Ajax Stronger Than Dirt #1

[refek1]

thumbs up if "Touch me" brought you here.

[frankenboston]

its, absolutely Large Marge gone back in a time machine .

[boomerlesterok]

do they still make ajax?

[3zy]

@boomerlesterok I think so, but Colgate-Palmolive sold the brand to another company a few years ago (at least in North America).

[oicuraqt]

In the 1960s, Wayne and Shuster did a parody of this commercial, except the horse and rider were quite dirty, and the knight used the lance to instantly change someone wearing nice tennis whites into something very grimy. Hilarious. (I can't find it on YouTube, however.)

[gregoryagogo]

Love the way she throws the laundry in and tosses her head back!

She's Alice Nunn, aka "Large Marge" and "Helga" the made on Mommie Dearest!

[gregoryagogo]

OMG! IT'S LARGE MARGE!



[circusitch]

If you listen real close to this commercial, you can hear the announcer say "touch me".

[SweetlyDissonant]

Thus birthed the "stronger than dirt" jazz endings

[FELINEFOOL]

TELL EM LARGE MARGE SENT YA!

[shmuli9]

They had a VERY similar set of commercials in the 60s in Australia... Between watching out for arrant knights galloping around keeping things clean and animated talking mascots, how is one ever supposed to get any peace? :-)

[irish89055]

@shmuli9 love that Jackie Gleason line.." if you saw a knight coming down the street at you, you'd turn white too".... lol

[ClassicRocker679]

Thumbs up if the Doors brought you here!

[elc1960]

Large Marge!! Cool. One of the most unforgettable TV ads ever produced. In 1960's TV, this is right up there with the Green Giant and the Slinky jingle for sticking in your brain forever. Oh yeah, and the "Choo Choo Charlie" Good 'n' Plenty ad sung to the tune of "Casey Jones".

[michelle850423]

so weird

[GradyBaby13]

A few inches in the wrong direction and that could have been a horrible accident.

[shamrockf1]

Just a little factoid for ya... The guy riding the horse as the "White Knight" was killed11/19/67 in a plane crash. His 10 year old son was also killed. His wife and 13 year old daughter survived the crash but, were trapped in the plane for 36 hours until rescued.

[bongomanfromdalou]

Ironic since the previous year Ajax held a "Mame the White Knight" contest in which the top prize was "a 1967 Pontiac Bonneville filled with cash--over $25,000!"

[pablpfanque]

In The Doors 'Touch Me', you can hear Jim Morrison sing, Stronger Than Dirt! in the very end, because the song cadence mimics the ad.

[kascnef82]

@pablpfanque it's actually stronger than pain.

[SignusMelko]

Ajax was a Greek Hero during the Trojan War

[etherealreality]

As a 5 year old boy I LOVED the Ajax knight

[ProudKansan08]

Hey, that's Large Marge from Pee Wee's Big Adventure!!! Wow!! I remember that commercial, too. Forgot all about it. Thanks for the memories!!!

[Juliaflo]

@ProudKansan08 Alice Nunn, I believe.

[subtilstudio]

"my love is stronger than dirt"

[djmrbrown00]

IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW!!!!!

[fromthesidelines]

Yes, 'bongo', "The White Knight" first appeared in 1964, and was seen in Ajax Laundry Detergent ads over the next three years {even Bob Hope parodied it in his 1967 feature "Eight On the Lam"}.

[snorklefoot]

Greezy t-shirts.

[hooperxxx]

Come on, come on, come on, come on, now touch me, baby. Can't you see that I am not afraid?

[frankenboston]

@hooperxxx  lol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[za100786]

The singing sounds like Adam West.

[Croonr1]

The vocalists are The Sportsmen Quartet.

[gallegos2793]

if you listen to the doors song: touch me, at the end of the song jim morrison chants the line:stronger thatn dirt. but you can bearlly hear it.

[darlie48]

so that's what large Marge did before she drove a truck

[saskabush2006]

One of the best jingles ever. A rock group called The Mummies actually expanded it into a full song, too (there's a video of it elsewhere on YouTube).

[bongomanfromdalou]

Actually, the "White Knight" commercial debuted in 1964; I remember they had crews sampling the powder by leaving boxes on every doorknob in town. "Ultramarine Plus" was indeed a very intense bluing that really made dingy clothes look whiter. And that "da-da-dah-DAH!" riff--the music, NOT the lyrics--was indeed used at the end of the Doors' "Touch Me, Babe."

[stretcherbearer]

The Doors.......maybe but I always thought Cream ripped it off for the first five notes in "Sunshine of Your Love".

[swervn69]

Bongo, I disagree with your "NOT the lyrics" reference for The Doors' song. In Ray Manzarek's interview on Rockline, he said that Jim HATED that song. "Touch Me" was written by someone else, and they were forced to put it on The Soft Parade by the record execs gunning for a hit single. Jim was looking for something to embellish the song's ending that voiced his displeasure, when this Ajax commercial appeared on his TV, adding "Stronger Than Dirt" to the legend of The Doors....

[fromthesidelines]

This famous ad campaign was first seen in 1966- it ranks with Ajax Cleaner's "White Tornado" as one of the most memorable images of '60s TV advertising!

[tuttt99]

Why it IS Large Marge!!! cool!!

[mikey50077]

That's 'Large Marge' from the movie "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" as the spokeswoman for Ajax... "It was on a night just like tonight. Worst accident I ever seen..."

[murielsartre]

So *that's* where that line in The Doors song comes from!

[DirtyMagicxxxAimee33]

LOL...Yeah. At the end of "Touch Me" STRONGER THAN DIRT.

[DanMan869]

Great clip! I think that Ultramarine-Plus had to do with the laundry bluing/blueing method of whitening. Totally old school laundry concept--check it out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L­aundry_bluing .