Friday, January 11, 2008

Retro Commercial: Listerine

Since his latest movie "The Bucket List" is scheduled to open in wide release on January 11th, I thought that I would go into the Morgan Freeman archives and dust off this 1973 commercial for Listerine. According to Morgan the telephone repairman, he uses Listerine because he hates it. Given the fact that as Principal Joe Clark, Morgan got up in their grill on many occasions, I am sure that some of his castmates in the film "Lean On Me" were hoping that he still used Listerine. When Morgan says in the commercial that Listerine kills germs, I couldn't help but think about when he (as Joe Clark) lectured one of his students on the dangers of smoking crack ("It kills your brain cells son! It kills your brain cells!")


13 comments:

The Rock Chick said...

I totally remember this commercial!!

That burning sensation was required to kill germs of any kind. That was kind of the general consensus at the time, though, wasn't it? I remember thinking that unless something stung, the germs weren't getting slaughtered.

No pain....no gain!!!

Jessica

X. Dell said...

I remember this commercial too. I seem to remember him popping up here and there when he was a young actor.

pjazzypar said...

Cool commercial. Morgan certainly has come a long way from being "Easy Reader". Did you know he owns a blues club down at the crossroad in Mississippi? I saw a special on it and some of the performers on Showtime recently.

Holly Smith said...

He does have nice teeth!!! I just saw him on The View yesterday talking about when he got his big break. He's one of my favorite actors of all time. Shawshank Redemption is one of my favorite top 5 movies of all-time, and he makes that movie.

www.mamapj.com

Holly Smith said...

Also, thank God Listerine has come out with the Citrus flavor....it's damn good : ).

Rebecca said...

Ha, I've never seen it before!

Happy Friday :-)

Malcolm said...

Jessica: I remember the same thing (feeling that unless something stung or tasted terrible, it wasn't working). If I ever got a nasty cut, my mother used to put Merthiolate on it. That shit used to sting like a sonofabitch!

X. Dell: This is one I don't remember, although I probably saw it at some point in time. I vaguely remember him as The Easy Reader on "Electric Company".

Pjazzy: I hardly watch "60 Minutes" anymore. However, on one of the rare occasions that I did, they did a feature on Morgan Freeman (this was a couple of years ago). I believe that part of it was filmed at his blues club.

Holly: Shawshank was a damned good movie wasn't it? That's another one that is on my long list of films that I want to get on DVD.

I hope that the citrus flavor of Listerine isn't so good that it's tempting to swallow. That wouldn't be good. :-)

Frigga: Thanks for commenting... happy Friday to you as well! Man I can't wait to get out of here (work, that is). By the way, do you have plans to start up the Rockin' With Frigga song lyrics trivia contest again?

SandyCarlson said...

Malcolm, thanks for this bit of TV history. MF is a genius. I'm glad he rinses.

Bar L. said...

How funny! I don't remember that exact commercial but I remember that ad campaign of Listerine's.

I knew that Morgan owned a Blue's Club....wouldn't that be a fun place to hang out! Let's make plans to meet there with a bunch of blog friends one of these months....

Candy Minx said...

I remeber this one too..had no idea it was Freeman, what a hoot.

Malcolm said...

Sandy: You are quite welcome. I am glad that Hollywood continues to recognizes his talent... and that he rinses too.

Barbara: Scheduling a meet-up at his blues club sounds like a plan. Here is the link to the club's website if you or anyone else wants more info on it:

http://www.groundzerobluesclub.com/home.php

Candy: It would be cool to hear Morgan Freeman talk about his days in showbiz before he hit it big.

Dale said...

Nobody has ever given such an authentic performance while riding the pole. Bravo Morgan!

Malcolm said...

Dale: Morgan's performance in this commercial easily trumps Elizabeth Berkley's appearance in "Showgirls".

 
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