{"id":37965,"date":"2022-09-23T19:58:44","date_gmt":"2022-09-23T23:58:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=37965"},"modified":"2022-09-23T20:00:31","modified_gmt":"2022-09-24T00:00:31","slug":"the-bootleg-files-the-lauren-bacall-high-point-coffee-commercials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2022\/09\/23\/the-bootleg-files-the-lauren-bacall-high-point-coffee-commercials\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: The Lauren Bacall High Point Coffee Commercials"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 814:<\/strong> \u201cThe Lauren Bacall High Point Coffee Commercials\u201d (a series of television advertisements from the early 1980s). <\/p>\n

LAST SEEN:<\/strong> On YouTube.<\/p>\n

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO:<\/strong> None.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: <\/strong>No commercial reissue value.<\/p>\n

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:<\/strong> Not likely.<\/p>\n

Forty years ago, American television viewers were bombarded with a series of commercials for the High Point brand of instant decaffeinated coffee starring Lauren Bacall. While it was hardly unusual to have recognizable stars pitching coffee in 30- and 60-second spots \u2013 Bacall and her then-husband Jason Robards co-starred in a Maxwell House ad during the mid-1960s \u2013 the High Point commercials represent a somewhat bizarre realm where marketing and camp overlap. These commercials generated giggles back in the day, and today they are treasured by many as small gems of unintentional humor.
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In 1982, Bacall\u2019s career gained a new energy thanks to her starring role in the Broadway musical \u201cWoman of the Year,\u201d which earned her a Tony Award. Proctor & Gamble \u2013 or, at least, their advertising agency \u2013 believed that Bacall\u2019s fame and glamour as Broadway star could help perk up sales on its High Point brand. An earlier ad campaign with the slogan \u201cDecaffeinate the ones you love\u201d and unknown actors went nowhere, so the idea of hitching the High Point wagon to Bacall\u2019s star seemed like a good idea.<\/p>\n

But what the High Point team didn\u2019t anticipate was the ferocity that Bacall brought to this assignment. Truth be told, Bacall was never the most subtle performer, but with the right director and the right material her excesses could shaped to create a stunning work of celluloid artifice \u2013Howard Hawks guided her through \u201cTo Have or Have Not\u201d and \u201cThe Big Sleep\u201d in a manner that resulted in an unreal force of glamour whose audacity blinded viewers to the artifice of the characters she played.<\/p>\n

But Howard Hawks did not direct the High Point commercials, and as a result Bacall came across with a ridiculous self-parody of how a big star is supposed to behave. She also carried over her theater work of projecting a performance that reached the last row of the auditorium \u2013 which was more than a little unsubtle on the small screen.<\/p>\n

The theater permeates several of these commercials. In one spot, Bacall takes a coffee break from a stage rehearsal \u2013 she looks at the camera and trumpets: \u201cAround here we don\u2019t like coffee \u2013 we LOVE it.\u201d When reminding the viewers of the decaffeinated nature of the beverage, Bacall declares: \u201cI don\u2019t need caffeine \u2013 I\u2019m active enough, thank you!\u201d That latter statement is accompanied by a widening of eyes and wiggle of eyebrows to offer ocular evidence of how \u201cactive enough\u201d she is.<\/p>\n

In another commercial, Bacall is in her theater dressing room and exclaims how High Point has \u201cflavor \u2013 flavor that is full of life.\u201d However, Bacall\u2019s line readings are over-the-top \u2013 her rapture over the beverage is borderline orgiastic and her Noo Yawk dialect spices her emotionalism over \u201ccawfee\u201d and \u201cflay-vah.\u201d But that barely touches the sheer weirdness of her sniffing the \u201cflay-vah\u201d of the \u201ccawfee\u201d \u2013 she places her nose over an open jar and inhales with Hoover vacuum intensity, observing how High Point is \u201cno aw-da-nary cawfee.\u201d Anyone who remembers the cool, calculating line readings by Bacall in \u201cTo Have and Have Not\u201d will be baffled how that yesteryear figure morphed into the camp clown in this commercial.<\/p>\n

But if you want camp with a capital \u201cC,\u201d you must see the commercial where Bacall emerges from a Manhattan luxury building in a fur coat and a glittery evening dress and walks to an awaiting limousine. \u201cRushing for an eight o\u2019clock curtain every night means giving up a lot of things,\u201d she tells the viewer. \u201cBut cawfee isn\u2019t one of \u2018em!\u201d Bacall then ducks into the back of the limousine where she is seated behind a small table with a desk lamp that has a few tiny pastries at its base, a coffee maker and a jar of High Point. Clearly, Procter & Gamble wanted Americans to believe that if a rich and famous actress like Lauren Bacall can go drinking High Point coffee while being taken in a limousine to her Broadway theater, then Mr. and Mrs. Main Street can become elevated into the same stratosphere by spooning some of that instant coffee into their mugs.<\/p>\n

Alas for the brand, the Bacall commercials inspired laughs instead of sales. Procter & Gamble eventually realized Bacall\u2019s presence was having the opposite effect that was intended and she was dropped, to be replaced by anonymous actresses playing regular homemakers and office executives \u2013 a mirror on the consumer audience. But even this approach, along with a packaging redesign, failed to achieve success and by 1993 the brand was discontinued.<\/p>\n

While no one is stirring High Brand into their cups anymore, the Bacall commercials continue to fascinate and entertain both those who recall the initial marketing assault and a new generation who are invigorated with the campy nature of Bacall\u2019s sales pitch. I was reminded of these commercials this week via a Facebook posting by writer David Noh, who observed the anniversary of Bacall\u2019s birth by writing, \u201cVery possibly the birthday girl\u2019s greatest performance – the commitment, authentic sincerity and bravura command are all there \u2026 Really, besides her two films with Hawks and her vivid, on-point portrayal of a rapacious lesbian in \u2018Young Man with a Horn,\u2019 her finest work which also ranks as the highest of camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, let\u2019s raise a cup of the cawfee with the finest \u201cflay-vah\u201d to the woman who reminded us how to whistle. They don\u2019t make them like this anymore \u2013 thank God!<\/p>\n