European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 28, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse To ads do flips to help viewers make a Choicey Chuck Vinch Washington Bureau television commercials Are annoyances White noise that barely registers on the brain a two minute Opportunity to raid the ref Iterator without missing that sitcom punch line. But every once in a while a commercial transcends the genres traditional Bounds of browbeating mediocrity to become part of the National lexicon. Take Clara peller. The mild mannered grandmother rocketed to Fame and Fortune in ads for the Wendy a hamburgers Chain in which she razed the competitions minimalist fare by growling a where s the beef a the ads were funny in themselves but they attained immortality when Walter Mondale torpedoed Gary Harts 1984 White House bid by mocking Harts supposed Lack of substance with the same line. Such commercials which every and Agency would kill for Are few and far Between. Yet there Are two showing on stateside television that have reached this rarefied level. One which has spawned a cottage Industry in to shirts posters and late night talk show jokes involves another mild mannered senior citizen named Edith fore but who is better known to the world As mrs. Fletcher. In the and mrs. Fletcher actually a stunt double does a slow header Down a full flight of stairs and lies immobile at the Bottom where she cries in a nasal slightly strangled voice a a in be fallen and i can to get up a she is saved by activating a device worn around her neck manufactured by i Mccall of Camden. . By pushing a Button she transmits an emergency Telephone Alert to a monitoring station which dispatches medical help to her location. The ads debut was followed by an Avalanche of attention. It shot fore to the ranks of celebrities who have made the pages of our social publication of record people. She also made the rounds of to and radio shows and even went on Lour stopping at malls up and Down the East coast to autograph pictures of herself for adoring fans. A i Felt like her agent a joked Lisa Ralph life Callas customer relations chief. She said that at the height of the craze last october and november she was Fielding 30 to 40 requests for interviews with fore every Day. Why would such an and catch fire maybe its the Universal applicability of the phrase. Feeling As if you be fallen and can to get up is something everyone can identify with especially on sunday mornings after having stayed out late saturday night. A a it a Tough to figure a Ralph said. A trying to plumb the Depths of the american psyche is a Nowin proposition. I guess it might be sort of a Black humor thing since All we seem to hear and read about these Days is bad another series of ads that has caught on in a big Way publicizes taster s Choice instant Coffee. The ads arc unique in that they Are scripted As a soap opera. They Star two British actors Sharon Maughan and Anthony head who arc starring in a similar series in Britain that has half a dozen episodes. In the american ads of which two have aired Maughan plays a briton while head plays a Laid Back american. To his credit he does a passable american accent. In the first episode an attractive hostess at a dinner party runs out of Coffee. She finds that her handsome new neighbor has a Cache of tasters Choice which he agrees to part with in return for Light flirty banter about the discriminating Palat a yes of the people who drink it. In the second and he a entertaining another woman at dinner when the hostess stops by to return the Coffee. A look. I m Busy right now but. Perhaps a he says eager to keep his options open. Quot perhaps Quot she says teasingly flashing a dazzling smile As she turns away. Let s see Here. He a lining up a rendezvous with his Beautiful Coffee latching neighbor and in effect two timing the woman already in his apartment. Got it. Of maybe his dinner guest is just a Friend or a business acquaintance. But judging from his furtive manner As he Lowers his voice and keeps the door cracked just enough to talk to his neighbor somehow that a hard to Swallow. That guest should Wake up and smell the tasters Choice brewing. Obviously the object is to sell Java by fostering the notion that men will turn into babe magnets if Only they keep an ample Supply of tasters Choice on hand. The crucial test for this series will come with the third episode this fall. Viewers will Sec if the campaigns slow burning embers can be fanned in the hearts and minds of american Consumers. If All this talk of to commercials has left you nostalgic for the land of a Hundred channels rest easy knowing scientific tests have shown this feeling to last on average for about your first 10 minutes of stateside television viewing. A. Visi .,�?, v11. -. Sharon Maughan and Anthony head brew up a conversation in one of the popular soap opera style tasters Choice commercials on american 28. 1991 sunday a
