1981 Lauren Bacall High Point Coffee Commercial

She misses the door handle on the first grab.

She reads commercial copy for decaffeinated instant coffee like she's doing "Private Lives."

I ADORE her affected, phony "MMMM!" after she pretends to sip High Point.

"It's moah than good — it's LIVELY!"

Caffeine makes me tense = Caffeine makes me cunt.

I could watch those ads all night.

A screen legend reduced to selling coffee.

[quote]If there was one thing I had never been, it was mysterious, and if there was one thing I had never done, it was not talk.

[quote]Lauren Bacall

Gosh what a find, OP! I've never seen or heard of this campy ad. DLer's are surely going to love it, and sing your praises, OP! Thanks ever so much! Keep up your great research.

Those Dakota management fees weren't going to pay for themselves.

She was an inspiration for this junior gayling.

Let me "Oh, dear" myself.

Maintenance fees, not management.

And they're not cheap: $11,057.

1981 was indeed a *high point* for Ms. Bacall.

I’ll tell you a secret. Caffeine sometimes makes me tense and tension can make you a CUNT.

This thread comes from 2004 not 2024.

Sorry, somehow missed that R4 had beaten me to it.

Congratulations, R8. You've managed to out-cunt one of the biggest cunts in show biz history.

Your cunt of a mother should be proud.

R8- I know it's been posted and discussed here on the datalounge before- in fact I've post this commercial here on the datalounge prior to today but there it was again on my youtube home page so I could not resist posting it yet again.

R11 that apartment is full of flavah! Chock full of Big Nuts packed with creamy Flavah!

Hmmmm. FLAVVAH!

It wasn’t my first time at rodeo as far as shilling java goes.

R17 yes of course. I was just having a good cunt on all our OCD.

Too bad Miss Bacall never made a Calgon commercial like this one.

Lauren would turn 100 in September!

This queen must post here.

How many vicious face slappings did Miss Bacall dole out while filming that commercial?

My favorite is the one where she's in the back of a car with a little table complete with a table lamp and a plate of cookies. As her monologue runs on and she sinks deeper into her fur, the obtrusive street sounds and garish lights makes it seem like she's being driven down skid row.

I would have loved to attend a Board Meeting at the Dakota and watch Yoko Ono and Bacall go at it. Didn’t they hate each other?

Yoko would use nunchucks if Betty pulled that “Flavah” schtick

Didn't care for the flavah of this broad's twat.

R27- Yoko can't do anything to anyone not that she' s in a wheelchair.

She was 58 in this

In an outtake for R25 the chauffeur slams on the brakes and the coffee scalds Bacall’s bagina

Were Lauren and Yoko good friends?

Procter & Gamble's national launch of the beverage received a heavy marketing push with print ads and national TV advertisements, some featured prominently on P&G's soap operas. High Point is mainly known today by its television advertisements. Initial marketing centered on the slogan "Decaffeinate the ones you love." A year later, the campaign was ditched in favor of a celebrity endorsement. Several famous TV spots featured Lauren Bacall extolling the virtues of the decaffeinated brew. Bacall claimed that High Point was "a coffee-lover's dream" due to its special way of "capturing flavor - deep brewed flavor." Another commercial featured the actress in the back of a limo, saying that "Rushing for an eight 'o clock curtain every night means giving up a lot of things - but coffee ISN'T ONE OF 'EM!" One memorable ad featured Bacall backstage at rehearsal, commenting that "Around here, we don't LIKE coffee - we LOVE it!"

Subsequent ads did not feature Bacall, but instead focused on homemakers and female executives who wanted coffee without the caffeine and the bitterness.

Initial sales of the product were good, and P&G made a serious push to unseat Sanka.

The product was given a packaging redesign in the mid-1980s. The label changed from bold orange and brown coloring to a more homestyle look featuring greens and tans.

High Point coffee was discontinued by P&G in 1993.

[quote]Were Lauren and Yoko good friends?

O no.

Not cookies. Pastries. Possibly kosher.

"I set high standards for everything but my voice!"

Mature Betty Bacall could have voiced Darth Vader

“I LIKE it!’

Can't imagine drinking instant coffee or decaffeinated coffee, let alone instant decaffeinated coffee. Seems pointless.

R20- I’d rather have sex with Bogart ca. 1945 than Robards ca. 1966.

r39 "Seems pointless" - except for the FLAVA!!!

If your High Point coffee is too hot, put your lips together and blow!

r32, yes! they did karaoke together every thursday night!

R26, what makes you think they were both on the board?

Bacall took all paying gigs that came her way. She would always cry poor- hardly ever the case but part of her chipped shoulder personality. Perhaps marriages to 2 alcoholics roughed her up?

But her affected voice was about as authentic as waxed fruit. That is not a Bronx accent. She was a very tough nut. I used to take care of her when I was a salesman at Andre Oliver. She backed down her demands when you talked back! In a way she was quite normal- a normal crank.

normal, just like Yoko

R30 Obviously, she hadn't been drinking High Point, because the tension was showing on her face.

