Favorite Commercials | The IHOP French Toast Commercial
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(Brylcreem hair product) College football players in white uniforms enter the field one by one, to the cheers of fans. "I've Come Back - To Brylcreem", they say one after another. Definitive look at the glamour of football.
(Pontiac Firebird) The sports car is delivered to a groom in white tie and tails. Later, a man wearing a Mod, long-pointed collar shirt cruises the night in the car.
(Ginger Ale) A young man offers an engagement ring to a woman, under a tree.
(Public Service Announcement for the US Department of Labor) Batgirl threatens to sue Batman and Robin for sex discrimination in her job. Very funny, and with a good point. (1972). Video.
(Great American Soups) Ann Miller's kitchen opens up to reveal an old style movie set, and she does a big tap dance routine to celebrate the soup. By Stan Freberg. (1970) Video.
(Pro Keds shoes) A runner practices racing in deserted city streets in early morning hours. An older milkman tells him he "is looking good". He is eventually magically changed into shiny running clothes at the end of the spot.
(Lipton's Tea) Men fall backwards into swimming pools, in this series. 1) A man in full marching band uniform 2) A member of a Texas road crew, in gray sweatshirt.
(Dial Soap) An amateur racecar driver teases his wife about the danger of the track, making her very nervous, then gets dressed up in a silver racing suit for a big date with her afterwards. "I might be crazy," he tells the camera with a grin as he gets all dressed up, "but I'm not stupid".
(Pabst Extra Light Beer) Actor John Beck, in a gray suede jacket, tells a bar full of friends about "The Facts of Light". Later in the same series of commercials, on a large set of tennis courts, Beck in a shiny blue warm-up suit talks to another player in his shiny red warm-up suit.
(Spaghetti) Dr. Joyce Brothers' mother shows up, and tells how Joyce always said that good meals were psychologically comforting. One of the campiest TV spots ever made.
(Trouble cologne) A man wearing Trouble cologne gets involved in a bar fight with an angry looking yuppie in a fancy, expensive-looking black leather jacket. We see the muscle-man yuppie from the neck down, while he clenches his fists.
(Detroit Institute of Arts) People around the art museum sing "You Gotta Have Art", a version of the song "Heart" from the musical Damn Yankees. They form geometric patterns, and also raise their arms in some simple choreography. There are also enthusiastic camera movements. Upbeat, and a fine time capsule of the museum back then. Video.
(Dr. Pepper) A young man dancing around a fancy high rise office, singing Good Lovin' Video. Bad Case of Lovin' You Video.
(Diet Dr. Pepper) A woman in the future has to figure out which of three men isn't a robot. Video. Related: a man goes into a space bar Video.
(Cherry Coke) A time traveler from the future arrives in the 1950's for a cherry coke. He is driving a bright red time machine, which looks something like a race car, and wears a gray space uniform. Video or Video.
(Cherry Coke) Various relaxing guys and their girlfriends, including a man in a leather jacket lying in the trunk of a car, and two guys on a motorcycle. (1986) Video.
(Cherry Coke) "Cherry Boulevard". 1950's imagery is put through special effects and mildly avant-garde filming. That might be Matt LeBlanc, who is transformed from being a Teenage Wolfman. (1986) Video or Video.
(Soft Drink) A man dressed all in gray on a beach.
(New Coke) A man in a white shirt and gray trousers in a tropical room with a huge ceiling fan. He does science fictional things with a small TV set. (1987) Video.
(Coke) Various spiffed up people go out on the town on Saturday night, including four young men who get out of a car in precise formation.
(Coke) A woman slaps a handsome man who has whispered something in her ear.
(Coffee) A man takes his girl friend bird watching. He wears a complex looking black leather jacket, very dressy and authoritative looking.
(Grape Nuts) A forest ranger riding a horse while wearing a leather bomber jacket. "Are you ready for Grape Nuts?" he asks the audience.
(Grape Nuts) A couple engages in romantic banter. (1989). Video.
(Listerine) Two commercials, about 1) a rock band 2) men working in a clothing store.
(Hagar coordinates) A ship's Captain magically redresses a sloppy young man in sharp clothes.
(Million cologne) "What do you wear when you want to look like a Million?" Various athletes answer, culminating in a well-known football player dressed for success in a pinstripe suit. The earlier athletes explain their favorite clothes items, such as "my favorite cowboy hat", but the man in the pinstripe suit says cockily, "You gotta ask?"
(Furniture) A smiling executive in a pinstripe suit orders a working man in overalls to move around a lot of furniture.
(Shampoo) Two men: one in a coat and tie, directs a photo shoot with pretty women models; another runs in a white warm-up suit; at the end, both friends are in matching black tuxes.
(Cathay Pacific airline) A young, well-dressed businessman takes a business flight to Hong Kong. Filmed with superimposed, transparent images in rectangular subregions of the screen. (1988). Video.
