Buzz
For many viewers, ads are often the most frustrating part of watching television. They tend to appear at the most inconvenient moments, whether right after a jaw-dropping plot twist in a drama or when a cheeky reality show host delivers the dreaded phrase, 'We'll be right back after a word from our sponsors.' No one wants to be sold anything, especially when they're immersed in their favorite escape from reality.
However, there are occasional ads that captivate the audience's attention, whether they're side-splittingly hilarious or so bad they become iconic. Some of these commercials even evolve into popular franchises, while others spiral into further annoyances. In this list, we spotlight the best, the worst, and the downright irritating ads that gave birth to movies and TV shows.
10. The California Raisins
What began as a marketing team's attempt to make raisins 'cool' enough for 1980s kids to enjoy quickly turned into a cultural sensation. The 1986 commercial featured a group of R&B-singing, stop-motion raisins covering the ironically fitting hit song 'I Heard it Through the Grapevine.' The ad was such a hit that it led to a full-fledged R&B cover album, a guest appearance on CBS's 1987 A Claymation Christmas Celebration, and—naturally—many more commercials.
The real milestone for the California Raisins came with the 1988 CBS special Meet the Raisins!, a mockumentary in the style of Spinal Tap. It chronicled the fictional band's rise to fame and offered viewers a peek into the personalities and lives of the raisin characters. The special’s success led to a sequel, The Raisins: Sold Out!: The California Raisins II, in 1990.
Despite their massive popularity in the 1980s and 1990s, not much has been heard from the California Raisins in recent years. Perhaps a CGI revival tour is on the horizon?
9. Ernest
Ernest P. Worrell, a lovable, Christmas-saving, camp-attending former convict brought to life by actor Jim Varney, originally appeared as the face of various local and eventually national commercials. His first appearance was in an ad for a rundown amusement park, and from there, his quirky, endearing persona landed him roles in more commercials for everything from dairies and ice cream to cars and chicken. Ernest’s ad agency even set a record by producing 26 commercials in just one day featuring the bumbling but lovable character.
In 1988, Ernest became the star of the Emmy-winning, one-season Saturday morning series Hey Vern, It’s Ernest! Despite struggling with low ratings, Ernest continued to thrive. In 1987 and 1988, the team behind Ernest produced two films, Ernest Goes to Camp and Ernest Saves Christmas, both of which were later picked up by Disney for distribution, transforming Ernest P. Worrell from a local ad spokesperson into a Hollywood movie star.
Unfortunately, Jim Varney, the actor who portrayed Ernest, passed away in 2000 after battling lung cancer, and since then, no new Ernest movies or commercials have been made.
8. Baby Bob
Does the mere idea of a talking baby make you burst out laughing? Have you memorized every line from the Look Who’s Talking and Baby Geniuses movies? Are you immune to the concept of the uncanny valley? If so, you're probably already familiar with Bob the baby. If not, get ready for a show you won't forget.
In February 2000, Baby Bob made his first appearance in a series of ads for Freeinternet.com, an Internet service provider and AOL competitor that focused on advertising revenue instead of subscription fees. The ad quickly became popular and was turned into a CBS sitcom. The show had a decent run but was canceled after two seasons. Baby Bob then returned to TV commercials, starring in a series of ads for Quiznos.
7. GEICO Cavemen
Joe Lawson, a television writer with credits on popular shows like Modern Family and BoJack Horseman, got his start by creating the notorious GEICO cavemen commercials. These ads, which center on cavemen reacting to the phrase “so easy a caveman could do it” in GEICO's ads, often portray the cavemen as offended, almost as if they had just heard a racial slur.
For some inexplicable reason, this concept was turned into a sitcom, despite having been exploited in over 20 commercials. In 2007, ABC debuted Cavemen, a series about prehistoric men trying to live as ordinary thirty-somethings in Atlanta while dealing with societal prejudice. The show featured one of the original commercial actors and also marked an early appearance by Nick Kroll, future co-creator of Netflix’s Big Mouth and sketch comedy star.
Although only seven of the show’s 13 episodes aired before its cancellation, the GEICO cavemen made a comeback during the Super Bowl with an ad that humorously mocked the failure of their own sitcom, acknowledging that the show had indeed been a poor idea.
6. Crash Test Dummies
Debuting in 1986, the innovative Crash Test Dummies ad introduced a humorous twist to public service announcements. The commercials starred Vince and Larry, two crash test dummies with mangled plastic bodies, whose misfortune was used to convince the public to buckle up and avoid the dangers of car accidents.