R11 Betty's apartment (#45) is only a little bit bigger than that one you list, but hers sold for much more: $21M according to NYT.

High Point trivia found in the YouTube comments: the reason she takes those enormous huffs off the jar of dry coffee in these commercials before she extols the aroma is that the aroma, somehow, is only IN THE JAR. Once you make the coffee itself, the aroma would disappear, and the smelling of the jar is how they got the aroma claim approved by the networks.

As a frequent cataloguer and commenter on the LB High Point coffee commercial threads over the decades here on DL, it's deeply concerning to see that some of them have disappeared from YouTube. Here's the full list of the ones I know of:

1) At Home - "My favorite time of day is night" This is the one Emma Stone spoofs in Crazy, Stupid Love.

2 and 3) Limo - "Rushing for an eight o'clock curtain" This is the one in the back of the car with the tray of petit-fours. It is numbered 2 and 3 because there are short and long versions with different copy and different takes on the same lines, with the short version having perhaps the most insistent "Deep Brewed Flavah!" exclamation of the whole series, but the long version the most contrarian "I don't want extra caffeine..."

4) Rehearsing a Musical - The one OP posted, with "Flavor that's full of life" and "tension can show in your face"

5) Writing - "Writing is a coffee lover's dream. This page took four cups." Memoirist Betty B. sips as she works on her next book and practically dares you not to love HP.

6 and 7) Rehearsing a Play - "Around here we don't just like coffee, we love it! I look forward to my sixth cup as much as my first one." Again it gets two numbers on this list because there are short and long versions, with the short version going past her regular "Mmms" to give us full out O-face and an "Oh yes!" after she tastes the coffee. Both versions have the little prayer hand after the first taste.

8) Voiceover - the desperation begins "Aren't these little sample packets cute?" though there's that great little face she makes after "deep brewed into a goffeee"

9) Restaurant - "I just KNEW coffee wouldn't be a pleasure anymore" More sample packets and "fall in love with coffee all over again"

I wonder if any of the male actors in these commercials are still alive and have stories: the guy at the piano, the one who plays the stage manager (she rolls her eyes at his call to return to rehearsal), the guy who hands her the cup in the voiceover commercial.

These commercials always make me think of that "Mad Men" episode where Freddie Rumsen wants to do an advertising campaign for elder actresses like Tallulah bankhead and Peggy thinks he's an idiot.

Who would have watched this commercial and then thought, "I want to drink that coffee so I can be more like that late-middle-aged Broadway star"? I guess just gay men.

That doesn't mean i don't love them, however (since I am a gay man).

R23 This is hilarious, but his awful yellow teeth are kind of nauseating.

R25 The deep, rich cullah!

I would assume Bacall was hired because she brought "class" and "sophistication" to decaf instant coffee...

If only Thighmaster was around for Lauren to shill…

She always did commercials but really went to town on them in that late-career re-emergence around the time of Woman of the Year and after: Royal Caribbean, Ford cars, Fancy Feast, Spray & Wash, Arby's (perhaps the nadir of them all), the Beef association or whatever, Tuesday Morning and those are the ones I remember without searching

It’s a FAWD FAHRMAWNT FEWCHUR-AH! It has FLAVAH!

So déclassé. Audi or Volvo didn’t want some crusty old bat hawking their cars?

Elegance!

But don't forget, R54, it's a FAW-DAW!

but is it LIVELY?

Instant coffee is a disgrace!

That queen at r23 mugs more than even Jerry Lewis ever did.

R85 But look at that deep, rich cullah!

Thank you to r47 for being the High Point archivist/analyst that DL deserves!

If they had wanted class they would have gone with Carol Lawrence.

*

WHET that kid who did the cute version of these commercials, linked above? That was many years ago, and was talked about on DL back in 2005 or so, I recall. We all thought he'd become a future DL'er. I wonder if he ended up being family.

r64: James is 18 now. I hope he's family too!

I don’t actually remember the Highpoint coffee ☕️ commercials from the early 1980’s.

What I do remember is her hawking Fortunoff- Fortunoff THE SOURCE!

This is the sad one...

I remember reading that that kid had two gay dads, but had himself turned out straight.

Straight but full of FLAVVAH

He's LIVELY!

I LIKE that!

James had a sister, Elizabeth. There are all kinds of people who have done parodies posted to YouTube of the commercial that got the initial attention ("My favorite time of day is night" with the curtain pulling).

r71: Forget it, sister. James set an impossibly high standard you will never reach.

Why would anyone want to drink a decaf coffee?

I remember the Lauren Bacall coffee commercial but I remember the Patricia Neal Maxim ads more. Everyone used to imitate her saying "cawfie".

Rich flavored chunks!

[quote]Why would anyone want to drink a decaf coffee?

I don't have a problem with decaf, especially after 4:00 PM, but instant coffee? Never!

Because R73 caffeine can cause tension, and tension made Ms. Bacall an (even bigger) CUNT.

