Friday, July 25, 2008

"In the Tank" (1971 Ty-D-Bowl Commercial)




The economic meltdown caused by wild-man loan approvals that led to the housing "bubble" bursting, the energy price jumps, and the lack of consumer confidence in the US economy in general brought me to mind of this fellow from another time in American pop culture. For those old enough to remember, Mr. Ty-D Bowl needs no introduction. For those younger, I'm sure you'll be charmed by this erudite, nautical gent.

16 comments:

  1. Hahahaha, that was neat. I must rush out and get some. It has probably been replaced by a highly active corrosive chemical!

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  2. Thank you for the trip down memory lane

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  3. A fitting commercial for the flushing of the former American Dream.

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  4. cute little fellow (never seen him before lol, and unfortunately the reason is not because I am too young)

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  5. I never saw this man before....but I want some of that Ty-D Bowl, it looks great....I never knew how much I wanted that product until I saw this ad Doug.
    It will mean I can finally stop taking 'De Witts (or was it Carter's) Little Liver Pills' which makes your pee turn bright electric blue (I don't think I ever had a little liver anyway).
    When I was a lad I used to occasionally take these pills for the unsettling effect it would have on the patrons of public urinals as the fluorescent flow reached them, I think it changed the culture of those places somehow and therefore was a revolutionary act..... but all that aside... it was a bloody great trick lol. I think they've stopped making them now :-(

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  6. Very likely. But it isn't it worth the price for that lovely Caribbean blue water?

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  7. I often wonder how people get these old commercials to post--this ad was showing well before videorecorders were available to consumers.

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  8. Alas, you got that right, khoreia.

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  9. I didn't expect you could possibly have seen Mr. Ty-D Bowl in his prime, Iri Ani. Also, I'm wasn't sure about the demand for colored commode water south of the Equator.

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  10. In America, the liver pills were called Carter's. I never knew about the "electric blue" side effects. I'm sure this trick brought many fellow patrons at the public lavatories to know they too must stand up and heed the bright new future. (Well, they were probably already standing.)

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  11. Indeed Doug....one day I must blog on the effects of dysentery in Kathmandu...I have suffered for my art

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  12. Wow! That 1938 ad packs a mighty wallop! I could feel misery and destitution coming on just by reading the ad. That poor woman is the very symbol of despair...its either get her those little liver pills or summon the whole family, the parish vicar and the family terrier for the deathwatch.

    I swear, in future, I will not be fooled by imitation pills. It is Carter's Little Liver Pills for me for certain. No cheap imitations will pass my lips!

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  13. Precisely Doug who knows what colours the generic versions might deliver?....you only want to unnerve the patrons.....not have them run screaming from the scene without having appropriately 'adjusted' their 'dress'.
    When I was a kid every public toilet had an official looking blue on white enameled sign saying 'Please Adjust Your Dress Before Leaving'. I consider this proto-micromanagement exercised in the privacy of the Gents to have been responsible for an epidemic of transvestism in this country. God knows what the signs said in Germany!

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  14. LOL! Perhaps only in Britian could an "official public service message" combine polite concern mixed with such inventive ambiguity. One can only shiver at the possibilities for German public bathroom attention-grabbers! Achtung!

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