Now Back To Our Program

Dearest readers, It really has been a long time since I've done anything with this blog, and for that I apologize.

When I started this blog back in September 2010, I had this idealistic vision of talking about the commercials that I loved as a kid. The plan was to bring you one commercial every week. I would tell you what I know about it, where I used to see it, and why I loved it. Having spent so much time in front of the television as a child, I thought that it would be really easy for me to come up with content.

I realized a couple of things, though. First, it's extremely difficult to find a lot of those commercials online. I have VHS copies, but I don't have the means of digitizing them. A lot of the commercials were specific to Canada, and I'm sure many of them were pretty obscure. Once I find a way of digitizing them, I feel like this blog will really start to take off again.

Second, even right now, this very second, I have about a list of about twenty commercials, vintage cartoon promos, and the like that I would love to talk about. The problem I'm having, though, is that I don't know what I would say about them. I would hate to post something, say, "Hey, this is really neat. Watch it!", and then call it a day. I want to write more, and I feel like I'm full of words. Somewhere between my brain and my fingers, there must be a short circuit. Instead of typing, I wish that I could somehow express myself through interpretive dance.

I guess what I'm saying is that this blog isn't dead yet. I'm going to try harder to bring you the Fun Vintage Advertising blog we all hoped this would be. I'm going to give you the old commercials you crave.

That, my dear readers, is my promise to you. Stay tuned, we have a lot of great stuff coming up.

Buy Me That!

Hello there, my dear readers!

It's been a little while since our last entry, but I can explain! I promise! You see, me and Jess are still mourning the death of Macho Man Randy Savage. We've shut ourselves in, eating nothing but Slim Jims to honour our fallen hero.

Before I get to our entry for today, I'd like to apologize for something. You see, Blogspot gives me access to all sorts of statistics regarding the traffic to and from this blog. When you come to my blog from a search engine, I can see which keywords you were using. Among them, the most popular seem to be some variant of "hee hee hee oops", or "mr. christie rainbow chips ahoy commercial hee-hee-hee-opps".

The most popular commercial that we've written about is this one, featuring a lovable boy named Kevin who turns everything he touches into rainbow colours. Seeing this trend, I went back and re-read my entry. I was shocked to find out that the video for this commercial has disappeared! The user that I borrowed the video from had their account suspended due to multiple copyright violations.

Normally, I would be more than happy to simply replace this missing video with similar video from another user. The problem is, though, that I can't find that commercial anywhere! The internet is a giant cloud where you can find practically anything, as long as it's not this one commercial. I'd like to apologize for not having a video there. Rest assured that I'm still looking, and that I'll keep looking until I find it again!

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Ok, now that all that's behind us, let's talk about today's entry. Someone I love brought this particular gem to my attention a few weeks ago. I wanted to write about it, but, as I said, I was still in mourning.

Back in 1989/1990, HBO and Consumer Reports Television produced a series of specials called "Buy Me That". The purpose of these specials was to educate children about the reality of advertising. To the best of my knowledge, there were three seperate episodes. The one that I watched was the third one in the series, and it deals with food advertising.

I'll post the entire episode here. It's a half-hour long, but I really recommend that you watch it.



Part one of this special deals predominantly with two issues: brand loyalty and misleading advertisements. While talking about brand loyalty, host Jim Fyfe brings up the example of Coke versus Pepsi. He gathered two teams of children - one team was loyal to Coke, and the other one was loyal to Pepsi. He asked them to take a blind taste test to see if they could tell the difference between the two major brands and RC cola. Most of the kids failed the test, saying that they couldn't tell the difference.

The host also talked about misleading advertising. He talks about processed fruit snacks, and how the packaging for these products is covered in fruit. It's meant to give the illusion that these products are good for you, but in reality they're made up of mostly chemicals.



In part two, Mr. Fyfe discusses some of the contests that are supposed to draw kids to certain products. Imagine winning a million dollars from Cookie Crisp! He really drives home the fact that the odds of winning these contests are pretty much non-existant.

In another segment in part two, a mad scientist talks about all the chemicals that go into making a Twinkie. It's a pretty disgusting process, and it definately killed

any desire I've ever had for one.



Part three is the most interesting segment, I feel. If you only watch one segment from this special, this one should be it. Have you ever wondered how the burgers you see in the McDonalds and Burger King commercials looks so good? In this segment, we get a first-hand look at what goes on behind the scenes of those commercials. I always knew that something wasn't right in the commcericals. Those burgers always looked a little too perfect. This segment will show you exactly what goes on in order to get them to look like that.

This whole special really hit a note with me. I really like the way that they have presented all this information in a way that's not only educational, but fun. This video may be somewhat dated, but I think that everyone should watch it. If I had watched this as a child, I think my whole life would have turned out a lot different. Well, maybe it wouldn't have been that extreme, but it certainly would have changed my spending habits and my attitude towards advertisments.

Thank you, my dear friends. Until next time, keep well!