Wow. Negativeland is going to love this....... posted by peewinkle at 7:55 PM on December 5, 2006
Great stuff. I always thought the best anti-drug PSA was the "This is your brain"--egg. "This is your brain on drugs"--frying egg. "Any questions?" Propaganda, to be sure, but a great commercial. posted by zardoz at 7:58 PM on December 5, 2006
this is a really random list (and some weren't even nat'l--or from the 80s)-- where's the frying pan "this is your brain on drugs" one? and where's the Soviet fashion show fastfood one?
(the Tootsie Pops owl is from the late 60s/early 70s, and the Krazy Glue and Peppermint Pattie ones are 70s too)
The Jerry Springer ad alone is worth the click; I didn't even know he was a politician in a previous life, let alone a disgraced one. posted by The Confessor at 8:22 PM on December 5, 2006
Is that Freedom Rock? posted by ColdChef at 8:22 PM on December 5, 2006
No Crazy Eddie? Insane! posted by hojoki at 8:25 PM on December 5, 2006
Yeah, Man! posted by swell at 8:29 PM on December 5, 2006
Batman taking the Geo Metro (#40) was incredible. "The batmobile... it's just too big." posted by anthill at 8:30 PM on December 5, 2006
One missing, that is. posted by zardoz at 8:30 PM on December 5, 2006
These are not the best.
Where's Joe Isuzu? Morris the cat? That McDonalds one with the singing moon?
Where's the commercial with Reagan and Gorbachev in a death-cage match on top of a very high mountain that I'm probably making up? posted by logicpunk at 8:39 PM on December 5, 2006
12. Teddy Ruxpin
Yup, animatronic animal toys were all the rage in the ’80s, creating an entire generation of kids with unbelievably fucked-up nightmares....
13. Snuggle fabric softener
What does it say about us as a society that we’re obviously completely obsessed with talking, evil-looking stuffed animals? This one should have found its way into a horror movie.
I agree this is a list with some strange omissions (maybe just because they aren't on YouTube). But with Jason Alexander's McDLT ad and the Radio Shack Cellular Car Phone, they're obviously going for a retrospective point of view. Unremarkable, in other words, except for later developments. posted by dhartung at 9:21 PM on December 5, 2006
(funny that the name Metro is synonymous on both sides of the Atlantic with astonishingly godawful cars though) posted by forallmankind at 9:32 PM on December 5, 2006
That Jason Alexander McDonalds ad....it's....I....urghhh...MY EYES! MY EARS! THE NOSTALGIAS DO NOTHING!" posted by The Card Cheat at 9:59 PM on December 5, 2006
(These things are always fucking great...milk ages better than 99.99% of all advertising.) posted by The Card Cheat at 10:09 PM on December 5, 2006
I want to see the paper blob commercial again. (I think it was a FedEx commercial.) posted by kirkaracha at 10:19 PM on December 5, 2006
Yeah, that's not the Legend Of Zelda ad I remember. Can't believe I subscribe to a magazine that could get it all so very wrong. Where the hell was Capri Sun? Or any other juice boxes for that matter. There's this Hi-C ad I still have nightmares about......he's so cute......and he drinks double fruit. posted by SinisterPurpose at 10:22 PM on December 5, 2006
I remember a classmate cracking us up with his side-splitting alternate lyrics to the My Buddy commercial: "My buddy... he's cruddy..." posted by evilcolonel at 11:14 PM on December 5, 2006
What does it say about us as a society that we’re obviously completely obsessed with talking, evil-looking stuffed animals? This one should have found its way into a horror movie.
What about that kid with the encyclopedias and his report on space?
You mean the one with his own blog and porn (NSFW obviously) sites now, Donovan Freeberg? posted by Pollomacho at 12:10 AM on December 6, 2006
List compiler was trying too hard to be clever and not hard enough to be accurate.
