Jan 06 2007
A Mindsticker? WTF?
Friends and passersby, I give you what is quite possibly the stupidest (and most sexist) ad EVER made. And the soundtrack? OMG. It’s bad.
Seriously, you HAVE to watch this 1970’s TV commercial for Tab, if only to hear them say “be a mindsticker.”
In fact, I should have saved this one for WTF Wednesday because I can’t even believe women were ever marketed to like this. Ughhhh!
Behold…
You can also watch it by clicking here
How very strange!
Oh. OH! That’s just embarrassing. And sickening. And lame.
And to me, a “mindsticker” is what I’d love to be if I were in the presence of the execs who thought up that ad. “Here, let me just bap you upside the head with this stick, dude…”
Excuse me while I choke on my own vomit…
holy crap that was a real commercial? Ugh. We are doomed.
I would love to know where those ad exec are flipping burgers today.
Oh c’mon! It’s true. Only women with 26 inch waists make for good mothers and wives! Everybody knows that. That’s why Tab is the leading diet cola in the free world.
Cool, I wondered what Dr. Laura did before the whole Dr. Laura gig. I see now! She worked for an ad agency writing ad copy!
Wow. Drink TAB and get porked? That’s a pretty direct appeal. Or maybe he was taking her upstairs for the Stepford Treatments?
Of course, now I’m going to have that song stuck in my head all day. Better than the DuckTales theme, but still.
F*CK! Is it any wonder we’re psychotic about body image sh*t?! (Sorry to swear in your comments, but F*CK!)
Holy $h*t! I think we just found the cure for divorce! TAB! Be a mindsticker! Good lord.
I was just drinking TAB!!! Is that why I got lucky this morning???
WOAH.
And to think I used to guzzle Tab…
Tab? The hell with that. Where can I find one of those gorgeous jumpsuits?
No wonder why I never drank Tab…
Wow. I hope times have changed …a little bit anyway!
i’m a “pot sticker” - ummmmm, not in that way (shhhhh) but isn’t there some food called a pot sticker? or am i just nuts? okay, so my point is, my tiny waist is long gone thanks to my healthy appreciation for food, and my obvious ‘miss the boat’ on the tab craze. although my greatest goal in life is to be a “mind sticker” so i’m headed out the door right now. catch ya later!
Wow. If that’s the sort of thing that I missed being offline, well, there was an upside, I guess.
Absolutely classic. OK, more like classic chauvinistic, mind-warped, and worst (or best?) example ever of an advertising campaign that is so very wrong.
But to think that there was that belief of the general public’s naivete that is the most mind-blowing. Who was the ad exec involved in this slice of delight is what I wonder. I will start my guess with male.
And the music? Truly classic with that “mind-sticker” stuff. I’m going to try to work that catch-phrase into a conversation real soon, especially now that Tab is back on the market. Sweet.
Um….well…um….okay….
Oh seriously. That is a riot.
Your reward for drinking TAB is now that you get to bang your husband?
That kind of shiznit is what my mom bought hook, line and sinker, along with Tab.
Oy.
WTF is right. That’s brutal.
Good grief. I remember Tab - but I never have seen that horrible commercial.
Oh my. How old IS that commercial. I can’t recall ever seeing it before, and when was the last time they actually marketed Tab? That was really an interesting commercial. Like someone else said : “drink Tab, become a thin “mindsticker” and get porked? What the fuck?
That commercial is sickening, though I suppose it does portray a certain mind set (antiquated) from that time period. but the term “mindsticker” — pure marketing drivel. I’m happy to observe that term has NOT made it into common English usage.
Um, chauvinism ain’t over, ladies.
Has anyone listened to the lyrics of “Smack That” or nearly any rap song lately?
WTF, indeed. Yikes that’s scary. So if we drink Tab, we’ll be able to stay thn and keep our husbands thinking of us, instead of some other woman, right? Puh-leeze.
That’s. Just. Wrong.
