It’s hard for me to think of the 1990s as ‘period’. That was the decade in which I turned 30 and began having a professional life (of sorts) and feels to me relatively recent, not that far in my past. Of course that was thirty years ago–THIRTY YEARS AGO–and the
Behold the magical cereal known as ‘Grape Nuts’. I’m a fan but must admit to understanding why the nutty, fiber-heavy, kind of weird/bitter and hard to chew and swallow cereal is not for everyone. As an acquired taste it’s attracted wildly disparate fans and who could be more wildly disparate
Yesterday we explored two versions of Burger King’s most famous jingle (indeed one of the most famous jingles in TV history) ‘Hold The Pickle, Hold the Lettuce…’ But before that ad got into the collective consciousness, the hamburger chain tried any number of different advertising approaches. Above is a reel
Here’s a nice little (fifteen minute) collection of daytime commercials aired on Chicago’s WGN-TV station in 1971. Since they are specifically daytime they lean heavily on kids toys and amusements, many of which are defunct. Ronald MacDonald was still appearing live at McDonald’s locations back then. A woman named Mrs.
On January 1, 1971, the last cigarette commercials were aired. To celebrate the occasion (or perhaps ‘squeeze the life out of the opportunity’ is more accurate) Phillip Morris, that noble institution, bought an hour of airtime to jam as many cigarette ads into as possible. Above is a mash-up of
Nothing transports me back in time to my childhood quite as much as watching old local TV commercials and station I.D.’s. This is clearly the result of spending way too much time staring at the tube as a kid but what the hell–it was back in the days before children
Before directing ‘The Deer Hunter’ and ‘Heaven’s Gate’, Michael Cimino was a highly successful director of hip and groovy 1960s television commercials. Although he technically was part of an all-in-one advertising/production house called Madison Pollack and O’Hare (MPO), he apparently was always a step outside of the group, marching to