Growing up watching your favorite TV shows in the ‘90s, you were bound to see a commercial or two with a jingle so memorable you’d be internally singing it long after it ended. Whether the jingle actually inspired you to go and buy the thing it was hocking was another story, but these singing slogans certainly got the brand in your head, and that was just as important. Today, we’re going to rank the top 15 of those ‘90s commercial jingles — and just to warn you now… yes, these may get stuck in your head.. again!
10. Hungry Hungry Hippos
Though the Hungry Hungry Hippos game has been around since the late ‘70s, it was this conga-themed jingle from the ‘90s that really stood out. It’s really hard to tell what the heck they are saying in this commercial — “we love to feed our face?” “We win a leading race?” If you just listen to it quickly, though, it sounds like it says “we’ll eat the human race” or something. I mean, real life hippos are pretty aggressive, so that wouldn’t exactly not be true.
9. Skip It
Though the Skip It was first released to the public in the ’80s, it was the ’90s that truly saw a Skip It renaissance. With the addition of a counter, kids could have legitimate contests with each other to see who was the better skipper. And the above commercial introduced an awesome jingle that promoted that counter — “but the very best thing of all, there’s a counter on this ball!” Were you a Skip It master or did you get bored after 10 minutes?
8. Crossfire
Did you feel like you were in a version of Mad Max when you played Crossfire in the ‘90s? The commercials definitely embraced an apocalyptic vibe with the kids coming to play crossfire in some kind of thunderdome situation. But the “Crossfire!” jingle rings true no matter how ridiculous the commercial itself may be.
7. Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola has had many memorable commercials throughout the years, but the one you’ll most remember from the ‘90s featured a catchy tune with the memorable lyrics, “The sun will always shine, the birds will always sing, as long as there is thirst, there is always the real thing.” Is Coca-Cola still the one? This tune is one of the jingles here that is most song-like, so be prepared to get it stuck in your head!
6. Connect Four
Milton Bradley started selling Connect Four in the ‘70s, but it wasn’t until the early ‘90s that some advertising whiz came up with this jingle that was all about “going for it.” The commercial was also memorable for featuring live-action kids with some animated black and red chips.
5. Pull-Ups
Are you a big kid now? You definitely sang along to that jingle in the ‘90s even if you weren’t a kid who needed Huggies Pull-Ups. These days, the company has attempted to revive the “big kid now” jingle for a new commercial, but it’s just not quite the same as it was back in the day.
4. Doublemint Gum
Doublemint has been around for over a hundred years (since 1914!), and have used twins in their marketing in some form or another for many decades. But the twins that ‘90s kids will remember the most are the ones featured above saying you’ll get “double the pleasure, double the fun” with Doublemint gum.
3. Bagel Bites
Pizza in the morning, pizza in the evening, pizza at supper time… need we continue? Doubtful! You know you wanted to try some Bagel Bites after hearing that jingle play relentlessly during almost any kids television programming. Were they good? No. Did you love them anyway? Yes, because when you’ve got pizza on a bagel, you can have pizza anytime. They really tried to play it off in these commercials that bagels were healthy! Yeah, sure they are.
2. Chili's
You know you’ve got a hit on your hands when a huge band like NSYNC agrees to film a version of your jingle. Okay, that’s not technically true. In 2002, Chili’s actually sponsored the final leg of NSYNC’s Celebrity tour, so as part of the promotion, they did two “Baby Back Ribs” jingle commercials for them. Above we’ve compiled some different versions of the jingle, including those later NSYNC versions.
1. Mentos
Mentos — The Freshmaker! Yes, you know you remember this jingle. It was everywhere in the ‘90s! There were so many different variations of this commercial, but all of them featured a similar theme — a person encountering a day-to-day dilemma not knowing what to do, then popping in a Mentos, and coming up with an inspired plan to change their luck. Actually, they seem to come up with the idea, then pop in the Mentos, which is a little wonky, but we love it anyway. We’ve featured a handful of the different variations in our compilation video above.
What jingle was your favorite? Let us know in the comments! But first, if these jingles have inspired you to buy some of your favorite childhood items, check out a few of our favorites below:
- In 2011, Meat Loaf went on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and performed an Ode to Bagel Bites, making the jingle into a rock power ballad.
- The Chili’s baby back ribs jingle was so popular, that it ended up being featured in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me in 1999 when Fat Bastard (yes, that is the actual character’s name) wants to eat Mini Me because he looks like a baby, and sings the song.
- Mentos were first produced in 1932 in The Netherlands, and are now sold in more than 100 countries around the world. The commercials popular in the ‘90s were actually filmed in South Africa.
- Coca-Cola’s name refers to two of its original ingredients: coca leaves, and kola nuts (a source of caffeine). They used the coca leaf extract from 1885 until about 1903. And yes, those are the same plants used to create cocaine.
- Though jingles may have been around for some time, the one that gets credit for being the first broadcast on the radio in 1926 is Wheaties with their jingle, “Wheaties – “the best breakfast food in the land.”
- In 2011, Meat Loaf went on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and performed an Ode to Bagel Bites, making the jingle into a rock power ballad.
- The Chili’s baby back ribs jingle was so popular, that it ended up being featured in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me in 1999 when Fat Bastard (yes, that is the actual character’s name) wants to eat Mini Me because he looks like a baby, and sings the song.
- Mentos were first produced in 1932 in The Netherlands, and are now sold in more than 100 countries around the world. The commercials popular in the ‘90s were actually filmed in South Africa.
- Coca-Cola’s name refers to two of its original ingredients: coca leaves, and kola nuts (a source of caffeine). They used the coca leaf extract from 1885 until about 1903. And yes, those are the same plants used to create cocaine.
- Though jingles may have been around for some time, the one that gets credit for being the first broadcast on the radio in 1926 is Wheaties with their jingle, “Wheaties – “the best breakfast food in the land.”
