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Commercials that were common then but are rare today.

I remember the American Tourister ad from the early 70s, but there was another ad I can't find. I think it was about wool, it looked like thread was being woven. I've looked for it but since I don't know the particulars I can't find the actual commercial. Anyone remember? And you'll never see any toy gun commercials anymore.
 
jake1004 said:
I remember the American Tourister ad from the early 70s, but there was another ad I can't find. I think it was about wool, it looked like thread was being woven. I've looked for it but since I don't know the particulars I can't find the actual commercial. Anyone remember? And you'll never see any toy gun commercials anymore.
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Toy gun ads would probably spook quite a few nowadays. Kinda like the ads we ran as recently as ten years ago for cities that would claim to be recession proof. The Great recession took care of that such as the one ad well actually an informercial we would air early on Sunday mornings about how anyone regardless of credit or even a lack of job can get a nice home in Las Vegas. I still remember that ad from about 2004 or so showing how wonderful the eastern panhandle of West Virginia is for anyone looking for a nice home and a high paying job and how the area never had a recession. The ad even showed 20 somethings drinking wine and smoking big expensive cigars while having a fancy dinner in downtown Martinsburg. One girl was shown with a Saks Fifth Avenue bag as if West Virginia would even have such a store. Ah that is not the Martinsburg, West Virginia that I can remember when I had lived there and unfortunately the recession did hit that region just as it did with just about every where else.
 
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hamster said:
Today I saw an ad for Dr. Pepper. OK I know soda can still advertise on TV but I have to admit it had been quite awhile since I have seen such an ad. Back in the day soda ads were everywhere. Come to think of it, it's been years since I have seen an ad for candy bars as well. A few years ago I have seen TV commercials here in Denver for those e-cigarettes. Now that the FDA is cracking down on e-cigs I haven't seen such an ad in a long time however I haven't heard that such ads are now banned.

Are there any other ads that you can remember that were all over the dial then but hard to find today ??
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Actually, sugar-based ads are quite common today, for candy, sugar snacks, sugar cereals, etc. Just check out Comedy Central, MTV, and most of the kid/teen channels. They are everywhere!
 
900 number commercials. Here are some on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=900+number+commercials

And from Wikipedia:

From the early 1980s through the early 1990s, it was common to see commercials promoting 1-900 numbers to children featuring such things as characters famous from Saturday morning cartoons to Santa Claus. Due to complaints from parent groups about kids not knowing the dangers and high cost of such calls, the FTC enacted new rules and such commercials ceased to air on television as of the mid-1990s.

Using 900 numbers for adult entertainment lines was a prevalent practice in the early years of the industry. This practice continues, along with the use of these numbers for things such as software technical support, banking access, and stock tips. Adult entertainment 900 numbers have been largely absent from AT&T and MCI since 1991. In 1992, the Supreme Court allowed a law passed by Congress that created a block on all 900 numbers that provided adult content, except for those consumers who requested access to a specific number in writing. The law killed the adult 900 number business, which moved over to 800 numbers, where billing had to be done by credit card. The industry still suffers from the stigma attached to the early days of the industry when adult entertainment lines were heavily advertised on late-night television commercials.

AT&T has confirmed that the Hulk Hogan Hotline was the most lucrative 900 line in the United States from 1991 through 1993. Other early leaders in amassing huge volumes of revenue were the New Kids on the Block and Dionne Warwick's Psychic Friends Network.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premium-rate_telephone_number#North_America
 
mvcg66b3r said:
900 number commercials. Here are some on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=900+number+commercials

And from Wikipedia:



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premium-rate_telephone_number#North_America
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Jim & Tammy Faye Bakker had such a 900 number in the days after they lost PTL. Actors such as Mickey Rooney and Gavin MacLeod ( TV's The Love Boat & Mary Tyler Moore Show and then Bakker supporter ) I can remember doing TV ads supporting the Bakkers promoting the number as the "truth" about the Bakkers, Jessica Haun and how they lost PTL. This was in the days when the tabloids were doing such stories about how Jim & Tammy's daughter was about to do a lesbian porno to raise money to pay for Jim's legal fees and how Tammy Faye was about to sell her clothes through JC Penney for the same reason. Anyway when the phone number was activated and open for business those calling that number hoping to hear the "truth" only to get Tammy Faye's chili recipe instead with Jim saying "..WOW TAM this is GOOD chili". Looking back I think both Rooney & MacLeod sued but dropped the case once Jim Bakker did get prison time.

Oh those 900 numbers is what got weatherman Bill Kamal fired from his job at Washington DC's WUSA channel 9 in 1993 just days before both DC & Baltimore was hit by a major snow storm. He was using WUSA's phone in the weather department to call up a 900 number to talk to other men about gay sex and making hook-ups. In those days that was a well an open secret in both radio & TV markets and beyond. I can recall hearing this in Harrisonburg, Virginia when I did radio there at the time. The website DCRTV had brought this up many years ago.
 
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I remember there were 30-minute infomercials back in the '70s, for Changing Times magazine (now Kiplinger's Personal Finance), with this guy named Doug Prager or something to that effect, who divulged money-saving tips in-between plugs for the magazine. Also, there were infomercials for the Shop Smith, an elaborate wood-working machine.

