Saturday Commercial Break #18: Hostess Fruit Pies

This week's commercial break features our good friend Fruit Pie The Magician bringing some snacks to the kids at the Franklin School. Good wholesome fun with Hostess Cakes.

This commercial was uploaded to YouTube by divishion, and should date to the early 1980s.

I sure miss the old Hostess gang! Let's hope that Fruit Pie The Magician returns to his rightful place on the pie wrappers soon.

Saturday Commercial Break #17: Exploding Jack In The Box

I haven't been posting as regularly as I would like on my blog. I'm going to try to start posting twice a week. We'll see how that goes...

I thought that I would revive the Saturday Commercial Break segment. I had stopped it for a while because it seemed that YouTube was removing old commercials from their site. Apparently that was due to copyright issues or something. I'm still seeing a lot of new commercials being posted there, so I'll try it again for a while.

Here's Saturday Commercial Break #17 from Jack In The Box restaurants. I don't recall the year, but I do remember when this commercial came out. What a sight to see that clown exploding! Maybe they decided to stop clowning around and concentrate on good food -- like their *new* Hot Ham and Cheese (as shown here)! This was uploaded to YouTube by commercialclassic.

Saturday Commercial Break #15: Alpha Bits Cereal

It's the last Saturday in 2008. As we clean up the aftermath of Christmas and begin looking forward to 2009, let's take a look back about 30 years ago. This week's Commercial Break celebrates the imagination of kids, with a gentle assist from Post Alpha Bits cereal. This was uploaded to YouTube by michend2003.

Saturday Commercial Break #14: McDonald's 1970s

I hadn't posted any of my Saturday Commercial Breaks in a while. I sort of stopped it after noticing that YouTube was removing a lot of television commercials from their site for some reason. Apparently that's not the content they want, although it's really the only thing I care about on YouTube. Anyway, I'll start it up again "while supplies last", as they say.

I got a big smile watching this 1970s McDonald's commercial, featuring a fun song and dance number by some hard working fast food employees. "You Deserve A Break Today" remains one of the most memorable McDonald's jingles for me. (Uploaded to YouTube by JMReid1220)

Saturday Commercial Break #13: Burger Chef

"Whatcha gonna get at Burger Chef?" was a slogan used by the defunct Burger Chef restaurant chain. Burger Chef was a fun place with a large cast of advertising characters, including Burger Chef and Jeff in this commercial from 1974.

Burger Chef was an early pioneer in the concept of kids' meals, offering their Fun Burgers and Fun Meals aimed at kids with a smaller appetite. The meals included a fun toy, sticker or comic book to enjoy. Burger Chef was doing this in the early 1970s. By comparison, McDonald's was just starting their test market of Happy Meals in 1977.

Burger Chef was bought by Hardee's hamburger chain and eventually all Burger Chefs either converted to Hardee's or were closed down in the 1980s.

Well here's the commercial of the week, uploaded to YouTube by WookieCookie.

For more fun, check out the Burger Chef group on Flickr.

Saturday Commercial Break #12: Cookie Crisp Cereal

Sorry that I took a few weeks off from Saturday Commercial Breaks. Now I'm back.

Here's a fun animated commercial from the early 1980s. It's Cookie Jarvis, the wizard, and the Cookie Crook promoting Ralston-Purina's Cookie Crisp cereal. Ah, cookies for breakfast...!

Feel free to post a comment and share your memories of Cookie Crisp cereal. I ate this a few times, but cookie cereal just wasn't right for me. But I did enjoy old Cookie Jarvis.

Saturday Commercial Break #11: McDonald's

This week's commercial pick is a Wild West themed trip for the McDonaldLand friends. Ronald McDonald, Mayor McCheese, Captain Crook and the Hamburglar star in this one from 1976.

This was uploaded to YouTube by Namzso1.

I've always been a big fan of 1970s McDonaldLand. Feel free to post a comment with your memories from this era.

Saturday Commercial Break #10: Funny Face with Goofy Grape

In keeping with the Funny Face theme this week, here's a 1970s commercial featuring an animated Goofy Grape preparing to quench some thirsts at a basketball game.

Be sure to check out my other Funny Face posts from this week.

Saturday Commercial Break #9: Trix Cereal

Here's a fun commercial for Trix cereal by General Mills in 1978. The Silly Rabbit is scheming, once again to get a bowl of that fruity goodness!

