When we were told to pick our favorite/a memorable advertisement, my mind immediately went to the “How many licks” Advertisement from Tootsie pop.. I think most of us have heard or know the saying “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop”. This is because since this ad with the owl aired for the first time in 1970, it became so memorable that it is still used today on television in an updated format, and is one of the longest running advertisements to date. If you have not seen this ad before (which would be hard for me to believe), a little boy comes up to an owl and asks “Mr Owl, How many licks does it take to get to the tootsie center of a tootsie pop?”. The Owl then says “lets find out”, taking the Tootsie Pop from the boy and licking it twice before eating the whole thing on the third. The narrator then says “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop; the world may never know”.
I believe this ad is so captivating for all generations because of the question the ad asks. In this advertisement, it never actually tells the audience to go buy Tootsie Pops, taking the main focus away from the actual purchase of the product.. Instead, it offers the viewers a challenge, telling them that “the world may never know” how many licks it would take to get to the tootsie center of a tootsie pop, enticing viewers to go buy the tootsie pop to see how many licks it takes. This ad is also memorable and captivating because Now that this ad is over 50 years old, it is nostalgic for older generations, as well as cute for younger generations to see and talk to the older generations about, creating a bond between the two. Attached to this post is the 1998 version of this commercial, when it was shortened down from multiple creatures to just the owl (which is the most memorable version of the commercial). It is impressive to me that even with this nostalgia factor and the idea of challenging the audience as motivation to get them to purchase the product, that people still enjoy this advertisement with its very old graphics and animation style compared to the modern style of most animated advertisements today.
I completely forgot about this ad! This brought such a feeling of nostalgia to me which is really funny because we literally just learned how they use nostalgia in market strategies. However, these emotions are so easily triggered even when you are conscious of them. This really shows how powerful these feelings are.
I really appreciated your choice of ad because just like you pointed out it was very nostalgic for me! I completely remember seeing this ad many times when I was younger and watching cable TV. I also really liked how you pointed out how the ad presents a challenge to the viewers. I think this was particularly effective because I remember on more than once occasion wanting to know the answer to the question and trying to experiment on my own, before quickly giving up just like the owl did. Overall this ad does a really good job of getting people to want to purchase their product and appealing to such a large demographics because it has been running for so long.