14 1990s Snack Commercials That Bring Back All The Nostalgia

In a 21st-century world of streaming services and the option to pay for interruption-free entertainment, commercials are something of a lost art. And yes, we'll go as far as to call them an art form: there have been plenty that are thoughtfully written and designed to hit us right in the feels, feature an earworm of a jingle, and stick with us for a good, long time.

That's especially true of 1990s-era commercials. With the internet still in its infancy, television commercials were where it was at. There were a ton of great '90s beer ads that we still fondly remember today, and as for snack commercials, you'd better believe that a decade defined by funky, bright colors targeted kids and teens in an equally flashy way.

Was there rollerblading, over-the-top animated mascots, and teens dancing in the streets? Absolutely. Catchy jingles and shouting wrestlers? Check, and yes, there's at least one of those. The 1990s were definitely a different time, and those who lived through that totally tubular decade can be transported right back to the days of Saturday morning cartoons and hanging out at the mall thanks to these snack commercials thankfully preserved on YouTube (and yes, the quality isn't up to present-day standards — we do apologize, but that's just the way things were.)

The 1990s were all about being cool, and Chester Cheetah was definitely cool. The Cheetos mascot was first introduced in 1986, and he absolutely dominated the airwaves in the '90s. Not only that, but he also made the jump to video games and got starring spots on the cover of some of the decade's biggest magazines. He took over from the original motorcycle-riding mouse mascot, and Cheetos got a feisty and fun new face ready to capitalize on the sensibilities of the era.

Chester embraced the devil-may-care attitude of the '90s by being a bit of a wild one, becoming the mastermind behind stunts like breaking into a Cheetos factory and sneaking past the guards to make some "Dangerously cheesy!" treats. He tried hijacking a Cheetos-laden train (and failing as only an animated cheetah can) and hawking funky Cheetos flavors — like the Cajun variety, advertised by a bayou-dwelling Chester. The shades-wearing feline did it all — and did it all while looking like the friend that our parents would warn us to stay away from. His popularity never truly waned, and when he joined forces with the Kool-Aid man for a 2025 Super Bowl ad, it delighted '90s kids nationwide.

It was World War II that helped turn Mars and M&Ms into candy giants, and the brand's spokes-candies have been around for a long, long time. They came on the scene back in 1954, and although they've been redesigned a few times, there was perhaps no bigger change than the one that came in the mid-1990s. That's when Will Vinton Studios turned Red and Yellow into CGI characters, and they made their debut in a commercial with Steven Weber (remember the juggernaut that was "Wings"?).

Take a close listen to those original voices, and you'll recognize John Goodman and Jon Lovitz. They were ultimately recast, and we had J.K. Simmons and Billy West (of "Futurama" fame) taking over the voices, and it's also worth mentioning that the '90s also saw the release of one of the defining commercials of the holiday season. Officially called "Faint," it's the one with Red and Yellow surprising Santa as he stops by to deliver presents. The 1996 commercial finally got a follow-up in 2017, and they're just as mischievous as ever.

Ask any '90s kid if they're still salty that Dunkaroos went the way of the dodo, and you'll probably get an affirmative. We do, however, have to clarify that we're also salty about commercials like the one we've linked above: you could not, in fact, use as much frosting as you wanted on each and every cookie, because there was never enough, even if you thought you were being super careful.

That commercial is from 1995, and Dunkaroos has something of an interesting '90s-era history. The overly Australian kangaroo featured in ads from the first part of the decade was (perhaps predictably) named Sydney, and he was all about his Dunkaroos. He wanted to hear all about how much kids loved them and how they enjoyed them, too, and then? There was a changing of the guard in 1996, when the fan-designed (and also predictably named) Duncan took over. He leaned more into the '90s-esque style of cool, for better or worse, and it left countless kids to argue who was better.

Of all the 1990s-era commercials we're talking about today, this is the one that has the song that is absolutely going to get stuck in the heads of anyone who's heard it before. How can it not? It's the very definition of catchy: "I love the fishes 'cos they're so delicious! Gone, Goldfishin'!"

And yes, that's what the lyrics really are — because apparently, they're misheard often enough. Even though Goldfish have been a huge hit with generations of Americans, they're actually Swiss — and there's a totally adorable reason that Goldfish are shaped like fish, and it's basically because the creator's wife was a Pisces.

