Showing posts with label Advertising. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Advertising. Show all posts

Thursday, May 3, 2018

ARE MR. A-G & CHEEKY CHARLIE THE FOUR SQUARE MAN RELATED?




Hi, this is Jeff, Dedinova's nice "twin brother"! I mentioned on the podcast that I was doing research on a novel that will take place in the Spring of 1966. While looking through the old Springfield Daily News issues on microfilm at the Springfield-Greene County Library Center, I discovered an advertising character called Mr. AG (pictured above). I've been told A-G stands for Associate Grocery, which I believe is now known as Associate Wholesale Grocery.


After seeing this character, I tried to find pictures of him on the Internet, but couldn't remember the company name. I really thought it was Mr. A-P (A & P was in Springfield in 1966). I decided to Google a description of the character. Something like "grocery store - cartoon - advertising - big ears - pencil behind ear."


Low and behold, Google gave me pictures of a doppelganger known as Cheeky Charlie the Four Square Man (above). He has been used by the Four Square Supermarket chain of New Zealand since the 40s. As you notice, they look quite a bit alike. I wonder if they are cousins, clones or was Mr. A-G a rip off that disappeared after a lawsuit from the New Zealanders. Who knows.    

Sunday, August 13, 2017

GLEN CAMPBELL & HIS PARENTS IN A SOUTHWESTERN BELL COMMERCIAL


Southwestern Bell had an ad campaign featuring celebrities from each state they served. A parent or relative would say they called the celebrity long distance. Glen Campbell and his parents represented Arkansas (BTW: As a monster kid, I still think it is cool that Missouri was represented by Vincent Price and his niece).

It is amazing that I haven't seen this commercial in years, yet remember it word for word. NOTE: This cuts off abruptly.



Sunday, September 4, 2016

CANNED HAMBURGERS FOR LABOR DAY!

Nothing says Labor Day like canned hamburger. I hope this is one of those fake ads, but I'm old enough to remember canned bacon and ham.

Monday, August 29, 2016

GENE WILDER'S COMMERCIAL VOICEOVERS


Before Gene Wilder became a famous face in movies he lent his voice to voiceovers for commercials.
Here are some samples.







In this Tootsie Roll ad, Wilder appears on screen and in drag.



And, of course, we can't forget Wilder as the voice of Letterman on the Electric Company.

 

Friday, July 15, 2016

FIVE ADVERTISING CHARACTERS THAT MADE COMEBACKS


Recently, Dos Equis Beer announced that it was retiring the popular character in their commercials known as "The Most Exciting Man In the World." The character, played by actor Johnathan Silverman, became popular outside the advertising world as well, inspiring Internet memes and T-shirts. Just because he took off into space in the last commercial doesn't mean he wont be back. Several famous advertising character have come back over the years, some in different forms.


COLONEL SANDERS - Colonel Harlan Sanders (above) was a real person, who appeared in commercials and even cameo appearances in movies promoting Kentucky Fried Chicken. He died in 1980. In the 1990's, KFC (as they were calling themselves) used a cartoon version of the Colonel, voiced by Richard Paul, from the short-lived 70s sitcom, Carter Country, and the movie, People VS Larry Flynt. When Paul died, the cartoon Colonel disappeared. Recently a new series of commercials featuring featuring a rotating comedians (Darrell Hammond, Norm McDonald and Jim Gaffigan) portraying the Colonel have been running on TV.


MR. CLEAN - Mr. Clean was first introduced in animated form with his catching jingle. In the mid 60s, he appeared in the persona of a live person interacting with people. Two actors, House Peters and Mark Dana (above), are credited with playing him. He returned to animated form and some recent ads have shown him in his formative years as a baby and small boy (bottom photo).



THE MARVELOUS MAGICAL BURGER KING - In the late 70s, Burger King introduced a live action character called to compete with Ronald McDonald and the McDonaldland characters. They created a dashing, red headed, bearded, Tudor-era king, who could perform magic, played by actor Fred Barton. When the chains began adding playgrounds to their restaurants, they featured giant plastic sculptures of the Burger King. The company stopped using the character in the late 80s. In 2003, someone at the Crispin Porter + Bogusky ad agency came up with the idea of having someone wear one of the giant plastic Burger Kings (bottom photo) in a commercial. From 2003 to 2011 these ads ran. However, when the company switched agencies, the giant plastic Burger King was dropped because "mother said it frightened their children. WHATEVER!


