You want me to buy what?

"Ancient Chinese secret, huh?"
"Please don't squeeze the Charmin!"
"Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is!"
"Have a Coke and a smile."
"My bologna has a first name, is O-S-C-A-R..."
"Honeycomb big, yeah yeah yeah. It's not small, no no no."
"Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids."
"Mikey'll eat it. He'll eat anything!"
"Calgon take me away!"
"Bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan...cuz I'm a woman with Enjoli."

I miss the days when we could sing along with commercial jingles. I miss the days when I could watch a television advertisement and actually understand what was being sold. I'm not a stupid woman but there are times when I watch TV ad and I have no idea what "they" want me to buy.

Mac laughs himself to death because I don't "GET" the AT&T commercial of "Rethink the Impossible" with the Willie Wonka/ Gene Wilder song. I just don't get it. What are they selling? AT&T? I do like the cartoon graphics, but I don't get what I'm supposed to rush out and buy.

I get excited as the next person over the Superbowl ads (so there's about 4 of us) to see what sort of creative, fun commercial is going to catch my eye. And usually I'm very disappointed. Very. I remember the cowboys herding cats but for the life of me I can't remember what was being sold. I remember the ad and it debuted at the Superbowl but that's as far as I can go with the memory- and I refuse to Google it! I also like the revolving/ magic refrigerator of beer. I can't remember much else except for some guys staring at their fridge would spin around and come back with beer. I don't remember the type of beer or why it was spinning- some silly thing- but again, I don't remember. is it because I'm not a beer drinker? Or is it because advertisers aren't doing their jobs or because I'm not the target audience? Or because I just don't care?

I'm sitting here writing this post with the television purposely off, wracking my brain in an effort to think of a single television commercial that's on right now that I like. And I can't come up with a one. Frankly, I'm thinking and can't come up with any commercial at all. I have no idea what McDonald's current tag line is. Are the "ing" and lion/ park bench commercials still on? I don't know Coke's jingle- do they even still sell products on TV any more?

I remember some older Coke ads. The famous "I'd like to teach the world to sing" of course, even though I was a fairly young child when that debuted. I also remember the Diet Coke commercials. I love the Cindy Crawford one with all the guys drooling over her. I love the spoof a few years later, when she was a mom. Were they selling the image that Cindy is still sexy even though she traded in her super modeling for mommy-ing, or were they selling Diet Coke? And I remember the one with all the women looking out the window of an office building at the hot sexy guy and the Diet Coke.

I remember the giant Kool-Aid man ("Oh yeah!") and Tony the Tiger ("They're Greeeeeaaaat!!"). I remember that if I want to be strong I should eat my Wheaties.

I guess this is one of those, I'm getting old, back in the day type of posts. I'm not saying old ads were better. I do know they interested me and even now, I can remember the ad, what was being sold, or I can sing the song. I know that now I have no clue, don't have any desire to buy whatever's being sold, and I couldn't sing a current jingle to save my life- even if there are such things any more. I just know that now, if I watch much television at all, we mute the commercials.

I bet there's a commercial for that...

Maggie