They were giving away great Marvel Super Hero stickers in this promotion.

This commercial was uploaded to YouTube by Antifrodis.

Saturday Commercial Break #8: Orange Hawaiian Punch

This week's commercial is for orange-flavored Hawaiian Punch -- for breakfast!

The little man with the funny hat, of course, is "Punchy" and he's always been a favorite of mine. If you recall watching these commercials over the years, you know they usually end the same way, with Oaf taking a beating from Punchy!

This was uploaded to YouTube by daftmahatma.

I never get tired of watching these. You can read more about Punchy here in a previous article I wrote.

Saturday Commercial Break #7: Keebler Elves

Today's installment in the Saturday Commercial Break series is from Keebler cookies in 1985. Ernie and the rest of the Keebler Elves are up in the tree-house baking up some of their new Soft Batch cookies. Mmmm!

This was uploaded to YouTube by sheaguevara.

Feel free to post a comment and share your memories of the Keebler Elves. See you again next week.

Saturday Commercial Break #6: Hardee's

This week's Saturday Commercial Break is from Hardee's restaurants in 1972. The man behind the counter is enthusiastically telling customers about the Hardee's Huskee Jr. burger.

This was uploaded to YouTube by alecwally23.

I'd love to find some '70s Hardee's commercials with the old characters named Gilbert Giddyup and Speedy McGreedy. If anyone knows of any, please let me know.

Saturday Commercial Break #5: Frosted Flakes

For today's commercial break, let's enjoy an oldie from Kelloggs Frosted Flakes cereal, starring Tony the Tiger. Tony was voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft, who gave us one of the most recognizable commercial slogans -- They'rrrre Grrrrreat!

This commercial appears to be from the 1960s and was uploaded to YouTube by Freenbean.

Saturday Commercial Break #4: Charlie Tuna

This week's Saturday Commercial Break is from Starkist Tuna, featuring everyone's favorite sea-dwelling hipster -- Charlie Tuna.

In this 1970s spot, uploaded to YouTube by daftmahatma, Charlie is planning a vacation and a new way to impress the folks at Starkist.

Stay classy, Charlie!

Saturday Commercial Break #3: Cheetos

For this week's installment in the Saturday Commercial Break series, I've selected a great animated Chee-tos spot from the mid 1970s. It features one of my favorite advertising characters -- the sophisticated Chee-tos Mouse. In this adventure, he's taken his sailboat out to sea and, of course, brought along some delicious snacks.

You might enjoy my previous blog post regarding the Chee-tos Mouse here.

If you're wondering, yes, they used to spell Chee-tos with a dash, but they don't do that anymore. Here's a link to the official Cheetos website.

This commercial was uploaded to YouTube by TVNETWORKS.

Please post a comment and share your memories of the Cheetos Mouse.

Saturday Commercial Break #2: Nestle Quik and Atari

Continuing in my new weekly series, this Saturday's commercial features the Nestle Quik bunny and friends playing some Atari video games. This was uploaded to YouTube by retroist.

I think this would be from the early 1980s or maybe late 1970s. Mix up a tall glass of Nestle Quik and have a great Saturday!

As always, I'd love to hear your comments about this commercial and memories of Nestle Quik or Atari. See you again next Saturday.

Saturday Commercial Break #1: Cocoa Krispies

Hey blogfriends! I'm starting a new weekly series today called Saturday Commercial Break.

Each Saturday I will highlight a classic TV commercial, transporting us all back to Saturday mornings filled with bowls of Super Sugar Crisp cereal, Hong Kong Phooey cartoons and Incredible Hulk pajamas. [ Insert your own cereal, cartoon and pajama type for the full effect! ]

As always, I welcome your comments and memories you wish to share.

[ These commercials will all be embedded from YouTube and should display if you've got Flash installed in your browser. Click the play button and ZING, off you go! ]

On with the show... this is it!


Saturday Commercial Break #1: Cocoa Krispies

Here's a commercial from the late 1970s featuring Tusk Tusk the elephant, trumpeting the wholesome goodness of Kellogg's Cocoa Krispies cereal. This was uploaded to YouTube by lloydbentman.

Enjoy the commercial break, and please post a comment with your Cocoa Krispies memories or your opinion of this commercial. Stay tuned for next week!