For those of you who have been in Anchorage for a while, maybe you will remember some of these television commercials for Power Clean.
You can see me, the owner, go from my long hair, dark hair days to a gray-haired Grandpa over the course of the 12 years we were making these commercials.
Sometimes as I look back at these commercials, I just shake my head at how corny they seem to be, but you know what, they worked!
Every day someone would approach me and tell me they loved my commercials or they couldn’t stand them.
Some even said “I can’t stand your TV commercials, but when can you clean my carpets?”
Over the course of making all of the 18 commercials we created, we had some pretty funny things, some scary things, some touching moments, and even one bizarre incident.
I thought it might be fun and possibly interesting for you if I shared with you some of these moments.
But first, here are some of the commercials we have made. So good or bad, corny or not, good singing and bad, here they are!
TV Commercials
The Carpet
Torture
Test
I had this bright idea that we should approach one of our best customers and try a little experiment, where we poured a truly nasty mix of oil, dirt, and orange juice onto her brand new carpets. We would then clean it up while we shot a commercial. Of course, something had to wrong and give us a good scare.
We shot all of the scenes leading up to pouring the nasty mixture on her carpets, and then we stopped shooting and started the van mount machine outside going, and had our technician all ready for as soon as we poured that stuff on her brand new carpets, so we would immediately flush it out. At least that was the plan. We poured on the mixture and the tech started making his cleaning passes, but nothing was happening except smearing the mixture into the carpets. We were getting no water from the tanks in the van!
After five anxious minutes, we discovered that a little fuse had blown out and was stopping the electrical connection to the pump. Well, to say the least, our customer was getting a little bit worried. We discovered that if we held the two ends of the wires together, we could bypass the problem and get water. So I had my general manager, Walter, in the van, hold these wires together while we shot the part of the commercial where we cleaned up the mess. The bad part is that while he was holding the wires together, he was getting a pretty stiff shock. He was only able to hold the wires together for about three seconds at a time because of the pain. This caused us to get only about one third of the water pressure that we normally get.
Go ahead and watch the commercial -- you can’t even tell that we did not have full pressure. The spot come out like magic. The day, and the carpets were saved! Other than Walter tingling for a few days, it turned out great. (Between you and me) Even if we had left that spot in the carpet for hours, I know we could have easily cleaned it out. Our equipment is just that good.
The Power Clean jingle, "It’s So Sweet"We took an old timey tune that you might recognize; changed up the tune enough to honor copyright laws, and penned our jingle. This clip was used in loops at home shows. (The poor people in the booths next to us, 10 hours of hearing these songs over and over).
When we decided to create this jingle, I knew a few people who were good singers and I asked them if they wanted to sing a jingle for my television commercials. These people had not sung together before, but when we recorded the songs at the studio, they did both songs in one take. (Check them out, they sound pretty good).
I love this jingle. Sometimes when I would be in a grocery store, I would hear someone start singing the jingle. When I would turn to them, they would give me a big smile. I loved it.
One day I was going on to the military base to give a bid when a big, burly MP stopped me to ask me what I was doing on base. It was just a security thing. After I told him, he mentioned that he really liked my jingle and that his kids would sing the entire song when it came on tv. I told him that if he could sing the entire jingle to me, I would give him a certificate worth three rooms of carpet cleaning. This big, burly military policeman did it. He sang both verses to me perfectly. It was an honor to give him that certificate.
We would love it when people would all us and say “I can’t get that stupid song out of my head, come clean our carpets!”
The
“What You Want” commercialThis is a compilation commercial taken from pieces of different commercials. It starts out with me driving down the road in one of our carpet cleaning vans, snapping my fingers in time to the jingle, “It’s so sweet, when we're coming down your street.”
This scene was the very first scene we ever shot. We had just finished the recording of the jingle the night before, and while I wrote the jingle I had only heard the recoded version of it twice. In the van, I was driving and there was no way to play the music so in this scene, I am singing the song in my head and snapping my fingers to my version.
Later on, when we put the music to the video, we realized that I was snapping my fingers to a much more rapid beat than the jingle was sung. The result was me looking woefully out of time. We hoped that people wouldn’t notice but as soon as the commercial started airing, I would get telephone calls from people saying to me “Man, you got no rhythm.” I asked them to slow down the tape a bit so that I was more in synch but it still looks funny. Sometimes it seems like a good idea but doesn’t quite work.
I really liked the message of this commercial. We had done a lot of fun commercials but what it really is about is you, our customers, and what you want: Simply fresh clean carpets!
Save Your MoneyThis is another music clip. I was trying to decide which of the two songs would be the best jingle, this or the “It’s so sweet” jingle. We chose “It’s so sweet” but I still like this little song a lot because what it says is true. Check it out.
Pitter Patter of Little Puppy PawsThis is a compilation of two different commercials. The first one is where we started the whole kissing theme in my commercials. The idea is to show that our customers really do like us. In this scene are my grandmother, my wife, and two of our happy customers. They kiss me and I say “they like me.” I was amazed at how popular this was. I look at it now and it seems corny, but boy did the telephone ring!
The second half is about cleaning up after your pets. My eldest son wrote this song for me and I had eight of my employees’ young kids sing it with me.
I borrowed the Saint Bernard from Walter, my general manager, and the other dog from one of my carpet cleaning competitors who are also my good friends. The little kitten is Mulvey. We rescued him from the pound just for this commercial. Mulvey became a big part of our family until he passed on.
Tinkle Tinkle Little StarThis is perhaps my favorite commercial. This version is a compilation; the second half is part of the “What you want” commercial.
In the first part, we wanted to play off of a very popular tune that kids love. One of my employees had this fluffy little dog that we named Star just for this commercial. We were in another customer’s home and we poured orange juice on the carpets to represent puppy urine. We got two little girls from a local singing organization to sing the song, “Tinkle, tinkle little star, what a naughty dog you are.”
After which, the dog gives me the kisses.
The girls were a little young and the song didn’t come out just the way I envisioned it but what can you do, the little girls were so excited to be on tv. It’s still pretty cute.
We received so many urine calls after this commercial, my technicians were asking me to stop running it. They were tired of almost every job being a urine job.
We received a pretty bizarre call about this commercial as well. A man called me up and started screaming at me that “Star” was his dog and I better leave her alone. He didn’t like me kissing his dog. Then he slammed down the phone. I think he was a little looney tunes.
More Videos Available Here Soon!
More videos are coming soon, including my favorite scene, getting kissed by 12 pretty women, and also the “Ask Michael” series in which I bring up a carpet cleaning situation and tell the viewers what they can do to solve it.
Thanks for watching and if your carpets are dirty, give us a call! 346-4000
