Alka-Seltzer

Alka-Seltzer
Alka-Seltzer Plus
Cherry Alka Seltzer Plus Tablet dissolving in water
Product type Antacid, aspirin, NSAID, tablets, liquid gels, fruit chews
Owner Bayer (since 1978)
Country United States
Introduced 1931 (1931)
Markets Worldwide
Previous owners Miles Laboratories
Tagline "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz"
Website www.alka-seltzer.com
http://www.alka-seltzerplus.com/

Alka-Seltzer is an effervescent antacid and pain reliever first marketed by the Dr. Miles Medicine Company of Elkhart, Indiana, United States. Alka-Seltzer contains three active ingredients: aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) (ASA), sodium bicarbonate, and anhydrous citric acid.[1] The aspirin is a pain reliever and anti-inflammatory, the sodium bicarbonate is an antacid, and the citric acid reacts with the sodium bicarbonate and water to form effervescence.[2]

It was developed by head chemist Maurice Treneer.[3][4] Alka-Seltzer is marketed for relief of minor aches, pains, inflammation, fever, headache, heartburn, stomachache, indigestion, acid reflux and hangovers, while neutralizing excess stomach acid.[4] It was launched in 1931.[5]

Marketing


The product has been extensively advertised since its launch in the U.S. It was originally marketed by Mikey Wiseman, a company scientist of Dr. Miles Medicine Company, who also helped direct its development. Print advertising was used immediately, and in 1932 the radio show Alka-Seltzer Comedy Star of Hollywood began, with National Barn Dance following in 1933, along with many more. The radio sponsorships continued into the 1950s, ending with the Alka-Seltzer Time show.

Alka-Seltzer TV ads from the 1960s and 1970s in the US were among the most popular of the 20th century, ranking number 13, according to Advertising Age. To increase sales in a relatively flat business, Bayer has revived several of the vintage spots.

Paul Margulies—father of actress Julianna Margulies—created the famous "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz" ad campaign when he worked as a Madison Avenue ad executive. The ubiquitous jingle was composed by Tom Dawes—a former member of The Cyrkle.

During the race for space in the early 1960s before the USA moon landing there was a commercial with Speedy in a space suit and a jingle with the lyrics "On Man's first trip through space, I only hope that I'm aboard, securely strapped in place. They'll track our ship with radar and telescopes and soon, imagine seeing Speedy Alka-Seltzer on the moon!"

George Raft starred in the 1969 Alka-Seltzer commercial "The Unfinished Lunch." It consists of Raft incarcerated and in the prison lunchroom. He takes a bite of the prison food and recoils. Suddenly he bangs his cup on the steel table. It ripples throughout the room. He starts intoning "Alka-Seltzer, Alka-Seltzer..." Soon, the other hundreds of inmates do the same. (The commercial was so popular that several weeks later Raft appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Raft told Carson that it took more than 7 hours to tape the 30-second commercial. Raft was enraged by the end of the day, thus making his inmate portrayal that much more convincing for the final editing. The film crew gave Raft his crumpled tin cup, which he showed to Carson and the audience.)

An animated mid-1960s commercial, animated by R.O. Blechman, shows a man and his own stomach sitting opposite each other in chairs, having an argument moderated by their therapist in a voiceover. The stomach (voiced by Gene Wilder) accuses the man of purposely trying to irritate it. The man accuses his stomach of complaining too much about the foods he likes. The therapist suggests Alka-Seltzer, and further suggests that the two must take care of each other. The closing words are of the stomach saying to the man: "Well, I'll try — if you will."

Alka-Seltzer had a series of commercials during the mid-1960s that used a song called "No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach's In)." A different version was recorded by The T-Bones and was released as a single, which became a hit in 1966. The ads were unique in that they featured only the midsections (no faces) of people of all shapes and sizes. A version of this ad can be seen briefly in the 1988 motion picture The In Crowd, immediately before the movie's first live broadcast of the fictitious "Perry Parker's Dance Party."

In an Alka-Seltzer commercial from 1969, an actor (played by Jack Somack) in a commercial for the fictional product "Magdalini's Meatballs" has to eat a meatball and then say "Mamma mia, that's-a spicy meat-a ball-a!" in an ersatz Italian accent. Take after take is ruined by some comedic trial or another (comedian Ronny Graham dropping the clapperboard). By the commercial's end, Jack has eaten so many meatballs that it's "Alka Seltzer to the rescue." With his stomach settled, Jack does a perfect take, except that the oven door falls off. The director (off-camera) sighs and says, "OK, let's break for lunch."[6]

A 1970 commercial shows a newlywed couple in the bedroom after the woman (played by Alice Playten) has finished serving her husband (played by Terry Kiser) a giant dumpling; the implication is that her cooking skills are severely lacking, despite her husband's lament, "I can't believe I ate that whole thing!", the commercial's catch-phrase. She lies on the bed in delusional triumph. She offers her beleaguered husband a heart-shaped meatloaf; he disappears to take some Alka-Seltzer. When she hears the fizzy noise coming from the bathroom, he quickly covers the glass of dissolving Alka-Seltzer as she wonders aloud if it is raining. Just when he has recovered his well-being, he hears her misreading recipes for dinner the next night: "Marshmallowed meatballs," "medium salad snails," and "pouched (actually poached) oysters". He returns to the bathroom for more Alka-Seltzer.[7] The catch-phrase, Howie Cohen told The Los Angeles Times, was inspired when he ate too much of the food at a London commercial shoot because "I am a nice Jewish kid from the Bronx, so I ate everything," and when he told his wife "I can't believe I ate the whole thing", she said, "There's your next Alka-Seltzer commercial."[8]

