TV Ads – 1981 – Billy Martin For Lite Beer + Selsen Blue + Tecate Beer + Pepsi Cola + KXAN Ch 36

DOG COMMENTARY:

Miller Lite‘s long-running “Tastes Great!…Less Filling!” advertising campaign was ranked by Advertising Age magazine as the eighth best advertising campaign in history. The campaign was developed by the advertising agency McCann-Erickson Worldwide. In the prime of the campaign…. television commercials typically portrayed a Lite Beer drinker noting its great taste followed by another who observed that it was less filling. This usually led to a parody of Wild West saloon fights in which every patron got involved in the dispute for no real reason….though in this case it was always a shouting match….where blows were never thrown. The commercials were closed with a voiceover from actor Eddie Barth….who read the slogan…. “Lite Beer from Miller: Everything you’ve always wanted in a beer. And less”….when the then-recently retired New York Jets RB Matt Snell….was the first person to appear in Miller Lite’s first commercial in 1973. 

There is a long history of celebrities….especially sports celebrities….that “graced” these Lite Beer commercials….and since we’ll tell the whole story of this ad campaign….simply due to the many Lite Beer ads we have to post. Suffice to say…great content!!! 

This video features Billy Martin….and since Billy Martin is a old Yankee…..and Bone Daddy loved the Yankees growing up in West Texas….we hold this video near and dear to our heart as this series of Billy Martin baseball cards that BD has in our memorabilia section serves as evidence to his liking Martin so much….as a player and a manager….for he was a perfect example of the ballplayers back in the day when they played….hard-nosed, in your face sorta competitiveness….so, this video is just another “nugget of gold” in our treasure chest of vintage memories in our video museum.

Any way you cut the pie….this video gives the viewer a “memory flash” of six major American products that were successful and had presence back in 1981…..Lite Beer, Selsen Blue Shampoo, Tecate Beer, Pepsi Cola Soda and KXAN Ch 36 in Austin…..which are all still around in 2018….when this video was posted…for we always find it amazing that a few short minutes can capture so much about life styles and buying trends of a generation gone by.

: