 5 minutes. And, wait, I’m shocked to say this, but, in 2007 Coke filmed a sequel to the 11:30 commercial. Talk about milking a concept dry. I wonder if any of Coke’s commercials haven’t had a sequel.

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Cola Wars: Awesome Vintage Pepsi commercials

Posted in 80s, advertising, commercials, Michael Jackson, Pepsi, pop culture, soda, TV with tags advertising, commercials, Michael Jackson, nostalgia, Pepsi, pop culture, soda, sodapalooza, TV on February 25, 2010 by Paxton

Pepsi and The Hoff

Shawn Robare over at Branded in the ’80s is reviewing his trip to the World of Coke in Atlanta and it got me thinking about the Cola Wars of the ’80s. More specifically, soda commercials I loved during the Cola Wars.

I love the battle between Coke and Pepsi during the end of the last century. So much awesome merchandising and memorabilia come out of that time period it’s mind boggling. Both Coke and Pepsi unleashed on our consciousness oodles of celebrities, pop songs, commercials and advertising that sculpted our current pop culture consciousness and is still remembered today.

Let’s take a look back at some of Pepsi’s best soda commercials.

Just this past weekend I watched Michael Jackson’s This Is It on Blu-Ray and loved it. The man new how to perform and he had SO MANY good songs. In the ’80s Michael was a pretty big spokesman for Pepsi and made several commercials (one in which he famously caught on fire). For me, one of the best, if not THE best, Pepsi commercial ever made was Jackson Street (clip above), which premiered on the 1983 Motown 25 TV Special. I still get goosebumps when I watch it. This commercial featured an unbelievably catchy jingle-version of Billie Jean. It also starred a young Alfonso Ribeiro (Carlton on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air). See another Pepsi commercial MJ made called The Chase.

Ray Charles’ “Uh-Huh” commercials were all over the place in the early ’90s. They had 6 or 7 versions of them including Ray in a courtroom and playing his twin brother, Irv. My favorite version came in 1993 which showed other celebrities (Charo, Tiny Tim, Bo Jackson, Jerry Lewis) auditioning for Ray’s singing part.

Around the time Michael Jackson was a Pepsi spokesman, another Michael (J. Fox) was also signed on. Fox starred in several commercials, mainly for Diet Pepsi, that are considered classics. The commercial above is one of his first featuring him in the library trying to be quiet while buying a Pepsi from a vending machine. See another Pepsi classic called My New Neighbor here in which Fox tries desperately to find his hot, new neighbor a Diet Pepsi.

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Mt Dew begins voting again for three new flavors

Posted in Mountain Dew, Pepsi, soda with tags Mountain Dew, Pepsi, soda, sodapalooza on February 8, 2010 by Paxton

Back in 2008, Mountain Dew held a promotion called Dewmocracy. People would visit the Dewmocracy website, play games, choose different flavors to be mixed into Mt Dew, and the hordes would then vote on the best sounding Mt Dew mix. After the top three flavor combinations were tallied, logo and packaging designs were developed. Then, all three sodas were revealed to the public in April 2008. People bought the three sodas, tasted them, then went back to the Dewmocracy website to vote on their favorite.

The three flavors everyone was voting on were Mt Dew Supernova (Strawberry-Melon), Mt Dew Revolution (Wild Berry) and Mt Dew Voltage (Raspberry-Citrus).

Then, the winner of the contest was revealed in August 2008 to be Mt Dew Voltage. Not my favorite of the three, but it wasn’t my least favorite.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2009: Supermarket Halloween Goodies from years ago

Posted in Halloween, holiday, Pepsi, retail, soda, Supermarket with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2009, Halloween, holiday, Pepsi, retail, soda, sodapalooza, Supermarket on October 2, 2009 by Paxton

**Start shameless self-promotion** Recently, a humor/nostalgia site called Monkey Goggles has asked me to write some articles for them. Unlike on Cracked.com, I got my first article posted on Thursday. It’s a repost of my Glorious Glass article about ’70s and ’80s collectors glasses. If you don’t mind, click on over to my article on Monkey Goggles and take a look if you haven’t already (or even if you have). Get some friends and family to click on over and check it out, too. Let’s let MG know they need to feature more Pax articles. **End shameless self-promotion**

Okay, back to business…

As you can tell, this week has been the “Supermarket Goodies” week of AWESOME-tober-fest. I’m continuing this theme today but I’m firing up the Flux Capacitor and taking us back in time. Let’s have a look at a few products from Halloweens past. It seemed like items back then were just more FUN. Starting with…

Ghoul-Aid — Kool-Aid’s entry into the Halloween product parade back in the late ’90s. There was also a Scary Black Cherry flavor, but this Scary Blackberry was a brand new flavor not seen before or since. It has reached almost mythical status amongst the Kool-Aid enthusiast crowd. How awesome is it that Kool-Aid man is dressed as a bat-winged “ghoul”. I would say he’s a vampire but I don’t see any fangs. Maybe he’s a Twilight “vampire” (notice the quotes, yes that was on purpose).

Halloween Rice Krispies — Snap, Crackle and Pop dress it up for All Hallow’s Eve (click the image to make it BIGGER). Love the graphics on this box. The three elves flying in on a witch’s broom. So cool. It’s funny, this is a box of the cereal, yet they are showing pictures of the Rice Krispies bars all over the front and back. Hope you weren’t expecting that you were buying the bars instead of the cereal.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2009: More Supermarket Halloween Goodies

Posted in Halloween, holiday, retail, Supermarket with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2009, Halloween, holiday, retail, soda, Supermarket on October 1, 2009 by Paxton

Day 2 of AWESOME-tober-fest!! Did you miss Day 1? Check it here.

It seems like fewer things are getting branded with the Halloween graphics. Sometimes companies will cop out and brand something “Fall” or “Autumn” instead of a cool Halloween theme. I’m totally not on board with that. Bring out the bat and demon fueled monster graphics.

Here are some more retail products that celebrate All Hallow’s Eve like the rest of us.

Blue Bird Snowballs — I’m not a huge fan of Snowballs, but Blue Bird really dresses them up for the holidays. For Halloween they turn orange. For Xmas they are usually red (or white). I may not like them, but I fully support their celebration of the Halloween season.

Gourmet Candy Corn — Gourmet candy corn? Gourmet? Should I drink red or white wine with these? Calling candy corn “gourmet” is like calling McDonalds a “fancy restaurant”. First, it’s not true, and second, well, the first one pretty much covers it. I can understand you wanting to change the flavor of candy corn, but blackberry cobbler flavored candy corn is no longer, technically, candy corn. Unless it’s just a hint of blackberry cobbler, then I’m worried they are just making the flavors worse. Up next? Strawberry shortcake flavored peanut butter cups.