« Who'Dat?™: Fall TV Season Edition | Home | Coup in Thailand »

September 14, 2006

robot

In Memoriam: Ann Richards

Ann Richards on a motorcycle

One of the more colorful politicians of all time, Ann Richards, died on Wednesday. In honor of her and her status as onetime leader of progressive Texan politics (sounds crazy, doesn't it?) and all-around hellraising sass machine, we bring you one of her finest moments: the Doritos™ commercial she did with Mario Cuomo, after they were both defeated by their Republican opponents in the 1994 elections, aka the Republican Revolution.

The New York Times provided a narration of the ad.

"THE AD CAMPAIGN; The Taste of Defeat: Got Any Salsa?" By Kevin Sack, Published: January 27, 1995

DEFEATED CANDIDATES

Mario M. Cuomo and Ann Richards

With the mournful strains of Auld Lang Syne as background music, the scene opens with Mr. Cuomo helping Ms. Richards pack up her gubernatorial office. As she tosses file folders into a cardboard box, they begin to philosophize about the nature of change. When it becomes clear that the change they are discussing is packaging - of tortilla chips, not candidates - Ms. Richards pulls out a newly designed bag of Doritos and Mr. Cuomo begins to munch on a few.

Ms. Richards: "Mario, I haven't seen a change like this since I was knee high to a June bug."

Mr. Cuomo: "Ann, I was as surprised as you are."

A.R.: "Well, I should have seen it coming."

M.C.: "Maybe so, but now I think we ought to accept this change, embrace it, be positive about it, because change can be very exciting."

A.R.: "You're probably right, Mario. I guess I'll get used to Doritos' new bag."

M.C.: "There you go."

Announcer: "This year's big change is Doritos. More great taste, brand-new bag."

M.C.: "Too bad about the Cowboys, Ann."

A.R.: "They always won when I was Governor."

I couldn't find a video of this ad, but if anyone can locate it, please notify us in the comments.

categories: Business, Media, Politics
posted by amy at 11:39 PM | #

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://amysrobot.amyinnewyork.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/546

Comments

And let's not forget that she was defeated by none other than George W. Bush, whose father she had railed against during her famous keynote at the 1988 Democratic National Convention.

Posted by: ADM at September 18, 2006 1:32 PM

Too bad about the timing. I worked at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago all summer, cutting promos. And I had that Doritos commercial on my desktop in a folder called 90's for more than a month.

Posted by: archie oogley at September 19, 2006 3:40 PM

Argh!! Why couldn't Ann Richards die last month? And more important, why don't I work at the Museum of Broadcast Communications?

Posted by: Amy at September 19, 2006 4:44 PM

OK this is a little (5 years?) late, but here you go:

http://adland.tv/commercials/doritos-anne-richards-1995-040-usa

I was looking for the video tonight and found both your site and the link to it...

We miss (and remember) you Ann.

Posted by: Ed at February 2, 2011 11:26 PM

Thanks, Ed, this is awesome! Also gave me the opportunity to go back and fix the photo at the top of this post, which is one of the all-time greatest political pics. We miss you, Ann.

Posted by: amy at February 3, 2011 12:19 PM

Post a comment




Remember Me?

(you may use HTML tags for style)