MAN FROM GLAD - I've mentioned it before that one of my favorite TV shows is The Man From U.N.C.L.E. During the initial run of the series, Glad came up with the Man from Glad, a white haired and white suited hero, who arrived in fantastic vehicle with a blaring siren ("Calling the Man from Glad! Calling the Man from Glad!") and jazzy music, to save housewives with various Glad products. The character was never player by the same actor (not sure who the actor in the photo is). The producers of the Man from UNCLE even poked fun at the character in an episode called "The Prince of Darkness Affair" (released to movie theaters as The Helicopter Spies) featuring a cult of killers with white hair. The character was retired after the Man From UNCLE was cancelled. In the 70s, Glad briefly brought the character back with comedian Dick Shawn playing him as a klutz. I was surprised to find in my research that the Man from Glad came back a few years ago in a series of ads that appeared on daytime TV. Still with white hair and white suit, he was now a soft spoken fellow giving cooking tips using Glad products. From campy secret agent-superhero parody to Food Network host wannabe.

     
THE QANTAS KOALA - This was one of my favorite character from my childhood and they ruined him. Beginning in the mid 60s, Qantas ran commercials featuring a real koala watching Qantas planes land bringing tourist to Australia. The koala would explain how a these people were taking advantage of the bargain prices of Qantas flights to Australia. Then he would whine about tourist taking photos of him and staring at him. He would whimper "I hate Qantas" and use the phrase "un-bear-able." The voice of the koala belonged to actor Howard Morris, who not only was the voice of several cartoon characters, but appeared in several Mel brooks films and had the recurring role of Ernest T. Bass on The Andy Griffith Show. One from of the commercials of the 70s shows the koala in a huge Qantas plane with a buffet and cocktail lounge in the back! I found some recent ads. The new ads feature an anima-tronic koala with a Australian accent. He also has a different attitude. He is now a brownnoser for Qantas. He brags about how wonderful the flights are with adjustable seats, snacks and headphones, yet he and the other passengers seemed to be crammed in like sardines. In one spot, he seems to be sitting on a sleeping woman's chest. I'm not sure if these new commercials are to be ironic humor based on the sad state of air travel or the company just doesn't get it. Before they brought back the koala, Qantas commercials featured a loud, drunken, redneck character. Now I really do hate Qantas.

So don't count the Most Interesting Man out, because a good pitchman may come back.





Thursday, December 24, 2015

CHRISTMAS CAROL GIVEAWAY BOOK FROM THE 50S

This a book of Christmas carol that was given away for free by businesses in the 50s. This one is from Wickham Gardens in Springfield, Missouri. I obtained it at a garage sale this summer. These are mostly  familiar religious Christmas songs with three older secular Christmas songs.  Each song features a history of the song at the bottom of the page.




Two songs I am unfamiliar with, one is sacred, entitled "Angels From the Realms of Glory," and the other is called "The Boar's Head Carol."

 





Tuesday, December 8, 2015

1982 Christmas TV Commercials




Here are some TV commercials compiled on YouTube from Christmas time 1982. Not all are Christmas related. The nice thing is that you can watch them here with out seeing any of the comments from those scummy war-on-Christmas trolls, who think the United States is going to Hell in a handbag.

Sunday, March 8, 2015

IS MR. SPOCK THE GREATEST TV CHARACTER EVER?


What was it about Mr. Spock that captured the hearts and imagination of millions around the world? I'm not sure you would call him cool. He wasn't the streetwise kind of cool like the Fonz or Vinnie Barbarino, nor was he that slick, charming kind of cool like Napoleon Solo, but he was cool in a way that was different. He was smart and philosophical than everyone else on the Enterprise, so you might say that made him a nerd or a nerd's ideal. Let's face it, there were a lot of other things that made Mr. Spock popular. Even though he exist in an idealized future, his life, like ours, isn't perfect.

Yes, he was smart, had superhuman strength (which he rarely used), mind reading abilities, a self-defense technique that renders people unconscious, and didn't have emotions to weigh him down, but he wasn't good looking with those bangs, greenish complexion,  the windshield-wiper eyebrows and, of course, the pointed ears. He was the hero for those who weren't good looking. Mr. Spock was the epitome of the person who stood out in a crowd.

You might say, Mr. Spock didn't fit in with his other crew mates. He was in the shadow of the dashing, heroic and good looking Captain Kirk, who you might say was sort of the jock to Mr. Spock's nerd. If Spock was a nerd, you can continue using junior high and middle school archetypes by pointing out that McCoy was the redneck who was always picking on people. He constantly harassed Spock about his green blood.

