Get Some Nostalgia With Vintage ‘Old El Paso’ Commercials

Growing up, 'Old El Paso' was the brand when it came to making 'Mexican' food at home. I put 'Mexican' in quotes because we were white folks making the food. It clearly isn't the same. I realize that now, since I live in El Paso, have married a Mexican woman, have experienced real Mexican food.

As I got looking into this, 'Pace Picante' commercials also popped up as something to watch on YouTube.

I did some simple googling for 'Old El Paso' and 'Pace Picante' and apparently they had a beef back in the 80s. Pace sued Old El Paso because they claimed the new Old El Paso packaging was too similar to their's and consumers wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

This lawsuit went on for 15 months but was eventually settled out-of-court.

″No money changed hands, but we’re very happy that they agreed to put an end to the confusion that the Pet package was causing to our customers,″ Pace spokesman Rod Sands said.

So, you might be wondering to yourself. Who won? Well...

Pet spokesman Les Landes said no Old El Paso products would be taken off the shelf.

″Nobody won. Nobody lost,″ Landes said. ″We just decided that it was time for us to come to a mutual agreement and we were able to do so.″

"Pet" is for "Pet Inc." the company that made Old El Paso at that time, and here is what brought the lawsuit to an end.

Pet Inc., makers of Old El Paso, agreed to change the shape of their hot sauce bottle and label design and acknowledged that San Antonio-based Pace was the owner of the hourglass-shap ed bottle.