One radio station I worked at had old discs of Robert Hall jingles ("When the values go up, up, up... and the prices go down, down, down...") performed by various singers and groups, including Blood, Sweat & Tears.

And here's an article on "Linus":
http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/mark-kausler-on-ed-graham-jr-s-linus-the-lionhearted/
 
landtuna said:
I didn't do ciggies which are totally absent today but the ones that always cracked me up were the so-called "doctors" who advertised cigarettes in beautiful Christmas packaging. Even the Three Stooges knew in their 1930's shorts that ciggies were "coffin nails".
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Cigarettes we called "coffin nails" in the 19th Century. Of course, this was way before the link to cancer and premature death from smoking was established - that didn't really happen until the 1970s - but 19h century people weren't stupid, and they could see their smoking friends coughing, unable to breathe, and dying young. It's not rocket science, as they say.
 
landtuna said:
I didn't do ciggies which are totally absent today but the ones that always cracked me up were the so-called "doctors" who advertised cigarettes in beautiful Christmas packaging. Even the Three Stooges knew in their 1930's shorts that ciggies were "coffin nails".
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..and yet both Larry and Moe would continue to smoke all the way until their deaths in 1975. We have friends who run a vape shop ( e-cigarettes ). They were telling us today that they can no longer advertise their business on local Denver radio. Guess that is part of the FDA current crack down on e-smokes.
 
rnigma1 said:
I remember there were 30-minute infomercials back in the '70s, for Changing Times magazine (now Kiplinger's Personal Finance), with this guy named Doug Prager or something to that effect, who divulged money-saving tips in-between plugs for the magazine. Also, there were infomercials for the Shop Smith, an elaborate wood-working machine.

One radio station I worked at had old discs of Robert Hall jingles ("When the values go up, up, up... and the prices go down, down, down...") performed by various singers and groups, including Blood, Sweat & Tears.

And here's an article on "Linus":
http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/mark-kausler-on-ed-graham-jr-s-linus-the-lionhearted/
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The "other" Linus, one might call him today. Right, Mr. Schulz?

ixnay
 
Hamster: It is not banned for vape shops to advertise (yet), but the disclosure requirements are so great that it really isn't worth it.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
Hamster: It is not banned for vape shops to advertise (yet), but the disclosure requirements are so great that it really isn't worth it.
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I am sure you are right but since the FDA is also going after cigars and pipe tobacco I wouldn't be surprised if those upscale tobacco shops and cigar lounges down the road wouldn't be able to advertise on the air either.

I was thinking of this thread this afternoon when I went to a Petco for their grand re-opening. Even though both Petco and PetSmart still advertise on TV by walking around the store I had thought to myself one thing those stores do NOT mention is that they still sell live animals. The Petco I went to sold birds, fish, rats, mice, hamsters, guinea pigs, ferrets even tarantulas. I guess it could be a Peta thing or perhaps those stores want people to go to the local animal shelters to adopt instead. I don't know but I do remember seeing an ad for PetSmart about ten years ago showing a family going into a store only to come out with two guinea pigs. Come to think of it the last time I saw an ad on TV for a pet store that did mention that they sold live animals was for a store that sold pet snakes here in Denver about five years ago.
 
hamster said:
I am sure you are right but since the FDA is also going after cigars and pipe tobacco I wouldn't be surprised if those upscale tobacco shops and cigar lounges down the road wouldn't be able to advertise on the air either.

I was thinking of this thread this afternoon when I went to a Petco for their grand re-opening. Even though both Petco and PetSmart still advertise on TV by walking around the store I had thought to myself one thing those stores do NOT mention is that they still sell live animals. The Petco I went to sold birds, fish, rats, mice, hamsters, guinea pigs, ferrets even tarantulas. I guess it could be a Peta thing or perhaps those stores want people to go to the local animal shelters to adopt instead. I don't know but I do remember seeing an ad for PetSmart about ten years ago showing a family going into a store only to come out with two guinea pigs. Come to think of it the last time I saw an ad on TV for a pet store that did mention that they sold live animals was for a store that sold pet snakes here in Denver about five years ago.
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The Pet Smart In Jackson, TN has a monthly Adopt a Pet day for dogs and has a section for cats to adopt, and I'd guess they do that at other stores.
 
Most of the big chain pet stores here in the Phoenix metro area have stopped selling cats or dogs even though they still sell reptiles, fish and small birds. They also tend to sponsor weekend adopt-a-pet events in their entrance way. Lots of small independent pet stores also promote adoption and make their money by selling toys, food and services. Now if only we could legally toss those less-than-honest breeders and people who promote dog fighting off a tall cliff we'd be happy.

Our well-known sheriff, Joe Arpaio, has brought animal cruelty to the forefront in the last decade and if that is all he is ever known for it is worthwhile.
 
rnigma1 said:
One radio station I worked at had old discs of Robert Hall jingles ("When the values go up, up, up... and the prices go down, down, down...") performed by various singers and groups, including Blood, Sweat & Tears.
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There was a Robert Hall at 9th and Kerlin Streets in Chester, PA. It later became the site of a Church's Fried Chicken but as of June 2012 per GSV was home to a mom and pop seafood store. BTW I remember the Robert Hall jingle but never heard the BS&T version.

ixnay
 
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