Saturday Morning Cartoons were filled with fun and frivolity in the form of bright colors and toy ads. When we weren’t munching on cereal, cartoons would pop up and tell us to brush our teeth, say no to drugs and more. I found some of these old gems to get your nostalgia up!
Some of these, I swear, I watched and could nearly taste the fruity cereal in my mouth and the hum of the vacuum in the other room while my Mom busied herself. There’s no way you guys don’t remember some of these, so let’s have a bit of fun with these 30 second animated lectures that have some jazzy music and silly quotes!
An Ounce of Prevention – Safety with the Looney Tunes:
I remember being absolutely MORTIFIED by my kitchen kettle and cookie jars forever. Heck, anthropomorphic kettles and cooking pots are downright terrifying as a kid, but I guess that’s what the Shriner’s Hospitals were going for with this. I know it definitely prevented me from leaving cookie jars anywhere near a hot stove… and possibly just tucked away wherever I could access them without third degree burns.
Yuck Mouth – Dental Hygiene Awareness:
Okay, hear me out — this little green, four-toothed goblin seems to be living his best life. I remember dancing around to this song, teeth-be-damned, because it was just so catchy! He loves smooches, chicken and absolutely hates brushing his teeth. If that’s not the world’s most honest Tinder profile, I don’t know what is. Did this PSA actually work? I mean, I jammed to this track frequently but I don’t know if it made me contemplate grabbing up my sparkly blue toothpaste any faster than usual.
Say No to Drugs with The Ghostbusters – Drug Awareness
No, no. Not THOSE Ghostbusters, but the other Hanna-Barbera property that actually pre-dated the Ghostbusters we readily associate. So, get this — kid is outside, trying to sell his last pork chop sandwich but seemingly keeps calling it dope, right? Honestly, as a kid, that was what I thought that little ding-dong was doing! I had no clue what dope was or why he was getting in trouble and growled out over a sandwich. It LOOKS like a sandwich bag, right? Then, they HATE the idea of this sandwich and dump this kid into a garbage can like a bunch of lunch-hating bullies. It isn’t until AFTER the fact that the little kid says that you should not accept drugs from people. Right, but I didn’t see drugs… I saw a sandwich. Heck, I still see sandwich. Maybe I just need a sandwich?
The Chopper – More Dental Hygiene Awareness!?
Listen, I’m kind of surprised at how frequently I remember being sang at about my teeth. The more I think about it, these are not isolated incidents. Were we just really not brushing our teeth back in the 80’s and someone had to get loud about it? Someone had to book a bunch of musicians some studio time because we obviously had some friggin’ problems here? Well, The Chopper is this Fonzie look-a-like who rolls his jeans up WAY too high and put together a little jam about snackin’ on hard nuts. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he’s a little scarier than the free sandwich kid from the last PSA. He and his two buddies who dress EXACTLY like him just keep listing off the foods that make your teeth strong and at certain points, I’m going to be honest, it sounds like whimsical threats. Woooooof.
Captain Cleanup – Litter Prevention
So, this is a series that started in the late 70’s and continued into the early 80’s with a host of PSAs that featured different villains and such but still the same, somewhat fascinating, animation style. I mean, the guy’s zooming around in that outfit, that hat with the spandex and cape just make me think someone forgot to tell Clark that he had his newsboy hat on. The words all come out so crazy fast that I never knew what his sidekick was named and I felt like the villains were downright panic-attack levels of afraid but trying to keep it from showing. WHY WAS EVERYONE TALKING SO FAST!? Do you not want me to litter? FINE! Just.. slow the heck down, buddy!
There you go! Do you remember any of these? Sure, sure, I left some of the VERY notorious ones out because who needs a bunch of bummers on a Friday? You can go to YouTube and search PSAs if you want to reminisce into the darker territories, but I was just trying to jazz it up! Public Service Announcements were a rad way of breaking advertisements up with something that actually helped kids rather than sell them fast food and plastic toys. I remember the 80’s and 90’s and we definitely needed a hinted reminder about some of this stuff when we were growing up but did they have to be so dang memorable? I doubt I’ll ever forget that kid and his sandwich…
