The Kellogg’s Commercial That Starred Mark Harmon Before His NCIS Fame

In the Kellogg’s ad, Mark Harmon was second string to his father. But as his acting career took off in the 1980s, the younger Harmon became a coveted commercial actor in his own right. Indeed, Harmon earned his first Emmy Award nomination in 1977 for his part in the made-for-TV film “Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years.” In 1983, Harmon landed a role on “St. Elsewhere,” and he acted on the medical drama until 1986. In the middle of that same decade, Harmon became a spokesperson for Coors.

Before Coors cans were turning blue from the cold, the brewery went for a simple, grassroots approach to its advertising. In Harmon’s many ads for the beer, he can be seen fishing, chopping wood, or walking through snowy mountaintops. (Of course, a few take place in a bar, too). He has much more dialogue than he did in his Kellogg’s ad, touting Coors’ cold-filtered brewing process, smooth taste, or, as he tells us in the middle of a pasture of cows, the absence of pasteurization.

“You can taste the difference right here,” Harmon says upon plucking a can from a river’s edge in one ad posted on YouTube. “A beer that’s a little less heavy, never bitter, with all the spirit and patience of a great beer. Coors is the one.”

Harmon’s increased visibility on television no doubt helped grow his fanbase. In 1986, he earned the title of People’s Sexiest Man Alive.