Winston tastes good...

As per the assignment, I asked 3 adults - my mom (49), my dad (48), and my step-mom (50) to answer this question. My mom, unsurprisingly, did not remember the ending to this commercial. When advertisements come on the television, her eyes glaze over and it's nearly impossible for her to remember what just happened. The only advertisement she's ever remembered is Oscar Meyer. To my surprise, my dad, who remembers every obscure (or not-so-obscure) pop-culture reference from his childhood but can't remember that he has food in the oven, responded with utter confusion. He had no idea what I was talking about at all. I was about to give up hope when my step-mom came through. She responded excitedly "... like a cigarette should!" Maybe she was the only one of the three who could afford a television when she was a kid. Who knows?


So, I asked her the follow-up questions after she answered correctly. Instead of answering quickly over the phone, she elected to send me a detailed response over e-mail. Thank God for step-moms, right?

"I remembered the ad because it was on the radio/tv a lot when I was little, I also tend to remember things like that. We didn't have anything close to the advertising that is out there now...very few ads ran so we heard (or read) them over and over.  Cigarette advertising was big in the 60's/70's!!

I would definitely say yes to the power of advertising, just ask any adult to sing the Oscar Meyer jingle, that's a no brainer (at least for me).  The Super Bowl comes to mind... don't people talk more about the commercials than the actual game?

Hmmm... favorite commercial... well, I guess if we're talking about the present I would say the "Mayhem guy" for Allstate insurance.  Very clever and original, it's not like every other commercial that uses young, hot people to sell their product.  If we're talking about commercials from the past, I would say the "Slinky" commercial.  It had a jingle and the kids playing with the slinky always looked like they were having a great time (they were never THAT much fun to play with)."

My step-mom, Amy, is the clear winner in this situation, even though I know it wasn't a competition. But they don't know that!


EDIT: I've asked my parents to once again comment on the advertisement now that they know what it is. The issue was my dad had never heard of it and my mom had forgotten about it, so I sent them the link. The problem with that became this: my dad is traveling in Europe for business and doesn't have a ton of time to respond, so I got a short, succinct "Very funny" over e-mail. My mom has a whole slew of new problems as well; she's having the basement at home finished and the computer is completely out of service. So, really, neither of them could comment further. Kind of a let-down!