As frequently as some commercials appear on TV, it's hard not to get
these phrases stuck in your head.
Simples! *squeaking noise*
The role of Memetic Mutation in advertising is unique because Memetic Mutation is actually advertising's job. Advertising is supposed to get you to buy something. So advertisers try to make the ads memorable so that you will be influenced to buy the product. And also to get you to tell your friends about the cool product or funny ad. (Viral Marketing is just one way of doing this.) However, sometimes this can backfire if the ad is memorable enough in a bad way that it is actually deterrent. Even then, some will still buy the product ironically because of the meme or out of Bile Fascination. This can also backfire when people remember the ad but not the product.
Please add entries in the following format:
- The meme. [[labelnote:Explanation]]The explanation behind the meme, if necessary.[[/labelnote]] Explanation Like this.
- Further mutations and successor memes, if any.
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Billboards and Signs
There's that famous
Roadside meme
Created by
A shaving cream
Burma-Shave Explanation From the 1920s to the 1960s Burma-Shave had sequences of billboards placed along roads, which you'd read as you drove along. There are four to eight, with the last reading "Burma-Shave", and usually they rhymed.- SEE ROCK CITY.
Explanation Another that's Older Than Television: Lots of barn roofs would have the phrase "SEE ROCK CITY" painted on them, which was a natural landmark in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The man responsible for this would offer to paint a farmer's barn for free if he allowed him to put the slogan on the barn roof. - Wall Drug.Explanation Wall Drug is a tourist trap in South Dakota with a memetically large number of billboards reminding you of its existence.
- The Corn Palace. Explanation Another tourist trap that dominates the eastern half of the state with billboards. When traveling east-west, the billboards end not long before the above's begin (and vice-versa).
- South of the Border Explanation A Mexican-themed truck stop and tourist trap in South Carolina known for having billboards all along Interstate 95; what Wall Drug is to South Dakota, South of the Border is to the US East Coast.
- Yeehaw Junction Explanation Both up and down I-95 on the way to Orlando are tons of signs for this tourist trap, which offers discounts and tickets. Pulling off the interstate, you're greeted with... a trailer and a gas station.
- 神韵艺术团 SHEN YUN — 5,000 Years of Civilization RebornExplanation Ads for the Falun Gong-operated Shen Yun
performing arts shows are ubiquitous along the coastlines of the continental U.S., especially in the big metropolitan pockets of California where you're bound to see them on public transportation vehicles and every few miles on highways, resulting in the reputation that Shen Yun's marketing team will stop at nothing to advertise it wherever they can. - Injured? Explanation Originates from Cellino & Barnes billboards, with the "injured?" text being above smiling headshots of Cellino & Barnes and the contact information. The billboard has been edited many times, usually taking out the contact information and replacing it with something like "Good luck you injured piece of shit", just "Good", or even nothing at all, and sometimes Cellino and Barnes' headshots are replicated by or replaced with characters from other media.
Cars
- Zoom Zoom Zoom Explanation A slogan from Mazda, a car company. It's part of the lyrics to a Brazilian (Portuguese) capoeira song. The next line is "Capoeira murder him".
- Autoglass repair, Autoglass replace... Explanation Autoglass, or Carglass in other European markets
- In the U.S. it's the same jingle, but with "Safelite" instead of "Autoglass" (although the company's name is "Safelite Autoglass").
- And in Canada, it's replaced with "Speedy Glass". In Quebec, it's "Lebeau" and the jingle goes "Lebeau répare, Lebeau remplace..."
- WE BUY ANY CAR (DOT COM), WE BUY ANY CAR (DOT COM), WE BUY ANY CAR (DOT COM), ANY- ANY- ANY- ANY- WE BUY ANY CAR (DOT COM), ANY MAKE, ANY MODEL, ANY AGE, ANY PRICE, FROM FIFTY QUID TO A HUNDRED GRAND, WE BUY ANY CAR (DOT COM), WE BUY ANY CAR (DOT COM), WE BUY ANY CAR (DOT COM), ANY- ANY- ANY- ANY- WE BUY ANY CAR (DOT COM).
Also doubles as an earworm. Explanation We Buy Any Car.com. - "IT'S HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE -City found in Western/Central New York State- Huh-UGE!!!" Explanation Tagline for the Fucillo Auto Group indicating the awesomeness of their car deals. Not very well know outside or New York state but dreaded and loathed by residents in New York state.
- "Fahrvergnügen.
It's what makes a car a Volkswagen." Explanation An old 90s ad from Volkswagen, a German car company. The word is Gratuitous German for "driving pleasure". Both the word and its accompanying stick figure were parodied. - "Oh snap.
"Explanation From the "unpimp the auto" 2004 Volkswagen ad series, which spawned a gif widely used to punctuate an insult (or to mock a poor attempt at one). - Everyone from Chicago knows that "That old car might be worth money!"
Explanation Victory Auto Wreckers, a car company that gives quotes for any car. It's been said that they've been using the same footage for over twenty years. - THAT'S THINKIN' WITH YER DIPSTICK, JIMMY!
Explanation A commercial for Castrol oil. - Tires ain't pretty!
Explanation Allied Discount Tires, a tire store that resides in the Tampa Bay area. - If ever you're not satisfied
with one of our tires, please feel free to bring it back. *CRASH* Thank you. Discount Tire Company.note A 10-second commercial in rotation since 1975, recognized by Guinness Book of World Records as the longest continuously-running TV commercial. The commercial shows a "little old lady" throwing a tire through the window of the store. - FUCK YOU, BALTIMORE!
Explanation A fake, profanity-laden advertisement for "Big Bill Hell's," a fictional used car dealership. The "ad" consists of a mixture of insulting the viewer and threatening while still pitching for the dealership and proclaiming it the home of "Challenge Pissing."("That's right, CHALLENGE PISSING!") - WBYCEIYDBO
Explanation Pronounced "wee-bee-si-dee-bo". An acronym from a CarMax commercial: We'll Buy Your Car Even If You Don't Buy Ours. - "Bob's, he just wants to get you a loan." Explanation Slogan of a Connecticut car dealership, which is easy to mistake for "He just wants to get you alone." This is made worse by the fact that it is often a boy delivering the line.
Drinks
- How bout a nice Hawaiian Punch!?Explanation *WHOP*
- POWERTHIRST! Now with 99% MORE EXTREME CLAIMS! Explanation This fake commercial
for an energy drink, and
sequels
.- Mutation: The folks who made Idiocracy asked the folks who made Powerthirst to make one for Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator. They obliged
. Also, Powerthirst is now a real energy drink.
- Carlsberg don't do memes, but if they did, they'd probably be the best memes in the world. Explanation Carlsberg, a lager (beer) maker advertised for a very long time (presumable to get past regulations) that theirs was "Probably the best lager in the world." Later they went on to make adverts of impossibly good products - imagine a car air freshener that, when sprayed, created a woman in a sexy maid outfit who cleaned your car. According to the adverts, if Carlsberg made car air fresheners, they would be like that.
- "We got
Soda, OJ, Purple Stuff, and 2 kinds of Sunny D!"
Explanation Two commercials for Sunny Delight where the kids look into the fridge and try to find something to drink, saying the quote. Later got a remake
starring the same kids. - "I'm filling my mineral water
with volcanicityyyyyyyyyy!" Explanation Volvic mineral water and their "Tyrannosaurus Alan" campaign, providing ample ingredients for YouTube Poop.- "COME ON, WORLD, I'LL HAVE YOU FOR BREAKFAAAAASSST!"
- "Try some!"
- "MY BIRDS!!"
- "I'm off to eat someone's parents."
- "I'M THE DADDY NOW!"
- "You can't say that!"
- "Well done to REVIIIIIIIIIIVE!"
- "Eleven of you? One of me? Sounds like Pimms o'clock!" Explanation Pimm's campaign with Alexander Armstrong
- Red Bull gives you wiiiiings! Explanation Red Bull's slogan, used in many commercials since its creation.
- Could've had a V8. *slap* Explanation Some of V8's commercials show somebody that avoids fruits and vegetables while having a copious amount of food. Another person would then lightly smack them on the forehead to remind them of their eating habits and that they could've had a V8.
- Orangina [1]
, the citrus drink of choice for furry orgies. Explanation Orangina's commercial has slightly anthropomorphic animals having a huge, suggestive party with Orangina to drink. - It's a big ad!
Explanation Carlton Draught's big ad. - Bud. Weis. Errr. Explanation One of Budweiser's ads has three frogs croaking each syllable of the beer's name.
- WHAAAAASSSSSSSUUUUUUUUUPPPPPPP?!?! Explanation Another ad has five guys saying this phrase to each other very loudly. It has been subject to many parodies, most notably in Scary Movie and The Annoying Orange.
- His personality is so magnetic, he can't carry credit cards. He speaks fluent Russian.... in French. Even his enemies list him as their emergency contact number. He is... The Most Interesting Man in the World..." Explanation Created by Dos Equis, a lager.
- "I don't always X, but when I do, I prefer Y" Explanation A snowclone based off the line "I don't always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis."
- "Stay thirsty, my friends..."
- "'Ave it!" "Two more lamb bhunas!" Explanation Peter Kay's adverts for John Smith's beer, unsurprisingly given Kay's well-deserved reputation as a walking meme factory.
- Bud Light Presents: Real Men of GeniusNote Real American Heroes, before the events of September 11, 2001, made lampooning 'heroes' a non-starter. ♪Real men of genius~♪ Explanation Bud Light's "Real Men of Genius" campaign seemingly glorifies men that have found ways to get by at life, but are acutally ridiculed for being ridiculous or stupid. Several parts of the song have Dave Bickler of Survivor singing a short phrase in relation to the announcer's glorifications.
Jimmy:HI, I'M JIMMY FOOTBALL! It's the Bud Light (fake product) and it's..."
Audience: TAILGATE TESTED...
Jimmy: TAILGATE APPROVED!
- And before any of those, back in the '80s:
"Gimme a light!" (Enter a pair of glowsticks, or a lit-up jukebox, or a flaming hoop with dogs jumping through) "No, Bud Light!" Explanation Bud Light was still a relatively new product for Budweiser at the time. For quite a while, it was not uncommon for wiseguy viewers to answer any movie or TV shot of something exploding or shining brightly with "No, Bud Light!"
- To the pit of misery, DILLY, DILLY Explanation After receiving several gifts of Bud Light at a banquet, the king is severely disappointed with one of his guests' last offering and sends the him to the pit of misery in this funny 2017 television commercial.
