This one slipped up on me. Never heard of it until seeing a tweet earlier in the week. Had no idea what channel Spike was on my cable package. DVR has been set.

If my memory serves me right, I THINK Spike was the successor channel to The Nashville Network. If so, a full lap has been made.

bump

So, Dave Fulton, did Wrangler make Dale One Tough Customer or did Dale bring that toughness to Wrangler?

great question Dennis, lol...cant wait for Dave's answer.

Dennis, Wrangler (Blue Bell, Inc.) began the "Here Comes Wrangler, He's One Tough Customer" ad campaign in 1980, put together by the New York ad firm of Dancer, Fitzgerald, Sample. It featured "The Wrangler Man" in a series of print ads and television commercials. Blue Bell's fairly new President of Domestic Operations, Robert M. "Charlie Bob" Odear started the Winston Cup program at RJ Reynolds. He hired his old RJR Winston brand manager, Jack Watson at Wrangler to be Wrangler's new Advertising Manager and we went stock car racing as one component of "The One Tough Customer" ad campaign. Dale was a perfect fit and we then started calling Dale "One Tough Customer " . The ad campaign DEFINITELY came first and we then hung the name on Dale. Here's a New York Times story from February 1981 that pretty well nails it:

Business Day

SELLING TACTICS FOR JEANS SHIFT AFTER SHAKE-UP

By SANDRA SALMANS

Published: February 17, 1981

After a series of management shakeups and a short-lived takeover bid from Allegheny Ludlum, Blue Bell Inc., the No.2 jeans manufacturer, is struggling to get its house in order and compete more aggressively with the big Levi Strauss & Company.

Following its annual shareholders' meeting Feb.3, the board abolished the offices of chairman and vice chairman, effectively discharging two septuagenarians who had each been with the company for nearly 50 years. The move came shortly after the board voted to reject the bid by Allegheny Ludlum Industries Inc.

Analysts say that the actions have consolidated the power of the president and chief executive officer, L. Kimsey Mann, 63 years old, who has headed Blue Bell for the past seven years.

''The organization has been unified, and the results will become evident,'' Mr. Mann commented in a telephone interview. The Allegheny bid has been withdrawn and, analysts say, future takeover bids seem unlikely. Apparel Takeovers Out of Fashion

''Somewhere along the line, Blue Bell may be an acquisition candidate, but people aren't rushing out now to buy apparel companies,'' observed Jeffrey Edelman, first vice president of Dean Witter Reynolds. Not only has the industry had a lackluster year, Mr. Edelman added, but previous such takeovers by conglomerates have frequently proved unworkable.

Blue Bell, which reported sales of nearly $1.4 billion in the year ended last September, is less than half the size of Levi Strauss, the leading jeans maker and the largest apparel manufacturer in the world. While Blue Bell's Wrangler brand may be well-known, the profile of the Greensboro, N.C., company has traditionally been far lower than that of the San Francisco-based giant, Levi's, synonymous with jeans.

As the board tried, with limited success, to keep its squabbling behind closed doors in Greensboro, the company has also had to cope with several departures from top management. Series of Departures

A month ago, Elswick G. Smith, treasurer and controller, quit. His resignation followed the abrupt departure last November of G. Ervin Dixon, financial vice president and a director for 12 years. At the time, Mr. Mann said that Mr. Dixon was leaving ''for personal reasons.''

Mr. Dixon and Mr. Smith, both of whom are currently unemployed, refused to comment on their departures. However Edwin Morris, the former chairman, said that Mr. Dixon had been dismissed by Mr. Mann because of ''personality differences.'' He refused to elaborate.

According to Mr. Morris, his own office was eliminated because he had supported Mr. Dixon against Mr. Mann. Asked to comment, Mr. Mann said only that the board had acted because of ''policy differences'' in several areas, including the Allegheny bid, which Mr. Morris had been more willing to consider than had the other directors. Dissent Among Managers

According to one Blue Bell executive, dissension among the top management had been simmering for a year or more before the Allegheny dispute brought things to a boil.

''The company had been immobilized because senior executives were uncertain whom to please at the top,'' said the executive, who declined to be identified.

