recycled advertising

[WoodstockDoug]

There is another thread running currently, where someone chimed in with the old Timex slogan, "Takes a licking and keeps on ticking."  The question was raised if you need to be over 50 to remember that.  That slogan may have been created before I was born, but I certainly remember it from my youth, as Timex kept it around for a while.  I originally started to post this reply to that thread, but realized I would be hijacking, so I moved this to the Water Cooler.

Thinking back to the old slogans from radio and television commercials, I find a few slogans and advertisements that are indelibly etched into my brain.  That old Timex slogan in particular, combined with a few fingers of Johnny Walker Red, got me thinking of other old slogans, and which ones might apply to Rohrbaugh's.

"Sooner or later, we're going to get you..."   ??  That always sounded a bit ominous to me.

"They're Grrrrrrrrrreat!"             These days Tony the Tiger isn't my hero the way he was when I was 6.  Maybe a more mature slogan would be better.

"Softens your hands while you do the dishes..."  ??   Now if I could convince my wife that this was somehow true, and use it as an excuse to buy another gun, I'd be making millions in the marketing business.  But somehow I just don't think I can get much mileage out of that one.

"Tastes great, less filling..."   hmmmmm....  for a pocket pistol, this could almost work.

ok, how about:  "Don't leave home without it!"   That works.  We could even sign our posts: "member since...."

I suspect you all have favorite slogans from other products that would either fit the R9, or, just as amusingly, wouldn't...

[Richard S]

RJ and I may be the only ones around here old enough to remember them, but what about adapting those old six-piece roadside signs with the doggerel advertising a certain shaving cream?  Here are some from the archives:  

Altho insured
Remember, kiddo
They don't pay you
They pay
Your widow
Burma-Shave

She put
A bullet
Thru his hat
But he's had
Closer shaves than that
Burma-Shave

We're widely read
And often quoted
But it's shaves
Not signs
For which we're noted
Burma-Shave

Men who
Have to
Travel light
Find the 35-cent tube
To be just right
Burma-Shave

No matter
The price
No matter how new
The best safety device
In your car is you
Burma-Shave

Toughest
Whiskers
In the town
We hold 'em up
You mow 'em down
Burma-Shave

 

[DDGator]

I am not yet 40 and I well-remember the Timex ads.  I also remember OJ leaping through the airport for Hertz, monkeys throwing around Samsonite luggage, and the Bounty "quicker-picker-upper" ads with the red headed matronly woman from the Bronx.  

Years ago I had to "qualify" for a phone survey and they asked if I was familiar with the Morton Salt slogan -- you know -- "when it rains, it pours."  The markinging company had chosen that as a qualifier based upon the complete market saturation of those ads, but they had stopped running sometime in the 1970s.  Interesting.

Ads and slogans are definitely a part of pop culture.

[Michigunner]

Richard, in our kitchen we  have a genuine last sign you would finally see in a series of Burma Shave messages.  

[SAWBONES]

I remember all of those and many more, being past the half-century mark myself.

The old Timex ads were often seen, IIRC, in association with the show "You Asked For It", since Timex and, I think, Skippy peanut butter, were two of its sponsors.

Ah, the "Golden Age" of television, when advertizers could say just about anything they wanted to about their products.
Pretty funny commercials back then, many of them for products which have long since disappeared.
Anybody remember Vanquish, the headache remedy with the commercials that showed somebody getting upset at someone else (usually a family member), then the admonition "Sure you're tense, irritable; but don't take it out on him/her/them!"
Funny stuff.

[WoodstockDoug]

Some of those Burma Shave signs could definitely be reworked slightly into gun advertisements.

How about the old AT&T commercials... "reach out and touch someone..."

Or, a personal favorite of mine when I was young enough, the alka-seltzer commercials... "plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is..."

[sslater]

Speaking of Burma Shave:  Has anyone ever actually used the stuff?
The signs were all over the place when I was kid, but by the time I was shaving, Burma Shave wasn't on the drug store shelves.  (This was way before Wall Mart, K-Mart, etc.)  

[Michigunner]

Steve, I don't remember ever seeing it.

This article says it was discontinued.

http://www.eisnermuseum.org/_burma_shave/signs_of_the_times.html

[Calvin Cooledge]

Some of those Burma Shave signs could definitely be reworked slightly into gun advertisements.

How about the old AT&T commercials... "reach out and touch someone..."

Or, a personal favorite of mine when I was young enough, the alka-seltzer commercials... "plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is..."

Ah, as a student (and teacher) of advertising, I goad my Advertising Maven Wife about her chosen career! She too is a fan of the old shlock
stuff for what it is. Old versions of todays new shlock...

Dr. Shlockley

[Richard S]

Bill:

When I was a young child, we had one of those hand-crank, party-line telephones on the wall.  I can still remember seeing my mother use it and occasionally overhearing her say something such as: "Betty, please get off the line.  This is a private call."    

[Michigunner]

Richard,  

LOL  

I know what you mean.  We did not have a phone, but I knew about the party line procedures.

This particular phone has a "modern" pulse-type dial installed and is available when you open the door.  I soon got tired of hearing the ringing, and disconnected the phone line input.

My wife is quite a serious antique collector.  Our previous residence was build in 1855, ten years before Mr. Lincoln was assassinated.  Walking inside was like stepping back in time.

Bill

[Richard S]

Bill:  

My wife is also a collector of antiques -- which may explain why she married me.  

[MountainMan]

Bill
When I was a kid we had to go through an operator to make a call on our party line - no dail on the phone - an of course buttons on phones didn't exist.  
Like your kitchen.  I look up to those who can buy antiques and make them "fit" in the house.  Would love to see your place.  If I'm ever up that way I'll give you a holler.
Richard - bet your place is a show place also.  There is a sort of comfort in good antiques.
Dave

[Michigunner]

Dave, some dealer re-worked the phone and inserted part of a modern telephone inside the box.  It was unique, but made way too much ringing noise to be practical.

I do remember one-operator telephone exchanges as a boy in Arkansas.  Seems like the numbers were 2 or 3 digits long.

Technology sure has changed.  I have an amateur radio license and have talked to over 303 different countries.  Now, that's no big thing.  You could do it on the internet with email.

Bill

[sslater]

Party lines....we had one.  It wasn't a case of saving money.  There just weren't enough phone numbers available to provide one for every household.  Our party line neighbor was a real blabbermouth.  As I recall, the protocol if you needed the phone was to lift & hang up the receiver.  The other party was supposed to yield the phone within a minute or two.  
I was about 6 or 7 years old, and had to call my grandmother.  I picked up the receiver, hung up, waited two minutes.  Picked up again, she was still on the line.  Waited another couple of minutes, picked up, and she was still on.  I stayed on the line and she said to her friend, "You'd think people would have the courtesy of waiting two minutes for us to finish our conversation!"  
Being a fearless kid (not really) I said, "You've had 4 minutes.  Get off the line!!"  She did.  I made my call.  
Sure wish I had known that my parents knew the person on our party line..  My dad hought it was funny.  My mom didn't.  I was really glad when we got a "private line".  1949.  the number was WAverly 4 1767.  Those were the good old days.