Putt putt for the fun of it!

Spring is finally here, and I'm feeling a little homesick. It seems that when I'm homesick, I like to troll the internet for stuff that makes me even more homesick. There's a Youtube channel that I've talked about before, called Retrontario. They have all sorts of old commercials from Southern Ontario and Western New York. That channel is nothing but pure gold.

Now, if you love mini golf and catchy jingles, I have just the thing for you!


This commercial played over and over again for most of my childhood. I'm now 31 years old, and I haven't been able to get this stupid song out of my head. I'm not complaining, because it's a pretty great song.

Now, I'm no good at golf, be it mini or full-sized. I've always been fascinated by it, though. (The same applies to bowling.) I feel like it's something that I should like, because look at all those people in the ad! They're having the time of their lives! It's fun! The last time I played mini-golf was about two years ago. My wife was quite pregnant, and we had absolutely nothing to do that day. It was a fantastic day for a round of mini-golf. I did horribly, but my wife was actually pretty good.

I bet that putt putt course was the place to be on a Friday night in the towns of Tonawanda and Cheektowaga, New York back in the 80's.

Anyway, I really have nothing of any substance to add to this. It's a fun commercial with a fun jingle. Really, what more could you ask for?

Take A Tasty Break...With Tastykake! (And Betty White!)

Hello there, FVA! I just realized it has been over two months since I posted a "real" entry, and I apologize for slacking. But here I am, with a new entry featuring another regional product...and America's Sweetheart, Betty White.

The woman featured in this entry enjoyed a resurgence of popularity last year, when a Facebook campaign pushing for her to host SNL went viral. As an actress, she acted in some of the most influential sitcoms (Mary Tyler Moore in the 1970s, The Golden Girls in the 1980s) of the 20th century. Her career has spanned nearly seven decades, and at 89 years old she's still going strong.

At one point in her extensive career, she did a few spots for Tastykake. Tastykake is a company that makes some...well, tasty cakes. The company began in Philadelphia in 1914 and its products are sold primarily in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States. They are part of what I like to call the Philly Phood Triphecta - cheesestakes, soft pretzels, and Tastykakes (my favorite are butterscotch or jelly-filled Krimpets).

This first spot is from the Philly Food Show. This video also features a commercial starring former Phillie Mike Schmidt. I'm not sure of the year, but the video screams 1970s:



Here's another spot with our beloved Betty, telling us about Tastykake's commitment to using only the best and freshest ingredients:



So go ahead...take a Tasty Break...with Tastykake!

The Action Never Stops... at Action Park!

Hey, everyone! It's my first entry as an official co-writer here at FVA!

I figured an entry featuring local advertisements would be a good way for people to get to know who I am. So I decided to feature advertisements from a New Jersey legend, for two reasons: first, to get into a bit of regional history, and second, to show some great locally-made commercials from the 1980s.

Action Park was an amusement park located in Vernon, NJ, in the northern part of the state. It opened in 1978 and closed in 1996, and was known by such monikers as "Traction Park," "Accident Park," and "Class Action Park." These nicknames were not without merit. Stories of accidents and injuries became the legacy of Action Park. Action Park was also featured in multiple Weird NJ magazine stories (the guys who created Weird NJ also hosted a TV series, "Weird U.S." in 2004-05!) throughought the 1990s and 2000s (for the record, Weird NJ is a popular magazine here in the Garden State, featuring strange trips around my fair state).

The park was also known for it's commercials and catchy jingles. I don't personally have any memories of these, but they ran in the mid-80s, so I would have been too young to remember. However, thanks to the wonder that is YouTube, these legendary locally produced commercials live on!

This first one is from 1983, the year of my birth. Here we see New Jersey residents (you can tell by the accents, there's a nice mix of both north and south Jersey accents, if you have an ear for that sort of thing). The motto at that time was "There's Nothing in the World Like Action Park." Check out the awesome computer-animated graphics, too!

Here's are two more from sometime in the mid-80s, featuring all the fun stuff you can do at Action Park, as well as a toe-tapping theme song. No mention of life-threatening injury, however:

Well, my friends, that should do it for this edition of Fun Vintage Advertising. I'm looking forward to writing about other fun commercials from the past as a regular here at FVA!