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!

Snap Into a Slim Jim!

Ladies, gentelmen, dear readers, welcome to my new home.

My name is Patrick, and I work as a master control operator for a television station in the Mid-West. As you may have guessed, watching television is a big part of my job.

Growing up, my sister and I used to watch a lot of pre-recorded television. We had VHS (and Beta!) tapes full of old cartoons from the mid-80's all the way up to the early 90's. We grew up watching the same old episodes of My Pet Monster, The Real Ghostbusters, Yogi Bear, and ALF. As an adult, I find myself re-watching these tapes, and it takes me back to better times.

As much as I love all my cartoons, I find that the part that excites me more is the advertising. There's something about old commercials that makes me all tingly inside. I've tried time and time again to figures out exactly what it is that I love, but I can't seem to pinpoint it.

As I mentioned earlier, I watch television professionally. I see a lot of commericals. And while there are a lot of really effective, entertaining commercials, very rarely do they capture the same spark as older ones do.

In this blog, I'll be bringing you commercials that I grew up with, commericals that interest me, and hell, maybe even modern commericals that capture my attention. I hope to update this thing at least once a week.

So, without further adu... let's bring on the commericals!

Our first commercial comes to us from the good people at Slim Jim. I remember watching wrestling when I was younger, back when it came on right before American Gladiators on Saturday mornings.

In this series of commericals, Macho Man Randy Savage would give us clear, well thought-out reasons why we should enjoy his stick-shaped meat product.

And by that, I mean he just yelled a lot.

Randy Savage was really just a more extreme version of the Kool-Aid man, busting through walls and telling us to SNAP INTO A SLIM JIM!

As entertaining at these spots were, I have to point out that my first experience with a Slim Jim was pretty disappointing. I had to learn the hard way that Slim Jims don't snap. They just kinda bend. I felt extremely let down. If I couldn't take the word of Macho Man Randy Savage, then who else could I trust? I still carry that burden to this day.

Randy Savage's days of glory, like Miss Elizabeth, have long since died. I think, though, that anytime someone is disappointed when they bite into a Slim Jim, they'll think of the Macho Man.

Until next time!