Do You Remember These Classic Super Bowl Commercials of the ’70s?
Today, Super Bowl commercials are big business, and considered as important a part of the big game as the half-time show: companies spent months previewing ultra-high budget ads that they will then pay $7 million to air on Game Day. When the Super Bowl first began in 1967, ads were a bit more low-key — the only cost $37,500 to air ($360,000 in today’s dollars), and companies often didn’t create new ads just to play during the game. But many of those earlier ads remain the most memorable, especially those from the ’70s, when the tradition of the Super Bowl commercial was first truly hitting its stride.
1970: Pontiac GTO’s “The Humbler”
“The Humbler” was an ad campaign both in print and on TV, with all the ads stressing that the GTO was so incredibly cool, owners of other cars would feel humiliated when you pulled up beside them. A “Humbler” print ad from around this same time claimed that the GTO was so impressive that “about now, a lot of pseudo performers are wishing they could slither off to a nice, quiet garage.”
1972: Coca-Cola’s “Hilltop”
“Hilltop” is an ad so famous, the TV show Mad Men culminated with its advertising executive protagonist coming up with the idea for the commercial. But it wasn’t smooth sailing getting there. The ad debuted as a radio jingle in early 1971, and though DJs reported listeners calling in and requesting it as if it were an actual song, Coca-Cola execs weren’t sure about adapting it for TV. The ad cost $100,000 to make — double the average TV ad budget at the time — and suffered numerous production delays, but it was a runaway hit. The song itself even hit #13 on the Billboard charts in 1972!
1973: Farrah Fawcett and Joe Namath for Noxzema, Super Bowl VII
Three years before she became the breakout star of Charlie’s Angels, Fawcett sang and smeared Super Bowl MVP Joe Namath with Noxzema shaving cream, as he exclaimed “I’m so excited, I’m gonna get creamed!” The ad became so iconic, Namath and Facwett reteamed again in the 1980s for an ad for Farrah Fawcett Shampoo, which gave birth to the legendary catchphrase “You can say you’ve showered with Farrah Fawcett.”
1974: Master Lock’s Shot
Master Lock had previously aired an ad campaign in which one of their locks was shot with a handgun to show its strength — but when they realized that many viewers were trying it at home (and running the risk of seriously injuring themselves in the process), they pulled the ads. They revisited them in the ’70s with a rifle, thinking the temptation to shoot a lock with a rifle would be much lower. And they were right — the ad was a hit, annual Master Lock ads became a Super Bowl tradition, and, as far as we know, almost no one was tempted to try to blow up their own Master Lock at home.
1976: Miller Lite’s Rosey Grier and friends
Budweiser is often closely associated with the Super Bowl due to those Clydesdales (more on them in a minute), but Miller Lite had some great memorable spots through the years, too, like this one starring retired players Grier, Ben Davidson, and Ray Nitschke, who are filling their newfound free time with embroidery projects (and Miller Lite, of course).
1976: Xerox’s “Monks”
Often thought of as the first “viral” ad — that is, the first commercial that viewers requested to see again and again — “Monks” followed a monk asked to make 500 copies of a scripture … a task he deals with by heading to the nearest Xerox machine.
1978: Budweiser’s “Here Comes the King” with the Clydesdales
The Budweiser Clydesdales are now synonymous with the Super Bowl, with viewers greatly anticipating their new Super Bowl ads each year. But the horses weren’t part of the proceedings from the beginning — they made their first Super Bowl appearance in 1975, and their first Super Bowl ad appearance in 1978, with this jaunty ditty about the King of Beers.
Remind
1974 (50 Years Ago)
January 2024
In this time capsule issue of ReMIND Magazine we look back 50 years ago to 1974!
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