(MicroAge computer store) A businessman talks about what the store can do to help computerize a business. The narrator's suit and shirt seem nearly sculpted on him. (1986). Video.
(Heinz Ketchup) Matt LeBlanc pours it slowly, off a building edge. (1987).
(Heinz Ketchup) A little kid imagines outer space video games while using ketchup. Cute and imaginative. (1987).
(Kit Kat) Sailors trapped on a desert island fantasize about Kit Kat candy bars.
(?) A yuppie in a sports car encounters a giant billboard of a shirtless man.
(7-Up) A man in a shirt and tie, stuck in a giant bottle, struggles to break out and express his feelings.
(Coffee?) Actors shoot a TV cop show. Actors dressed as cops in light blue uniforms chase an actor dressed as a crook in a leather jacket. Then relax with him afterwards in a lunch room.
(National Coffee Association) Various achievers including football player Ken Anderson, quarterback of the Cincinnati Bengals, and author Kurt Vonnegut promote the idea that coffee is a good drink for ambitious people. "Join the Coffee Achievers". Shot in a pseudo-documentary style. (1983). Video.
(Windex) A young women polishes up a million crystal ornaments in her home using Windex window cleaning spray.
(Almond Joy) A young woman is romanced by a school athlete, who wears an award jacket saying he is "COACH".
(Taco Bell) Four guys in silver jackets hang out near a sports car. "It's a sweet machine!" one says.
(Sticklets gum) A couple does a tango and other fancy dance moves. (1986). Video.
(MasterCard) Jackie Gleason gets to say "How Sweet It Is!" one more time. (1986).
(Highland Appliance) A lost Russian submarine crew winds up at an appliance sale, which is billed as an "International Event". Sailor Plotchney romances a reluctant woman with the catchphrase "Fifty watts per channel, Babycakes!" Very funny, and it became a cult favorite. (1987). Video.
(Haines stockings) Australian dancer Antony Hamilton recreates Fred Astaire's chair number from the movie Top Hat, complete with white tie and tails.
(Theragran-M vitamins) People show a couch potato all the things he could doing if he had more energy. Several of the men throw him reproachful looks. One even takes his dog away from him. (1988). Video.
(?) College athletes are dressed to the nines for a school banquet in matching gray suits. The middle-aged coach and his beaming wife preside over it.
(Big Red gum) The gum helps people kiss longer. A kissing couple is saluted by one of three ship's officers in white uniforms. (1983). Video.
(Wrigley's Spearmint gum) A young naval officer, dressed in white uniform, learns how to salute and move. He dresses in front of a base bathroom mirror, part of a series of officers in identical white uniforms. Another white uniform hangs from a bathroom rod in the background. He learns how to turn and move with precision, on a white-tiled bathroom floor, and to extend a white gloved hand, giving a big smile that is both enthusiastic and rehearsed. He then salutes precisely as part of a uniformed line-up at the end, while the sunlight gleams off his uniform cap's black visor. (January 1986).
(Wrigley's Extra gum) Young men out bicycling, piloting a glider and riding in a cable car chew gum. The man in the cable car has a white shirt and brilliantly blue sweater. (1986). Video.
(Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum) Volleyball on the beach. (1989). Video.
(Tone soap) Gym exercisers clean up. A man dives straight down into a pool in slow motion; we see him only from the back. (1987).
(Pert Plus shampoo) A man plays on a soccer team, showers afterwards. They are in glitzy yellow uniforms, and perhaps on a college team. (1989). Video.
(Planters Nuts) Men take part in various outdoor activities: riding horses, racing boats. (1980). Video.
(Kraft) Costumed revelers at a Mardi Gras like street party, including a young man in white tie and tails.
(KFC Chicken Littles) Six men in their 20's, in matching dark award jackets with white leather sleeves, with CENTRAL HIGH on the back, and a large white C on the front.
(Contac cold medicine) A man on a spaceship in the future has a cold. He wears silver futuristic clothes. (1986). Video.
(Three Musketeers candy bar) Three very hip young men in retro clothes and car like chocolate. (1988). Video.
(Gas) A man clad in black leather, known as the Road Worrier, is interrogated by his girlfriend's father when he comes to pick her up for a date. Classic spoof of the Mad Max Road Warrior films. (Internet research suggests the giant vehicle in the commercial is the specially built Landmaster from the science fiction film Damnation Alley (1977).)
(The Library) Strange but meaningful public service spot telling teens that they can "be cool on the inside too" by visiting the library. Very hip. (1989). Video.
(Pacific Bell) Frank Herbert talks about information pouring over phone lines, in a future world much resembling the Internet and the "information superhighway". (1985). Video.
(Fairy Tails) Tropical bird dolls for little girls come in dazzling colors. (1988). Video.
(Coors Light) A 1950's dance party. Musical includes a guy doing a hula-hoop. (1985). Video.
