Old TV Advertisements / Infomercials

[Melooon]

I saw this video and its not exactly an ad, but it made me think of making this thread!

Annnnndd here is a classic I remember from my own childhood (I still buy ambrosia rice pudding because of this ad)

[Memory]

It feels silly to get so nostalgic over ads, but old commercials are the best. I used to have TV Land as a kid and they would play actual retro commercials during the breaks, like this classic.

It made watching Bewitched and Happy Days feel even more authentic getting to watch period-accurate ads.

I also love it when the Cinema Snob includes old commercials in his videos, and all of the Nostalgia Critic episodes dedicated entirely to commercials.

[Melooon]

It feels silly to get so nostalgic over ads, but old commercials are the best.

There's nothing silly about it at all! Like it or not we live in a consumer society; the products we interact with and the story of where they came from is like our own personal story too. Old ads are just as important as family albums in my opinion

Speaking of which I forced my family to watch like 2 hours of compilation ads one Christmas, they got really into it; we started a game where we had to draw our own ads and vote on the best.

Its really interesting if you start looking at ads from the 50s - 60s - 70s - 80s - they change every decade - they get louder and more annoying as they go.. the ones from the 60s you can watch for ages, but by the 80s they are actually really exhausting to watch.

[bugholder's epiphany]

Friend of mine showed me this commercial, I don't think words can really describe it aside from what I can only assume to be what you hear when you watch TV during a bad fever.

[Memory]

I'm sure you all remember this classic.

[Melooon]

HOUSE HIPPO!

We had the UK version of it which is a bit different:

I used to leave out snacks and water for our house hippo

[Inkerlink]

I'm sure you all remember this classic.

Of course! This was a favourite of mine as a child.

HOUSE HIPPO!

We had the UK version of it which is a bit different:

I used to leave out snacks and water for our house hippo

Oh neat, I didn't realize this commercial was shown outside of Canada/North America!
On a secondary note, these house hippo commercials have gained an extra poignancy for me nowadays, with the proliferation of misinformation etc you find everywhere. But I don't want to drag the thread down with that kind of stuff so I won't go into it more than that lol 

Take a look at this commercial that used to play for a local branch of computer stores that we had here. The jingle pops into my head quite often.

[Commodorn]

One of my favorite things to do is pop in an old VHS recording (80s-early 90s) and just hang around like I'm just listening to actual cable TV as background noise. Once I put in the Olympics from around that time while everybody was watching the current one downstairs, actually. That's going to make some fun false memories if I ever get old and develop dementia...

There are a few uh.. definitely very annoying ADs, but I enjoy what's played more often than not. Here's one of my favorites:

I love John Cleese. Apparently this isn't the only commercial he's even done! There's another (non-Cleese) soft-drink commercial that I saw at the beginning of an Indiana Jones tape I have... people just went NUTS with those, man.

I do... sort of forget what decade I'm in when I watch these on my TV. An announcement for a Star Trek convention that happened in NYC came on a few times and my brain immediately went "Woah, really!? I wanna go!! I'd love to meet Brent Spiner!" every time. Same kind of thing with car commercials.. god, those cars always look so cool...

[doubleincision]

omg yes i love this thread. i'm mildly obsessed with old commercials. one of my favorite things to watch on youtube is those big hour-long compilations of ads from the 70s/80s/90s!

my alltime favorite retro ad is this Nestle chocolate commercial. i LOVE when the singer puts their whole heart and soul into a song for something totally stupid like a chocolate commercial, and i 100% seriously wish all commercials still had music like this. it's so much funnier and more entertaining than slapping on whatever barely-relevant pop song is hot right now. there's an earnest corniness to it that advertisement doesn't have anymore, because now everything has to be steeped in ten levels of irony and self-awareness to the point of exhaustion.

I do... sort of forget what decade I'm in when I watch these on my TV. An announcement for a Star Trek convention that happened in NYC came on a few times and my brain immediately went "Woah, really!? I wanna go!! I'd love to meet Brent Spiner!" every time. Same kind of thing with car commercials.. god, those cars always look so cool...

when my husband and i watch ad compilations we'll always be like "omg we gotta call them right now!!" as a joke whenever an ad has a phone number the time-capsule nature of them is why i like them so much, too. even though ads are typically designed to be disposable, ephemeral media, when you watch them you can get such a detailed snapshot of what culture, music, fashion, and the world were like at the time.