That super-cute '90s commercial gave way to an early 2000s one that has the same upbeat, happy melody, but we have to point out that it also has these lyrics: "The wholesome snack that smiles back, until you bite their heads off!" Honestly, we can't think of a more appropriate and accurate way to illustrate the difference between the fun innocence of the 1990s and whatever-the-heck was going on with the early 21st century than that.

There were a number of fun, lighthearted Kit Kat commercials that featured people from all walks of life singing the candy bar's catchy jingle: "Gimme a break! Gimme a break! Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar!" It's simple, earworm worthy, and, hilariously, it was never meant to be taken seriously as an advertisement.

Advertising clients are generally presented with a number of options, with one being a clear favorite, and others just sort of ... there. The ad agency in question was DDB Needham, which had put its all into a particular campaign way back in 1986. Ad man Michael A. Levine was asked to come up with a throwaway pitch, wrote the jingle during an elevator ride, and Kit Kat loved it. There were all different versions filmed into the 1990s, and they're all pretty neat, not only as commercials, but as glimpses into everyday life in the decade. Kids reach out of school buses, play baseball and skateboard, wear their letterman jackets, and hit the basketball courts. Who would have thought a never-meant-to-be-seen commercial would become so iconic?

Fruit Roll-ups were everywhere in the 1990s, and the decade kicked off with commercials starring a wizard called the Great Rolupo. The decade's fashion choices — including funky hats and super-bright colors — were already on full display, but the Great Rolupo's days were numbered. After he was retired, commercials gave an inside look into the Fruit Roll-ups factory itself ... as only '90s commercials could do. Some featured kids running the show, things would invariably go wrong and turn chaotic, and the newest type of Roll-up would be unveiled.

We'd argue that perhaps the most 1990s of them all was the commercial featuring Ren and Stimpy running the show at the factory, and yes, it's just as disturbing as you might expect. After an attempt at making sweaty sock-flavored treats, the crew gets sucked into the machine and ends up appearing on the Roll-ups themselves — and they're joined by some friends from Nickelodeon. We're saying this one is most memory lane worthy because of its nod to not only '90s era snacks, but the decade's complete overhaul of animation and its successful attempt at making it something geared toward adults. The behind-the-scenes story of '90s-era animation is worthy of a Netflix series (which would absolutely have to be R-rated), and just a tiny bit of that is preserved in commercials.

If you've ever wondered whether or not Pringles are technically potato chips, you're certainly not alone (it's complicated). No matter what you call them, they're downright delicious — and in the 1990s, television viewers were treated to a series of commercials that featured all kinds of musically inclined people randomly getting together to turn cans into instruments. The message was clear: "Once you pop, you can't stop."

Like almost everything else on TV in the '90s, it was ridiculously over-the-top. The cool kids were in-the-know, they danced, they rollerbladed, they ate Pringles by the handful, and they had friends who were just as cool as they were. Opt for chips out of a bag? Then, you're just some sad dude sitting alone on a park bench with a greasy shirt. The campaign was so successful that it was brought back in 2025, in a way that's kind of toned down the brightness ... but not the weirdness.

In the mid-1990s, Bagel Bites came out with one of the catchiest jingles of the decade. Kids across the country were thrilled at the idea of eating "Pizza in the morning, pizza in the evening, pizza at suppertime." It helped that the song was attached to kid-sized and delicious little pizza bagels, and there's a chance it'll get stuck in your head if you sing it enough. There's a good reason for that: the jingle was built on a melody that had already been made popular in a 1950s song called "Sugartime." 

The original song was so popular that it was covered multiple times — including a version done by Johnny Cash — but even that's not the entire story. The melody that you're probably singing right now shows up in songs from the 1930s, and it's also nestled in an 1880s classical music piece from a French composer. It's even been argued that the roots of the song go back even farther to an 1870s opera, and if that's on your bingo card of things you didn't expect to learn this year, we totally understand.

For anyone who grew up in the 1990s, there's a good chance that all you needed to see was "Mentos" and "The Freshmaker" to know what kind of bizarre weirdness awaits. It's safe to say that few commercials of the decade were as polarizing as these were. They featured wildly happy people being flummoxed by some minor inconvenience that was suddenly a huge deal, then solving the so-called problem in the most ridiculous of ways. Case in point? The one with the guy who sits down on a freshly-painted park bench, then decides the best thing is to roll around on it and give himself a pin-striped suit.