- GLEN! GLEN-GLEN-GLEN!
Explanation Starbucks Double Shot Espresso - Brilliant!
Explanation From Guinness, a type of beer. - We secretly replaced this example with Folger's Crystals. Let's see if anyone notices the difference... Explanation An old Folger's Crystals campaign had people taste-testing coffee, unaware they're part of the experiment.
- It's beer! Hooray beer!"
Explanation Red Stripe beer - "Hey Kool-Aid!" "Oh yeah!!!!" Explanation A classic ad for Kool-Aid, where thirsty kids would call for Kool-Aid and a giant anthropomorphic pitcher of the stuff would bust through the wall, yelling the second line in a deep voice. Any clip of something busting through a wall will inevitably be met with references to the Kool-Aid Man.
- "What more do you want from life?" "A Lucano!' Explanation In Italy, a commercial for an alcoholic drink shows a character having the best day ever. In the end he's asked 'What more do you want from life?', and he answers, 'Un Lucano!' ('A Lucano!'), the name of the product. Since then, it's almost a given to answer that kind of question that way, jokingly.
- "SAN-NEN (letter)-GUMI!!" "(Name of theme) SENSEI!!"
Explanation The old commercials for Fanta in Japan, where a different-themed teacher (Rock Star, Bruce Lee Expy, Street Punk, etc.) does weird stuff and later cuts to 2 students looking a bit annoyed at what the teacher did.- Now ascended to RED ZONE
levels of insanity, and now Ponified
(Except for the last ad, which never got Ponified due to difficulty finding a way for it to happen).
- "Got Milk?" Explanation Tagline for the campaign by the California Milk Processor Board to encourage milk consumption which has been running since 1993. It has since become a large part of pop culture, leading to the snowclone "Got [x]?"
- "Of course it's cold — it's German." Explanation From a 2017 Jägermeister commercial set in an underground Berlin nightclub, which has bottles of Jägermeister encased in ice. After a bottle is uncased, a woman is poured a shot, puts a thermometer in it, takes a sip, and says this line to the crowd in front of her. Because this commercial played semi-frequently during NBC's coverage of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the line became a meme among American hockey fans.
- Want a Sprite Cranberry?
Explanation This one's a 2018 holiday season commercial for a new version of the pop Sprite with added cranberry flavor, where LeBron James randomly shows up at the door of a family having a rough Christmas party to offer them Sprite Cranberry. For some reason, Sprite Cranberry proved to be really popular for image edits (such as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's Piranha Plant having its pot replaced with a can
◊, or Ratchet getting a can of the drink
◊), the commercial became notable and popular for edits due to its sheer ridiculousness, and the phrase "Sprite Cranberry" grew to be treated as funny on its own. Not to mention, the song is pretty catchy. - "How to speak Australian. Troper. Beer." Explanation "Foster's, Australian for beer." The first words in each commercial were accompanied by some fairly loose, Australian-themed take on them (eg. Guy hits another with a boomerang to make him change the channel; "Remote control").
- "I bet he drinks Carling Black Label."Explanation The catchphrase from an old United Kingdom ad campaign for the beer.
- "Te hace falta ver más Bax Explanation A series of ads starring Sylvester Stallone in which he promoted boxing matches alongside the Mexican beer brand Tecate. Because of the nature of these ads, and Stallone's mispronounciation of the word "Box", the ads became wildly popular both online and offline, and the phrase is still in use years after the ads were discontinued.
Electronics
- "Hello, I'm a Mac." "And I'm a PC." Explanation Macintosh commercials where John Hodgman would play the personification of a PC, playing up the stereotypical problems, and Justin Long would play a personification of a Macintosh, claiming not to have those problems. After the campaign fizzled, Windows used "I'm a PC." for a time in its ads. The ads spawned various parodies and mutations in the 2000s.
- *drumbeats* "They keep going, and going, and going, and going..." Explanation Energizer's "Bunny" series of commercials that itself has kept going, and going, and going... This is often used for something that goes on for a long time.
- "...Still going!"Explanation Later, fake commercials in the series get interrupted by the bunny, whose batteries apparently last long enough for it to wander into them. Sometimes used as an Interrupting Meme.
- "IDK, my BFF Jill?" Explanation A Cingular commercial
involving obnoxious tweens speaking aloud in chatspeak in ways no actual tweens do, including inventing acronyms. For some reason, the above line is the most imitated.- "IDK, my BFF Rose?" Explanation Another commercial had a grandmother doing the same thing.
- "Tropes? In my TV shows? It's more likely than you think." Explanation Pornography? On ''my'' computer? It's more likely than you think
◊, a billboard advertisement that caught the attention of the internet after a raft of parodies produced at Something Awful, all of which were pretty forgettable ... until the fateful day "Centipedes? In my vagina?" appeared. - Silhouetted dancers with MP3 players, often in an iPod parody. Explanation iPod advertisements
◊ These were the first advertisements for the iPod 3G and it quickly caught on through the 2000s. - "Can You Hear Me Now? ...good!" Explanation Advertisements for Verizon Wireless, advertising their cellular network having the fewest dropped calls of any network.
- WONGA.
Explanation Envirofone, a company who recycle old mobile phones, in particular one big Cockney guy who has become a frequent subject for mash-ups.- Envirofone picked up on his popularity and he is now the star of their new surreal advertising campaign
.
- Hi, I'm Michael Bay, director of Hollywood hits such as Transformers, and I demand things to be awesome. Awesome pussycat. Awesome barbeque... *BOOM* ...AWESOME POOL! *BOOM* Explanation A Verizon Wireless commercial advertising their FiOS system. This commercial has Michael Bay parodying his tendency to put explosions and awesome things in his films.
- Clap on! *clap clap* Clap off! *clap clap* Clap on, clap off... The Clapper! Explanation The tagline for The Clapper
, a light that turns on and off by loud claps.- Ch-ch-ch-chia! Explanation From the same people, the Chia-Pets.
- Small but powerful, That's what she said! Explanation The ad for HP Veer 4G starring Miranda Cosgrove, mostly got from the title of the "promoted video" seen on some Youtube clips. Males who are curious to see what was in it do follow the link and they get surprised with the said ad. Those who comment on the ad says the said line.
- "It's little, like my (Insert reference)". Explanation A line in the ad that she said, but those who comment in the ad replace the word dog with something else that's Not Safe for Work, like tits (A reference to Miranda being flat chested), or similar dirty stuff, or sometimes offensive insults to her, like her career.
- An ad featured this immortal exchange:
Driving in a car
Son: Dad?
Dad: Yeah?
Son: Why'd they build the Great Wall of China?
Dad: That... That was during the reign of Nasi Goreng, and it was to keep the rabbits out... Too many rabbits in China...
[cut to Son, beaming proudly at the front of his classroom]
Teacher: Okay, now Daniel will do his talk on China
- Explanation: Bigpond, a net provider in Australia. For those not in the know, "nasi goreng" means "fried rice."
- "Dude, you're getting a Dell!" Explanation An old advertising campaign for Dell's computer had a spokeperson going to people in need of a good computer at a budget price.
- Protect your Chicken from
Dokken. Explanation An interactive commercial for Norton Antivirus. - If you want to keep track of your memes, there's an app for that
. Explanation To promote the iPhone, Apple had a campaign to show off the App Store where one can download thousands of apps, implying that the iPhone could have an app for anything. - "I AM PROTO! YOUR SECURITY IS MY...MOTTO!
"Explanation An infamous series of ads for an Indian anti-virus program called Protegent Complete Security; notable for its hilariously awful rapping, forced rhymes, Word Salad Lyrics, and the mascot whose design is seemingly a rip-off of Whyatt, the main character of Super Why!, of all characters. After the ads got a Colbert Bump by Joel from Vinesauce, remixes, "X but Y" videos, and YouTube Poops ensued.- "Oops, my system crashed. I lost my data. But I had an anti-virus!" "ANTI-VIRUS IS NOT ENOUGH!
"Explanation Another (newer) Protegent ad featuring the Whyatt rip-off mascot (and a clone with a mustache). Notable for the Dull Surprise acting and the dissonant baritone voice Proto has. Like the Protegent rap, the ads sees use in remixes and YTP. - "...And you know what I found? Porn/Phone/Born video links!
"Explanation One of the most infamous of the Protegent ads alongside the aforementioned rap, this ad was meant to showcase how the software can be used to monitor student activity in schools and make sure they aren't doing something they aren't supposed to. Instead, the ad became infamous for its poor execution (for example, the offending student experiences no serious repercussions for looking at "porn" during class beyond a stern talking to from his teacher; the "porn" itself is simply pictures of (fully clothed) men and women kissing, etc.), very poor acting, and hokey dialogue and animation. It is probably one of the most widely parodied out of the Protegent ads besides the rap and the newer ad mentioned above.
Food
- "Time to make the donuts..." Explanation Spoken by the "baker" from commercials for Dunkin' Donuts before leaving for work.
- "...I made the donuts..." Explanation Coming back in after what must have been a long day of making the donuts, per the point of them being made fresh every day.
- "I can't believe it's not butter!"Explanation From the ads for the eponymous margarine, where an actor would say the line after eating something to which it had been applied. It's now a common snowclone ("I can't believe it's not [x]!").
- Rice, A-Roni, the San Francisco treat! *clang clang* Explanation Their catchy jingle originating circa 1962, adorned with a street-car bell
- "Taste the rainbow..." Explanation From the old Skittles commercials, many of which featured creepy children coming out of nowhere to whisper the tagline. This line is usually said whenever rainbows are involved.
- "Kids love Snickers on Halloween!" Explanation The Snickers Halloween commercial with the "lady" in the supermarket, which gained some infamy due to the lady costume looking unintentionally creepy.
- "Warum habe ich immer hunger!?" Explanation Another Snickers commercial involved somebody eating a Snickers and quickly lost his hunger. Wondering where it goes, it ends up in a man in Germany who becomes constantly hungry as a result.
- You're not you when you're hungry. Explanation 2012 Snickers ads involved a famous person in an improbable scenario, i.e. Roseanne Barr at a logging camp, acting out and a companion saying, "X, eat a Snickers," prompting the former to ask why. The latter would reply, "You get a little Y when you're hungry." The angry person would eat the food and turn back to normal. It has since evolved into a snowclone.