Add to this another thing about the Mr. Spock character he was multiracial. We found out during the course of the show that Mr. Spock was the child of a Vulcan father and an Earthling mother. Since he wasn't full blooded of either kind, he also didn't fit in with other children on the planet Vulcan, as was shown in the animated series.

This week in 1967, NBC aired one of the first episodes to give us an insight into Mr. Spock, "This Side of Paradise." Granted, they were tidbits thrown out through dialog in a story in which Spock is reunited with a beautiful female colleague named Leila (played by Jill Ireland, who looks like my old flame, Eunice Moneymaker), who had a major crush on him. Spock, of course, paid no attention to her because love is "a human emotion."

The landing party is supposed to evacuate the people on this communal planet, due to a radiation contamination, however, they don't want to go because they are "happy" and "healthy." It turns they are under the influence of strange plants that spray spores causing a euphoria. When Mr. Spock is sprayed with by one of the plants (which looks like a plant called caster beans that my Grandpa Jones planted around his garden to keep moles out), he not only notices how beautiful Leila is, but also notices clouds and rainbows. "Before today, I could tell you how they form in the sky, but until now I never noticed how beautiful they look." He is very close to singing "Both Sides Now."  Mr. Spock also begins defying Captain Kirk's orders and climbing trees.

Besides seeing that Mr. Spock is awkward at love, we find out in this episode about his parents, and he has super strength. Captain Kirk finds that the spores are counteracted by anger. He brings Mr. Spock back to normal by angering him to the point of violence with some rather vicious insults about his looks (Mystery Science Theater 3000 opened one show with a parody of this episode). This and "Amok Time" are the quintessential Spock episodes.

Almost as soon as Star Trek debuted, Mr. Spock became a fascination with people. 93 KHJ Boss radio in Los Angeles ran a Star Trek contest, where the winner got to meet Leonard Nimoy on the set of Star Trek (See the above KHJ Boss 30 Countdown flyer). Cheer Laundry Detergent altered a future man character (played by Robert Rodan, who played Adam on Dark Shadows) to look like Mr. Spock.

 


I noticed on many comments on retro blogs, social and news media websites after the death of Leonard Nimoy that many people said they had a Mr. Spock toy, t-shirt, pajamas, or Halloween costume. Matter of fact, when I was six years old, I was Mr. Spock for Halloween. I made the costume, although none of the stores in Lebanon or Springfield sold the pointed ears, so I had to make due with some "giant" plastic ears. I also had a pair of tube socks with Mr. Spock's picture on them.


I even had this Star Trek coloring book with Mr. Spock wearing a red shirt on the cover. Don't worry, he survived the coloring book.

I think kids gravitated toward Mr. Spock over the other characters because he was the different one. They could be a Captain Kirk or a Dr. McCoy, but Mr. Spock was something they couldn't be...a highly intelligent being from another planet, who was one of the good guys.

Mr. Spock is probably the most complex characters ever created for TV. While he prides himself on being emotionless, he is far from being one-dimensional and boring. Bravo ranked him 21st on their list of 100 Greatest TV characters ever and TV Guide ranked him sixth on their list of 50 greatest TV characters. Personally, Mr. Spock is the greatest TV character ever. Live long and prosper.   


 






Friday, December 12, 2014

A CHEESY GIVEAWAY XMAS LP IPOD PLAYLIST (Compliments of your local Desdinova blogger)

It is one of those retro pop culture artifacts that is pretty much worthless, except for extreme collectors. Not that there aren't those who collect them, but they are not a high value item. They are complimentary, premium or free giveaway Christmas music compilation LPs.

Sometime in the early 60s, a record company marketing consultant thought up the idea of having a "sampler" of his companies Christmas LPs given away by a major retail chain. The only one interested was Goodyear Tire dealers. If you got your tires rotated or bought a new set of tires, you got a free Christmas LP. Even if you did buy tires, you could buy the LP at a modest price (usually a dollar). It was an immediate success. Naturally, Goodyear's competitor, Firestone, decided they had to do the same thing. By the end of the decade, the complimentary, premium or giveaway Christmas LP was everywhere, from banks, insurance companies, restaurants, pharmacies, supermarkets, department and hardware stores.

However, the premium Christmas LP died out by the mid 70s. Christmas LPs fell out of vogue and premium LPs were hurt by the rising price of records in general. The Christmas premium compilations came back in the form of CDs and as recording artist began recording Christmas albums again. Granted, unlike the original LP of the 60s, the CDs were rarely free but were cheaper than most new CDs (usually $4).

