A commercial that has been burned into your memory

Ponderous Pillock said:
Hamlet commercials. In fact I have a vhs tape celebrating them.

Have 20 minutes worth in fact. They were so prevelant back in the day.


But Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet, have one of my favourites.

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I love these! This is REAL advertising!

EDIT: Reminded Germany had a good quarter century of ads done for one cigarette brand that used a cartoon character that best plays out the need to smoke!
 
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edgy username said:
This commercial in particular is the first one that popped into my mind, and I thought it had been a local business all these years instead of a nationwide company.
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They were local, they originated in Chicago. I think national exposure via WGN probably gave them a boost.
 
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Here in New York, we have these car dealerships owned by a guy named Billy Fuccillo, and his television commercials have been a fixture for some thirty years. He has an annoying voice and an annoying catchphrase: “It’s HUUUUUUGE!” But, despite that, you can’t help but love him.
 
Trilby said:
They were local, they originated in Chicago. I think national exposure via WGN probably gave them a boost.
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You get a glimpse of an Empire commercial when Rob Lowe's girlfriend is flipping through the channels at the beginning of Wayne's World.


Skip to 4:00 to see Empire spokesman Elmer Lynn Hauldren's brief cameo which also serves to show viewers unfamiliar with the Chicagoland area where Aurora is in relation to Chicago.
 
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Because Christmas is right around the corner, I gotta parade around YouTube and find all those classic Christmas commercials, good and bad.

My favorite bad one is without a double the infamous Brother/Sister commercial:


This thing will never stop being funny to me as I'll wonder forever whether the perceived incestual overtones were intentional or not (given how F'd up the entertainment and media industry is, I could believe either way).
 
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RumblyTumbly said:
Because Christmas is right around the corner, I gotta parade around YouTube and find all those classic Christmas commercials, good and bad.

My favorite bad one is without a double the infamous Brother/Sister commercial:


This thing will never stop being funny to me as I'll wonder forever whether the perceived incestual overtones were intentional or not (given how F'd up the entertainment and media industry is, I could believe either way).
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I didn't see it that way, of course the setup of a brother being away for a long time only to show up like this sounds normal to me, at least for the sis to act that way to him. I've seen it with my family before.
 
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Trilby said:
I didn't see it that way, of course the setup of a brother being away for a long time only to show up like this sounds normal to me, at least for the sis to act that way to him. I've seen it with my family before.
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Honestly, its that last moment at the end that makes me go "Uhhhhh"

She puts the bow on him, says "You're my present this year" and they both stare longingly at each other before thankfully being interrupted by their parents. Its...odd.

Now it probably would have worked better if they ditched the goo-goo eyes stare and pause at the end, and made the actress much younger, like 7 years old with some baby teeth missing and played it up for kiddy cuteness.
 
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Someone probably already said the M&Ms Christmas commercials but I will never get tired of that one every holiday season. That or the Campbell's soup snowman commercial in the 90s.
 
Trilby said:
For me, the holiday ads I wish they kept playing over and over were these...
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The one from 3:38-4:08 ("Two Minutes") is the one of the bunch I remember. Of course, I wonder how many people today consider Amazon dot com too commercial, corporate, or otherwise problematic for today's times :tumblr:.
 
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A few Canadian Christmas ads from the 1980s.

(This was a catalogue store very similar to Argos in the United Kingdom where you go to the store but there's no merchandise on display, so you had to look at the catalogue in one of the booths and fill out a card with the number of the item you want and then take it to the person at the counter who got someone to retrieve it from the back room. Or, quite often, not retrieve it as it wasn't in stock. This was a cumbersome way to buy things at bricks and mortar but, on the other hand, the catalogue itself, which usually arrived in the mail in August, was often our first glimpse at new toys before they even got advertised on television.)

(Canadian Tire is more than just a tire store, it's somewhat like Lowe's but it also has a toy section during Christmas season.)

(Yeah, I know the Zellers Batman commercials are more famous, but those were a year or two too late for my peak childhood memories period.)

(I don't particularly remember this advertising campaign, to be honest, but I'm including it because this commercial is from 1987, only a couple of years before the Simpson's department store chain went out of business, ironically around the exact same time that The Simpsons first became popular.)
 
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Kiwi Lime Pie said:
The one from 3:38-4:08 ("Two Minutes") is the one of the bunch I remember. Of course, I wonder how many people today consider Amazon dot com too commercial, corporate, or otherwise problematic for today's times :tumblr:.
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Of course the same could be said for the holidays in general given the REEEE-ing never stops. :roll:

sasazuka said:
A few Canadian Christmas ads from the 1980s.

(This was a catalogue store very similar to Argos in the United Kingdom where you go to the store but there's no merchandise on display, so you had to look at the catalogue in one of the booths and fill out a card with the number of the item you want and then take it to the person at the counter who got someone to retrieve it from the back room. Or, quite often, not retrieve it as it wasn't in stock. This was a cumbersome way to buy things at bricks and mortar but, on the other hand, the catalogue itself, which usually arrived in the mail in August, was often our first glimpse at new toys before they even got advertised on television.)
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I don't recall America having stores like that besides Sears or JCPenney's having "catalog shops" in small towns. I remember some stores that offered catalogs but also had stores with items out for people to get like BEST Products and Service Merchandise.

(Canadian Tire is more than just a tire store, it's somewhat like Lowe's but it also has a toy section during Christmas season.)
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Read they tried to come to the US and failed.

(Yeah, I know the Zellers Batman commercials are more famous, but those were a year or two too late for my peak childhood memories period.)
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The only time I ever saw Zellers ads was on CBC if I was on that channel over the years. I recall a lot of ads for different companies like Leon's Furniture and their version of A&W. I think their version of A&W kicks more ass than the ones down here, at least they have The Burger Family...

(I don't particularly remember this advertising campaign, to be honest, but I'm including it because this commercial is from 1987, only a couple of years before the Simpson's department store chain went out of business, ironically around the exact same time that The Simpsons first became popular.)
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It was a coincidence. Ironically, I saw this store a few times growing up, courtesy of TVOntario's children's show "Today's Special" having had scenes shot at one.
 
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Trilby said:
I don't recall America having stores like that besides Sears or JCPenney's having "catalog shops" in small towns. I remember some stores that offered catalogs but also had stores with items out for people to get like BEST Products and Service Merchandise.
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Sears also had the catalogue counters in Canada. The Montreal area town I grew up in wasn't even that rural and it had one, though it wasn't a very long drive to proper department stores so I don't think my parents ever used the Sears counter. When Sears went out of business in Canada early this year, it was an especially huge blow to Canadians in really small towns far away from cities as the Sears counter was often the only way to get appliances delivered without paying through the nose for shipping.
 
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sasazuka said:
Sears also had the catalogue counters in Canada. The Montreal area town I grew up in wasn't even that rural and it had one, though it wasn't a very long drive to proper department stores so I don't think my parents ever used the Sears counter. When Sears went out of business in Canada early this year, it was an especially huge blow to Canadians in really small towns far away from cities as the Sears counter was often the only way to get appliances delivered without paying through the nose for shipping.
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I bet it was. It's sad to see such institutions go.
 
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