Speaking to the Masses

Does anyone remember the days when commercials used to be enjoyable to watch? There was actually a time when I wouldn't flip the channel during commercials but instead sit and watch the advertisements that TV had to offer.

Now, before I begin I will concede that part of the reason the commercials I watch suck is because I don't watch cartoons anymore or programming geared towards kids (at least for the most part). Instead, I watch "grownup" shows, and because of this the advertisements are geared toward adults. But even these commercials are terrible. What happened to the days of the jingle? People don't write commercial music anymore. My cousin Steve points out the fact that most commercials rip off songs that used to be popular in place of jingles. So instead of getting some unique music, we get to hear the overplayed classics of Journey, The Cars, and other classic rock bands because they will somehow make us want to buy a Ford Fusion or the latest gadget at Office Depot.

But I began to write here because of my fondness of 80's and early 90's toy commercials. Back then if you watched kids shows you were bombarded with loud, obnoxious commercials full of kids shouting while playing with their new toys. These commercials always consisted of at least 6 kids, or even more, and were filled with constant action including but not limited to: rolling dice, holding the advertised toy out in front of you to show the camera while yelling its name, running as a group to a place where the toy is conveniently set up, and playing with the toy or game while the rest of the group circled around and watched. Perhaps advertising agencies didn't want to pay kids to play with toys, or perhaps in our modern, PC world they didn't want to try to represent every ethnicity. The classic toy adverts were made before the days of Barney and did not include a white boy and girl, 1 African-American, 1 Latino, and 1 kid with a physical handicap. They were made up of mostly white boys and girls. I guess searching for diversity is too time-consuming.

Today, with VERY few exceptions, kids are subject to commercials for video games that look like live-action shots, and the occasional halfway decent cereal advertisement. If I ever see an old-fashioned toy or board game commercial while flipping past Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon, I stop and enjoy this blast from the past. I'll end here with a few links to classic commercials from back in the day:

Skip-It
Crocodile Mile
WWF Action Figures
He-Man Action Figures