- "Give me back that Fillet-O-Fish! Give me that fish!"Explanation McDonald's commercial involving a singing wall fish, much like a Big Mouth Billy Bass, singing the jingle. Now sold as a toy.
- "Where's the Beef?" Explanation Wendy's commercials
involving an old lady pointing out the lack of beef in their competitor's products. It's considered as a pretty popular 80s phrase.- Mutated into a way to accuse almost anything of being overhyped, or under-delivering on its promised results. Achieved saturation when Walter Mondale used the phrase to ridicule his Presidential primary opponent, Gary Hart.
- Later became used as the name of a bodybuilding advice line.
- Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee. Explanation This was the Sara Lee corporation's tagline until 2006. As a joke, it was sometimes warped into, "Nobody does it like Sara Lee."
- "You got your X in my Y!" "You got your Y in my X!" Explanation Reese's peanut butter cup commercials, in which two actors angrily argue, "You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!" "You got your peanut butter in my chocolate!" before realizing that the combination is delicious. It's since become a snowclone for when two things get mixed up, or when elements from one thing are present in another or vice versa.
- "What would you do for a Klondike bar?" Explanation Tagline of an advertising campaign by Klondike. In memes, people have shown just what they would do for a Klondike bar.
- "When I bite into a York Peppermint Patty, I get the sensation that ... I'm somewhere cold!" Explanation Tagline for a series of York Pepperment Patties where people imagine themselves somewhere cold, like a ski slope.
- "Five! Five dollar! Five dollar foot long!" Explanation Subway commercials that first introduced a menu of foot long subs for $5, then occasionally ran promotions where all subs were $5. Rumored to annoy employees to no end by the end of the promotions.
- "Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun." Explanation McDonald's commercials stating the ingredients list for a Big Mac.
- "Off the lampshade, off the fridge...Nothing but net." Explanation McDonald's "Showdown" series of advertisements beginning in 1993, where Michael Jordan and Larry Bird have an ongoing shoot-off where the loser watches the other eat, and the shots became more and more elaborate as the spot went. Later ones were joined by Charles Barkley, and it was re-visited during Super Bowl XLIV with Lebron James and Dwight Howard—and Larry Bird filching their eats in the midst of it all.
- "Double cheeseburger? I'd hit it. I'm a Dollar Menu guy."Explanation McDonald's made these advertising banners to appeal to a younger crowd. Whoever was responsible for the campaign didn't realize "hit" meant "have sex with" until it was too late.
- "What do you want on your Tombstone?" "Pepperoni and sausage!" Explanation From an ad for Tombstone Frozen Pizzas featuring two cowboys; one would always have the other on the ropes, and deliver the set-up line "What do you want on your tombstone?"
- Meme codifier: A widespread pirate copy of The Oregon Trail included a headstone that read "here lies andy / peperony and chease (sic)", a reference to the commercial.
- We know of a remote farm in Lincolnshire, where Mrs. Buckley lives. Every year, in July, peas grow there...
Explanation Source: Findus frozen foods, and a notorious voiceover session by Orson Welles...
- "Get me a jury and show me how you can say in July, and I'll make cheese for you." explanation An infamous line from the outtakes, shown here in Bowdlerized form from the Animaniacs episode "Yes, Always". The original was a bit too naughty for children's TV — yes, even for Animaniacs.
- BRING ON THE TRUMPETS! BRING ON THE TRUMPETS!
Explanation The Natural Confectionery Company - Shepherd's Piiiiiiie!
Explanation Oxo stock cubes - "Uh-oh, Spaghettios!" Explanation An old tagline for Spaghettios, a type of soup filled with pasta in the shape of Os. It's since been used in situations where one knows they have messed up.
- "Thank goodness for Chef Boyardee!" Explanation The tagline for Chef Boyardee canned pasta.
- "I hanker for a hunka cheese!" Explanation In the early 1970s, there was a short series called Time for Timer where the main character, Timer, usually gave advice on when it's time to eat or sleep. The most famous episode was when he advised the audience when it was time to eat, they should go get some cheese.
- "You don't have to be Jewish to enjoy tropes." Explanation One that goes back to the 1950s: "You don't have to be Jewish to..." The original print ad tagline was "You don't have to be Jewish to enjoy Levy's real Jewish rye," and featured various obviously non-Jewish people (such as a Native American) eating the company's rye bread. Since then variations have appeared in countless book and film blurbs, as the title of a 1960s Borscht Belt comedy revue, and in numerous parodies. An Orthodox Jewish magazine in the early seventies took this meme all the way with a nasty satirical piece about a Reform seminary that planned to ordain non-Jews as rabbis, with the recruitment slogan "You don't have to be Jewish to be Jewish."
- It also attracted Volkswagen's attention, leading them to hire the agency which would develop THE most successful and influential ad campaign of The '60s for VW.
- "Silly Rabbit! Trix are for kids!" Explanation The shtick of nearly every Trix commercial where the rabbit is never allowed to have Trix because it's for kids. People have made parodies of the commercials, usually with the same outcome, but sometimes allowing the rabbit to have the Trix.
- Cuckoo for Cocoa-Puffs! Cuckooooo for Cocoa-Puffs! Explanation Sonny the Cuckoo Bird, the mascot of Cocoa Puffs, usually says this when he manages to get a taste of the chocolatey cereal.
- "Mentos! The fresh maker!" Explanation The catchy jingle from Mentos commercials, created in 1991.
- "LEGGO MY EGGO!" Explanation The catch phrase of Eggo waffles.
- TV Tropes is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Explanation When sliced bread was first sold in 1924, their slogan was "the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped". Eventually, it morphed into the phrase shown, where anything could be "the greatest thing since sliced bread".
- Wake up with The King. Explanation Burger King advertised their breakfast items by having the King serve random tired folk with food. One commercial in particular had the King laying in bed with another man, ready to give him a Double Crosandwich. The combination of this and the King's unsettling appearance (particularly his grinning plastic mask) led to him being portrayed as a Memetic Molester.
- "Hey! Where's the cream filling?" Explanation A slogan for Hostess Cakes, from an ad campaign where talking animals would attack various things that look like Hostess products.
- Ran ran ruu!!
Explanation From 2004 to 2007, Japan ran a series of commercials called Ronald Rumors where Ronald McDonald asked trivial questions about himself. The most famous was him saying, "Ran ran ru!" and explaining how he always says it when he's happy. These commercials spawned a ton of remixes and edits on the Japanese web.- This one basically lead to the creation of the McRoll. Explanation McRoll works similar to the Rickroll, uses clips of the Japanese McDonald, synced up to U.N. Owen Was Her?
- Miracle Whip will not tone it down. Explanation Miracle Whip's anti-establishment advertisements which make the salad dressing/mayonnaise substitute the hip and trendy thing to have on your sandwich.
- PURI PURIN! PURI PURIN! SUGOKI DEKKAI GIGA PURIN!
Explanation Giga Puddi is a kit to create a large chocolate pudding that could serve up to twenty people. It was made popular on Novemeber 2010 when 4chan embedded the video in the whole site and made a word filter that changed all words into PUDDI. - I WANT MY BABYBACKBABYBACKBABYBACK I WANT MY BABYBACKBABYBACKBABYBACK~ Explanation A song
for Chili's, a grill and bar restaurant.- CHILIIIIIIIIII'S BABY BACK RIIIIIIIIIIIIBS
- BARBECUE SAUCE.
- Give me a break, give me a break, break me off a piece of that... Explanation Kit-Kat Bar!
- You can call me nannerpuss, nannerpuss! And guess what? I love p—*SLAM* Explanation Restaurant chain Denny's commercial shows a pancake breakfast with a banana peel puppet on top. It then cuts it off to ask the consumer if they want a more serious breakfast. The character quickly became popular on the Internet and spawned various remixes and tributes.
- Why you no have life?! You no hungry for advertising memes! Explanation You hungry for HOT POCKETS!
- "Those other guys? Their stuff's made in New York City!" "NEW YORK CITY?!" "Get a rope." Explanation Ads for Pace Thick and Chunky Salsa touted the authenticity/superiority of their salsas because their ingredients were gathered in the heart of San Antonio Texas... what "real" salsa's supposed to taste like.
- A certain KFC commercial
featuring a black man eating chicken managed to spawn a meme featuring that very man dancing in front of a rainbow background and an 8-bit arrangement of the ALF theme. The meme's name? 2204355. - "If I give one to you, I have to give one to everybody else!" Explanation From a Lays potato chips commercial shown in Canada, where the speaker is a guy in the middle of the far north (with no one in sight for miles) explaining why he can't share "just one" potato chip with the other guy.
- Choosy moms/dads choose Jif. Explanation Jif peanut butter has been using this slogan for many decades. At first it was just, "Choosy moms choose Jif," back when more women were in charge of raising children and taking care of household manners, but ever since those gender roles have disintegrated, they started using, "Choosy dads choose Jif" instead.
- "You ate his face?!" Explanation From a 2010 ad
for the fast-food chain Jack-in-the-Box, advertising their breakfast sandwiches. It became particularly popular in the Five Nights at Freddy's fandom with many animations using Bonnie and Withered Bonnie, since the latter lacks a face. - Yorkie.
It's not for girls!Explanation Yorkie's old, rather sexist advertising campaign. Some of the commercials featured girls trying to obtain the chocolate bar, Trix rabbit style, from BRIAN BLESSED - Honeycomb big, yeah yeah yeah
It's not small, no no no Explanation A commercial for Honeycomb cereal - "¿Por qué no los dos?"
(Why don't we have both?) Explanation From a commercial for Old El Paso Hard n' Soft Taco kit. A still from the commercial has been used as a reaction image for when two things are presented with an either-or choice, but both of them seem like favorable options. - YEAH~! BABIES EVERYWHERE!
Explanation A weird, hammy Nutrigrain promo where a woman exclaims this after her new fiancee says he wants 500 kids. - Nin-ten-do, it's a cereal, wow!
Explanation A commercial for a cereal with pieces shaped like sprites from Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. - No one ever pays me in gum
. :( Explanation Trident Layers. - "Parkaaaaay!"Explanation From late 1970s/early 1980s Parkay margarine ads. A talking Parkay box would repeatedly claim to be butter while someone was eating...and then when the person eating was convinced that Parkay was butter (after noting several of its supposed positives), the box would yell this.
- Berries and Cream, Berries and Cream! I'm a little lad who loves Berries and Cream!
