OK Soda + Mall Car Giveaway — March 1995

I found what has to be one of the most 1995 ad breaks ever: a rare spot for OK Soda, preceded by a local giveaway contest for a Plymouth Neon.

OK Soda was a Gen-X targeted “slackers in flannel oughta love this” drink created by Coca-Cola and test-marketed in Portland. Hip trendy artists like Daniel Clowes created the art on the cans. They decided not to roll it out nationwide, and I’ll forever kick myself for never trying a sip. One of several slogans was “What’s the point of OK Soda? Well, what’s the point of anything?” Catchy.

And yes, there used to be car giveaways at malls, though usually not like this. The cars would sit there in the middle of the mall and there would be tear-off entry forms next to them where you’d write your name and address. My parents entered one once and….hooboy, this is a story.

Turns out not all those car giveaways were as legit as this one. My parents got a letter that said for further information on the car, they would have to attend a “seminar” in a meeting room and….you can already see where this is going. The meeting was one giant scam designed to trick people into signing huge down payments on homes that did not actually exist. They called themselves “Ultima Homes” (my mom looked it up afterward and there was no such business. “Ultimate Homes” existed, but not “Ultima”).

The best part about this is the detail about what happened whenever the man at the front made another boisterous claim about the houses he was allegedly selling. After every claim, a bunch of people throughout the audience wearing T-shirts that said “ULTIMA HOMES” in bright yellow letters would stand up and cheer. “YEEEAH! WHOO YEAAAH!! WHOOOO!!”

So these crooks were savvy enough to think of putting “plants” in the audience, but STUPID enough that they would pay to label them, AND have them stand up every time they cheered so anyone else could clearly see they were plants. Awesome.