This is a 1970's tv video commercial from Calgon Water Softner and titled "Ancient Chinese Secret". Hope you enjoy the commercial and as always thanks for watching.
When I was a kid a company in Canada, Cadet Cleaners, ran a series of ads with a group of nuns with thick Scottish accents, claiming Cadet made their clothes "immaculate". Mom wasn't Catholic but was Scottish and took mild offense. I thought it was funny.
That's odd. We're in Canada with Scottish background and my parents always loved anything that referenced the Scots. Kinda like Canadians when we're mentioned on American T.V. . lolol
Great commercial for sure. I clean carpets for a living and when people ask what I use, I tell them "Ancient Chinese Secret". Only a few understand the reference.
@@JB-xg7io Sad isn't it? Ya, they'd never get away with this ad now. They've really gone overboard with things. I miss Aunt Jemima's smiling face on my syrup bottles. I always thought she was just a nice lady who made great pancakes.
I hadn’t seen it in decades, but I said the words in unison. This commercial always brought a smile to my face. My husband today thinks he’s a hotshot as well.
I know a professional dry cleaner, in NY. Believe it or not, she has two residential style machines in her shop, and boasts about the the superior cleaning power of small loads. Maybe it’s just poor placement by the commercial production, but it may be accurate.
Wow Mari, that is so cool you put your mother's accomplishments on here. She's not my mother but, I too and many others are very proud of her as well. She will be forever remembered in the hearts of literally millions of people as part of a special moment in time during their lifetime. Mahalo!
As a young API growing up in the 60s and 70s, this was ONLY commercial with Asian people in it that became part of the cultural landscape. In fact, it was the only one I even remember with Asian people in it. It was lonely back then.
@@johnknowles6711 You see Asian-Americans in the media WAY more now. If it isn't much, then you get the idea how barren it was. There was virtually nothing.
The worst stereotype here is that of people in the comment section who believe that everyone and everything that came before them was "racist". The 1970s called, and they want to sue for slander! I was very little back then but I distinctly remember the obvious effort that was put into entertainment and advertising to be as non-racist as possible and to AVOID stereotyping. A pushing of the notion that while we all look different, we all have certain beliefs and values in common. There was an effort to depict minorities as "just regular folks", as they might have put it. That minorities were not weird or different, and that immigrants were not coming here to take over the country, or to steal your job or steal anything from you, or to live off the government. They come here and are here to be friends and neighbors and to enjoy, alongside you, the abundant prosperity and blessings of America. They are here to serve you not as in to be subservient but to serve you as one person must serve another in order to prosper. There is nothing stereotypical about the Chinese American couple featured in this ad except for the fact that they are in the laundry business but even then they are depicted not as laundry "workers", but as small business owners. The commercial was actually something of a sendup of racist attitudes and a form of condescension towards the American people, the corporate left felt that Americans were a bunch of ignorant racists and they had to produce this commercial to show the idiots in the middle of the country that these people are "just like you and me". They don't speak broken English, slurp noodles from a bowl with chopsticks and they are not running an illicit opium den. And the "ancient Chinese secret" thing is a clear stereotype of males of every race and their often braggadocios form of exaggerated ethnic pride.
I woke up today with that lady saying ancient Chinese secret huh stuck in my head. Why, I don't know. I have not seen this commercial since the early 70s.
You can thank Edward Bernays for that; Freud's nephew created the discipline of public relations, which legitimized mass hypnosis, creating industrial-strength propaganda via our infant electronic media (telegraph/radio), thus dividing the population into infinite personal interests ("I prefer Coca Cola!") instead of focusing on larger common goals of peace and prosperity. Bernays had help, obviously, but the tools he used to harness and imprison the human imagination were psychological facts derived from studying humans. That's why the commercial stuck in your head -- propaganda experts created it for that purpose
Maybe because of covid allegedly originating in Wuhan. Who knows where it originated but this crisis is man-made, for sure. NWO. Great Reset. Bill Gates Mandatory Vaccines.
When my mom cooks, she has a lot of little tricks up her sleeve, a lot of little ingredients to make meals better and her own. And each time she pulls one out she says its her "ancient chinese secret!" She got the saying growing up with this commercial, and it just stuck 😂
I feel vindicated in my use of “ancient Chinese secret”. Anytime someone asks just about anything for meals, what they want, what we’re having, I say, “ancient Chinese secret.”😊
I remember this TV commercial very well. I was ten in 1974. I also remember the American Cancer Society’s commercial about the three little pigs. The big, bad wolf, a heavy chain smoker, tried to blow their house down. But every time he took a deep breath to blow, he would go into an uncontrollable fit of non-stop coughing. I mean he’s gagging for air. It was the three little pigs’ laughter, as they stared and mocked this wolf, was what killed me as a kid! 👨🏻🦳🇺🇸😂👍😂🇺🇸
Futurama S4E10 made a reference & I couldn’t remember the whole commercial from when I was a kid back in the 1970’s Thank You for posting this it made me smile taking me back in time. Thanks 😊
You know how random things pop up when you dream? I had a dream and when someone showed something (can’t remember what), I said to them “Ancient Chinese secret, huh?” I haven’t seen or thought of this commercial in 40+ years! It’s been locked away somewhere in the brain waiting to pop back out in a dream.
I remember this on TV in the early/mid 70s when I was a kid. I had no idea that the husband in the commercial was the same actor who played the Steve Minh character, one of Clarence Boddicker's gang, in RoboCop 15 years later!