Explanation A 2007 Starburst commercial advertising the new Berries and Cream flavor of the candy featured a British character wearing old-fashioned clothing, known as the Little Lad, doing a dance while singing about how he loves the candy. The video went viral and spawned many mashups on YouTube, and Starburst noticed, soon releasing a video
where the Little Lad shows you how to perform the dance. The meme's popularity faded until 2021, when a new version of the meme popped up, this time involving people on TikTok imitating the Little Lad's dance. - Juicy Fruit is gonna move ya/It chews so soft, it gets right to ya/Juicy Fruit, the taste, the taste, the taste is gonna moooove yaaaaaa! Explanation An 80s slogan for Juicy Fruit.
- Fiber makes me... sad.
Explanation A commercial for Fiber One. - "Togs, togs, togs, UNDIES.
" Explanation A Trumpet ice cream ad explaining precisely when someone in swimwear starts appearing to be in underwear instead. - I can feel it, coming in the air tonight, oh Lord...
Explanation Cadbury Dairy Milk, and the first of their "Glass and a Half Productions" which were followed by the Airport Trucks and the Eyebrows Dance. - "You'll save at Kessel this week. Why? Because we're with you.
" Explanation Ads for the defunct Flint, Michigan-based supermarket chain Kessel Food Markets. The ads featured owner Al Kessel listing off each item that was on sale that week and throwing it rather aggressively into a grocery cart before reciting this phrase. Flint-area nerds no doubt made plenty of references to making the Kessel run
in less than 12 parsecs. - Pepperidge Farm Remembers! Explanation Based on a long running ad campaign for Pepperidge Farms, the meme version is from a Family Guy parody. A screencap of the parody has often been captioned with remembrance of practices that were once commonplace or true, but are now outdated, irrelevant, or nonexistent, with the "Pepperidge Farm Remembers" line following.
- How it feels to chew 5 gum.Explanation A marketing tagline for 5 Gum, known for their disproportionately cinematic chewing gum advertisements, since mutated into a reaction line.
- Never Say No to Panda.Explanation A series of commercials ran by Arab Dairy for Panda Cheese, which became viral videos. The commercials all depict various citizens being offered the titular cheese, but declining...at which point a panda shows up and begins to...violently express its displeasure at their choice, while "True Love Ways
" by Buddy Holly plays in the background. - Sorry, Charlie! Explanation The commercials for StarKist Tuna would have Charlie the Tuna attempt to be caught by using examples of his "good taste" in art, only for others to rebuff that StarKist instead wants tuna that tastes good. He would then be greeted with a fishhook holding the apologetic note. The phrase itself later entered the American lexicon as a phrase basically meaning "tough break", and April 6th was made "Sorry Charlie Day".
- Can they see why kids love the taste of Cinnamon Toast Crunch? Explanation A series of commercials for Cinnamon Toast Crunch featured a series of professionals (a lifeguard, a mystic, etc.) who have incredible sight, but always fail to see why kids love Cinnamon Toast Crunch: because of the cinnamon and sugar swirls in every bite.
- Unsolved Mysteries Carvel Commercial
Explanation A famous Twitter video in which a 1980's Carvel commercial has its audio changed into the Unsolved Mysteries theme song. Due to its popularity, a second version was made in which the Carvel ad's audio was placed over the Unsolved Mysteries intro. - The GrubHub Delivery Dance.
Explanation A CGI-animated ad for GrubHub that frequently showed up as a YouTube preroll ad during the 2020 holiday season. It got a lot of memes and jokes made about it in 2021 due to its perceived obnoxiousness and odd-looking characters, and then the other GrubHub ads featuring the dance and characters followed suit.- GrubHub Cinematic UniverseExplanation Quite a few keen eyes on the internet noticed a Shared Universe within the GrubHub ads and started concocting their own lore and theories, enough for the ads to get their own wiki](yes, really
). - GrubHub is Jimmy NeutronExplanation An episode
of Food Theory uploaded on April Fool's Day that suggested the idea of the GrubHub ads taking place in the world of Jimmy Neutron, but in The Future where Jimmy is responsible for creating the service, brought on by the taco-loving character resembling the titular protagonist and several college students wearing his atom logo on their school uniforms. GrubHub themselves added fuel to the fire by sending MatPat a package with several bits of concept art and a flash drive containing an unreleased ad, leading to a follow-up video.
- "We love the subs!"
Explanation Early 2000s Quiznos ad campaign that used the then-viral Spongmonkeys video "We Like the Moon" created by Joel Veitch, with the lyrics modified to tell the viewers how much the Spongmonkeys loved Quiznos's subs. However, the ad campaign was met with negative reception, because of the Spongmonkeys unsettling appearance.- "They've got a pepper bar!"Explanation A lyric towards the end of the song, where Quiznos highlights how they have a thing their main rival Subway lacks.
- "Pardon me, would you got any Grey Poupon?"Explanation '80s ad campaign for Grey Poupon dijon mustard where a man in a Rolls-Royce passes the product to a man in another Rolls-Royce.
- Dairy Queen Lips:
- "The new—[crunch]"explanation In one of the ads, the lips try to advertise DQ's Waffle Bowl Sundaes, but keep eating it whole before they can finish speaking. In the early 2020's, the ads featuring the Dairy Queen lips saw a resurgence in popularity thanks to a number of YouTube Poops being made out of them; these poops would often take this quote to exaggerated levels, editing any instance of the words "the new" being uttered so that it's immediately followed by the lips eating the ice cream.
- "Wanna buy a box of Thin Mints?"explanation One ad has the lips bargaining with a Girl Scout over buying a box of cookies, which similarly became a target of several poops and remixes. There's also a series of "bloopers" for the ads that has the lips at one point violently yanking the box out of her hands.
- "So, Phil, is it?"explanation In one ad, the lips call in an alien named Phil to verify that a chocolate shake is the best in the galaxy. Upon asking if it is, Phil proceeds to roar at the lips before exploding into a mound of green sludge. People have taken to the lips asking the above question, usually playing with Phil's reaction.
- “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!”Explanation: A Chiffon margarine ad from the 70s depicting the margarine replacing butter as an attempt to fool “Mother Nature” who was played by an actress in the ad
- ”He likes it! Hey Mikey!”Explanation 80s Life Cereal ad with kids wondering if Life cereal is good and giving it to a kid named Mikey who’s extremely picky
- Oops! All [x] Explanation Many parodies of the "Oops! All Berries" cereal box art have been made on the Internet, which usually poke fun at a perceived overabundance of something or twist the name in a humorous and/or dark way.
- "Gee Bill! How come your mom lets you eat two wieners? "NO SKINS!" Explanation An exchange originally featured in a vintage 1942 ad
◊ for skinless sausages by The Visker Corporation. The image has become a popular exploitable, with people modifying the image in many ways. - "Whopper Whopper Whopper Whopper, junior double triple Whopper...
" Explanation Part of a series of Burger King ads using a modified version of their 70s jingle
, infamous for it's repetitive opening and unenthusiastic vocals. It's since become particularly infamous among NFL fans, who associate it with bad plays and team misfortune. - "I put that s*** on everything!
"Explanation Slogan for Frank's RedHot sauce, in which the word "shit" is bleeped out with a splash of hot sauce. - "Cook like a mother
."Explanation Ad campaign introduced by pasta sauce brand Ragú in late 2021/early 2022, claiming that anyone could cook like a mother. Alternatively, it has a more subversive meaning, as in cook like a motherfucker.
Games and Toys
- "You sunk my battleship!" Explanation Advertisements for the game Battleship. Usually said when an actual ship sinks in real life.
- "Obey Wario, destroy Mario!" Explanation This was the US commercial for Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. Parodies have popped up involving other characters hypnotizing the viewer instead of Wario, such as Weegee.
- "Gotcha!" "Where? I don't see." "Here, diagonally!"Explanation An exchange between two players while playing Connect Four.
- "Pretty sneaky, sis!" Explanation The brother in the commercial's response to his sister's move. This line has since become a common response to someone being deceiving.
- "Pretty sneaky, Death!"
- Connect Four box art parodies Explanation It has been popular to make parodies of the box art for the game into something more weird or hilarious, starting with Connect One
◊ and continuing from there.
- "Thinking... thinking... It's a tarantula!" Explanation 20Q - CAN IT READ YOUR MIND?
- Attractive, Stripperiffic woman asking you to "Play Now, My Lord!" Explanation Evony's tagline, since parodied across the internet.
- "Skip it, skip it…"Explanation Used in 1990s advertisements
for the Skip-It jumping toy. The "Skip it" part of the jingle is usually used in the video commentary community if a particular commentary is running long and/or repeats a lot. - "MOVE!" "GO!" "BAKE!"Explanation The interjections of the "foreman" kid in a commercial for Digger Dan construction toys.
- "I'm supposed to be playing Game of War, but this one player keeps kicking my ass."Explanation From an advertisement
for the mobile game Game of War: Fire Age, quoted and snowcloned in many a Youtube comment section.- "Is it TheLegend27?!" "Yeah, TheLegend27." Explanation TheLegend27 is the star of the meme, and while he only wipes out players in Game of War, people have turned him into a Memetic Badass, making him capable of so much more.
- "That's how Mafia works" Explanation Ads for the mobile game Mafia City became infamous in early 2019 due to their low quality, not resembling the game
(the ads make it look like a Wide-Open Sandbox like Grand Theft Auto while the game is a city builder), and being weird in general. - 😭 WHY IS THIS GAME SO HARD? 😭Explanation In the late 2010s, it suddenly became a trend for ads for mobile games to show gameplay (or purported gameplay) from their games with a banner with this sentence or variations on it (complete with crying or sweating emojis on either side of it). These ads have been roundly mocked to hell and back due to their deceptive nature, the "players" always seem to make the worst possible decisions in the game (most infamously putting gasoline on fires or using pliers on a shorting out electrical wire in "fix these problems" games) or the few smart decisions they make being turned into dumb decisions through ridiculous Diabolus ex Machinas, and the "WHY IS THIS GAME SO HARD" message itself, especially since the "games" themselves otherwise look easy enough to not warrant complaints about their difficulty at all.
- "If you swallow Big Ben, you can go to Disneyland!" Explanation Another ad of for a game of a similar nature, claiming that if the person is able to successfully complete the game in question, they could win a trip to Disneyland.
