10 Old-School Candy Commercials That Totally Worked On Us

There are many old-school candy commercials that are truly unforgettable and continue to work to make us crave their candy. It was the jingle, the storyline, the message of the commercial itself, or a combination of all three that worked to get us craving or at least wanting to try these candies. Even if we don't remember the entirety of all of these commercials, many of their jingles and catchphrases will live in our heads rent-free for the rest of our lives. So, they not only worked back when the commercials aired, but also when we've heard them playing in our heads years later.

Commercials from the late 1960s through the mid-1990s seemed especially effective, and sometimes versions of them aired for years before finally being retired. They were just that good. All but two of the candies on our list are still in existence today. However, the fact that most are still around is likely due to a combination of good marketing and having a good product in the first place. We dare you to go down memory lane with these commercials and not get one or several of them stuck in your head and start having cravings. These are the top 10 old-school candy commercials that worked to make us buy candy years ago and still continue to cast their marketing spell on us today.

Old-school Tootsie Roll Pop commercials were brilliant because we kept needing to sample more Tootsie Roll Pops to try to answer the question the commercial posed: "How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?" Most of us never found out.

The How Many Licks commercial originated in 1969 and is possibly the longest-running TV commercial out there, tempting several generations. The commercial follows a cartoon boy with a Tootsie Roll pop as he asks various animals this important question. Mr. Cow says, "I always end up biting," and suggests asking the clever Mr. Fox. Mr. Fox says he's a biter, too, and sends the boy to Mr. Turtle. In all Mr. Turtle's years, he's "never made it without biting" either. Mr. Turtle sends the boy to wise Mr. Owl, who decides to experiment. Mr. Owl then licks the pop three times, takes a bite, and declares that the number of licks is three. Then, he tosses the empty stick back to the boy, who walks away disappointed.

Finally, a narrator takes over to ask the question again, practically posing a challenge to candy lovers everywhere by saying that "the world may never know" how many licks it takes to get to the center. Of course, this has continuously challenged Tootsie Roll Pop lickers, even if we always end up biting. There have even been actual studies to try to come up with a definitive number.

The jingle in the Tootsie Roll commercial that first came out in 1976 is catchy enough to get stuck in your head and make you think about Tootsie Rolls, even if they're one of your least favorite Halloween candies. Its power lies in the imagery it creates when you think about it. Plus, it continued to play on television for 30 years, getting stuck in all of our heads for decades.

The commercial starts with cartoon children dancing, doing cartwheels, and singing, "The world looks mighty good to me 'cuz Tootsie Rolls are all I see." Then, you see kids fishing by the bridge with a train going over it. As soon as they see the train appear, they sing, "Whatever it is I think I see becomes a Tootsie Roll to me." And, sure enough, the train turns into a Tootsie Roll. Then, in the sky, a plane turns into a Tootsie Roll as it writes the word "Tootsie Roll" in the sky. Various kids keep singing, "Tootsie Roll, how I want your chocolatey chew. Tootsie Roll, I think I'm in love with you." All the while, everything around them is becoming Tootsie Rolls, including a whale, a baseball bat, skateboards, scooters, trees, and even the roofs and smokestacks on houses.

We especially like that the song begins with a slide whistle sound, which is also a cylindrical shape like a Tootsie Roll. So, just hearing a slide whistle anymore gives Tootsie Roll images.

It was the 1970s when Peter Paul got the idea to advertise its two candy bars, Almond Joy and Mounds, together. The jingle for the commercials is simple but unforgettable: "Sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don't. Almond Joy's got nuts. Mounds don't." The jingle was a genius way to help remember which bar had nuts. By the late 1970s, the commercials took it a step further to say Almond Joy was for when you were feeling like going a little nutty with your candy bar choice, and it's continued to be one of the most popular candy bars.

Those watching Almond Joy and Mounds commercials in 1977 started seeing various scenarios to indicate when each candy bar might be more appropriate. For example, nutty Almond Joy was for when you felt like doing crazy stunts in your airplane, while Mounds was for when you just wanted to fly your airplane the normal way. Nutty Almond Joy was for that crazy magic trick of pulling a gorilla out of your hat instead of a rabbit. As the years progressed, the commercials had ever nuttier scenarios for when you might "feel like a nut."

