Plop Plop Fizz Fizz

Just reading the title of this piece made many of you hear the jingle for Alka-Seltzer in your head, and you completed the song on your own. There’s a reason advertising has been a billion-dollar industry for most of the last 100 years. Cause it works!

I had a rather indulgent meal, and as I waddled out of the restaurant, I started singing the aforementioned song. My sons were baffled and asked me if I had just made it up. No, I told them it has been safely stored in my brain for many decades. I had learned it when I was younger than they are.

At some point, advertising became a word with a negative connotation. Today, it’s all about marketing. I’m sure a PhD at the Warton School of Business could explain to me in great detail as to why, but I blame Mad Men.

Transparency alert: I never watched the show. It just occurred in a period of my life when I didn’t have time. I spent most of my TV time watching Paw Patrol or Bubble Guppies. I feel your pity, and I guess I appreciate it. I didn’t watch Breaking Bad either.

Wow, I can feel the disdain from many of you right now.

Mad Men took the benign ad agency of McMahon and Tate from Bewitched and really kicked it up a notch. We didn’t know what Darren Stevens did during the day while Samantha was conjuring up all sorts of mayhem, but according to Mad Men, he was slamming martinis and acting way inappropriately with anyone wearing a tight skirt. I shudder at the thought of Larry’s behavior.

Sorry to go down that rabbit hole, but maybe Endora was right not to trust Durwood.

Advertising works. I’ve been in the advertising business for, uh, a long time. I once had a client tell me that they could trace $40,000 a month to my endorsement for their product. They did not pay me $40,000 a month, so it was a very good deal for them.

I asked on social media for people to share with me the commercials that are still stuck in their heads. These might still be in yours, too.

“Where’s The Beef?”

“You’re not fully clean until you're Zestfully clean!”

“Winston tastes good like a cigarette should……..”

“Secret Antiperspirant, strong enough for a man, but made for a woman”

“Irish Spring, manly yes, but I like it, too”

“My bologna has a first name, it’s O S C A R…”

“Mikey likes it!”

“Where’s this salsa made? NEW YORK CITY!”

“I’d like to buy the world a Coke, and shower it with love.”

“I’m a Pepper, she’s a Pepper, he’s a Pepper, wouldn’t you like to be a Pepper, too?”

“Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.”

“I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”

“Ay-yi-yi-yi I am the Frito Bandito”

“Calgon, take me away.”

“It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!”

“When it says Libby’s Libby’s Libby’s on the label label label, you will like it like like it on your table table table.”

“I am stuck on Band Aids, cause Band Aids stuck on me.”

“Clap on Clap off Clap on………..The Clapper!”

These are just a few. Feel free to share with me the ones stuck in your head. And hey, if you have a business, advertising, excuse me, marketing works. Let’s talk about how KRTY.com or GST Media can help with your business (You didn’t honestly think I wasn’t going to talk about how great marketing works and not stand behind it, did you?)

And for those of you who have listened to me since 1991, I’ll leave you with this:

“Gary and Julie in the morning!”