- A man has fallen into the river in LEGO City! Explanation From one commercial for a LEGO City toy set. For some reason, starting in 2020 the dialogue (and occasionally the entire commercial) became popular to edit in to other contexts.
- "HEY!" Explanation A catchphrase usually said once in each LEGO City toy commercial, which has become a central part of the LEGO city memes mentioned above.
- Anything to do with the advertising for Lily's Garden. Explanation The ads feature sexual themes, relationship drama, and situations straight out of a soap opera. While the actual game does have themes of aging and romance, little of it has anything to do with the ads. In fact, it's a match-three puzzle game, not that you'd be able to tell. What helps is that the company is relatively self-aware about the ads, and they're higher production than most forms of clickbait, being fully animated clips. Of note are the two ads showing Lily and her friends using washing machines for an unintended use, and the two featuring her fiance abandoning her for announcing a pregnancy (one of which reveals she faked it).
- Special Barbie Month
Explanation A 1970 commercial for Barbie Month, featuring, a peppy, excitable girl talking to a more mellow girl about the items you could receive by getting a free Barbie membership. The commercial became popular due to being reposted on TikTok and Twitter in September 2023. The two girls grew especially popular due to their designs and differing personalities, with the mellow girl's personality being compared to that of a typical Goth, and tons of fan art was made featuring the two.- "Groovy." Explanation The mellow girl's deadpan reaction to some of the stuff being offered. It's become one of the prime phrases associated with the commercial and its characters, and a lot of fanart and memes involving the characters will utilize the phrase.
Infomercials
- "HI, BILLY MAYS HERE WITH [product name]!" Explanation Source: Billy Mays was a pitchman who advertised a lot of products in late-night infomercials before his death, making his name basically a celebrity endorsement. His Large Ham personality made him very memetic, and he is a common source for YouTube Poop videos.
- This meme found a resurgence shortly after his death, as he was in the news a lot.
- Memetic mutation has caused "Billy Mays Mode" to become a way to refer to caps lock, or simply typing in all capital letters. Taken to its logical conclusion when an application was created that played one of several quotes from Billy Mays when one pressed the Caps Lock button on the keyboard.
- Unstoppable Force vs. Immovable ObjectExplanation A fad in YouTube Poop in which a clip of something (or someone) getting struck is shown, then cuts to a clip of Billy Mays shouting "BURNT-ON CHEESE" in his Big City Slider Station infomercial, followed by a short continuation of the scene or a still shot of Billy Mays.
- Phil Swift, co-inventor of Flex Seal, can be considered a Spiritual Successor in sheer bombast to the late, great Billy Mays. A lot of his quotes have been quoted as reaction lines, used in remixes, and overall and mutated many times, with some of his most memetic phrases being listed below:
- "To show you the power of Flex Tape [skillsaw powers up], I sawed this boat in half!" Explanation Behind "That's a lot of damage!", this is one of the most memetic lines from Phil Swift's commercials, which is often quoted for how outlandish it is.
- "Flex on!" is the closest thing he has to a Catchphrase.
- "Shark-infested waters!"
- THAT'S A LOT OF DAMAGE!
Explanation This line from a commercial where he hacks up a bucket with a knife and chainsaw to demonstrate the product originating is probably the most popular of Swift's lines, with a large amount of Phil Swift remixes and reaction memes centering around the line. - "It even works under wooder!”
- And that’s only some of the stuff JonTron covered...
- "I've fallen and I can't get up!" Explanation Commercials for a company called LifeCall in 1989, before they went out of business in 1990. It was meant as a fairly serious representation of the kinds of problems elderly people living alone could run into, but the bad acting and narm were so memorable that it's still a popular mutation today.
- LifeAlert, a Spiritual Successor service to LifeCall, would later trademark the phrase for use in its own commercials.
- Slap-Chop commercial quotes, such as "You're gonna love my nuts" or "You're gonna be in a great mood all day, cause you'll be slapping your troubles away!". Similarly, Sham Wow quotes. Explanation Vince Offer, advertising Slap-chop
. He was used in YouTube Poops similarly to Billy Mays, and, as a result, has become an unofficial rival for him.- Mutation: The Slap-Chop Rap,
which has now been licensed to be put into the actual commercial. - The Scout is Vince
Offer
. Explanation By coincidence, the Scout from Team Fortress 2 bears an uncanny resemblance to Vince Offer. Became an Ascended Meme when Valve added in voicelines for Scout referencing the commercial.
- HI, I'M BARRY SCOTT! AND I USE CILLIT BANG! Explanation Cillit Bang and the spokesperson for their UK commercial campaign. It's since received a lot of remixes and parodies on the Internet. One of the most popular edits during the height of the commercial's popularity was a hardcore remix by JAKAZiD
.- BANG! AND THE DIRT IS GONE! Explanation Barry Scott's catchphrase in the commercials, which is one of the most notable lines from them and appears in a lot of the remixes.
- And it came full-circle in the US ads for Cillit Bang (known as Easy-Off BAM there), which used music "inspired by" the Cillit Bang remix video.
- In New Zealand, it's Easy-Off BAM, of course, and the guy has a hybrid NZ-American accent (well, most NZ advertising voice-overs have this weird hybrid accent).
- Kitchen Gun
Explanation A spoof of the Cillit Bang commercials from The Peter Serafinowicz Show that would become a meme in its own right, thanks to being a popular source for YTPMVs.
- Blankets are okay
, but they can slip and slide. And when you need to reach for something, your hands are trapped inside. Explanation Now there's the Snuggie: the blanket that has sleeves! - I am a non-attorney spokesperson. If you or a loved one was diagnosed with mesothelioma... Explanation This comes from commercials that claim that one can be compensated for contracting illnesses from their job or surgery. The lines from the commercial have since become copypastas, specifically the one that first mentions mesothelioma.
- "Because remember, there's no such thing as the poop fairy." Explanation Citizens from the Hampton Roads area in Virginia will most likely never forget one of the first "Scoop the Poop" commercials
. - National FF-Type Kerosene Heater
. Explanation Only in Japan does a TV product recall "commercial" become a meme. Though that's to be expected when it's been played over 28000 times in a year on TV and over 8000 times on radio. - I'm Earl Scheib, and I'll paint any car for only $99.95.
Explanation Advertisment for a car repair shop, featuring the eponymous Earl Scheib, an old man who did his own ads. - "Yeah, nah"/"No more beersies for you."Explanation From New Zealand anti-drinking campaign, "Say Yeah, Nah". "Yeah, nah" (common New Zealand colloquialism for "no") is translated by the people behind the campaign as "yeah, I want to hang out with you, but nah, I don't want another drink". It's perhaps unsurprising that this became viral, since the campaigners themselves encouraged viewers to use the catchphrases to decline drinks.
- And remember, I'm not only the Meme Club president, I'm also a client. Explanation Based on Sy Sperling's closing line to his Hair Club For Men spots, which was accompanied by a photo of him when he was still bald.
Medicine and Beauty Care
- Side Effects Include... nausea, fatigue, mild headache, itching, dry mouth, memory problems, sleeplessness, diarrhea, vomiting, double-vision, rashes, constipation, severe halitosis, weight gain, hair loss, anal leakage, suicidal thoughts, temporary blindness, impotence, and death. Consult your physician. Explanation All commercials about prescribed medicine list the possible side-effects of the medicine. This has been parodied countless times by exaggerating the long list of ridiculous side-effects or contrasting the cheerful demeanor of the people in the commercials with the side effects.
- "HeadOn: Apply Directly to the Forehead."
Explanation A commercial for a homeopathic headache medicine was forbidden from saying it cures headaches and so merely repeated the above line several times. Mutations often substitute "HeadOn" and "forehead".- Later, the company itself began running commercials saying "HeadOn: I hate your commercials, but I love your product!" in an attempt to mutate it in their favor.
- The phrase "B.O." Explanation In the 1930s, the soap-manufacturing company Lifebuoy wanted to advertise a new soap that was promised not simply to mask body odor, but to get rid of it. Problem was, at that time the phrase "body odor" was considered vulgar. Instead, for their printed ads Lifebuoy coined the term "B.O." for "Body Odor." For their radio ads they made it sound even more ominous: the very letters "B.O." were censored with a two-note foghorn sound, as in "BEEEH-OHHHH". Not only was the advertising campaign successful, the initials "B.O." entered the American vernacular. The foghorn sound would also be parodied in many a Western cartoon, being played whenever something foul-smelling is shown onscreen.
- I'm not a meme, but I play one on TV! Explanation From an advert for Vicks cough syrup. It was considered good advice for a time, when commenting on professional topics online, such as healthcare, to add a note that you are not, for instance, a healthcare professional. Thus the near-omnipresent phrase "I am not a doctor" tempted people to recall this slogan.
- It's been replaced by a similar one: "Are you an X?" "No, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night."
- BOM-CHICKA-WOW-WOW!!! Explanation Axe/Lynx deodorant
- “Diabeetus.” Explanation A series of commercials for Liberty Medical diabetes products starring Wilford Brimley, who pronounced “diabetes” this way. The "diabeetus" soundbite has made its way into a lot of videos, and his commercials have a fairly decent presence in YouTube Poop.
- "Hello tropers. Look at your entry. Now back to mine. Now back to your entry. Now back to mine... Sadly, yours isn't mine. But if you stopped posting wrong examples and followed the guidelines, it could look like mine. Look down, back up, where are you? You're at TV Tropes, reading an article about memes. What's in your hand, now back to me. I have it, it's a famous meme from that commercial you love. Look again. THE MEME IS NOW DIAMONDS. Anything is possible when you follow the guidelines and not post bad examples. I'm on a laptop." Explanation The Man Your Man Could Smell Like, courtesy of Old Spice Body Wash.
Best known for Dramatic Deadpan Breathless Non Sequitur delivery, it spawned various Internet parodies. - Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea! Explanation Pepto Bismol's slogan which showed what the pink medicine could cure. Complete with a rather silly-looking dance.
- TROJAN MAAAAAN! Explanation A long-running Product as Superhero condom advertisement, which often comes up when discussing condoms.
- Ricolaaaaa! Explanation Ricola's tagline, which has a yodeler blow into a horn as he says, "Ricolaaaaa!"
- Plop-Plop! Fizz-Fizz! Oh, what a relief it is! Explanation Alka-seltzer Tablets
- "I thought you were Dale!" Explanation From Mystery Science Theater 3000, an accidental mash-up of a Grape Nuts commercial and an Ivory Soap commercial
- It'll hurt if I swallow... it'll hurt if I swallow... *gulp* MOMMY!
