Our Classic Commercial Quiz Takes a Licking and Keeps on Ticking

Fred the Baker, played by actor Michael Vale between 1982 and 1997, was a fictional employee for Dunkin’ Donuts. The catchphrase was so popular that Dunkin’ Donuts’ founder William Rosenberg used it as the title for his 2001 autobiography,  Time to Make the Donuts. Today, the chain has dropped “Donuts” from it brand name and has mostly stopped making donuts in-house.

Fabio Lanzoni was featured in the margarine brand’s commercials for over 20 years, beginning in 1994, and it became one of the most memorable lines of his career.

The actor, who went by the name “Iron Eyes Cody,” had no Native American heritage and was actually a second-generation Italian from Louisiana named Espera Oscar de Corti — though he never publicly acknowledged it. This didn’t stop him from appearing in over 200 movies in various Native American roles, appearing with everyone from John Wayne to Steve McQueen. 

The 60-second spot, directed by Ridley Scott (best known for movies like  Alien and  Blade Runner), featured drone-like industrial workers freed by a woman bursting into the room and shattering a screen with a sledgehammer. But what it doesn’t include is a computer. Not even a glimpse of one. But it was still “devastatingly effective,” as Scott later remarked. Apple sold 72,000 computers within 100 days of the commercial airing.

The ad agency that Gatorade had hired originally hoped to license the song “I Wan’na Be Like You” from Disney’s The Jungle Book. But it was too expensive, so one of the ad execs quickly pivoted, jotting down lyrics to the catchy tune on a restaurant napkin in an afternoon.