For some weird reason on the spur of the moment this phrase entered my mind and after Googling it the original TV commercial popped up. Wow - this was on TV often when I was in elementary school in the 1970s. Used to love repeating the lines LOL.
I still quote this. It's a classic. I miss the 70's and 80's. Great commercials,music,shows and cartoons. They don't make them like that anymore. In today's woken counter culture society Certain people will scream racism. Nowadays it seems like people think every little thing is racist and want it erased from history.
I love this commercial and it is a classic but it definitely perpetuates some (positive and negative) stereotypes of Asian Americans. I can tell u that in the context of the 70s, it was not egregious as many. I also completely agree with you that we should not erase the past. It’s how we learn and evolve.Over the decades there have been numerous discussions about negative representations and stereotypes of Asian Americans in media and this is often cited as a negative example. I disagree. As someone who works in film and television, and as someone who is an advocate for social and racial equality, I have frequently defended it because yes my mom but also because context (the 70’s) and texture (backstory) matters. The backstory being that my mother was Japanese American and refused to speak in broken English for this role. After much back and forth, the ad agency finally agreed to let her speak in her own voice and without a fake accent.
Anyone who thinks this commercial depicts Chinese Americans in a negative light must be suffering with serious intellectual challenges. The Chinese American couple was depicted as well spoken, well dressed, fully assimilated small business owners, all around nice people and with a sense of humor as well. What kind of sick freak could think that whoever produces and markets calgon would deliberately attempt to insult Chinese Americans or appear to be doing so? If anything, this is more than likely a form of lecturing all the Archie bunkers (as the ad agency would call them) who they believe have an ignorant and stereotyped image of Chinese immigrants.
I REMEMBER, ALONG WITH MY OLDER SISTER, how ridiculous this commercial was!! As kids, we actually came to the conclusion that the wife has just ruined the husband's business by loudly declaring that they ran out of Calgon. Now, the customer can save money by buying her own "secret" cleaning product, and will no longer have to pay him to get her clothes so clean! And therefore, making his service superfluous! Now, he loses customers, and more than likely goes out of business! Husband : Thank you, honey, for destroying our only source of income!! Wife : Me and BIG MOUTH!!!!!!!
My wife asked me how I did something, and I said "Ancient Chinese Secret". She had no idea what I meant. She grew up in Peru and never saw that commercial. Funny thing is, she is half Chinese. Her grandparents on her fathers side immigrated to Peru from China. Looks Asian and Peruvian. But never knew this commercial. But because of the miracle of RU-vid, now she knows. Next, I will educate her on how Rice a Roni is in fact, the San Francisco treat. And that in the 70s, we all had a little captain in a motorboat residing in our toilets.
And after that - Customers went out n bought Calgon & did their laundry at home, effectively putting her husbands cleaners out of business. Way to go misses Lee!
This isn't the original commercial. The original didn't mention "new and improved" and had a GE washer without the lid (and the recirculating pump turned off). This commercial simply mentions "new and improved" and swapped out the GE washer for a Whirlpool. The beginning and end are the same footage.
Actually the washer shown here is a whirlpool. One of the best. It was the original when the commercial first aired. It was later replaced with the newer G.E. Also, this aired around 72-74.... when I was in junior high.
I was watching an old The Price is Right clip that had this commercial in it. Someone commented he was in The Day After. Now I know why he looked familiar to me.
Back in the 1970s people forget that a lot of Chinese ran laundromats in mid sized to larger cities, the commercial on that level was relatable. My Asian friends my age here and there say "ancient Chinese secret" and we all bust up laughing
I remember watching this commercial back in the spring of 1979 in Muskegon, Michigan. Wow, it's been over 43 yrs. Incredible!! Life was so much simpler and better with fewer hate crimes against Asians in the U.S!! The U.S is in decline and is kind of messed up in so so many ways now.l
That Japanese-American lady was cute cute cute! I used to love to watch that commercial just because she called Mr.Lee a "hotshot" I also had.a crush on her.
@@ilovethetampabaylightning92 #3?! I mean I know a bit about how the first 2 world wars got started & since the end of the 40s there would seem to be an endless soup line checklist of triggering #3. But I don't think a classic tv commercial would be it.
This one is right up there with a crying Indian commercial. I did some laundry for a friend today and immediately thought of it and send a text message with the link.
I wish they would preserve and restore these old commercials before they're gone forever. They do it for movies and TV shows. Probably because there's no money to be made in it. Alas! ☹️
Yes. Jim Varney promoted a lot of products as that character including Robertson Foods, Dean Foods, Flav-o-rich Dairy, Dairy Mart convenience stores, Paramount Foods etc.
It seems it wasn’t too long after that when the commercial line changed to, ‘Calgon, take me away!’ - and it was being marketed as a bubble bath or something to that affect
“Ain-Chen Chineee See-Clet!” I’ve always wondered where that began. I can’t Believe this commercial can actually be the first time ancient Chinese secret is mentioned.
Same company, same main ingredient (sodium hexametaphosphate), just with more perfume, coloring agents, and in some cases oils or foaming agents. However, the version sold primarily for laundry also had instructions for using as bath salt. Later the toiletries line was sold to a different company.
Am I the only one who came here after playing Shadow Warrior Classic? Lo Wang always quoted "Ancient Chinese Secret" whenever you found a secret in a level. I looked it up out of just wanting to search for Lo Wang quotes simply because I'm a bored guy, and I ended up finding this commercial. Could that quote have been a reference to this, or was it all just coincidence?
