USA TODAY Continues 25th Anniversary Celebration With Weekly Top 25 Lists

USA TODAY Continues 25th Anniversary Celebration With Weekly Top 25 Lists

Today's List: Top 25 Ads We Can't Get Out Of Our Heads

MCLEAN, Va., July 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- USA TODAY turns 25 years young this September, and to continue the celebration, The Nation's Newspaper will look back at the Top 25 Ads We Can't Get Out Of Our Heads.

Even in a TiVo world, some TV commercials just can't be zapped from our cultural psyche. But selecting the 25 most-memorable TV commercials from the past 25 years almost caused USA TODAY's Ad Team to blow a tube. Here are the 25 TV spots that left the most indelible marks on their collective memory. Tell us your thoughts at http://www.top25.usatoday.com/.

Every week for 25 weeks, USA TODAY will offer an exclusive color page of Top 25 anniversary memories -- 25 lists over 25 weeks designed to spark conversation and debates. The Top 25 conversation continues today with the Top 25 Ads We Can't Get out Of Our Heads. Here are the top 10:

1. Life Alert: I've Fallen, and I Can't Get Up! (1990)
The best-remembered (and most-parodied) commercial phrase of the past
25 years isn't for a cola or sneaker. It comes from that elderly woman
using the Life Alert gizmo around her neck to call for help. It is the
ultimate product-as-hero ad.

2. Apple Macintosh: 1984 (1984)
The ad all others have aspired to be. Never mind that it aired once
nationally, on the Super Bowl and that few recall much besides that
very buff woman wielding a sledgehammer -- it sold Macs.

3. Wendy's: Where's the Beef? (1984)
The same year Apple went over-the-top to tout its Mac, Wendy's went
under-the-bun to tout its burger. Crusty ol' Clara Peller ranting
"Where's the Beef" became ingrained in pop culture. It may be the most
effective fast-food ad ever.

4. Isuzu: Joe "Trust me" Isuzu (1986)
Joe Isuzu ranks among the most memorable auto pitchmen. He was a
remarkably likable liar making outrageous claims about the Isuzus.
Joe's job as slimy hawker wasn't to sell cars, but to familiarize
consumers with the then-little-known Isuzu name. Did he ever. Trust
us.

5. Energizer: Energizer Bunny (1989)
Energizer stole Duracell's drum-beating bunny, put it in motion and
never looked back. For this campaign, Energizer can beat its own drum.
And it's still going and going and going.

6. Bartles & Jaymes: Thank You for Your Support (1985)
Frank Bartles and Ed Jaymes perfected the art of sitting on the front
porch step and shooting the breeze. They convinced millions that the
new wine cooler was from a coupla country geezers -- never mind that
wine giant Gallo was behind it.

7. California Raisin Advisory Board: Heard it Through the Grapevine
(1986)
The ad wasn't just the birth of the dancing raisins. It also was the
birth of Claymation -- clay animated figures that could move and
groove. And it was the original better-for-you snack pitch: raisins
instead of sweets?

8. Budweiser: Croaking Frogs (1995)
Perhaps the most fondly remembered Super Bowl campaign from Anheuser-
Busch starred a trio of talking frogs in a dark swamp croaking: "Bud.
Wei. Ser." It was so widely mimicked and so wildly successful, the
King of Beers made it a series with talking lizards and ferrets.

9. Bush campaign: Willie Horton (1988)
Who can forget that mug shot? The ad tried to link Democratic
presidential opponent Michael Dukakis to a prison furlough for the
Massachusetts convict during which Horton raped a woman and stabbed
her boyfriend. But Dukakis felt the knife.

10. California Milk Processors Board: Got Milk? (1993)
What could be stickier than to have an entire peanut butter sandwich
stuffed into your mouth -- and have no milk to wash it down? This
first ad was a springboard for Got Milk? -- and Aaron Burr -- into pop
culture.

Find the full list in today's editions of USA TODAY and on http://www.top25.usatoday.com/. A new Top 25 list will run every week through September 10th.

USA TODAY, the nation's top-selling newspaper, will be celebrating its 25th anniversary on September 15th, 2007. It is published via satellite at 36 locations in the USA and at four sites abroad. With a total average daily circulation of 2.3 million, USA TODAY is available worldwide. USA TODAY is published by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI). The USA TODAY brand also includes: USATODAY.com, an award-winning news and information Web site that is updated 24 hours per day; USA TODAY Sports Weekly, a magazine for enthusiasts of professional football and baseball; and USA TODAY LIVE, the television arm of the USA TODAY brand that brings the spirit and quality of the newspaper to television.

Source: USA TODAY

CONTACT: Alexandra Nicholson, Manager/Communications of USA TODAY,
+1-703-854-5872, anicholson@usatoday.com

Web site:

http://www.usatoday.com/

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