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You're Soaking In It... For All Eternity! Bwah-ha-ha-ha!

Courtesy of a ghoulish streak of nostalgia in Mark Gibson, I've just learned that the actress who played Palmolive dishwashing liquid shill "Madge", Jan Miner, died yesterday at the age of 86. Click on the link and scroll down to items from Feb. 17th, as Mark has it taken care of over there. He takes it to the extent of reminiscences of some other, long-time tv pitchmen and women, each with his or her peculiar product obsession.

I immediately think of how tv shows used to have commercials using the characters and settings in the show, helping to merge the commercial and the program in a fashion that younger audiences might have only seen in The Truman Show. Billy Ingram has collected a huge catalog of such ads, including an assortment of cigarette ads done this way. Seeing Fred & Barney sneak around back to take a Winston break, waxing rhapsodic over their drug brand of choice while Wilma and Betty do the yardwork, is always fun.

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