For anyone seeing these for the first time, we have to speak for '90s kids everywhere and say that they were just as bizarre back then. Not long after they debuted, it was called one of the worst ad campaigns around, it was condemned for lyrics that don't actually make sense, and ... what even is going on with these people? We didn't know then, and we don't know now.

They did, however, work. Mentos sales skyrocketed, the campaign got a ton of attention — good and bad — and hung around until the end of the decade. Competition started making itself known, and is it a coincidence that the end of The Freshmaker commercial coincided with our entry into the nightmarish 21st century? We're not discounting that.

It's impossible to explain just how big wrestling was in the 1990s, and every '90s kid will remember Macho Man Randy Savage telling them to "Snap into a Slim Jim!" By that time, Slim Jim had been around for decades, but they'd spent a good amount of that time being the questionable bar snacks that you only opted for when you'd had a few beers and were no longer concerned about how long they'd been sitting there. The '90s saw the brand shift its target audience to teens, appealing to them with first the Ultimate Warrior and then, Macho Man Randy Savage.

Savage was front and center from 1993 to 2000, and it was a huge deal for him: the sponsorship actually paid for his move from the WWE to the WCW. Savage died in 2011 — a death ultimately connected to heart disease — but his larger-than-life commercials and Slim Jim-loving presence would live on: the idea was rebooted in 2024 with LA Knight.

If you've ever wondered why '90s kids seem to be built a little differently, consider the fact that snack commercials could come with a little bit of body horror thrown in for good measure. That's right, we're talking about Gushers, the fruit snacks that were advertised as being so fruity that they might just turn you into an actual fruit ... kind of. And don't worry, some kids were absolutely terrified of it and lived in a sort of existential dread as they were kept up at night, wondering how long it took those poor kids to turn back into human children. 

And Gushers knew exactly what it was doing. In 2025, the idea was revived into a 9-minute short film about a director who took the commercials a little too seriously, got into some funky spellcraft to actually turn kids into fruit ... only to scrap the horrifying real-world change for CGI. And yes, that kid comes back for some truly disturbing revenge. It turns out that the commercials still have some nightmare fuel left.

Each and every year, football fans and foodies eagerly await the new batch of Super Bowl commercials. Will there be a standout treasure that gets added to the list of best Super Bowl snack commercials of all time? Will Budweiser come through with a heartwarming, tear-jerking spot that makes you wonder who's chopping onions? Super Bowl commercials were just as big in the 1990s, and 1998's big game saw recent Miss USA winner Ali Landry catapulted to fame as the face of Doritos.

It's a pretty straightforward commercial: Landry walks into a laundromat, catches the attention of two guys who try their best to impress her with their Dorito-eating prowess, then absolutely owns them in the most ridiculously over-the-top way possible. Landry would go on to star in several more Doritos commercials to the delight of '90s viewers, while today, the rest of us are left to reminisce about the time when Doritos 3D were a legitimate snack-time option.

Oreo's Unlock the Magic campaign got its start in 1991, and commercials were kind of all over the place in an excellent way. You might tune in to see Oreo-based magic magically cleaning a kid's room so he can go hang out with his friends (and we're not entirely sure why he's unbothered by this, but it was the 1990s). You might see the utterly heartwarming story of a dad waiting up late to make sure his daughter got home safe — then sharing some Oreos — or one kid sharing his Oreos with another at the airport and showing him just how you're supposed to unlock that magic. Totally adorable, right?

The campaign wasn't just about commercials, either. Magician Harry Blackstone Jr. was part of a nationwide promotion that put magicians and their specially developed, Oreo-related tricks in spots across the country, performing live for fans. Can we bring back the magic? 

There's no doubt about it: Viennetta was the fancy frozen treat that ruled the '90s. Commercials made it clear that this was a special sort of treat, with carefully manicured hands cutting equal portions of ice cream cake and serving it from a silver platter, handing out delicate crystal glassware filled with deliciousness. For some reason, there was always one piece leftover, and that? That's a problem that we say should be solved by hiding it, putting it back in the freezer, and eating it in the middle of the night like the rest of us not-so-fancy people, but commercials ended with one slice, many hopeful opportunists, and no satisfactory resolution.

Viennetta defined the first part of the decade. It was posh, it was super-fancy, and it made any meal or late-night snack feel like something super classy. If you didn't sneak into the kitchen for a slice or two of this, did you even '90s? It was, perhaps unsurprisingly, British in origin, and although it was discontinued in the U.S. in the mid-'90s, it made a comeback in 2021. Honestly, that's the least that 2021 owed us.