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- Categories:Gender, Commercial
- (C) 1968 or 69, Magic, Comedy, (circa 1968-69)
Description
The 7Up people created a diet soda called "Like" in 1963, and later
renamed it "Diet 7Up" in 1970. Shortly on the heels of the first
Virginia Slims cigarettes ad campaign in 1968, they apparently
wanted to corner a similar market in soda pop. Somewhere between
1968-1969 they made several television ads all featuring the same
30-second jingle, that went like this:
LIKE is the o-nly
The first and o-nly
Soft drink just for girls.
Da da da something something something
Da da da something something something
LIKE is the something something something
Juuust fooor giiiiiirls.
(3 lines about the pleasure of its refreshing flavor.)
While the jingle played, some actors would perform a silent film
pantomime, with one or more women enjoying drinking Like as the
jingle ends. For example, I remember one where a man is trying to
open a bottle of Like, but he cannot remove the cap; a woman comes
along, easily gets the cap off, and takes the bottle for herself to
drink.
But I also remember this one commercial... It begins with a
tough-faced, unshaven Beau-Geste-like French Foreign Legionnaire in
a ragged uniform (torn white pants, dark jacket, and the white cap
with a linen neck cloth) and a gorgeous woman alongside him in a
torn designer dress staggering across the vast sands of a cruel
desert with the blazing sun beating down upon them. Suddenly, at
the top of a dune they see a cooler full of bottles of Like soda.
The woman seems to claim the entire cooler for herself. She begins
drinking the Like, while the parched man desperately begs for one
from her; but she gestures "No, you can't have any" and pushes him
away. Apparently she would rather her companion die of thirst than
drink Like soda.
As the jingle progresses, the camera does a close-up of her
enjoying a refreshing bottle of Like. Then she lowers her bottle
and looks off-camera. Her face quickly registers "OH NO!" with
sadness and horror.
The camera cuts back to a close-up of the Legionnaire's grisly
face, he has somehow acquired a bottle of the forbidden beverage,
and we see him as he is thirstily finishing it off. When the jingle
reaches "Juuust fooor giiirls," he lowers his empty bottle, and now
his face is aghast with shock and dismay. The camera pans far back
to take in the entire scene on the sand dune. Now the Legionnaire
is no longer wearing torn white pants, but is instead dressed in a
knee-length white skirt with the same uniform.
As the commercial ends, the Legionnaire waves her arms, in a "What
the ...?" gesture, as the woman mimes despair at having lost her
love interest.
(Otherwise, the Legionnaire looks exactly the same -- ugly face,
beard stubble; short hair; no figure, thick, hairy legs and all.
LOL! But the looks on his/her own face, the look on the beautiful
companion's face and the lyrics of the jingle all point to this as
a gender transformation and not merely a change of clothing.)
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Many thanks to Fictitious Name and Suddenly Feels Old at
Fictionmania for their help!
originally posted by Ronald Coleman on 2003-02-26, no edits, entryid=3813
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