MORE RAD COMMERCIALS - SUMMER EDITION!

RAD COMMERCIALS VOL 3 - SUMMER EDITION

GRIMEY

It's been about 7 months since our last set of vintage commercials. I find myself popping these on the tv daily as background noise while I do dishes and clean litter boxes. I seem to forget that I can write about them at any given moment. So, coming up are some old commercials and, since we are still in the middle of the Summer Survival Guide, they will all have some sort of summer tie in. Enjoy!

PINK SWIMMINGO KOOL-AID

(youtuber: thehumancartoon)
Good old Pink Swimmingo. It's a vibrant neon pink lemonade Kool-Aid flavor fronted by a flamingo in shorts, a backwards hat and a sunglasses/snorkel combo (depending on if you're looking at the one in the commercial or the one on the packet); it doesn't get much more summery than that, does it? This is back in 1992 when Kool-Aid was at the top of their game and had awesome mascot fronted flavors.

The Kool-Aid Man comes swooping in on his surf board and Pink Swimmingo is long legging it like Dhalsim from Street Fighter in the deep end telling the waves to basically fuck off as they seem to have absolutely no affect on him. What's even better, he may have 2 lines in the commercial which both consist of pretty much the same 2 words, Pink Swimmingo sounds a lot like Michelangelo from the original TMNT cartoon.

Aside from being one of Kool-Aids top tier flavors, he's undoubtedly my favorite of the Kool-Aid mascots. You can see above, they brought some original mascot Kool-Aid flavors back for a short amount of time but the new artwork is meh at best in comparison.

PRINGLES BEACH

(youtuber: gone but not forgotten commercials)
Back before they had 13 million different flavors, Pringles had some pretty rad commercial spots. Take this one for instance; a similar vibe to the Kool-Aid one we just talked about above but with sweet 90s patterns in the background. We start out on a beach and see the Pringles can slide through the sand and in comes the tunes (a rip off of Wipeout).

I haven't had TV in ages so I don't get to see commercials much but man did I forget how they use to shit all over Lay's in these commercials spots. The idea is that Pringles are superior as they don't make your hands greasy but now days with the many MANY different Pringle flavors, you might as well be eating Cheetos with all the chip dust left behind.... not that I'm complaining. Chip dust is amazing.

COPPERTONE KIDS COLORBLOCK

(youtuber: 90s Commercials)
I'm not exactly sure when or how the "making everyday normal items weird colors" trend started but it sure happened a lot in the 90s; Coppertone Kids Colorblock is the perfect example.

I do remember having this as a kid but I don't remember actually using it. I had ice cream trucks to chase, Super Soakers to shoot and bikes to ride; I didn't have time for the SPF. Besides, part of me must have known I’d be able to find it at a decent price on eBay like 25 years later. Yes, it’s still full. No, I will not drink it.

It's like the disappearing reappearing ink from Roger Rabbit.... only without the reappearing part... and the ink. Anyways, looking back, I'm extremely surprised I wanted absolutely nothing to do with this stuff. Now days, I'd kill for any excuse to momentarily turn my self purple or blue.

CAPRI SUN LIQUID COOL

(youtuber: 90s Commercials)
Capri Sun was another summer refrigerator staple next to Kool-Aid, Hi-C, Hug Fruit Barrels and the likes only these came in sweet silver reflective pouches. They were good but, unlike Hi-C who made Ecto Cooler, Kool-Aid who made Pink Swimmingo and Hugs who made.... red, blue and orange.... I can't tell you any particular flavors that stood out most to me.

The commercials, though.... like a cross between Alex Mac and a T1000 but on a surf board; These kids turn into liquefied reflective blobs after consuming a pouch if this liquid cool drink.. I half expected these kids to start stabbing people with morphing knife arms.

HOSTESS CUPCAKES SHARK

(youtuber: 90s Commercials…… dang, you’re killing it man!)
This one, and the others similar from Hostess, mat as well be burned into my flesh. I swear, this commercial was played every ten mins when I was a kid but it never got old.

I tried digging but couldn't find any info other than a few youtube comments stating that the voice actor for the shark is none other than Maurice LaMarche. You'll remember him as the voice of Egon Spangler from The Real Ghostbusters, The Brain from Pinky and the Brain, Big Bob from Hey Arnold, a slew of characters from Futurama including Bender and much more. Talk about an insane lineup!

I really believe we need the shark back. I recently had some Hostess cakes, the S'mores ones to be exact and I'm curious what the shark would say about them. Personally, I wasn't a big fan which leads me to believe it takes a shark to tell the company what the people want.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for a few more Summer entries coming very soon!