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October 30, 2011 9:38 PM

Melt your brain into goo on an overdose of crass 80s consumerism and TV without the TV shows at 80sCommercialVault. Superbowl 19 commercials. Commercials from Jaws. Saturday morning commercials. Daytime / evening commercials.

GYOB editorial commentary: Links are more or less random. Contained in the archives are gems and stinkers from all over the US. There's also quite a few 70s and 90s commercial in the archives, as well as news broadcasts and other arcana from the era.

Chances are good you'll may find a sequence of commercials you may even remember watching at the time of broadcast. Many/most of the sequences are dated and annotated and searchable if you're looking for a particular commercial or date or TV station.

I find this fascinating because it's many things. History. The state of the art of analog video production and optical effects. The shift into digital motion graphics and effects. The awesome 80s clothes. Products or companies long dead that you've forgotten about. And a masochistic sense of Gen X nostalgia.

It's also nice to be able to look back and see how ridiculous these look out of context. In hindsight it's much easier to see the manipulation going on, and I found it illuminating.

posted by loquacious (11 comments total)

"It used to be easy to build a sedan for the American family: just build it big. Now, it's got to be big and small."
posted by rhizome at 10:37 PM on October 30, 2011

Was this linked recently in a comment here or was one of these a related video of some video that was posted here recently?
posted by wierdo at 10:49 PM on October 30, 2011

I think I may have linked to it in a thread somewhere. I don't know about others.
posted by loquacious at 11:34 PM on October 30, 2011

Never seen such a golden-fried world.
posted by migurski at 11:59 PM on October 30, 2011

There was a reason why we left the 80's.
posted by crunchland at 3:24 AM on October 31, 2011 [1 favorite]

no no no oh god please no
posted by fetamelter at 5:17 AM on October 31, 2011

I'm such a nerd for this kind of thing. Always good to find more. Thanks!
posted by tatma at 10:24 AM on October 31, 2011

I hate this post! HATE IT!

Watching these makes me feel incredibly claustrophobic. There was a time before the Internet when I had no choice but to watch this crap, play Atari or read some Beverly Cleary.

If I were magically teleported back to 1980, I'd blow my fucking brains out. Knowing I'd have to wait 20 years for broadband and almost 30 years for an iPhone would be like going into solitary confinement.
posted by pjaust at 12:13 PM on October 31, 2011 [1 favorite]

If I were magically teleported back to 1980, I'd blow my fucking brains out. --- I think I'd go to the stock market.
posted by crunchland at 12:48 PM on October 31, 2011

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posted by everichon at 12:49 PM on October 31, 2011

Wow is that Ken Nordine's voice in the SB19 video at 3:00?
posted by popaopee at 12:02 PM on November 1, 2011