Category: Music

GEICO Knight & the Pips

GEICO was founded by Leo Goodwin and his wife Lillian Goodwin in 1936 to market auto insurance directly to federal government employees and their families. Goodwin was inducted into the Insurance Hall of Fame due to the success of the company.

Gladys Knight & the Pips were an R&B/soul musical act from Atlanta, Georgia, active from 1953 to 1989. Best known for their string of hit singles from 1967 to 1975, including “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” (1967) and “Midnight Train to Georgia” (1973). The longest-lived incarnation of the act featured Gladys Knight on lead vocals, with The Pips, who included her brother Merald “Bubba” Knight and their cousins Edward Patten and William Guest, as backup singers. As of 2007, the Pips appeared in a commercial for auto insurance company Geico.

I Am Man

In May 2006, in promotion of the Texas Double Whopper, Burger King released a campaign called the “Manthem” which parodies Helen Reddy’s I Am Woman. It depicts a man and his girlfriend at a fancy restaurant. Disappointed by the meager portions he is served, the man bursts into song, expressing his desire for a Texas Double Whopper, in place of what he deems “chick food.”

“I Am Woman” is a song cowritten by Helen Reddy and singer/songwriter/guitarist Ray Burton and performed by Reddy. Released in its most well-known version in 1972, the song became an enduring anthem for the women’s liberation movement.

MC Hammer can’t touch Lay’s Potato Chips

Lay’s is the brand name for a number of potato chip varieties as well as the name of the company that founded the chip brand in 1938. Lay’s chips are marketed as a division of Frito-Lay, a company owned by PepsiCo Inc. since 1965.

[MC] Hammer recently performed a self-parody role in a television ad for Lay’s potato chips. Some kids lose their baseball over the fence of a neighbor apparently infamous for not returning lost toys, so they throw him a bag of chips to appease him. He throws back their ball, their dog, a car belonging to one kid’s dad, and MC Hammer, still dressed in golden sparkle shirt and parachute pants. MC Hammer instantly breaks into the chorus of “U Can’t Touch This.” The kids then toss Hammer back over the fence.

Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch

Darius Rucker (born May 13, 1966 in Charleston, South Carolina) is the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the band Hootie & the Blowfish. In March 2005, Rucker portrayed a singing cowboy in a Burger King commercial for the Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch sandwich. While humorous in tone, the ad showcases Rucker’s love of country music. The song sung in the commercial was a parody of “Big Rock Candy Mountain”.

The TenderCrisp is a chicken sandwich sold by the international fast-food restaurant chain Burger King. It is one of their larger, adult oriented products made with higher quality ingredients than their “standard” menu items.

Salvador Dalí is crazy over Lavin Chocolate

Je suis fou de Chocolate Lanvin!
I’m crazy over Lavin Chocolate!

Much of the chocolate consumed today is made into bars that combine cocoa solids, fats like cocoa butter, and sugar. Chocolate has become one of the most popular flavours in the world. Chocolate lovers are known as “chocoholics.”

Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marqués de Dalí de Pubol (11 May 1904 – 23 January 1989), was a Spanish (Catalan) surrealist painter. Some critics alleged Dalí was motiviated not by art but greediness, which led [leader of the surrealist movement, André] Breton to nickname him “Avida Dollars” (an anagram).

The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 “Choral” is the last complete symphony composed by Ludwig van Beethoven. By the time the composer began work on the symphony, he was completely deaf.

Toyota: It’s a trap!

Toyota, and Toyota-produced Lexus and Scion automobiles, consistently rank at the top in certain quality and reliability surveys, primarily J.D. Power and Consumer Reports.

Monty Norman has been credited with writing the “James Bond Theme“, and has received royalties since 1962. For Dr. No, the song was orchestrated by John Barry who would later go on to compose the soundtrack for 11 future Bond films. Courts have ruled twice that the theme was written by Monty Norman despite claims and testimony by Barry that he had actually written the theme. Norman has consequently won two libel actions against publishers for claiming that Barry wrote the theme, most recently against The Sunday Times in 2001. It is generally acknowledged that Barry came up with the arrangement used in Dr. No.