Explanation A commercial for Chloraseptic, a sore throat medicine. It was popularized in 2011 by Black Nerd Comedy. - Also, what sportswriters really want to ask Troy Polamalu is how he keeps his hair so fabulous. Explanation Head & Shoulders Shampoo
- "Manly, yes; but I like it too." Explanation The old Irish Spring commercials were famous enough to have generated at least one parody song, King Missile's "The Commercial".
- "This man is a dentist, so we can't show you his face on television." Explanation From a commercial on Oral-B toothbrushes, where the dentist always has his back shown on screen.
- "And remember, if don't get help at Charter... Please get help somewhere." Explanation From a Charter Mental Health Hospital commercial.
- "Nyquil – the nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, aching, coughing, stuffy-head, fever, so you can rest medicine."Explanation Spoken in ads for the cold medicine Nyquil. Mutations, and later versions of the ad, use other words in place of "sniffling, sneezing, aching, coughing, stuffy-head, fever, so you can rest".
- "Jag... är... Ipren den intelligenta värktabletten.
" Explanation A Swedish ad for the painkiller Ipren, well known for a stupidly catchy melody and endearing mascot that captured peoples imagination during the early 2000's.
Money and Insurance
- Internet: $49.95. Computer: $599.95. Discovering TV Tropes and having it ruin your life: priceless. Explanation Source: Mastercard commercials would do this, showing the things the people in the commercial would buy using the credit card and ending with the tagline, "There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's Mastercard". Typically, the "priceless" item would be some kind of epic win.
- "Bad news: [X]. Good news, I just saved a lot of money on car insurance by switching to GEICO." Typically the bad news is very bad, to make the lack of real good news that much worse. Explanation This used to be a type of commercial for GEICO insurance. In fact, Bad News, Irrelevant News used to be called Switching To GEICO. It's since become a massive snowclone re-appropriated for other situations.
- GEICO, so easy to use... a caveman could do it. Explanation From one of the most famous commercials, which featured a well-dressed caveman walking by a poster featuring the slogan and a traditional caveman. The caveman character proved so popular that various ads following it have reused the character.
- RINGADINGDINGDINGYDONG
Explanation A Geico commercial had one of the workers of the company with a cellphone that has this ringtone.- Believe it or not, you can actually download this ringtone from the Geico site.
- HUMP DAY.Explanation: A Geico commercial where a camel annoys his human coworkers every Wednesday due to how happy he is about the pun
- From Ireland: "I don't know what a tracker mortgage is!"
Explanation The Financial Regulator, an Irish governmental agency- Excuse me. What's this ad for?
- Calm down, dear, it's only a meme. Explanation esure insurance, and their commercial campaign with Michael Winner.
- I am Aleksandr, founder of CompareTheMeerkat.com Explanation CompareTheMarket.com, a UK insurance comparison website which uses a meerkat called Aleksandr Orlov. The commercial quickly became a viral hit, and it became the company's premier marketing campaign.
- CompareTheMEERKAT.com, CompareTheMARKET.com - Simples! Explanation Aleksandr's signing-off catchphrase, followed by a "squeak" noise. Said catchphrase is popular to imitate in the UK.
- “You’re soooooo MoneySuperMarket!” Explanation MoneySuperMarket ads, in the UK, typically show something silly or disconcerting (depending on your opinions) such as a man wearing a smart shirt and tie with really tight, really short booty shorts and tall heels strutting down the street, or a builder pole dancing on some scaffolding on a skyscraper, or the aforementioned man and builder having a dance off in a multi-storey car park. At the end of the ad, a elderly woman says “You’re soooooo MoneySuperMarket!” So people can reply to something seen as very camp or very silly with “You’re sooooo MoneySuperMarket!” (Usually mimicking the woman’s posh accent as well).
- OH EIGHT HUNDRED DOUBLE OH, TEN SIXTY-SIX!!!!! Explanation Hastings Direct, a UK insurance company, whose last four digits of their number correspond with the year the Battle of Hastings took place.
- GO COMPAAAAAARE! GO COMPAAAAAARE! WHEN IN DOUBT, CHECK THEM OUT, GO COMPAAAAAARE! WITH JUST A FEW CLICKS AND YOUR SPONDOOOOOLIKS AND YOU'LL THANK YOUR STARS THAT YOU WENT TO GO COMPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARE!!! Explanation Go Compare, another UK insurance comparison website and their tenor character Gio. (And no, the lyrics really don't make any sense.)
- They sort of do, if you get them right. It's "With just a few clicks, you'll save spondulicks [as in slang for cash]..."
- "Oh, no! Your tire's all flat an' junk!" Explanation From a popular Geico commercial
featuring a pothole speaking in a Southern accent. - I haaa~ve a structured settlement and I need cash now~ Call J.G. WENTWORTH! 877-CASH NOW! Explanation J.G. Wentworth, a financial services firm, had a commercial consisting of opera singers singing about having structured settlements or monthly annuities, but they need cash now.
- It's your money, use it when you need it!
- IT'S MY MONEY AND I NEED IT NOW! Explanation Another J.G. Wentworth commercial, featuring several people opening their windows, sticking their heads out, and shouting this phrase.
- Shoulda gone to Freeeeeeee Credit Report dot com! (Yeehaw!) Explanation FreeCreditReport.Com became famous with their commercials featuring a band that sings about their tribulations when dealing with horrible credit and how they should've went to the site to keep track of it.
- AFLAC! Explanation Aflac's mascot, a duck initially voiced by Gilbert Gottfried, that always quacks the company's name.
- USA Prime Credit, I am Peggy.
Explanation Campaign started by Discover to tout their customer service compared to other credit card companies. Well known enough in the general population but the ones made in conjuction with the NHL have made it a top tier meme among hockey fans. More recent spots feature superstars Patrick Kane and Tim Thomas. Other such spots included NCAA football legends Bobby Bowden and Lou Holtz. "Peggy", by the way, is played by Romanian-born actor Tudor Petrut. - Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there... with a meme explanation! Explanation One of State Farm's ad campaigns, showing "like a good neighbor, State Farm is there" as magic words to get literally anything you want.
- Is this Jake from State Farm?Explanation Following a commercial involving a man's wife catching him speaking on the phone in the middle of the night (complete with suggestive dialogue), the wife snatches the phone and demands to know who is on the other end. It's an insurance representative from State Farm named Jake.
- Get Allstate. Save cash and be better protected from mayhem... like me. Explanation The Allstate Mayhem Guy, played by Dean Winters, is a villain that goes around and causes general disarray to drivers. He usually describes the situation, playing as somebody or something, and makes a car have a nasty accident as a result.
- We! Are! Farmers! Bum ba dum bum bum bum bum!Explanation Radio and TV commercials (featuring J. K. Simmons) for Farmers Insurance Group, who is quickly rivaling GEICO in the department of snarky, humorous insurance ads.
- Only pay for what you need. Liberty, Liberty, Li-ber-ty! Li-ber-ty!Explanation The current slogan and jingle used for Liberty Mutual's TV commercials.
- The Nationwide Kid.
Explanation A very poorly-received Nationwide commercial aired during Super Bowl XLIX featured a young boy who described all of the things he wouldn't experience...because he died from an accident. - "That's not how this works! That's not how any of this works!" Explanation From an Esurance ad where a group of older ladies watches one of their friends describe how she saves time by posting photos to her "wall"...which is an actual wall in her house. The memetic phrase occurs when one of the other ladies points out the obvious.
PSAs/PIFs
- "Only you can prevent memeing."Explanation The long-running Smokey the Bear spots, addressing forest fire/wildfire prevention. "Only you can prevent forest fires" has since mutated, with "forest fires" being replaced with something else.
- "Friends don't let friends [insert phrase here]" Explanation Started as a drunk driving commercial, "Friends don't let friends drive drunk." Has since become a snowclone for all sorts of things.
- One mutation popular in the 1990s with Apple Macintosh fans: "Friends don't let friends do DOS."
- You wouldn't download a car. Explanation This Digital Piracy Is Evil PSA used to play before movies in the theater. While the original PSA didn't have the phrase, it originated from an image of a slide edited to say the phrase, which quickly became memetic for being a Fantastic Aesop: we can't download cars (yet), however we feel about the ethics of downloading. The result was many variations of the image which replace "car" with another thing, usually something else that can't be downloaded.
- "You, all right!? I learned it by watching you!"Explanation "Parents who use drugs...Have children who use drugs."
- This is a meme. This is a meme on drugs. Any questions? Explanation The famous PSA that involved an egg and frying it in a pan, respectively representing the "brain" and "drugs", then that same egg being fried (this is your brain on drugs). The line from the commercial has since become a big snowclone used to contrast two versions of the same thing, with the one "on drugs" being the first thing, but radically different than before.
- Followed up by a sequel in which Rachael Leigh Cook proceeds to wreck an apartment with a frypan. No, ma'am, we will NOT do heroin. We'll just settle for your number and what time you're free for a date, thank you!
- An Easter Egg death in Space Quest 4, in which Roger steps onto a planet without the right protective gear: "This is Roger. This is Roger on Ortega. Any questions?"
- This has been spoofed by many pieces of pop culture, from Batman Forever to (most surprisingly) a PBS Kids promo.
- Cook ended up reprising
the role in a PSA criticizing how the War On Drugs disproportionately targets minorities.
- "This isn't normal, but on meth it is." "Meth: not even once." Explanation A series of graphic Scare 'Em Straight ads originating in Montana warning about the dangers of meth. For example, the originals included "Beating an old man for money isn't normal. But on meth it is." "Fifteen bucks for sex isn't normal. But on meth it is." The meme parodied the slogan by adding it to absurd and random images, such as Chewbacca playing baseball
◊, claiming that those things would only be normal on meth, which put the slogan into a more humorous context. - "Grab a chip? A chip?" "You know I can't grab any of your GHOST CHIPS!" Explanation From ''Legend''
a New Zealand Drink Driving ad, a teenager imagines that his friend has come back as a ghost to haunt him after dying in a car accident caused by drink driving.- "I've been internalizing a complicated situation in my head."
- Stop it. Get some help. Explanation From a Mcdonald's anti-drug PSA featuring Michael Jordan, used to express disgust or concern with someone or something. The original line was "If you do drugs, stop it. Get some help."
