Turns out we weren't the only scared ones. A friend of mine (this one, actually) brought it up recently and coolly divulged, "Man, that penguin scared the shit out of me."
Because any memories involving TV now lead to a frenetic Youtube search, we dashed to our computers to see if we could find it. This proved tough because we had no idea who made it. I felt certain it was Coke and he thought it was some kind of food purveyor. Add to this the trouble of how one "officially" spells "dooby dooby do."
I don't know how we did it (actually, I do: I won the "dooby dooby do" spelling contest) but before long we reaped the fruit of our labours (pardon the pixellation, beggars can't be choosers):
Most things that leave an impression in childhood turn out to suck when revisited in adulthood, like the actual size of redwood trees and the Christmas episodes of Alvin and the Chipmunks. But to this day - to this day! - that penguin ad still gives me chills. I couldn't really even tell you why. Why is he so haunting? Why does he say "dooby dooby doo"? It's genius, I say.
Sucks about Bud Ice though. Even after learning the product name we still couldn't recall it from childhood memory. So much for subliminal advertising. Or in this case, would it be latent advertising?
Either way, apparently kid-beguiling ad icons don't necessarily ensure cradle-to-grave loyalty to - oh horror! - vice industries like liquor or tobacco. So maybe Joe Camel can keep hocking ciggies. He wasn't all that interesting to us as kids anyway, plus smoking is a lot safer for him than for Marlboro Man.
1 comment:
Now I know where my friend got it from…I never witnessed that horror till now, thankfully I had HBO, Showtime, and skin I mean Cinemax when I was younger…I turned out alright.
Chilling though, my friend (who has a surprisingly sunny disposition) would always harp that line, ‘dooby, dooby doo’ (she would agree with your spelling)...I always thought it was part of that song, “Strangers in the Night,” Frank Sinatra. Maybe that was part of the idea behind the commercial, as I recall there was a movie (in fact many) that used a situation similar to that, “When a Stranger Calls,” and “When a Stranger Calls Back.” I mean of course the original 1970’s and 90’s sequel, not the horrible remake of recent years. But the originals weren’t exactly Oscar winners either. I’m not sure how it ties in with penguins and ‘Bud Ice.’ But maybe something to think on.
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