Those of us who live in Northeast Ohio often use simple catchphrases as shorthand for big, sprawling topics. “The Drive,” “The Fumble,” and “The Shot” elicit the usual sad, knowing looks as we reflect on several decades of heartbreak and misery involving our major sports teams. “Burning river” is used to boil down a host of environmental issues. And “The Buzzard” gives us a handy “two-fer” – describing an annual sense of renewal in the town of Hinckley (where the turkey vultures return each March) as well as a radio station that played bad rock in the Eighties.
I'd like to add another catch-phrase to the list: the “Big O.” And I’m not referring to those crappy commercials that equate sexual fulfillment with the act of shopping online for overstocked merchandise.
I’m talking about the greatest advertising jingle ever used to flog a product. No, let me rephrase that – used in an attempt to create a new world order, based on one company’s vigilant efforts to bring a little taste of sunshine and happiness to people who desperately needed both.
First, a little background on that company: Lawson’s humble roots date back to 1939, when one J.J. Lawson opened a small store at his dairy plant in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Lawson’s eventually became a chain of convenience stores, mostly in Ohio, owned and operated by Consolidated Foods. Then the corporate picture got a lot murkier, with the typical parade of mergers and acquisitions and name changes (if you want the sordid details, go to Wikipedia).
But there are several interesting twists to the story. First, Lawson’s successor, Dairy Mart, was involved in a landmark decision based on an employee’s claim (rejected by the judge, upholding the First Amendment) that adult magazines sold through the chains were a form of sexual harassment. Second, Dairy Mart’s buyer – a company based in Quebec – decided to keep the Lawson’s name alive in North America by using it to brand the always-popular chip dip (hardly the stuff of legend, but still noteworthy… I’m guessing the new owner had a jones for french onion). And third, Lawson (without the “s”) has become the second-largest convenience store chain in Japan – another result of countless corporate maneuvers, the details of which made my head hurt. Sara Lee and Mitsubishi are involved somehow… probably in some failed attempt to create a global automotive/baked goods/chip-dip juggernaut.
Article comments
1 - Ruvy
NU? Where's the jingle already? And why would someone from Brooklyn know from something made up in the pit of Flyoverland?
2 - Tim
Jingle's in the video on pg. 2... And I live in the cultural epicenter of Flyoverland, Akron.
3 - Ruvy
I gotta be honest, Tim. I thought you were talking about the Coca Cola jingle in this piece. EVERYBODY WORLD WIDE knew that jingle. I never heard of Lawson's Big O Orange Juice - ever.
Not even in Minnesota where I lived for 20 years!
4 - Tim
well, you know it now!
5 - Ruvy
well, you know it now!
And I've practically forgotten it already! When I got to YouTube, I played the final sign-off of Chet Huntley from NBC (and a brief but kind tribute from Walter Cronkite), the final sign-off of Eric Sevareid, from CBS News, the final sign-off of Douglas Edwards, also from CBS News, and finally, the last sign-off of Peter Jennings from ABC.
The last was the most painful - he didn't expect that sign-off to be his last. But it was....
I realize that this particular internet magazine originates from Columbus, OH - but Lawson's and its orange juice was a local brand. Of course, you can always watch this commercial, one I saw as a young man, and if you were alive (and sentient) in 1970, so did you.
6 - Art Rock
Truly, the Big O jingle remains forever synapsed somewhere in between Huckleberry Hound and Lawrence Welk. But for sheer economy, I want to be the guy who wrote "Na-BIS-co." Three syllables; better than a damn haiku. Probably the same guy who wrote: "Buy Men-nen." Bet he died rich.
7 - JR
I hadn't seen it before but Tim has made a good case that it is the world's greatest advertising jingle. I know we've all seen the Coke jingle, but it makes no extravagant claims. However, the Big O commercial boggles the mind. These two truck drivers drove that tanker of OJ all the way up from Florida without a stop. No one north of the Mason Dixon line had the equipment or the skill to juice oranges. This is either the farthest a company has ever gone to please the consumer, or an all-time great jingle to numb the senses. Unless someone writes to say they knew those truck drivers who actually paired up to drive the truck, I'm suspecting the latter. And the fact that it had Tim, the culture critic, singing along and memorizing the words, that gives it high marks in my book. I say show me a competitor or I rank it number 1.
8 - Tim
Kind of bummed me out when I discovered the two guys in the spot were actors
9 - Scott Stone
I vote Coke but it is an interesting story...