Regional Ads

In addition to national brands, Spokane had regional businesses and products that produced slogans and jingles for regional consumption. We've previously covered the Boyle Twins'

When you need coal or oil, call Boyle

and

Good ol' smilin' Sylvan

Television finally hit the Inland Empire by the time of our Rogers years, giving rise to specialized appliance stores having jingles such as:

Come into ElectroMart TV

ElectroMart TV

With two great stores to serve you well

the brands you want to see

Come into ElectroMart TV

ElectroMart today.

I recall this one – a voice booming:

Come to the General Store.

I see that the General Store still exists: http://www.generalstorespokane.com/ Those who complain that Spokane has changed should see it from the viewpoint of us exiles.

Does anybody remember Sunny Jim Peanut Butter? It was manufactured in Seattle. Spokane groceries sold plenty of it. The label had a freckle-faced boy. On the TV ad he was s frekle-faced little boy, slightly animated as he looked out of his label and said:

Sunny Jim?

Gee!

That's me!

Blue Bell Potato Chips were manufactured in Portand, Orgeon, and sold regionally. The jingle was mind-numbingly simple:

Blue Bell Potato Chips

Blue Bell Potato Chips

Blue Bell Potato Chips

Best Foods Mayonnaise had a primitive-looking animation of a little chicken singing:

Best Foods is the real-egg mayonnaise.

(bak-bak bak-bakaaaak)

Best Foods is so good so many ways.

(bak-bak bak-bakaaaak)

Get some Best Foods real-egg mayonnaise today.

Not regional, you say? Wrong. This gets interesting.

When I left Rogers for Michigan State University, I found that there was no Best Foods Mayonnaise. There was some impostor named Hellmans Mayonnaise. Oddly, it had the Best Foods label with Hellmans substituted on it. I thought maybe they renamed the mayo while I was on the flight to East Lansing. Not so. When I returned to Spokane, Best Foods was on the store shelves. When I graduated, we lived 12 years in the Bay Area. There, it was Best Foods. In 1978 we moved here, to North Carolina. It's been Hellmans ever since ... except when I visit Spokane. What's the deal, here?

It seems that East-coast Hellmans purchased West-coast Best Foods years ago. Each had a strong following in its region, so Hellmans decided to keep the regional status quo of each product to preserve over-all market share.

The word is that each product has a slightly different recipe, with Best Foods said to be tangier. My wife agrees. She thinks Hellmans is bland. It's a moot point for me because, if I eat that stuff, I gain weight and my heart usually stops.

The Best Foods' slogan is:

Bring out the Best Foods;

Bring out the Best

On the Hellmans side it is:

Bring out the Hellmans

Bring out the Best

Anybody see anything wrong with the second one?

One question remains: did Hellmans have a little bak-bak bak-bakaaaak chicken animation in the late fifties?

-Ed Mauget