SQUEEZING JUICE: O.J. Simpson makes it to the airport...as a pitchman for Hertz. Nineteen years later, he gives Ford's Bronco free publicity.
1977
CUTTING HUMOR: 'SNL' airs perhaps the sharpest commercial parody to date: a car that rides so smoothly, a rabbi can perform a circumcision in it. (The original Mercury spot, of the same year, featured a diamond cutter.)
1980
THE DE-KLEIN OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION: When 15-year-old Brooke Shields purrs that nothing "comes between me and my Calvins," several stations ban the provocative promo.
1984
HAIR-RAZING ACCIDENT: Michael Jackson is hospitalized after a smoke bomb burns his scalp while he's filming a spot for a multimillion-dollar Pepsi campaign.
TERMINAL CASE: Apple Computer jacks up the publicity with its one-time-only Super Bowl blockbuster "1984." Director Ridley Scott's opus compares Big Blue to Big Brother. Price tag: $400,000.
WHERE'S THE BEEF? Wendy's has one with Clara Peller (far right). The chain drops the blue-haired actress, she of the famous catchphrase, for doing a Prego Plus ad.
1986
GEEK NOT-SO-CHIC: Burger King's $40 million campaign--a kind of 'Where's Waldo?' search for bespectacled nerd Herb--is one of the decade's biggest failures.
1987
BAD PUBLICITY IS GOOD PUBLICITY: Political career killer Donna Rice gets in bed with No Excuses jeans. She's followed by mischief makers Joan Rivers and Marla Maples.
1989
NOTHING DOING: Trees, rocks, a lake...but no Infiniti! The car company raises eyebrows by airing a product ad sans product.
1991
BIKINI TOLL: In an employee sex-harassment suit (later settled out of court), Stroh's gets flak for its lewd Swedish Bikini Team campaign.
MENNEN REACHES NIRVANA: A commercial for the product Teen Spirit partly inspires Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit." The grunge crowd buys the song--but certainly not the antiperspirant.
1992
REEBOK'S OLYMPIC STUMBLE: The shoe company gambles $25 million on a Dan O'Brien/Dave Johnson decathlon duel. Surprise! Dan fails to make the team.
1995
DUMAS GETS AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: After 63 years, M&M/Mars turns one of the 3 Musketeers into an African American.
AN-NOY-ING: Heirs to party dog Spuds MacKenzie, the monosyllabic Bud frogs leap to life. Later, Mothers Against Drunk Driving accuse them of being too kid-friendly.
1997
THE HIGH ROAD: Ford sponsors a much-hyped, commercial-free broadcast premiere of 'Schindler's List' on NBC, and the network breaks its Sunday-night viewing record. America wonders if good taste will prevail on Madison Avenue. Nah!
