Harry Piekema: A true Dutch advertising hero who will be remembered

I'm Dutch, but because I blog in English most of my audience are from other countries. This doesn't stop me from writing about the greatest hero in Dutch advertising ever. A name probably no one will know, but I'm here to educate you: Harry Piekema.

Harry was a funny guy who played a supermarket manager for over ten years. About a week ago, he announced his retirement from the role. The entire country was in mourning. He was the face that made commercials bearable. As soon as you saw his face, you would immediately think of Albert Heijn, the connection was unbreakable.

He was goofy, he was wacky, but he could be serious. No matter how ridiculous he portrayed himself, he always got his point across flawlessly. In interviews he stated that he had a pretty big role in the script of the commercials, often making the jokes up as he goes along.

Through the years he played in over 150 commercials. The scenarios were great every time. As seen in the first picture, he always promoted the mascots Albert Heijn made up for the soccer world cup: Wuppies, Welpies and Beesies. Good luck on pronouncing those, Americans. In the second picture Harry spoofed Route 66, by making it Route 99 and riding around on a Harley Davidson style shopping cart. And yeah, he met Kermit. He is that awesome.

Speaking of awesome, after doing all the cool stuff mentioned above he took it one step beyond by being a musical icon. Albert Heijn and Harry made parodies of popular songs like Can't Touch This, Karma Chameleon and La Bamba. All the songs' lyrics were changed into the special discount they had that week. La Bamba, for instance, became: 'la la la la la la pasta' because the pasta was on sale.

But then the news broke. After ten years of loyal service, the last special discount he advertised were the tissues. And by god we're going to need them. If you want moving images of Harry, I've included the last commercial he made, which has the highlights of his career. If you need me, I'll be rewatching all the commercials. and wiping away a tear.

You were great Harry, thanks.