It’s not often that I get to say “I’m too young to remember this,” but since I wasn’t alive in the 60s–hey, I’m too young. I was flipping through my 1967 LIFE and saw this image of Bert Lahr.
It didn’t make me want to eat Lay’s. It didn’t make me want to wear a blackjack dealer visor. Instead, it raised red flags.
- That’s unhygienic to stack chips on a table (and nearly impossible).
- We all know each chip bag contains precisely 14 chips, not dozens.
- Bert looks uncomfortable, like he’s wincing through back pain. In fact, he DID die later that year, in December.
If you’re over 55, you may recall this ad. It’s chock full of everything that makes people cringe these days, and I don’t mean the minimalist background. Racism and poor acting and stealing, oh my!
I’ll choose to remember him as the Cowardly Lion, and not as the Lay’s pitchman. RIP.