Commenters have done a great job of stirring up the memories, though - well done, folks! posted by batmonkey at 12:25 AM on December 6, 2006
Correction: The 50 best American Commercials of the 80s. posted by salmacis at 12:34 AM on December 6, 2006
“Hey man, is that Freedom Rock?” “Yeah, man!” “Well, turn it up, man!” Thanks to Saucy Intruder for the bad memories... posted by spacelux at 12:36 AM on December 6, 2006
"The Dark Crystal movie trailer - Even the clip is dark! This was Jim Henson’s foray into claymation cinema..."
I totally wanted that lady athlete from the 1984 ad -- wasn't gettin' much action in those days. posted by pax digita at 4:45 AM on December 6, 2006
They totally made my day by putting the Freedom Rock commercial at number 2 - my hacky-sack stoner friends and I could recite it word for word, complete with the music clips. I'm amazed that it meant so much to other people too. What a flashback. Now I need a bottle toke.
Here's the thing though - the clip they show is different to the one we had - probably on WUAB43 Cleveland. Ours had a bit with one dude going "Remember the 60's? War, protest, goin to jail?"...and then the other guy says "Well all those great tunes we used to groove to back the are back!" Was that censored out or something?
The rest, not so iconic. But the bonkers one was good: 'Mah son throught Bonkers was gum. He knows it's candy now...' posted by Flashman at 5:24 AM on December 6, 2006
Call NAtional-2 nine thousand, NAtional 2 nine... thou-ou-sand. posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 5:41 AM on December 6, 2006
How about that creepy Tinnitis PSA. The one with the manequin head under dramatic lighting. It ended with that nervy vibrating triple lazer bean on the manequin head! That was played an awful lot.
Also, Crazy Eddies!
and, "Surprise, surprise, Puppy Surprise… How many puppies are there inside!?"
If that Tootsie Pop commercial is from the 70's, I still think it fits in with the 80's since it was played so often through the decade.
Other inescapable ads of the time in my mind were the Craftmatic Adjustable Bed commercials "I got the microwave!"
and "The Clapper" and "Life Call". But maybe that was the very early 90's? posted by JBennett at 8:38 AM on December 6, 2006
Oh yeah, one more that I saw an awful lot:
"Time to make the doughnuts…" posted by JBennett at 8:42 AM on December 6, 2006
No, "I've fallen and I can't get up"?
"We'll send someone right away Mrs. Fletcher." posted by drezdn at 9:01 AM on December 6, 2006
The pages from 7 through 10 come up as a 404 for me, so unless I didn't effectively read for content and this is an ongoing series with installments left, I'm not sure what's up.
But so far, they haven't included the one I liked the most:
It was a commercial featuring a beautiful woman inviting a very well-dressed man into her apartment for a beautiful, romantic, candlelit dinner. The candles are lit, the wine is poured, the food is prepared, and the man is beckoned in...
Whereupon our hero, in one expertly suave move, casually puts his hand and his weight down on the round dining room table and tips it over, sending everything crashing to the floor.
The commercial was for DuPont's "Stainmaster" carpet.
Classic. posted by Spatch at 2:29 PM on December 6, 2006
spatch, i loved that one.
and the sappy kodak ones, and the general foods international coffee ones, and the mariette hartley/james garner polaroid ones, and the nescafe? ones with that British couple (Anthony Head? i think--very witty and sexy and adult-seeming). posted by amberglow at 3:41 PM on December 6, 2006
Stupid site won't load. *kicks the tubes* posted by deborah at 8:10 PM on December 6, 2006
Interesting that what we used to hate watching now makes us nostalgic. posted by rfbjames at 1:24 AM on December 7, 2006
I LOVE the Wendy's Soviet fashion show. I still say "DAYVEAR and SVIMVEAR" all the time.
And the 1984 Apple ad still gives me chills. This is awesome.
BTW-I loved the DarK Crystal. My family went to see it and a bunch of the noises the characters made were imitated all the time by my family. No nightmares here. It was great. Looks chessy now, though. Sad. posted by aacheson at 9:26 AM on December 7, 2006
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posted by peewinkle at 7:55 PM on December 5, 2006