I remember the Patricia Neal commercials for Maxim very well, also. She appeared drunk in them. In one, a flight attendant apologizes for accidentally dropping a pillow on Ms. Neal's head, and the actress doesn't even react when it hits her. She just looks up and says, "That's all right, de-ah," in that post-stroke accent of hers. In another, at the end of the commercial, Ms. Neal appears to be falling into the camera.

R77 She appeared drunk because those Maxim commercials were here first foray back in front of the cameras following her stroke. She had just recently learned how to walk and talk again.

It’s amusing how in the High Point limo commercial Bacall leaves her apartment and takes several steps out the door and suddenly remembers to look back and say thank you to the doorman. You know in real life she would never do such a thing. That’s ACTING, baby!

R78, Those Maxim commercials weren't Patricia Neal's first foray in front of cameras since her debilitating stroke. She did those commercials in the mid-1970s. She returned to acting in the 1968 movie "The Subject Was Roses," which was shot three years after her stroke.

I think Betty found her Virginia Slims more crucial than her High Point coffee with that voice. The absolute opposite of glamorous is that screech of a voice.

As to Patricia Neal . . .

My favorite DL thread in months. Thanks, bitches.

I love how we are analzying the behavior of La Bacall in these old adverts. To the Nth degree. Good show!

Anne Hathaway studied a Paricia Neal Maxim coffee ad to perfect an accentfor a role (supposedly a “transatlantic” accent)

Didn’t Betty Bacall also do a Fancy Feast cat food commercial (if not already mentioned)? She also did voiceovers for Turner Classic Movies (“Movie heaven”).

She made a career out of doing coffee commercials. I wonder if she had to spike Robards' coffee with vodka to get him to do this one with her.

Claudette Colbert and Barbara Stanwyck also did Maxwell House Instant Coffee around that time. Of course at the end of Stanwyck’s, she killed a man.

R83- You should be saying thanx BITCH!

That's me

and UR welcome- I know you're mostly referring to peoples posts on this thread

R88 Maybe lay off the caffeine, OP.

Try Sanka.

I wonder if anyone ever robbed Lauren's High Point.

R89- I don't drink coffee ever!

R90 that was the absolute DL Super Bowl! 2 FUCKINGS, I almost passed out from joy 🤩

R92- She was one TOUGH BROAD

R84- Let's not ruin this fabulous thread by talking about HER.

😐

This is almost too weird to post but I'm going to post it anyway.

Even the drag queens love these commercials.

The Coffee Lovers Dream By Lauren Bacall & The High Points

Me favorite time of day is night? 🍷🍸

[quote]She reads commercial copy for decaffeinated instant coffee like she's doing "Private Lives."

She reads commercial copy for decaffeinated instant coffee like she's getting paid!!!

This queen nails the accent.

R96!!!!! WTF!!!

Mmm... though this is missing a few of the commercials that were found later, the two with sample packets.

R99 he is lip-syncing. That is Lauren's voice.

I wonder if she asked them to fill her cup with real coffee before filming?

If the poor PA didn’t, r103, he’d get a scalding cup of Hot Point thrown at him-“WHAT IS THIS SHIT???”

Pointless cuntery - what the DL is ALL about

One of the great YouTube mysteries is why NONE of the Princess Luciana Pignatelli CAMAY soap commercials have ever been uploaded.

They were the height of glamour with dialogue like "Would you bee-leef that I was an UGLY child?" (pan to framed photo of a Judy Canova lookalike) , featuring the glamorous Luciana, who had to bill herself as "Luciana Avadon" after her 1970 marriage to Burt Simms Avedon, cousin to Richard .

She committed suicide in 2008, by taking sleeping tablets washed down with a bottle of gin. She had lost out on two currencies: her money and her looks. She could have managed with only one of them but not without both. “I can’t face being old and poor,” she told her friends after learning all of her investments were worthless.

What makes Betty’s canon of commercials hawking various things so hilarious and DL legendary is the idea she would eat (Arby’s) drink (HP) feed her cat if she had one (FF) or get near (TM) any of these places or products. She was a cunt of the highest order. All of this was for the commoners. Yet she sold them like they were the epitome of class and sophistication. She deserved an Oscar for selling this shit the way she did, not for her less than stellar film career.

She is to the products she hawked what Faye Dunaway was to Joan Crawford.

Let's hear a few words from Rula Lenska, who's showing friends from America around London. Thank good she's using Alberto VO 5 in that London weather!

Tomorrow I shall enhance my morning cup of coffee by inverting another cup over it, "trapping" the flavor!

MMMM-mmm-MMMMM!

R107- The MOST absurd thing was the commercial someone posted for the Ford Fairmont Futura- as IF

she would be seen driving that flimsy economy car.

R105 I thought this said "pointless cutlery" -- two different times.

With Bogart in a print ad.

R113 But I didn't enjoy watching him waste away from lung cancer.

The High Point of my career was 1946. Now get me some goddamned REAL coffee.

That queen at R99 needs White Strips - stat!

R116 See R49.

R114 Maybe that's because he had esophageal cancer, wiseass.