The Pace Picante New York City commercials were a series of commercials that ran in the late 80s through the early 2000s. They generally featured a group of cowboys or Texans running out of their beloved Pace Picante salsa when an interloper offered some other brand instead, only for the cowboys to find out their salsa was made in New York City. Well, I don’t need to tell you what kind of an affront that would be in this cartoon world of flavors, where Pace Picante is the zenith of authenticity.
The commercials playfully leveraged the growing cultural division between the city and the country to market a mass-produced salsa, achieving this through threats of violence or some country justice.
Perhaps the best example of this is the first commercial on our list, the 1993 ‘Get a Rope’ commercial featuring Ralph Steadman.
1. Get a Rope (1993)
2. Switch Brands (1994)
3. Dip Off (1994)
4. “Animal”
5. Sleeping out on the range (1997)
6. Lunch Police (1993)
7. “Stranger, I hope you can beat a full house.”
8.”That really chaps my hide”
9. “Well y’all could get an annulment”
10. “Now let’s try the hot”
How Pace’s Texas roots became marketing gold
David Pace started bottling picante sauce in San Antonio in 1947, but sales plateaued until the brand doubled down on “authentic Texas” messaging. A trade-history dive by Fiery Foods Central notes that Pace launched the “New York City” campaign in 1991 to distance itself from Northeastern competitors, and salsa soon outsold ketchup in the U.S.
Did the ads move jars?
- 1992–1996 growth: Pace jumped from $200 million to $340 million in annual retail sales, per IRI scanner data quoted in Brandweek.
- Market share: by 1996 Pace held 24 % of the U.S. salsa market, second only to Frito-Lay’s Tostitos line.
- Cultural impact: the “New York City?!” gag appeared in The Simpsons (“A Fish Called Selma,” 1996) and inspired countless late-night punch lines.
The legacy: from TV catch-phrase to meme
Today, Gen-X and elder millennials still quote “NEW YORK CITY?!” when a jar of red salsa looks suspect, while TikTok creators remix the line over cityscape footage. The trope even surfaces in culinary debates about regional authenticity; proof that a 30-second ad can outlive the product label design that spawned it.
More Retro Commercial Classics
Craving more vintage ad magic? Re-live Wendy’s timeless “Where’s the Beef?” commercial, marvel at the bizarre “Hair in a Can” infomercial, and settle the age-old question with the animated Tootsie Pop “How Many Licks?” spot.
