The best ‘90s commercials you probably forgot about

Who doesn’t love a mischievous cartoon mascot? That silly Trix rabbit has been trying to get his hands on his beloved cereal for decades, and the ‘90s commercials brought some good efforts by the mascot. In fact, 1991 was the last time the Trix rabbit got his hands on some cereal. 

Was there anything as intriguing as seeing what Miss Cleo’s callers needed answers to? Even if you didn’t tune into Call Me Miss Cleo, you were fascinated by her commercials.

Maybe the reason the world is in such a hectic state these days is that Fabio isn’t as important of a cultural icon as he once was. In the ‘90s, he appeared as a butter statue in an I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter commercial, and things haven’t been the same since. 

If you close your eyes, you can still see Baby So Real scrunch its creepy face and hear Baby So Real laugh its creepy laugh. As Baby So Real taught everyone through its terrifying commercials, not every doll needs to be totally lifelike. 

Those animated hippos in the ‘90s were hungry and sassy. They were popping their hips in a way that was far cheekier than necessary, but it made for an unforgettable advertisement. (That said, you probably forgot about it eventually.)

Sears Kenmore commercials had every wife in America telling her husband that he needed to be more like the husband in the commercial, who was prompted by his wife’s misery to call an appliance store immediately upon learning there was a problem. 

To this day, people question whether a “no tears” promise in shampoo refers to the water that comes from your eyes or unwanted split ends. L’Oreal Kids Shampoo needs to repair its iconic commercials so everyone knows that the message refers to both issues. 

Of course, the fancy man had Grey Poupon in his fancy car. Of course, he wasn’t going to share it with anyone. Of course, of course, of course. 

Simply drinking Gatorade will not turn anyone into a basketball superstar, but the “Be Like Mike” commercials were genuinely inspiring. Michael Jordan is still lending his talents to iconic Gatorade commercials to this day. 

Budweiser is always coming up with a new and memorable way to push its product, but one of its best commercials featured the frogs, each bellowing a different syllable of the company name. It was so good that it’s hard to believe it was taken out of rotation. 

Bop It was a totally fun toy, but the commercials made it seem like the most fun item you would ever encounter in your life. The marketing team really did their job on those advertisements. 

The kid in the ‘90s Corn Pops commercial freaking out over potentially running out of their favorite cereal very well could’ve inspired the SpongeBob SquarePants writers to pen the episode where Squidward hides his love for Krabby Patties. We’re not saying that it did, but it could’ve. 

The ‘90s brought us so much iconography, including the Coca-Cola commercial featuring polar bears drinking soda while watching the Northern Lights. The only thing more implausible than bears drinking ice-cold pop is bears drinking ice-cold pop in the Arctic, but it was a fantastic commercial nevertheless. 

What Pepsi commercial hasn’t been iconic? In the ‘90s, one of the soda brand’s most memorable was its commercial featuring a bunch of adolescent boys ogling at Cindy Crawford. The exact same commercial could be made with Cindy Crawford today. 

The Reese’s peanut butter cup campaign about there being no wrong way to eat them was an exceptional marketing effort. The commercials were fantastic, including the dominos champion who ate his after using the candy instead of tiles. 

Upon reflection, Baby Bottle Pops are an odd concept for a candy. Nevertheless, a good commercial with a catchy jingle was able to sway an entire generation into trying it. You probably still know the melody to the instructions for eating them. 

Will there ever be a single product that’s pushed as heavily as milk was in the ‘90s and ‘00s? It doesn’t seem likely. The Got Milk? commercial featuring a man in a full-body cast was absolutely bonkers. The implication might’ve gotten a few more people to drink milk, though. 

Mentos commercials in the ‘90s tried to convince everyone that chewable mints would solve all their problems, or at least keep them fresh and cool while dealing with it. Has anyone put that theory to the test recently?

One Gushers commercial in the ‘90s featured a bunch of unsuspecting adolescents whose heads turned into fruits after eating the snack. It was very Charlie and the Chocolate Factory coded, and it was hard to forget. 

When Wrigley’s decided to advertise its Doublemint Gum in the ‘90s, they decided that they needed to assemble more sets of twins than one ever had for any commercial ever. We’re led to believe that they saw a significant spike in sales.