Eek! I’d give them a piece of my mind if I could afford to lose one. I honestly think that if you dug through any company’s archives you’d find similar commercials that were just as offensive. What I find shocking is the number of commericals with a similar bend today, though more subtle of course.
Mindsticker sounds too much like potsticker. Now I’m hungry.
Mindsticker? Who in their right mind would have signed off on something so stupid? I know it was the 70’s and all but still.
ha!
Hilarious.
lol, nice. Damn, YouTube is addictive…
I have never seen that commercial! I remember my Mom drinking Tab though, and I don’t even want to know if that made her a Mindsticker.
At first I thought it was a commercial for that perfume Windsong. Remember? “I can’t seem to forget you, your Windsong stays on my mind”. Barf.
Not the first time I’ve seen this commercial–I still want to find the dirt bag who made this and go punch his lights out.
This is why I’m SO HAPPY I wasn’t born before the 70’s. (Not that the 70’s were any better. But at that point too little to be “inprinted” with that tripe!)
Imprinted. duh.
Elizabeth - that Windsong commercial! Man! Yuck!
Have you ever smelled that nasty sh!t? They should have said, “(…) your Windsong stays in my nose…”
::shrug:: I do not read as much into it as the rest of you seem to. I look at that commercial as being intentionally retro. Very reminiscent of the time when Tab was THE diet cola women drank, before it was taken off the market. (Cyclamates were banned for a time.) Anyways, I do not watch TV, so that is the first I have seen of that commercial.
It doesn’t just LOOK retro. It actually IS retro as it’s from the early-mid 1970’s
I can’t believe this is a recent ad! I mean I believe it because you are telling me it is, but I am extremely surprised that anyone would think that is a good way to market anything!
Ads today say the same thing, it’s just not so “bang you over the head” with it. Sadly, the only thing that has changed is the quality of the advertising.
Also, didn’t TAB taste like shit?
Holy moly!
omg, “Windsong”! How could I have forgotten about that?!
What is so wrong with wanting to be in shape for your man? The only ladies who don’t like this ad are obviously NOT mind-stickers.
My new goal in life: be a mindsticker. God bless Coke… that was totally hot.
And you base this on what exactly? Your numerous years of intensive research on the hotness levels of women who do like sexist crapola vs. those who don’t?
Fascinating! I’d love to see your data as well as your super smokin’ hot mindsticker “figure”
I can’t help but notice that he’s abandoned the idea of TAB for her hot white patent leather belt. See, men never change.
…yeah…be sure to worry about your figure, girly! Meanwhile, it’s not supposed to matter that he’s big enough to harpoon…you know…because of the double standard and all.
I figured since this is the eighth time I have come back to watch this I should at least leave a comment. It’s not a pithy comment, but just a thanks for the laugh. It is hysterical.
“Be a mindsticker” is totally going to be my new catchphrase!
“Better tasting than any diet cola”
This is correct, provided that diet cola was carbonated urine.
Tab may have been the worst tasting drinks pre-nutrasweet.
Seriously. WTF?
Like seriously. That is MESSED up.
Since Tab is now being marketed as an energy drink, I’d like to see them combine campaigns and turn it into a viagra beverage for women. Be a mindsticker all night long.
Ok, that’s total insanity- but I do have to say, I am kind of digging her pantsuit that swished around as she (stifiling laughter) escorted her husband up the stairs.
This is perhaps, and I am a creative director working in advertising, the greatest commercial ever made.
Just kidding. But the drugs they were doing when they wrote it were probably really great.
Apparently it stuck to their minds. To much.
Holy crap! That is freakin’ awesome. Thanks Izzymom.
dear god in heaven. i think mindsticker should be back to life and MADE FUN of over and over. geez.
How can it be “intentionally retro”? It was from THAT TIME PERIOD. Something can only be ‘retro’ if it COPIES fashion from years ago. This is the original. And it IS pretty awful!