Plus, the commercials always gave a visual of chocolate being poured over the coconut layer of the candy bar, with or without an almond. So, there was a visual for the candy, too. These commercials have worked so well that parts of the jingle lyrics sometimes still show up in modern commercials.

Snickers commercials from the 1980s started introducing a concept that really stuck with us — the idea that we could use a Snickers to tide us over between meals if we got hungry. The commercials reminded us that "packed with peanuts, Snickers really satisfies." So, if satisfaction was what we were looking for in a candy bar, Snickers was always a good contender.

In one from 1984, a construction worker talking about knocking down walls to expand offices says that he grabs a Snickers bar to satisfy his hunger as a pre-lunch snack around 10:00 in the morning. One from 1986 features a lady who works in an office saying that she keeps a Snickers bar in her desk drawer to grab when she's hungry between meals and can't concentrate on listening to clients. She says, "It takes an edge off my hunger and fills me up just fine."

These commercials not only gave scenarios where Snickers might be the perfect choice for a between-meals snack, but they also gave us a catchphrase to remember it. And Snickers really does satisfy better than some other snack foods, so the memory of this catchphrase works for hungry (and hangry) people time and again. Plus, the commercials always make a point of reminding you visually and audibly that the candy bars contain "peanuts, peanut butter nougat, caramel, and milk chocolate." So, you know exactly what you're getting when you go for a Snickers.

We don't know about you, but for us, the actual experience of eating Twizzlers has never quite matched the promise the commercials offered. But the claymation commercials from the mid-1980s still worked to make us want some anyway.

First of all, let's talk about claymation. It was one step above cartoons because of its 3D quality and more realistic feel, and in the 1980s, it started showing up in commercials for things like Twizzlers, California Raisins, and even Rice-a-Roni. There was certainly a coolness factor that came along with claymation commercials. While the Twizzlers Makes Mouths Happy commercials were simplistic, they worked 100 times better for us as a claymation commercial than they would if they'd been with real mouths or cartoon mouths. The Twizzlers commercials from 1984 had a claymation mouth explaining how Twizzlers "makes your mouth happy" because the candy is fun to eat, chewy, and the flavor is both fruity and juicy. Later commercials had various songs, but the one that stuck with us the most was the song from the 1987 commercial where claymation mouths sang that "Twizzlers make me very happy. Ah, so happy."

From these commercials, you couldn't help but think that Twizzlers would taste amazing, with juicy strawberry flavors making your mouth happy, just like in the commercial. Of course, the reality is that they're more like eating vaguely flavored plastic than being fruity and juicy. However, they've been around since 1929, so someone must love them.

Those Bonkers commercials from the 1980s were absolutely unhinged, as they should have been for a candy with such an outlandish name. The name alone suggested that these candies were going to be something special, but the commercials pushed that idea over the edge.

The idea behind the commercials was that ordinary people doing ordinary things would pop a piece of Bonkers fruit candy into their mouths, resulting in giant pieces of fruit falling onto them out of the sky and sending them into a laughing fit. A very straight-laced woman introduces the candy in many of the commercials before everyone gets bonked. Maybe candy eaters are playing piano, sitting on a couch, minding their own business, or doing serious things in a hotel lobby when they try the candy. Then, a giant piece of fruit falls from the sky, and they end up laughing their heads off. Ultimately, the narrator takes a bite, has fruit fall on her head, and starts laughing, revealing her fun side, too. "Bonkers. Bonks you out!"

Who doesn't want a giant piece of fruit to fall from the sky and have them literally rolling on the floor laughing? Well, obviously, we all knew fruit wasn't really going to fall from the sky when we finally tried it, but the idea of a candy making you ridiculously happy was certainly appealing even if this candy itself is kind of forgettable all these years later.

There was a lot going on in 1980s M&Ms commercials to try to convince people that they needed M&Ms. It was the ones from around 1985 and 1986 that managed to truly run the gamut of using a variety of tactics to try to appeal to consumers.

The specific commercial we're thinking about has a song that shows how happy kids are when they get M&Ms, with the jingle saying, "M&Ms chocolate candies light up the face," and that they "always bring a smile" and "brighten the day." You see kids in the commercial becoming overjoyed every time they're offered M&Ms, whether they're at a birthday party, playing with toys, playing dress up, hanging with their friends, coming home from school, or practicing their musical instrument. But it's not just people in the U.S. who like M&Ms. No, the lyrics claim that "all the world loves M&Ms." How can you not want a candy that is going to make you happy and is also enjoyed around the world?

