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A Holiday Slice Commercial (1986)

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Man, I just finished eating some super salty country ham so I’d kill for an ice cold can of Slice right now.

Until I came across this commercial the other week, I had forgotten all about Slice. Originally, it was Pepsi’s answer to Sprite and 7Up in the 1980s. There’s a disclaimer in the commercial saying Slice is not available in all areas but I never had any problem finding it when I was growing up in Virginia.

Other flavors would eventually arrive such as fruit punch, grape, orange, strawberry and pineapple essentially making making the whole Slice line of soft drinks Pepsi’s answer to Fanta. In 2000, Pepsi replaced lemon-lime Slice with Sierra Mist but in recent years started selling some of the other flavors of Slice exclusively at Wal-Mart (though I don’t recall ever seeing any).

And hey, 10% real juice? Can’t go wrong with that.

Verizon’s “Big Red” and Wrigley’s Big Red

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I came across that commercial while streaming on Hulu and thought it was pretty funny. I immediately recognized the tune and knew it was from the 1980s, but I couldn’t place the product. Then it hit me — “…with Big Redddddddddd!!!!”

Here’s the original jingle (obviously the lyrics are different) in this Big Red commercial from 1988:

This is the Big Red commercial I remember most. Pretty funny seeing that guy nearly tripping over the bushes and getting left behind by the carpool and I’m pretty sure this particular commercial aired for a number of years and maybe even before 1988.

Kudos to Verizon for giving us a throwback. I wonder how they worked though? Did they need some type of clearance from Wrigley’s or the ad agency that came up with the jingle?

My Two “Go To” Halloween Costumes When I Was A Kid

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There’s always a great assortment of children’s Halloween costumes. In fact, I’m kind of jealous of the kids today because their costumes are so much better than the cheap licensed plastic masks with the rubber band and restrictive plastic bodysuits we wore featuring our favorite cartoon characters.

As uncomfortable as those licensed costumes could be, I was always excited to get one just so I could be Superman, He-Man, Chuck Norris or an officially licensed “G.I. Joe” (that’s right, no Duke or Flint, you were just a generic green shirt). But as I got older, those costumes didn’t really suit my taste. I wanted something a little more “real”. Probably around age 10 or so, I left the plastic behind and found myself pretty much trading off between these two themes besides the odd ghost or “skull guy” outfit:

G.I. Joe aka “Army Man” (when I got to be too cool to act like I still enjoyed G.I. Joe)

A real G.I. Joe! Forget the silly bodysuit with “G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero” plastered all over it. And the great thing about being an “army man” was that as a young male, you probably own the complete outfit and accessories already and maybe even use it every weekend when you play “war” with your friends. I never had to buy a single thing whenever I opted to enlist on October 31st. Toy guns, toy knife, army jacket, army helmet/marine hat, military fatigues… I had it all, baby! No wonder I played this role for so many years.

Dracula

Another fairly easy costume to put together (I’m beginning to think I picked these two themes so much out of pure laziness), but it required a few accessories to be bought initially. I had the wig (complete with a sweet widow’s peak), fangs, cape with the super cool collar, and even a medallion to wear. I usually would wear some black dress pants and a white button up. Add a dash of homemade blood around my mouth (with the option to buy some face paint to make myself a bit pale looking) and I was transformed into a classic, respectable Halloween costume.

What were some of your Halloween standards?