One thing that is certain is Blue Bell's decision to market Wranglers more aggressively. The company last year hired an experienced marketing executive, Robert Odear, to head the Wrangler group in the United States.

''Blue Bell has been reticent about marketing in the past,'' Mr. Odear, 43, said in a telephone interview. ''We're going to market the Wrangler brand like other companies, including Levi, market their products.'' His experience includes marketing Winston cigarettes and L'eggs panty hose. Advertising Budget Increased

To promote Wrangler, Mr. Odear said, the company has adopted a strong Western theme and has significantly increased its marketing budget, to 3 percent of sales, the same percentage as Levi Strauss.

This year, for example, Wrangler is co-sponsoring nine professional rodeos, beginning with one in Tucson next weekend. It also signed up Dale Earnhardt , a prize-winning stock car driver, to drive a ''Wrangler jeans machine'' in a series of races that started Sunday with the Daytona 500.

''We wanted a campaign that reflected the values of the American frontier,'' Mr. Odear said. ''The Wrangler image is honest, robust, independent, with a little element of risk. Stock car racing reflects this.''

The Western theme is especially strong in Wrangler's advertising. ''Here comes Wrangler,'' announces one of the company's current television commercials, as a strapping cowboy, dressed in Wrangler shirt, vest, jeans and boots, steps from a barn. ''And he's one tough customer.' '

''Wrangler's heritage is in the West,'' said Edward Boyer, senior vice president of Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, the New York advertising agency hired to create the campaign. The original meaning of wrangler, he noted, was a ranch hand who herded cattle and cared for saddle horses. Sportswear, Boots and Jeans

The Wrangler brand, which includes sportswear and boots as well as jeans, accounts for half of Blue Bell's domestic sales. The company also manufactures sportswear under the Maverick and Sedgefield brands, as well as the work clothes with which it started out in business 50 years ago.

Mr. Odear predicted that Wrangler would double its share of the jeans market in the next five years, but admitted that the business would probably be drawn away from jeans manufacturers other than Levi.

In 1979, Levi Strauss held 33 percent of the jeans market, compared to 10 percent for Wrangler, 7 percent each for Sears Roebuck & Company and the J.C. Penney Company and 43 percent scattered among other concerns.

Many of Mr. Odear's marketing tactics have previously been confined to packaged-goods companies. For Father's Day this June, for example, there will be a ''Wrangler for Men'' sweepstakes (First prize: a ''Great American West'' vacation), akin to the sweepstakes sponsored by Winston. Next autumn, customers who buy Wrangler corduroy trousers will receive a $2 refund, a tactic borrowed from L'eggs, among others. Problems in Europe

In the United States, the Wrangler business ''is doing reasonably well and should gradually improve,'' said Mr. Edelman, of Dean Witter.

In Europe, however, which accounts for about $400 million of Blue Bell's revenue, the company has suffered from the recession. Declining sales and excess inventory there cut sharply into the firm's profits in the first quarter in the current fiscal year.

The company has been concentrating on retrenching overseas. After closing its European factories for two extra weeks in the current fiscal year, Mr. Mann said, ''our inventories are in line now'' with the reduced demand.

Blue Bell has also acquired Jantzen Inc., the swimwear manufacturer. Mr. Mann indicated that Jantzen sportswear, now aimed primarily at adults, might be extended to teenage markets.

B elow is actor, Ray Colbert of L.A. (with a glued on mustache - he did Buick TV commercials without it) was The Wrangler Man - The Original "He's One Tough Customer."

My late father with "The Wrangler Man" at Richmond in 1982 posing with our Bud Moore / Dale Earnhardt show car.

Here's a 1980 "One Tough Customer" Wrangler TV spot. Dale drove his first race for Wrangler at Ontario in November 1980. No problem with me defining which came first - and it was NOT Dale!

Another 1980 pre-Dale "One Tough Customer" commercial:

The Tough Customer ads continued through 1983. Here's a 1982 version:

For 1984, with Ricky Rudd added as a second Wrangler driver, the "One Tough Customer" campaign was abandoned and replaced with "Live It to the Limit in Wrangler."

All i can say is " Memories" !