Looking at the performers featured on these LPs, it becomes clear that they were aimed an older audience. These LPs are a who's who of MOR/easy listening radio artist of the 60s and early 70s. Always included was about two or three classical/opera artist or large choirs doing a sacred Christmas carols. Although the LPs of the 70s interspersed the MOR performers with country music stars and a few bubble-gum teen idols, they were mainly MOR artist on these LPs.

Another thing that bugged me as a child, was how these LPs never featured that version of the song that you heard on the radio or TV. Part of this was due to the fact that one record label was contracted to produce these LPs. In those days, the record labels were all different companies, not owned by one or two big conglomerates. The kids who have grown up with the NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL CHRISTMAS CDs will never know the frustration of your parents owning a Christmas LP with Hank Locklin or Sandler & Young singing "Rudolph the Red Nose Raindeer" instead of Gene Autry or Burl Ives.

Even stranger was when an artist known for a particular Christmas song was one the LP, but not singing THAT song they were famous for. A perfect example of this is Bing Crosby. He would appear on these LPs, but NOT singing "White Christmas." Maybe Tony Bennett or Andy Williams would sing that, but not Bing. Speaking of Andy Williams, he won't be singing "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" on these, but Robert Goulet or Jim Nabors might. Sometimes the liner notes (if there were any) would try to smooth things over with a comment like "Millions have fallen in love with "The Christmas Shoes" by NewSong. On this LP, we have included a version by Ted Nugent."

Some artist were staples of these LPs: The Three Suns, Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme, The Ray Conniff Singers, the Robert Shaw Corale, the Hollyridge Strings, Robert Goulet, Jerry Vale, Kate Smith, Mitch Miller, Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, John Gary, Norman Luboff Choir, Andre Kostelanetz and Tennessee Ernie Ford. 

According to friends who are record collectors, these LPs are not worth anything except for sentimental value on the record collecting market. The reason is they were inexpensive and abundant and only played one time a year. Also most of the songs have been reissued on CD. According to some websites there is a cult of collectors and fans of these Christmas LPs.

So, I have decided to give you an Ipod playlist in the style of the old premium/giveaway Christmas LPs. This is compliments of your local Desdinova blogger. Merry Christmas from all of us and thank you for your patronage. 

 
We Wish You A Merry Christmas-André Kostelanetz & His Orchestra
Silver Bells-Andy Williams
Winter Wonderland-Bert Kaempfert and His Orchestra
Frosty The Snowman-Billy Idol
Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree-Brenda Lee
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer-Dean Martin
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas-Doris Day
Sleigh Ride-Ferrante & Teicher
White Christmas-Frank Sinatra With The Bobby Tucker Singers
The Little Drummer Boy-Harry Simeone Chorale
Jingle Bells-The Hollyridge Strings
Blue Christmas-Jerry Vale
Joy to the World-Jim Nabors
Get Lost Jack Frost-The John Barry Seven
It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas-Johnny Mathis
Do You Hear What I Hear-Kate Smith
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing-The Lennon Sisters
The Christmas Song-Linda Ronstadt
O Come All Ye Faithful-Luther Vandross
O Holy Night-Mahalia Jackson
Here Comes Santa Claus-The Mills Brothers
Hooray For Santa Claus-Milton Delugg Orchestra
Deck The Halls-Mitch Miller & The Gang
What Child Is This-The Moody Blues
The Christmas Waltz-Nancy Wilson
All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)-Nat King Cole
The Twelve Days Of Christmas-The Norman Luboff Choir
Happy Holiday-Peggy Lee
We Need a Little Christmas-Percy Faith
The First Noel-Plácido Domingo & Vienna Symphony Orchestra
Christmas Trumpets-Ray Anthony
Here We Come A-Caroling-Ray Conniff Singers
Medley - Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow / Count Your Blessings / We Wish You A Merry Christmas-Ray Conniff Singers
Christmas Day-Robert Goulet
Away In A Manger-The Starlight Orchestra & Singers
Carol Of The Bells-The Starlight Orchestra & Singers
Santa Claus Is Coming To Town-Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme
Silent Night-The Temptations
O' Tannenbaum (Christmas Tree)-The Three Suns
My Favorite Things-Tony Bennett
I'll Be Home For Christmas-Tony Bennett & The Count Basie Big Band
Jingle Bell Rock-Wayne Newton
      

Friday, June 6, 2014

WHY IS IT NO LONGER OK TO BE OK?