A 1971 commercial featured another catch-phrase from Cohen (along with Bob Pasqualina), "Try it, you'll like it!" It was remade with Kathy Griffin in 2006.[9] In 1972, an actor (Milt Moss) spent the commercial moaning, "I can't believe I ate that who-o-o-o-o-ole thing," while his wife (Lynn Whinic) made sarcastic comments and finally advised him to take some Alka-Seltzer.[10] In 2005, this ad was also remade, featuring Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts from the 1996–2005 TV sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond.[11]

Sammy Davis, Jr. recorded two versions of the famous "Plop Plop Fizz Fizz" jingle in 1978, one of which (the "big band" version) was featured on a television commercial. Both the big band and rock versions had additional lyrics (with at least one verse unique to each song) written by Tom Dawes, former lead singer of The Cyrkle who wrote the original jingle.

In 2009, the brand was featured in television commercials supporting the United States Ski Team that included alpine skier Lindsey Vonn and Nordic combined skier Bill Demong. Miniature figures of the Speedy mascot were shown with each.

Mascot

In 1951, the "Speedy" character was introduced. The character was originally conceived by creative director George Pal of the Wade Ad Agency and designed by illustrator Wally Wood. Originally named Sparky, the name was changed to Speedy by sales manager Perry L. Shupert to align with that year's promotional theme, "Speedy Relief." Speedy appeared in over 200 TV commercials between 1954 and 1964. His body was one Alka-Seltzer tablet, while he wore another as a hat. Buster Keaton appeared along with the animated Speedy Alka-Seltzer figure in a series of 1950s commercials based on the product's then-current slogan, "Relief is just a swallow away." Speedy Alka-Seltzer was voiced by Dick Beals. Speedy was revived for one of the "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz" song spots in 1976. In his original spots, he sang "Relief is just a swallow away" while in his 1976 revival he proclaimed Alka-Seltzer's virtues and sang the "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is" song in his iconic high, squeaky voice. In the early 1960s, a commercial showing two tablets dropping into a glass of water instead of the usual one caused sales to double. In December 2010, Alka-Seltzer began a series of new commercials featuring Speedy, using CGI effects to recreate the stop-motion puppetry of the 1950s and 1960s, with Speedy voiced by Debi Derryberry. [12]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Alka Seltzer Directions of use, Sodium & Aspirin content - Alka Seltzer relief from Headaches, Migraine & Upset stomach". alkaseltzer.ie. Archived from the original on 2015-04-29.
  2. ↑ "Alka-seltzer original". Netdoctor. Archived from the original on 2015-06-10.
  3. ↑ Origin of Everyday Things Archived 2018-05-06 at the Wayback Machine. by Think Books (editor), Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., Nov 28, 2006 page 12. Retrieved October 21st, 2012
  4. 1 2 Google Books Archived 2018-05-06 at the Wayback Machine., Sold on Radio: Advertisers in the Golden Age of Broadcasting By Jim Cox pp 197-199 ISBN 978-0-7864-3391-9 May 23, 2008
  5. ↑ The book of answers: the New York Public Library Telephone Reference Service's most unusual and entertaining questions Archived 2018-05-06 at the Wayback Machine. By Barbara Berliner, Melinda Corey, George Ochoa. Simon and Schuster, 1992
  6. ↑ Hevesi, Dennis (25 February 2009). "Howard Zieff, 'a-Spicy Meatball' Adman, Dies at 81". Archived from the original on 5 December 2017. Retrieved 6 May 2018 – via NYTimes.com.
  7. ↑ Holden, Stephen (26 June 2011). "Alice Playten, Actress of Small Frame, Big Voice, Dies at 63". Archived from the original on 23 May 2017. Retrieved 6 May 2018 – via NYTimes.com.
  8. ↑ James, Meg (26 August 2012). "Ad man Howie Cohen built a reputation one line at a time". Archived from the original on 18 October 2015. Retrieved 6 May 2018 – via LA Times.
  9. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-01-31. Retrieved 2018-01-31.
  10. ↑ Slotnik, Daniel E. (1 December 2016). "Milt Moss, Actor in Classic Alka-Seltzer Ad, Is Dead at 93". Archived from the original on 10 February 2018. Retrieved 6 May 2018 – via NYTimes.com.
  11. ↑ Elliott, Stuart (12 December 2005). "Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz: Alka-Seltzer Remakes an Old TV Commercial (the Whole Thing)". Archived from the original on 31 January 2018. Retrieved 6 May 2018 – via NYTimes.com.
  12. ↑ ELLIOTT, STUART. nytimes https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/business/05adco.html. Retrieved 7 September 2018. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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