Great Moments In Commercial History: Allied Discounts Tires
I grew up in the Tampa Bay area, breeding ground for mosquitos, old people, and bizarre TV commercials. The old Allied Discount Tires (or if you pronounce it like the pitchman, Taahrs) spots are some of the best. You can't taste-test tires!No, you can't, Meagan. No, you can't.
If you'd like to nominate a commercial for our weekly series, Great Moments In Commercial History, send an email to tips [at] consumerist [dot] com. Put "Great Moments in Commercial History" in the subject. —MEGHANN MARCO
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Comments:
Those ads take me back. I feel rather old now, as I remember them from living in Florida. I even purchased a set or two over the years from Allied. Is the spokesman still around and kicking?
that was, ummm, "special"
That's it, I'm moving to Florida and opening a chain of tire stores across the street from Allied, called....
AXIS Discount Tires! ve vill vin zee wor!
See? Madison Avenue? This is a commercial that actually works. When I watch one of your slick, over-produced, over-priced mini-extravaganzas, half the time I can't even remember what the hell you were trying to sell me.
I would buy a tire from them ANY day! They tell it like it is.
I also grew up in the Tampa Bay area (high school in the early '70s) and lived in Orlando in the 1980s, where I discovered that the spokesman - Sam Behr - was the owner of a shoe store in downtown Orlando. The store was on Church Street, and had a huge sign reading: Behr's Shoes - We Can Fit Any Human. Apparently Behr was a drinking buddy of the owner of Allied Tires, and several newspaper articles at the time indicated that ol' Sam would throw back a martini or two prior to being on camera during the ads. Too bad we don't have the original ad out there on YouTube - it was a classic. He started with: "Tires ain't pretty. They're black and round and they got a hole in the middle. You don't care about tires - but if you need 'em, you just want to get 'em cheaper!" Cracked me up.
Allied Discount Tires is a chain all across Central Florida. The guy who did the commercials didn't even work for Allied! IIRC, he was a shoe salesman (or was it shoe repairman?) Anyhoo, rumor has it that the director would bring this guy in, give him a couple of drinks & roll tape!