The original commercial led to several follow-ups, a line of action figures, a video game, and eventually a cartoon special, The Incredible Crash Dummies, one of the early examples of computer-generated animation. The plot was nonsensical, barely touching on safety awareness, likely created simply to promote toys and games. But if it helped convince kids to wear seat belts, then we can’t really complain.
5. Ronald McDonald
Ronald McDonald is one of the world’s most iconic figures, up there with Santa Claus and Jesus Christ. It was only a matter of time before someone realized the potential for a spin-off starring him and his friends. While Willard Scott, the former Bozo the Clown, first portrayed Ronald McDonald in 1963, it wasn’t until years later that the clown and his pals received their own show.
In 1990, DIC Entertainment produced a 30-minute animated version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, featuring the familiar McDonald’s mascots and aptly titled The Adventures of Ronald McDonald: McTreasure Island. Eight years later, Klasky-Csupo, the animation company behind Rugrats and early Simpsons episodes, released the first of six 40-minute specials under the title The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald. While no new adaptations have been made since 2003, Ronald McDonald remains a staple in McDonald’s advertising campaigns.
4. Domo
Domo, a massive, silent, shark-toothed creature covered in what looks like carpet, is the face of over 400 TV ads in Japan. Though the perpetually grinning, brownie-shaped monster is better known in the West for his relentless merchandising campaign, which saw products flooding stores like Target and 7/11, Domo and his gang originally appeared in commercials for Japan’s public broadcaster NHK in the late 1990s.
Since his initial TV appearances in Japan, Domo-kun became a curious phenomenon in the West, thanks in part to memes and the global fascination with Japanese pop culture. Domo and his companions have since starred in a 2009 English-language manga published by Tokyopop and a series of shorts that aired on Nickelodeon’s Nicktoons Network.
3. Rocko’s Modern Life
Like Doug, Rocko’s Modern Life was another groundbreaking Nicktoon that helped elevate Nickelodeon to its dominant position in children’s television. Created by cartoonist Joe Murray in 1993, Rocko and his friends navigate a quirky world where architecture is anything but conventional, and everyday experiences—like a simple DMV trip—descend into chaos, all while clever adult-oriented humor soars right over the heads of its young audience.
Heffer Wolfe, Rocko's loyal companion (a cow raised by wolves and voiced by Tom Kenny, who also voices Spongebob), actually predates the Nicktoon itself. He made his first appearance in a 1989 MTV bumper designed by Murray. While Murray was seeking financial support for a movie project, he was contacted by MTV and ultimately created an ad where an early version of Heffer, complete with an MTV logo on his rear, could be seen. In an interview, Murray shared that Heffer's design was pulled from the same sketchbook that featured Rocko’s first iteration, which was originally named Travis and appeared as a comic strip character.
Today, 'Rocko's Modern Life' is fondly remembered by fans who grew up during the early 1990s, when Nicktoons ruled the airwaves. The show's cult following remains strong, and in fact, Nickelodeon plans to release a new animated special in spring 2018 to celebrate the series.
2. Doug
The beloved Nickelodeon series 'Doug' debuted in 1991 as one of six pilot shows created for the Nicktoons lineup. However, the character of Doug actually made his television debut well before that. Before Nicktoons, before Disney acquired the rights and continued the series on ABC, and even before 'Doug's 1st Movie' hit theaters, Doug was already appearing in commercials on TV.
Jim Jinkins, the creator of 'Doug,' originally began sketching the character as a creative outlet in his personal sketchbooks. It was in 1988 that he was hired to create an ad for Florida Grapefruit Growers, in which a proto-Doug can be seen wearing slacks and sipping grapefruit juice. Then, in 1989, another early version of Doug appeared in a promo for the USA network, this time accompanied by an early iteration of his faithful dog, Porkchop.
1. Space Jam
Today, 'Space Jam' is largely viewed as a nostalgic relic of the 1990s, especially for those who remember the height of basketball’s cultural dominance and Michael Jordan’s reign as the undisputed king of the court. While it may be hard to understand now why anyone thought mixing the world’s greatest basketball player with iconic cartoon characters in outer space was a great idea, it all began with a simple commercial.
Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan starred together in two commercials promoting the Air Jordan VII and Air Jordan VIII sneaker releases, with Bugs taking on the persona of 'Hare Jordan.' The ads were a massive hit, and it didn’t take long for Hollywood to step in, turning the short commercials into a full-length feature film. As for how they managed to weave in a plot where a Danny DeVito-voiced alien theme park tycoon challenges the Looney Tunes characters to a basketball game... we’re not sure, but let’s face it—watching characters debate shoes for 90 minutes wouldn’t have made for much of a movie.