- "What would you do if there was a child right in front of you?"Explanation The opening line of a UNICEF PSA hosted by Alyssa Milano, this can be found preceding clips of, say, a little kid being pushed aside in a comical way.
- "We're not candy! Believe us! Even though we look so fine and dandy..." Explanation A Public Service Announcement from 1983 made by Long Island Poison Control starring pill puppets about how medicine shouldn't be mistaken for candy that became a meme around March 2023, spawning many parodies and covers.
- "Yeah, I do D.R.U.G.S.: D _____ / R _____ / U _____ / G _____ / S _____" Explanation Apparently originated with a poster promoting Math, English, Technology & Science and History via Fun with Acronyms. In most parodic uses of the meme, M.E.T.H. is replaced with D.R.U.G.S. or the name of some other drug, and none of the phrases attached begin with the initials.
Retailers
- YA BUY ONE, YA GET ONE FREE AHSEDYA BUY ONE, YA GET ONE FREE!!! Explanation Safestyle UK, a window frame seller.
- BELLY'S GONNA GET YOU!
has become a standard cheer for anyone overweight. Explanation Reebok sportswear - "It's just like—it's just like a mini mall!" Explanation Flea Market Montgomery
, a store that specializes in selling home furnishings, released a commercial where the owner Sammy Stevens raps about his store. Many have found the commercial So Bad, It's Good. It was popularized thanks to Ellen DeGeneres's talk show. - IKEA:
- Many of you feel bad for zis trope. That iz because you crazy!
Explanation From Ikea's commercial, which shows a person buying a new lamp and chucking the old one, placing it near garbage cans. A spokesperson shows up in the end to remind you that it is just a lamp that has no feelings whatsoever, so you should stop feeling sorry for it. Parodied in this
VG Cats comic. - For Pride Month 2021, IKEA collaborated with various queer designers to create a series of love seats
◊ with the theme of Queer Colors (it should be noted that only one of each were produced, and they were not meant to be sold to consumers). While most of them are rather tasteful and aesthetically pleasing, the bisexual flag couch drew the most attention out of the bunch: the couch is covered in felt and plastic hands which look unintentionally disturbing, and unlike the other couches, it incorporates text into its design, a lamentation about bisexual erasure ("When you change OR to AND, nobody believes you")note a passage from a poem written by the couch's designer. It became the subject of many jokes on Tumblr, being referred to as the "IKEA biphobia couch" or "bisexual horror couch".
- Diamonds are forever. Explanation A tagline from DeBeers Engagement Rings. It has frequently been referenced in pop culture.
- This is not just a meme, this is an exaggerated, cool background music-containing, sexy Irish-voiced, M&S meme. Explanation Advertising for Marks & Spencer, a retailer in the UK.
- The biggest-ever DFS sale is now on! Hurry: must end soon! Explanation UK sofa retailer DFS and their seemingly never-ending sale have become a Running Gag in Britain. It's actually an endless succession of different sales rather than one continuous one, but they're all referred to as just "the DFS sale", making it seem as though they've been holding this one sale non-stop since 1998.
- "WOW! THAT'S A LOW PRICE!" Explanation Staples
(video is private, and unable to view it) commercials featuring this irritating character, dubbed "Loud Low-Price Guy". - You probably thought X was alive. NOOOOPE! Chuck Testa!
Explanation A taxidermy ad made for an episode of Rhett & Link: Commercial Kings'' in which Chuck Testa manipulates taxidermized animals and fools people into thinking they're alive, thereby demonstrating how lifelike his work is. It quickly caught on for its So Bad, It's Good nature and spawned tons of image macros. - WE MAY BE A MEME BUT WE'RE NOT STUPID! AT CRAZY GIDEON'S!!!
Explanation A store in the Los Angeles area, Crazy Gideon's commercials were famous for being loud and insane. - Super-regional example: "You can't spell Texas without H-E-B!" Explanation A song by Jack Ingram, "You Can’t Spell Texas Without H-E-B" was created in 2011 for the H-E-B grocery chain. It managed to get popular enough to be played in the Super Bowl in the same year.
- HI, I'M GEORGE ZIMMER, FOUNDER AND CEO OF THE MEN'S WEARHOUSE. I SHOW UP TO PONTIFICATE ON MY COMA-INDUCING SEXUAL PROWESS AND BROBDIGNAGIAN TACKLE, AND MOST LIKELY MY ENGAGING YOUR CRETINOUS MOTHER IN AN HOURS-LONG SESSION OF MIND-SHATTERING PLOWING AS WELL, TYPICALLY DESCRIBED IN OUTLANDISH, PERVERSE, VERBOSE HYPERBOLE USING NOTHING BUT CAPITAL LETTERS. I GUARANTEE IT. note In the late 2000s, many copypastas arose that imitated the style of George Zimmer's commercials, often being profanity-laden and crossing the line twice, and nearly always ending with "I GUARANTEE IT".
- Craaaaazy Bruuuuce's Liquoooooors... We've got the bargains for you! (Whoo! Whoo! Whoo!) Explanation This
and other commercials for a liquor store called Crazy Bruce's Liquors. It became a minor fad in the YouTube Poop community. - "It's a sofa by day! / And a bed by night! Is it true? Yes it is! ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!" Explanation If you've ever lived in northern Indiana, The Futon Factory
will haunt you for all eternity. That ad hasn't run in at least a decade, maybe closer to 15 years, but everyone in the area knows it by heart. - Ship my pants?note A Kmart commercial that had several people "shipping" their pants or other items, beating the obvious scatological mondegreen into the ground.
- "Here at Crazy Eddie
, our prices are... INSAAAANE!!!" Explanation Trope Codifier of the Insane Proprietor, a defunct electronics chain in the northeastern United States whose commercials featured a loud, "insane" pitchman. - Leave off the last S for savings. Explanation Slogan for Dial-a-Mattress
, whose phone number was 1-800-MATTRES. - The P.C. Richard & Son whistle
, a.k.a. the New York Yankees strikeout whistle. Explanation Used by an electronics and appliance chain in the New York City area. It is played at Yankee Stadium every time an opposing batter strikes out. - "Trust Sleepy's... for the rest of your life!" Explanation Long-running jingle for a defunct chain of mattress stores in the northeastern United States.
- Child killing mattress
Explanation In one Sleepy's commercial, a child jumps on a competitor's bed before bouncing onto a bed from Sleepy's and instantly falling asleep. This two-second clip from the ad (set to "Dive Into the Heart" from Kingdom Hearts) makes it seem like the kid died.
Other
- "Excuse me...Are those Bugle Boy jeans that you're wearing?" Explanation The lovely lady in this commercial stops her car on a desert road just to ask this of a guy standing there—And then drives off when he says they are.
- Hey CULLIGAN man!Explanation The animated lady in ads for Culligan home water filtration service.
- "You've just won the Super Bowl! What are you doing next?" "I'm Going to Disney World!" Explanation First spoken by New York Giants' Phil Simms following their win of Super Bowl XXI in 1987. It's since become a popular stock phrase, with winning the Super Bowl being replaced with any other huge accomplishment.
- "We'll leave the light on for you."Explanation Spoken by Tom Bodett in radio for motel chain Motel 6.
- The Shake Weight
.Explanation Following the commercial airing, people began to make fun of this commercial due to the apparent sexual connotation of repeatedly pumping a phallic object. Seems to have fallen off after South Park aired an episode making fun of this. - Basically anything that sings the jingle of numbers. Examples include:
- 1-800-45 Closet, CLOSET WORLD!
- 1-800-95-JENNY
! - 800-588-2300 EMPIRE!
Today.- This one's so memetic in the Chicago area that a Vienna Beef Hotdog ad has "You've memorized the phone number to Empire Carpet" as a sign that you're a Chicagoan.
- In the late 2000's, their ads spread outside of Chicago and were constantly overplayed on TV stations on the East Coast and in the Midwest. This resulted in a meme spurring in 2019 where text describing a situation where a TV could be on is shown above a video or screencap of the 2000's era end tag for the Empire Today commercial. For example, the post that began the meme talked about the OP's parents arguing as the commercial played.
The meme extended to other frequently-aired television ads from that era. - Comments on compilations videos of the end tags of Empire Today ads will joke about how the people doing the home as the jingle plays have been working on it since 1992, as the end tags that have debuted since that year have depicted people putting flooring into a house that is being built.
- In July of 2019, a meme spurred where the end tag's music is replaced by another song.
- Another meme involving the ad has owners of dogs filming videos of them howling to the jingle as a reaction.
- "2300 and 5!/and pie!" Explanation The overplay of the Empire Today commercials occasionally extended to local insertion parts of commercial breaks on kids' channels like Nickelodeon. Due to the young age of the viewers of such channels, many kids who saw the ad misheard "Empire" as either "And 5" or "And pie".
- "I never knew Stan Lee sold carpet!" Explanation Many people noticed that the Empire Carpet Man, Lynn Hauldren, looks very similar to Stan Lee.
- Similarly: 773-202-(beep beep beep beep) LUNAExplanation Another Chicago carpet company. The beeping is touch tones, which ironically don't match up with the number.
- 1-800-STEEMER... Stanley Steemer makes your home cleaner!
- "Hey, Mom! Check out Toby's new trick!" Explanation The most famous commercial for Stanley Steemer involves a boy asking his mom and her friend to watch their pet dog wiping his butt on the carpet. It became popular enough to be spoofed on Saturday Night Live and appeared on the TBS special The World's Funniest Commercials. It also got three sequel commercials that aired twelve years after the original ad premiered.
- "1-877-KARS-4-KIDS / K-A-R-S / KARS-4-KIDS" Explanation A car donation service with an annoyingly catchy jingle
that's best known for running ads on baseball games in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic US. - 877-393-4448! (Think of it being sung in the style of reggaeton with the "4448" bit hyperextended.)
- And in the United Kingdom, we have the number for the car insurance firm Hastings Direct: "0800 00 1066
", sung as "Oh-eight-hundred double-oh, ten-sixty-six." - CAAAAALL 337-2323! 337-2323! 337-2323 FOR PIZZA HUT DE-LIV-ER-Y!
- Nine-six-seven, eleven, eleven!Explanation The Canadian pizza chain Pizza Pizza began using this as its centralized delivery ordering number in its early days in Toronto, and still uses the number (now with area code 416 required) in Toronto to this day. As it expanded outside the Toronto area into the rest of Ontario and eventually other provinces, it requested numbers ending in -1111 in order to continue this marketing strategy (with obvious changes to the local exchange as needed).