The clincher for us, though, has always been the phrase "The milk chocolate melts in your mouth — not in your hands." We suppose the idea is that they're so good that you won't keep them in your hands long enough to let them melt, and we always saw it as a challenge, especially on a hot day with sweaty hands.

One of our favorite vintage candy commercials was the one for Nestlé Alpine White chocolate from 1986. The commercial made the candy seem sophisticated, cool, and glamorously European. Unfortunately, it's among the list of discontinued candies we'd like to see make a comeback.

The commercial mainly takes place on dreamy mountainous sets inspired by Maxfield Parrish paintings. The opening scene is a woman standing on the edge of a mountain cliff overlooking the water as her gossamer white clothing billows in the wind, like Parrish's painting "Ecstasy". A handsome young man watches the candy bar emerge from a milky pool, a figure skater dressed all in white spins, milk pours from the sky, snow falls on a woman in a white hood, and almonds fall from the sky. Then, we see another Parrish painting come to life as the "Girl on a Swing" swings past Alpine mountains. Finally, we experience a modernized version of "Daybreak," with a white-clad young man bending down toward a white-clad young woman in dappled sunlight near a pillar and coming into an embrace while enjoying one of the candy bars.

You also get the sense that the commercial's song is meant to penetrate your subconscious like a dream, and it did for us. The commercial keeps panning to a closeup of the chocolate bar scrolling by, as the song spells out "N. E. S. T. L. E. S." and saying things like "Sweet dreams you can't resist" and "Nestlé makes the very best."

The Whatchamacallit candy bar commercial from the late 1980s was design and lyric perfection. It was designed by director Maciek Albrecht and produced by J.J. Sedelmaier, known for being a part of Saturday Night Live's animation department. For those of us who experienced this commercial while watching Saturday morning cartoons, it was absolutely mesmerizing and made the candy bar seem immensely trendy. Certainly, this is what cool teenagers were eating.

The commercial is done in 1980s pop art style. First, there's a boat that flies and flaps by in the sky, leaving behind a puff of air that becomes a happy face emoji. Then, a stylish black and white character grabs a colored cartoon Whatchamacallit bar. The images change to various elements, including a flying saucer, a Monty-Python-style musical instrument puffing out pop art sound notes, and a jumping jaguar with a Slinky middle. However, our favorite part was always the picture of a Whatchamacallit candy bar next to the dictionary entry and definition for "whatchamacallit."

The lyrics are smooth, mysterious, ethereal, and even existential, playing off the name of the candy bar, "Thingabob? Gobbletygoo? Whatsitsface? Whatchamacllit? Whatever it is? Whatever it was ... Doodad? Skidamarink? More than a mouthful. It's Whatcahmacallit." Somewhere in all those nonsense and utterly cool lyrics, we found out that the bar has "chocolatey chocolate" and "chew-gooey caramel," while its peanut crispies" rain down on the pop art characters. Today's pop art packaging is a call back to this wonderful old school commercial.

KitKat first started making commercials in 1986 that equated KitKats with giving yourself a break. In the first commercial, you see not only a businesswoman but also a taxi driver breaking off a piece of a KitKat to take a small break from their busy days and feel a little happier. This advertising idea of people from different walks of life using KitKats to take a break evolved over the years until we started seeing KitKat commercials with the catchy "Give Me a Break" song, which are the commercials that really reeled us in.

In a 1996 KitKat commercial, we see a variety of happy people singing, "Give me a break. Give me a break. Break me off a piece of that KitKat bar." All of them are holding KitKat bars and singing while taking a break from what they're doing. The happy singers include firemen, a window washer, a home gardener, a man getting off an airplane, a construction worker, a dad swinging his baby, choir boys, a dairy farmer, kids on inner tubes, school kids in a computer lab, baseball players, a florist, a majorette, and retired ladies.

Not only do the "Give Me a Break" commercials appeal to ordinary people who might see themselves in the commercials, but they also make you feel like part of a community of people enjoying the candy. However, it also gives you permission to take a break from what you're doing and reward yourself with a piece of KitKat.