Direct mp4 download or play: La Choy Soy Sauce
In the early 1970s, preparing Chinese food was still considered “exotic” by a good number of Americans, and the gooey canned variety was the only way to go. It’s obvious that Beatrice Foods was trying to make Chinese cooking acceptable in America by hiring Captain Binghamton’s sidekick, Lt. Elroy Carpenter, (Bob Hastings) to dump La Choy on his steak and potatoes meal.
This commercial used to bother me when it was on network TV, and I captured it the same way as “Law Day USA.”
7 users commented on " La Choy Soy Sauce "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackAside from the fact that this was some of the worst tasting soy sauce ever made, why did the commercial bother you?
Why not, indeed?
That and Chungking (sic?) where two of the most ickiest, saltiest and artificially blackened soy sauces around.
I’m surprised the commercial didn’t use the then ubiquitous term ‘oriental’.
GEEZ! I still see that on seasonings and ramen noodle packets and for some reason it grates!
that left me feeling humiliated and without even a trace of the appetite i just had.
i have done some stupid things in my time, but never have i done the fake-basting caserole shuffle. that looked like some bad mushrooms to me.
you gotta love the cyncopated rototom patrioptic label strobe, thats the 70′ in a nu-nu-nutshell.
why do bob’s ‘atta-boy’ characters allways leave me feeling as if i’ve been deep brown-nosed?
and as usual, weatherman,
thanks for the zeitgeist clusterbomb. but give an empty stomach caveat next time.
Red commercials.
You cannot deny the gratuitous enthusiasm of the commercial actor during this period.
Also, if you were under 12, had red hair and freckles, you had as much work as you could handle.
All of these commercials are turning red now.
That was great.
Here’s another La Choy commercial I never saw, featuring a dragon crafted by Jim Henson and his team:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bfdaR4xMeU
If you listen carefully, the voice sounds suspiciously like that of Rolf the dog from The Muppet Show.
One more terrific Muppets / La Choy crossover can be seen here, from 1963:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQNg8vEStwQ
this video confirms that beatrice did indeed experiment with MDMA suppositories in the early 70s.
Product quality aside, I remember the La Choy radio commercials from summer and fall 1973 for several of their products. They ran on ABC, CBS and NBC radio networks, and I had recorded some of them on cassette tape, but those tapes are long gone. Wonder if any recordings of these commercials still exist? =PSH