These days fast food chains are spending big marketing dollars on trying to convince consumers they've got healthier, fresher options.

Subway has long been marketing its "Eat Fresh" tagline (and who could forget the "$5 footlong"?), but even it had a simpler message in its early days. Take this Subway ad, one of the chain's first. In case it's not clear from the fashion choices and the actress with the Dorothy Hamill haircut, this spot is from 1977.

The chain's plea to consumers is uncomplicated: when you're hungry, get to a Subway restaurant as fast as your legs can carry you.

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Before they played the piano, sang, danced or appeared in Super Bowl ads, the M&Ms characters went for a little swim.

The little guys first made a splash way back in 1954, when Mr. Plain and Mr. Peanut jumped into a chocolate pool and rinsed off in showers that gave them their shell coating. Another early ad in the campaign -- which is the subject of this week's Rewind - begins with the "melts in your mouth, not in your hand" slogan before showing yet another dip in the pool. The now-famous tagline was just gaining traction at the time.

Suffice it to say, the early 1950s were a monumental period for the Mars-owned brand, which went on to become the top-selling candy in the U.S. by 1956, according to the Ad Age Encyclopedia.

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So Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce lost the Heinz ketchup pitch, and the beans account will likely go by the wayside as well.

But what exactly did these fictional Mad Men lose? In real-life 1968, H.J. Heinz poured $21 million into U.S. advertising, according to Ad Age's ranking of top spenders that year. That was a lot of money then, but the marketer was only ranked No. 83 in spending, putting it behind companies like Pan American airlines (80), Schlitz (49) and five tobacco companies, including R.J. Reynolds (10). Some things don't change: Procter & Gamble was No. 1, just as it is today.

Of course, Mad Men's storylines don't always square with history. While JWT walked away with the Heinz account on the show, the marketer at the time was entrenched with Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB), which took the ketchup account in 1964 from Maxon. Beginning in 1964 the shop unleashed a series of ads positioning slow-pouring Heinz as better than competing "catsups," with their "runny water." In the DDB spot above, Heinz is prevails in an Old West saloon duel, emerging as "the slowest ketchup in the West. East. North. And South."

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A pitcher, personified.

The iconic Kool-Aid Man --while contemporary to famous icons like Smokey the Bear, Tony the Tiger and Lucky the Leprachaun -- has always been one of the most literal ad icons. He didn't just represent the product, he was the product. And that prompted some dark questions about what it meant when he was pouring kids pitchers of the cold red liquid on a hot day. His signature move became crashing through walls or ceilings, exclaiming "Oh Yeah!"

The Kool-Aid Man first appeared in an ad in 1954. Nearly 60 years later, he's gotten a makeover. Publicis Groupe's Saatchi & Saatchi and Chicago-based VSA Partners this week introduced a new campaign for the Kraft-owned brand that gives him a newer modern look. The new CGI-generated Kool-Aid Man is appearing in TV, print and digital ads with an expanded vocabulary and more-developed personality. The ads show him trying to decide which of 22 flavor "outfits" to wear, working out at the gym, buying flowers and interacting with neighbors. He still knows how to break through a wall like a pro, though.

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Among all the cartoon characters that have ever been used to sell products, it's perhaps a bit puzzling that a prehistoric family appears to have been the most popular. So for this edition of our "Rewind" series, we focus on The Flintstones.

Way beyond their brand of vitamins, The Flintstones have used their clout to advertise products that most definitely did not exist during the Stone Age: Winston Cigarettes, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Dove, to name a few.

But historical accuracy was never a strong point for the popular prime-time show, which ran for six seasons from 1960 to 1966 (and continued in syndicated heaven for decades after). After all, Fred and Co. regularly celebrated Christmas.

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This week marks the passing of Michael Roarty, the legendary beer marketer and Advertising Hall of Fame member who for four decades oversaw iconic campaigns at Anheuser-Busch. Among them were the beloved "This Bud's For You" ads.

The theme of this particular spot, which came out in 1979, is to serve as a salute hardworking men and women across America --including construction workers, chefs, secretaries, ship captains, and window washers. Bud is toasting them with a cold, frothy brewski at the end of a long day. The voiceover at the end is by singer Lou Rawls; using him was a milestone because he was one of the first African-Americans to lend his talents to the company, and no less remarkably, in helping to sell a beer targeted mostly at white workers.

This spot was one of many for A-B over the last century created by the now defunct D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles in St. Louis. The shop, which had a nearly 80-year relationship with the brewer, was behind some of the most memorable Bud ads in history including the "Bud Bowl" ads and the "Budweiser Frogs". That all ended in 1994, when A-B decided it wanted some new blood on the business and handed it to DDB in Chicago (which has also since lost the account; it's now with several different shops including Anomaly, Translation and others).

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