(Miller Lite) Ball player Ken Brett, in a sharp but logoless blue baseball jacket, has been traded so much he's lost. A new version of "The Man Without a Country", perhaps. Has some symbolic resonance (1984). Video.
(Panasonic video recorders) A man dances to a recording of Robert Palmer's video "Addicted to Love" in his penthouse apartment. Swirls of color come out of his TV, which keep changing the colors of his shirt and pants. Really striking.
(L'Oreal Studio hair care) People on a big rectangular grid of TV monitors, each with a different person's head in close-up.
(Sweet 'n Low Sweetener) Susan Lucci shows how "sweet" she is, before erupting into a tantrum about how she has never won an Emmy. Really funny. (1990)
An incredibly glamorous couple is in some luxurious hotel suite. The suave, sophisticated man in the tuxedo approaches a table filled with food, and strikes a romantic pose against it. The whole table flips over. It turns out to be a commercial for stain resistant carpets. He gives a brief apologetic shrug... (1990). Video.
(Beer) Charles Rocket as an enthusiastically gyrating Elvis Presley style rocker, complete with an Elvis style black leather outfit.
(MacDonald's) "Going Up". A group of well-dressed executives discusses taking away a subordinate's French fries, when an elevator gets stuck. (1993). Video.
(Miller Lite Beer) "Big Lawyer Roundup". Cowboys at a rodeo hunt down and hogtie lawyers. Michael Bay was reportedly involved with making this. (1993).
(Credit card). Scenes show a man in a snazzy gray business suit taking customers out to dinner. Then a man in a dressy jet black tuxedo. Finally a man at the ocean, in shiny black swim trunks with a single patch pocket in the back.
(Fruitopia) Kaleidoscope pictures of fruit swirl around, to advertise the fruit drink Fruitopia. Dazzling color.
(United Church of Christ) "Ejector Pews" This unusual spot shows an unnamed denomination, in which people who are "not wanted" as members of a congregation are ejected from church, using devices that recall a James Bond movie. The message is that these people would be welcomed by the United Church of Christ. These ejected church goers look gay.
(Independent Film Channel) These promotional items for the cable TV channel showed real life performers active in independent films (low budget art movies). They all talked about a legendary director they worked with, and are full of every sort of show biz jargon and actors' cliché. Finally we see the director, who turns out to be a nine year old girl. Very funny.
(L'Oreal Elvive shampoo) Ben Affleck in a gray leather jacket does a kissing scene for the movies. Made in England. (2003). Video.
(IHOP) The French Toast Festival, in which cowboys happily turn into Frenchmen after eating French Toast (2005).
(Smirnoff Raw Teas) "Tea Partay" Preppies rap about tea, in a spoof of hip-hop videos. Nicely done musical. (2006)
(Planters Nuts) Mr. Peanut has a rendezvous with his latest love, a pistachio, on top of the Empire State Building, in a giddy spoof of a famous romantic movie (2006).
(Audi) "Green Police". Ecology cops arrest people for environmental infractions. Funny and with a social point. (2010). Video.
(United Negro College Fund) Inventions by African-Americans are highlighted. We see people in daily life using key pieces of technology. The devices then get surrounded by oval halos of light. Vivid commercial that reminds people of the contributions of black scientists and inventors. The commercial ends with the Fund's long time theme "A mind is a terrible thing to waste". (2010).
(Dish TV) A young man in a dark red tee shirt plays basketball with his buddies, then watches a baseball game on TV with them. The man's thin blond beard, muscles and red shirt echo Thor. (2011)
In 2005 IHOP sponsored a "French Toast Festival", where they offered discounts for a period on this item. Such restaurant promotions are commonplace, and they are often publicized with commercials. So far, so ordinary.
The commercial opens on two hunky cowboys. They are dressed in full cowboy gear, identical matching white cowboy outfits. They have thick Western twangs. One says to the other: "What happened to our friend?"
Cut to the friend. He is a third man, dressed not as a cowboy in white, but in a bright red shirt, together with a bright red beret. He says "Bonjour" in an American Western accent.
The friend has been eating French toast at the IHOP, and has turned into a Frenchman. After a break showing close-ups of French Toast, the commercial ends with the two cowboys and their friend, still in his French beret, chowing down at the IHOP on French Toast, laughing and talking together.
After years of nauseating "Freedom Fries" propaganda from Bush officials, this is the first French-anything I've seen on American TV.
Traditionally, Americans loved everything French. But this deep stream in American culture was forced underground by the Bushies. Now it is back in full force. You can't get more American than the IHOP, and you can't get more pro-French than this commercial. It is funny and endearing.
There are antecedents to this commercial's basic conceit. Monty Python's Flying Circus did a funny sketch about Englishmen turning into Scotsmen. There are also many TV shows about magical characters who can change their clothes in a twinkling of an eye, such as Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie. The science fictional Automan, a "virtual reality" hero, could also do this.