I don't know about you, but commercials can sometimes take me back to the 80s as quickly as any song or movie can. That is why I thought I would begin a feature on 80s commercials that I considered particularly memorable or interesting. This issue will cover the Seagram's Golden Wine Cooler campaign from mid-to-late 80s which featured Bruce Willis.

I was a big fan of Bruce Willis because of his character "David Addison" on the television series, Moonlighting (1985-1989). The starring role, opposite Cybill Shepherd, helped to establish him as a comedic actor, with that show lasting five seasons. I have the couple ranked on my Top TV Characters of the 80s list. During the height of the show's success, beverage maker Seagram hired Willis as the pitchman for their Golden Wine Cooler products. The memorable ad campaign paid the rising star between five and seven million dollars over two years. In spite of that, Willis chose not renew his contract with the company when he decided to stop drinking alcohol in 1988.

These commercials pre-dated his role as "John McClane" in 1988's blockbuster Die Hard which really made Willis into a superstar. I was obviously not old enough to drink alcohol at the time of these commercials, but man did he make wine coolers seem cool. I was just 13 years old but would be singing "Seagram's Golden Wine Coolers. It's wet and it's dry!" just because it was a catchy tune. If I was able to drink at the time, I was sure that Seagram's Golden Wine Coolers would be the drink I would have to order.

Wine coolers are not exactly a common drink for most men, but Bruce Willis made it seem like the coolest thing in the world. Here are a few of those commercials. The first one is probably my favorite with him just singing on the front porch.

This one did not include singing, but does include actress Sharon Stone before she became a star.

This one also does not include any singing, but resembles much more his Moonlighting character.

This one might be one of the final commercials featuring Willis. It has a song, but not sung by him and introduces a new tagline "This is where the fun starts." (It is also by far the lamest of the four).

There you go, a trip down memory lane in the form of TV commercials. I was just going to include the first one, but since they all were kind of different I thought including four gave a better perspective. The man starred in my favorite movie of all time (Pulp Fiction), one of my favorite action movies of all time (Die Hard) and one of my favorite television shows from the 80s (Moonlighting). It is hard to believe he was pimping wine coolers, of all things, back in the day. He probably could have been trying to sell anything and it would have seemed cool.

With that, we come to the end of another issue of Kickin' it Old School. I have to go check the fridge because I seem to be craving a wine-like beverage that is both wet and dry. Thanks for reading. If you are interested in reading more of my 80s related issues, please click there for a summary of those. You can also always click on the Archives in the upper left hand column or use the Google Search Box at the top of the right hand column to find any other issues you may have missed. If you are a fan of Kickin' it, PLEASE CLICK ON THE FACEBOOK LOGO in the upper right hand column. This will take you to the new Fan Page where I ask you to then click on "Become a Fan". Even if you are not a Facebook member yet, please consider joining and registering as a fan at that page. Peace and much love.

Check this out: Here's something I came across on collegehumor.com that I thought was humorous (yet a little crude) and worth sharing. It is a Disciplinary Report sent home to the parents of what seems to be an 8th grader. It might be a little hard to read. There are two boxes checked, "Annoying to classmates" and "Rude, discourteous." Then hand-written below is "egregious and stentorian flatulence." For those that do not know, "egregious" means outrageously bad or reprehensible. "Stentorian" means extremely loud. If you do not know what "flatulence" means, then look it up and you will find the humor. Another funny part is that this student's punishment is writing a 300 word essay why his behavior is unacceptable in English class. Pretty funny stuff...

Quote of the day: "Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond to it." -Lou Holtz