- 8-7000
JOLLIBEE DELIVERY!
- 502, triple-seven, eleven eleven, 502, triple-seven, eleven eleven...
- "Not happy, Jan!" Explanation An Australian Yellow Pages ad.
- Mutation: People annoyed with the actions of former Prime Minister John Howard turned it into the Catchphrase "Not happy, John!"
- It does Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Explanation Invented as a marketing slogan for Ronseal Quick Drying Woodstain, to make the point that you never need ask "What is Ronseal Quick Drying Woodstain?" because if you can say the product name you know what it is.
- Quickly adopted as a stock phrase meaning that something is self-explanatory; ubiquitous enough to be the Trope Namer for Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
- In Doctor Who, when Jack Harkness is stripped naked by a Defabricator he recites this phrase.
- Referenced in politics when David Cameron referred to the coalition government as "A Ronseal Deal"
- "I love Cliche Storms, I love the Jerkasses, I love the Big Nos, I love the Badasses! I love TV Tropes, and all its bits and words! Boom de ah da! Boom de ah da! Boom de ah da! Boom de ah da!" Explanation The Discovery Channel's "Boom De Ah Da" series of ads. It's got an entire playlist devoted to people making their own versions, and those are only the ones they like.
- J-Rock! Girugamesh! I love anime! And manga!
Explanation An infamous commercial for Sakura-Con 2009, which is frequently quoted on forums, especially "GIRUGAMESH". - The CRAZY WAREHOUSE GUY!!! We have rugs for 50, 60, 70, 80 and even 90% off! Closing down sale!! We've closed down before, but this time we mean it! If we don't sell this entire container by midnight, we'll burn the lot!
- "I'm Jim Adler, the Texas Hammer!"
Explanation Jim Adler, a lawyer that specializes in injury claims, was well-known for having very assertive ads, claiming that he'll hammer for lost wages and medical bills. - Hurt in a car? Call William Mattar
Explanation Rochester, NY-based injury attorney - Who's better than Lastman's Bad Boy? NOOOOOBODY
!Explanation before Mel Lastman became mayor of North York and Toronto for about one hundred gazillion years (31 years to be exact), he was the owner of the appliance and electronics chain Lastman's Bad Boy. In 1993, he regained control of the company while still in office launching a series of commercials which would always end with the narrator asking "Who's better than Lastman's Bad Boy?" and Mel in a prison jumpsuit yelling NOOOOOOOBODY! - "[Athlete's name] going all [ATHLETE'S NAME]!" Explanation From a DirecTV commercial where LL Cool J chastises NFL fans who missed Phillip Rivers going all PHILLIP RIVERS! because they only had cable.
- I lift things up and put them down. Explanation A commercial for Planet Fitness.
- I MADE A BUNNYYYYYYY!!
- Do you want me to put my email? BANG BANG BANG POW BANG POW POW POW BANG BANG BANG POW BANG BANG POW POW.
- "Is it the shoes?" Explanation One in a series of Nike commercials with Michael Jordan and Spike Lee (appearing as Mars Blackmon, his character from his film She's Gotta Have It) produced the line "Is it the shoes?", which was later picked up for use by NBA Jam's announcer. Maybe it was the shoes after all...
- A very localized and specific meme, to those stationed on US military bases in Korea 2007-2009. An ad of a floating Genghis Khan head repeating seductively "Mongolian Barbeque..."
- 1-800 Contacts launched a very memetic commercial indeed
. note This commercial was made popular by a Mass Effect parody
, and various other parodies were made featuring characters from other media. Woman: Your contact lenses just arrived.
Man: 1-800 Contacts? They can't have my brand! I have special eyes.
Woman: Look! Look with your special eyes!
- "30 seconds! Spray & Walk Away!"Explanation Ad featuring an Asian scientist who talks in hilariously racist accent, for New Zealand cleaning product Spray & Walk Away
- "Hotel? Trivago.
" Explanation From a commercial for the hotel price search website that's so overplayed people started use it to make jokes
. If ever you say "hotel" and leave a moment of space, you can be sure someone will follow up with "Trivago". - Sorry, this isn't a list of memes. It's a Tide ad.
note From a commercial where David Harbour interrupts other advertisements (Including The Man Your Man Could Smell Like) and declaring it to actually be an ad for Tide - This ugly son of a bitch is fucking super hot chicks, and basically, you are fucking stupid. How? Just watch the free video...Explanation A banner ad that appeared on porn sites advertising a "free video" that nobody ever watched, it became exploitable due to its hilariously abrasive pitch.
- Te hace falta ver más bax
.Translanation "You need to watch more boxing." Explanation An ad campaign launched in Mexico by Tecate beer, featuring Sylvester Stallone, in which he proceeded to reprimand men for being unmanly. The ads became often quoted because Stallone could not properly spell Box in Spanish (and mangled the pronunciation to Bax) and the ad's storylines were ridiculous and manly, and the phrase is often used when someone fails to man up. - "Hello... Frank Walker for National Tiles." Explanation The standard introduction for a South East Queensland-based tile showroom's radio advertisements since 2015, delivered in a particularly grating nasal tone of voice. Guaranteed by now to p!ss listeners off.
- "Ahh, the Polynesian Spa."Explanation After Temuera Morrison finished filming The Book of Boba Fett Season 1, he recorded an advertisement
for the Polynesian Spa in Rotorua, New Zealand, ending with him sitting in a pool overlooking Lake Rotorua; several fans have since reedited it into Morrison swimming through various Star Wars locales, and occasionally added others reacting to the sight of him in an uncharacteristically relaxed mood. When a Boba Fett ad showed Boba submerged in bacta, fans even treated the clip as official footage of him visiting the Polynesian Spa. Episodes in which Boba doesn't appear or talk at all prompted jokes of him spending the day there again. - "Thank you for coming to Loews! Sit back and relax. Enjoy the show!" Explanation This jingle that played in the Loews Theater policy trailers became a fad in the 80's and 90's, to the point where people who went there would sing along with it when it came on. It was so notorious that it was parodied on Saturday Night Live several times.
- In 2021, AMC Theatres released We Make Movies Better, a promotional commercial starring Nicole Kidman that plays before every film. Because of repeated exposure due to showing before every standard movie (especially to patrons who see films frequently with the chain's subscription service), the ad has gone memetic, inspiring recitals
, edits
, parodies
, salutes
, and clothing
. Kidman herself was surprised to learn of its popularity
.Somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place like this.
- "1 strange tip for (x): one simple trick to (x) that has angered (experts in x) Explanation Countless banner ads across the internet follow this format.
- Nike 30th anniversary: Believe in everything - even if it means sacrificing everythingExplanation The ad focused on Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who ignited controversy by sitting and later kneeling during the U.S. National Anthem played prior to games in protest of racial inequality. The ad soon went memetic with alternate subjects such as cats, dogs, Donald Trump, and even characters such as Thanos.
- “It’s BACONNNNN!Explanation Beggin’ Strips dog snacks ad that had the dog excitedly thinking the snacks were real bacon
- The Indi Home Paket Phoenix JingleExplanation: Originating from an advertisement by Indi Home, owned by Telecom Indonesia, the jingle in question became a meme in mid-2020 because of how catchy it is.
Unformatted:
- For you folks in Northeast Ohio... Norton's Furniture is here for you! Seriously. If you can't get credit in his store... you can't get credit ANYWHERE.
- And not to mention... Liberty's in Aurora (Solon)! Maple Heights (Bedford)! Canton (Independence)! Parma Heights! Brunswick! Vermilion! Ohmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...
- For you folks in Southwest Ohio... SAVE CASH AT KASH'S! KASH'S BIG BARGAIN BARN!
- For ANYONE here in Ohio... IT'S YOUR MONEY, AND YOU NEED IT NOW!
- "Sit 'n Sleep will beat anyone's advertised price, or your mattress is FREEEEEEE!"
- "YOU'RE KILLING ME, LARRYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!"
- Anyone who lives in the northeastern United States knows Bob's Discount Furniture and its Stop Motion pitchman.
- Similarly in Maine, we have Furniture Superstore, complete with Motor Mouth and the famous "DOOOOOOOON'T MISS IT!"
- Two related ones from the San Francisco Bay Area: "Have a good night's sleep for less, Mattress Discounters!" and "Sleep Train! *woo woo* Your ticket to a better night's sleep!"
- U-Phage! It's what puts the Rope in TV Tropes!
- Weeeeeeee wish you a Merry Christmas, but at the mall, you're spending too much...
- Those living in the Pacific Northwest, particular western Washington State are familiar with Pemco Insurance Northwest Profiles.
- Those in the Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina (although it may also apply outside the Triad) should recognize "CAAAAAAROLINA KIA!"
- For those of you from New Orleans: "Ro-sen-berg's, Ro-sen-berg's, Eight-teen Twenty-Five Tu-lane
" - NERD GATE!!
- The Nike "Write the Future" lampshades the Memetic Mutation process, in which a soccer player's fancy footwork gains international notoriety and gets replicated via YouTube Poop.
- For anyone who lives in Alabama or near it: ~Charles Pittman Is The Way To Go, Call Five three three five oh oh oh!~ [[labelnote:Explanation]] A very enthusiastic lawyer's ads always end in this jingle. Always.
- Another lawyer who uses the same jingle, but with his name: "Glen Lerner is the way to go! Call Eight Seven Seven One Five Oh Oh!" or "Glen Lerner is the lawyer for you! Call Two Two Two Twenty-Two Twenty-Two!" Later he partnered and it changed to “Lerner and Rowe are the lawyers for you…”
- Eagle insurance and its cheesy Eagleman mascot for Illinois residents
”do you have insurance on this car?”
“no”
“it must be Eagleman!”
“I’ve got something for you!” *lays an egg, which hatches*
“oh look at those low rates!”
- Another Illinois one: “The Illinois Hammer is on the way!” Illinois Hammer is a worker’s comp law firm known for being rather aggressive in their approach.
- Also Illinois: The General insurance, with their short cartoon army general mascot. “For great car insurance you can get online, go to The General and save some time”
- Nick India DabExplanation A particularly cringy interstitial on the Indian version of Nickelodeon (for their Teacher's Day initiative), involving a boy teaching people how to dab. It's found life in the rest of the world as a source for "X but Y" memes.
*busts through index, screaming*
P-P-P-P-P-P-POWER!
*explosion*