Way, way back in the 1980s, as I was discovering the joys and evils of alcohol, I made my first foray into a liquor store to try and get some booze for a weekend party.
My theory was that if I asked for assistance and said I was getting something for my parent's anniversary (yes, I was a terrible kid) that they wouldn't card me. I also figured I needed to get something classy to back up my story. The only thing I'd ever heard of was Spumante Bambino, which was advertised constantly on TV by a woman dancing about singing about the wonders of this dirt cheap, super sweet wine. (see above)
I'd given it very little thought since then, until I realized the woman dancing in the ad is currently staring as the mother in Douglas Coupland's jPod. Sherry Miller was back in my life again. I spent that night chugging the bottle of Spumante in the back of a car and ended it in a snowbank outside the dance I can't remember. Woo, hoo, underage drinking!
But even that wasn't my first introduction to Miller. She was also a host of The Polka Dot Door in the early '70s and I'm sure I must have seen her, even though they never saw me when looking through that door. She showed up again in an ad for Turtles in the early '80s, singing the infectious tagline, "I love Turtles." In a nod to that iconic line, the first episode of jPod was named I Love Turtles.
Just as fascinating to me is the fact that both of these commercials are on YouTube. Who has this stuff laying around and decides to digitize and post it? Weird, but I love it.
I knew I recognized her from somewhere in the past - thanks for the connection! Brings back way too many memories.
ReplyDeleteI know the feeling. Pop culture is a strange place, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI cannot BELIEVE the "buying my parents a gift" excuse actually worked. Brilliant!!!
ReplyDeleteStunning, isn't it? I must have got an amazingly indifferent employee or someone who figured no teenager in his right mind would want to drink thats stuff. I never did again.
ReplyDeleteA few thoughts;
ReplyDelete1) It is both awe inspiring and slightly frightening that you made the Sherry Miller connection to those adds.
2) Even scarier is how familiar those commercials are to me - I think there is a part of my subconscious loaded with 70's & 80's TV adds.
3) Even more infinitely frightening is the fact that I can still remember the entire jingle for "Put Put For The Fun of It"
I've been listening to AM talk radio on the way to work lately - nothing else on before 6am, and have realized how annoying, yet catchy, ad jingles are.
ReplyDeleteAnd much like jingles, pointless information sticks in my head.