Take a look at this commercial that used to play for a local branch of computer stores that we had here. The jingle pops into my head quite often.

i love the jingle in this one and the aesthetic of the logo+screen at the end! it's not the same style at all, but this reminded me of a local insurance commercial that's iconic if you grew up in Chicago. i very autistically memorized the script as a little kid, and would entertain all of the adults by reciting the dialogue 

[Badgermein]

omg yes i love this thread. i'm mildly obsessed with old commercials. one of my favorite things to watch on youtube is those big hour-long compilations of ads from the 70s/80s/90s!

my alltime favorite retro ad is this Nestle chocolate commercial. i LOVE when the singer puts their whole heart and soul into a song for something totally stupid like a chocolate commercial, and i 100% seriously wish all commercials still had music like this. it's so much funnier and more entertaining than slapping on whatever barely-relevant pop song is hot right now. there's an earnest corniness to it that advertisement doesn't have anymore, because now everything has to be steeped in ten levels of irony and self-awareness to the point of exhaustion.

when my husband and i watch ad compilations we'll always be like "omg we gotta call them right now!!" as a joke whenever an ad has a phone number the time-capsule nature of them is why i like them so much, too. even though ads are typically designed to be disposable, ephemeral media, when you watch them you can get such a detailed snapshot of what culture, music, fashion, and the world were like at the time.

i love the jingle in this one and the aesthetic of the logo+screen at the end! it's not the same style at all, but this reminded me of a local insurance commercial that's iconic if you grew up in Chicago. i very autistically memorized the script as a little kid, and would entertain all of the adults by reciting the dialogue 

Wow, that second one with the eagle was very bizarre! It's almost like a joke, can't believe that its real! I also liked the Nestle one a lot, that was very catchy. I dunno what kind of casting they did back then but those people were INSANELY attractive I mean wow. And I agree, I enjoy commercials much more when they aren't steeped in irony. It's so simple yet it just feels...right. Except when the commercial is too boring. I dunno. Anyways, here's one of my own that I'm sure a lot of us know.

Michael Bolton's part was SO freaking loud!!! Haha. Very nostalgic commercial for me personally.

Also, I never personally saw this one growing up, but the "hi kids we're home early" part cracks me up because it's so weird and creepy. A lot of YTPs have used that line just for that reason.

[doubleincision]

Wow, that second one with the eagle was very bizarre! It's almost like a joke, can't believe that its real! I also liked the Nestle one a lot, that was very catchy. I dunno what kind of casting they did back then but those people were INSANELY attractive I mean wow. And I agree, I enjoy commercials much more when they aren't steeped in irony. It's so simple yet it just feels...right. Except when the commercial is too boring. I dunno. Anyways, here's one of my own that I'm sure a lot of us know.

Michael Bolton's part was SO freaking loud!!! Haha. Very nostalgic commercial for me personally.

Also, I never personally saw this one growing up, but the "hi kids we're home early" part cracks me up because it's so weird and creepy. A lot of YTPs have used that line just for that reason.

Time Life Ultimate Love Songs!! my husband and i will sing the lyrics of this commercial at each other, as if the mashup of songs is its own original composition. this happens at least once a day. literally anything that reminds us of one of those songs will make us burst into singing the commercial if we hear any of the songs on the radio, or in a store or whatever, we turn to each other and say "imagine owning the world's greatest love songs...."

[brisray]

Some of the old public safety films were kind of rough. There was the one about playing around on train tracks as a school sports day. Don't do it - you could end up wrapped in a red blanket.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXGqwCbeFD8

Another I remember and thought was funny was from the ITC about realism on TV and complaints about it. Some great lines that still make me laugh. "I'll be dashed if I forget this in a hurry" and "just you wait until I get out of these nasty handcuffs."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrSECcj5V7w
 

[inbtwn]

Honestly amazed that Zoobooks hasn't been posted in this thread yet. That commercial was EVERYWHERE for me growing up.

Same with Zoo Pals:

And let us not forget, the most obnoxious informercial of them all: 

[Sentry64]

found a mario bros commercial for.. atari?? i never really knew there was a mario game for such a console

[MrsMoe]

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