I don't like to do the whole "why-can't-things-be-like-they-used-to-be" shtick, because when dig deep most of the stuff people are longing for is still with us or a collective fantasy memory spread by talk radio show host, televangelist or bad Facebook memes. However, when I speak of something that has changed for the worst, I tend to pick something that really needs to be addressed that nobody else is even talking about. When did we turn being "OK" or "okay" into a bad thing?

When I was growing up "OK" or "okay" meant good or great. Chevrolet dealers used the term OK for its used lots (the sign is pictured above) and a popular self-help book was entitled "I'm OK, You're OK." This old laxative commercial from the 60s used "OK" as something positive.

At some point, within the past few years, "OK/okay" has become a dirty word with the service industry. Servers in restaurants, tellers in banks and salespeople in grocery and department stores seem to be offended if  when they ask "How are you doing?" you answer "OK/okay." They want to force you to upgrade your mood or condition. This seems to happen more with large national chains. The worst offender is Chilis. I love the food and the service - except when they scold you for saying the food or my life at the moment is "Just okay?!?!"  I'm sorry, when I say "OK/okay," it means "great," "terrific" or "wonderful." It is not an insult. Target is also bad about doing this.

The stupidity of this was driven home to me a few nights ago. I went to Hy-Vee to buy my groceries. As I was walking in, a Hy-Vee employee was walking out to the parking lot.

"How are you tonight, sir?" he said.

"OK," I answered, because I was feeling good and content with life at that moment.

"JUST OK?!?!" he snapped.

What did this little dweeb want me to say? "OMG! I AM MARVELOUS! I AM IN ECSTASY! I AM ABOUT TO PEE MY PANTS IN EXCITEMENT BECAUSE I'M GOING IN TO HY-VEE TO BUY STUFF TO EAT!!!" or would he want me to say, "To tell you the truth, my life is Hell. My wife left me, I have terminal cancer and I was just fired from my job. Thanks for wanting me to fake joy." Since this is a pet peeve of mine, I snapped back, "Yes, just okay!"

Later, I'm in the check-out line when this employee walks up with a grey-haired lady and two cucumbers (or two zucchini, not really sure) and says to the guy checking me out, "We are going to have to give these to that lady for the lower price because blah, blah, blah. Now I have to go back out to clean up that mess in the parking lot because blah, blah, blah."

I pay and take my grocery bags to my car. The guy walks past me on his way back into the store and he says to me, "I hope your life improves before you come back to our store." WTF?!?! Apparently, my typical easy-going nonchalant attitude upset Grumpy Gus, who was about to have a meltdown over a messy parking lot and the price of produce, so he was going to punish me for not being happier than he was. If he was in such a fowl mood, would he want me to come in to Hy-Vee dancing and singing like the guy in the pink suit at the end of Groove Tube?

In the 70s, the trend in customer service was to say "Have a nice day." It became so associated with that decade that Rhino records in the 90s released a compilation of kitschy singles from the 70s entitled "Have a Nice Day." As time wore on, a common complaint became that when a supermarket checker, fast-food worker or bank teller said to a customer, "Have a nice day" they may not know the circumstances of the customer's life at that moment: such as saying the phrase to a person who just lost a spouse. That could defiantly be said for saying "Just OK?!?!" to a customer. It is kind of like the employee is secretly saying, "I don't care if your child has leukemia or you had to file for bankruptcy, the corporate office demands that I force you to be overly happy! So help me, Pharrell Williams!" At least, "have a nice day" sounded pleasant. Asking "just OK?!?!" has a rude arrogance to it.

Think of it this way, you are happy when a doctor or EMT says you or a loved one is "OK/okay," so why should a business expect a customer to be more than "OK/okay."

Of course, my opinions are why I am considered the Super Villain of the Ozarks!!! Mwu-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! 


Thursday, May 22, 2014

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE QUICK CUT MONTAGE EDITS ON TV?

The problem with doing a retro blog is finding out that something you think is a thing of the past is still very much with us in another form or making a comeback among young hipsters.

Not long back, I began thinking about quick cut or jump cut montage editing. It was everywhere in from the mid-60s to the early 80s. Commercials, children's shows, sitcoms, action shows, news documentaries, even the opening to local news cast would feature, at some point, a jumble of images thrown at you at high speed. Many of these quick cut montages featured juxtaposed images, i.e: field of flowers, puppies in a basket, a chubby baby, beautiful girl in a bikini, Superman, Mickey Mouse, American flag, a car wreck, atomic test, skull and a cemetery.

I'm guessing the first major use of this in TV was the opening credits of Mission: Impossible. Here is a link to a compilation on YouTube of the opening credits of season three. Another show that used this editing method was the opening credits to The Monkees second season (This is the version that appeared in reruns). The Monkees show used this effect frequently during the musical segments.

I'm not sure the whole story behind how The Smothers Brothers found Chuck Braverman, but Braverman created two films show using quick cut montage editing that they presented on their variety show. The first one was "American Time Capsule (American History in Under 3 Minutes)."




There was a positive response so it was shown again and Braverman created a review of 1968, set to the drum solo from "In a Gadda Da Vida." Braverman went on to use the same editing style for the opening to the movie Soylent Green.

Another film maker name Dan McLaughlin made a film featuring classical art pieces set to Beethoven's 5th Symphony. The Smothers Brothers ask McLaughlin into allowing them to replace the Beethoven with a musical composition by a writer on the show, Mason Williams. The instrumental was "Classical Gas."

   


Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In used quick jump cut edits so much that the editor of the show, Arthur Schnieder, won an Emmy in 1968. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any stand alone clips of how it was used on the show, but you can find full episodes of Laugh-In on YouTube.


Sesame Street used quick jump cut edits as well, which is no surprise when you find out that Jim Henson made several experimental films before Sesame Street. Most of these featured scores by Big-Band-leader-turned-electronic-music-pioneer Raymond Scott. One was "Limbo," which features a face, made of string, talking about organizing his thoughts and he takes us on a tour of his mind. Henson was the voice of the character and later used the string face on Sesame Street. He later used the concept in a commercial for Bufferin.

   


Henson and Scott also made a promotional film for IBM called "Paperwork Explosion," which features fast paced jump cut edits layered over actors dialog.



And finally, when it comes great montage edits, one has to look at the work of Jack Cole, who was resposible for many of the great opening credits of shows produced by Universal Television in the late 60s and early 70s. I've already mentioned on this blog my love for the opening to the show The Name of the Game. That was one of Jack Cole's masterpieces.  However, his crowning achievement is the opening to The Six Million Dollar Man, which Cole says contains five layers of images, including EKG machines, computers, clocks, radar screens and footage of a NASA test pilot's crash.



Another great opening sequence that features this type of editing is Hawaii 5-O. I had to mention this because it sort of proves what I said in the first paragraph. The current version of Hawaii 5-O mixes some of the same images from the original series in what is know as hip-hop montage, which instead of juxtaposition of different images, uses slightly different versions of the same image to produces an altered version of time. This was used extensively in the film Requiem for a Dream.

In doing research on YouTube for this post, I found that I had forgotten what might be the last hurrah of this style of editing on TV: CSI. Here is a compilation of the various opening credits through out the years.

So why is this type of editing not as prevalent on TV now as it was in the 60s and 70s. After all, we have the technology to do this on a lap top or smart phone. You can find examples of student projects doing this on YouTube, why not on TV.

More than likely part of this has to do with the disappearance of opening credit sequences on TV shows. This type of editing is also considered a product of its time and out of date. Too flashy and too exciting for our post-911 "Chicken Fired" nation.    

Some claim that this type of editing causes seizures and strokes in some people. I personally feel this is some of that tinfoil-hat mentality. As a person who knows the joys of video and film editing, all I can say is I do care if it does cause seizures and strokes in some people, I just want to edit together something that looks cool.

There is always a chance that this could come back to the point we would be sick of it, but thin again I doubt we got sick of it the first time. 

 


Saturday, December 28, 2013

KGBX AM COMMERCIAL FROM 1983


This is a commercial for Springfield, Missouri radio station KGBX from 1983. At that time the radio station was on AM. They are now at 105.9 FM. I remembered this commercial after watching it again for one single image: the baby with headphones on and James Taylor's "Your Smiling Face" playing in the background. The only thing that could have made this commercial more exciting would have been Deborah Shelton.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Barbara Eden 1973 Christmas Seals TV Commercial


This PSA features the psychedelic American Lung Association logo of the 70s. When I was small, I found if you drug a pencil or pen over the grate over our fireplace that it made the same sound as the American Lung Association logo.

James Coburn Christmas Seals Advert (1968)



Derek Flint with a beard. You can still buy Christmas seals from the American Lung Association. Here is the Website. It is too late to buy them for 2013, but you can get them for next year.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...