[Electronics-Talk] retromercials

[Sandra Streeter]

To an OT response from Vince, my answer—to keep the conversation going:

I couldn’t tell whether you shared your faves with the group, but you should! And if this “reply all” doesn’t go out to the entire group, I’ll make sure I send my answer to them, as well. I’m going to return to this paragraph after I finish, once I’ve had time to think of some of my faves. Really glad for the on-list response that sent me another link to try. Okay, let’s see: there was the one for the American Lung Assn., “it’s a matter of life... and breath,” with the ascending melodic line between and after the two phrases; one for legal blindness that was highly visual (don’t you love that) with three little tones, several times; a cystic fibrosis commercial that started with a kid coughing and saying,  “I’m Mike. Everybody has a problem. My problem is CF”, and another introducing Tracy, and in a watery voice typical of severe CF saying, “But we need help”; there was a radio spot for MS where it was described as “the mysterious crippler of young adults”; I also liked the fairly recent one about computer viruses that warned you to watch out for them so that “your computer can play with other computers”; I liked the Windex commercial that was a take on the Fifth Dimension’s “Let the Sun Shine,” and the Pledge one based on the Peter, Paul and Mary song, “Lemon Tree,” and the cough med commercial with the mother acting like a doctor with her waiting line of children, going, “Ne-e-ext?” Then there was the old aspirin commercial (I forget for which product) that used to run during “One Life to Live,” which talked about someone having a fever, and in the background at some point were these violins on tremalo, aptly capturing the headachy, tremulous feel you get when you have a fever; I also used to like the ones for KMart with Chrissy and her brother; and the Kraft Mac and Cheese ones with Annie and her brother; and what about the ones for a phone company with Melissa, her brother and a rather ornery father—I distinctly remember him yelling, ‘GUAM”, during one of them, to a snide question from one of the teenagers. And many more. I’m going to copy-paste this into a group message, in case it doesn’t go out, but this is really fun, and I hope this exchange goes on for a while...

The Indian-war-whoop one was shown late evenings (say, around 10:00) on the CBS and/or ABC affiliates in Hartford (WTIC) or New Haven (I BELIEVE, WNHC) respectively. As I said before, I have no recollection of what it marketed, but as an older person no longer scared by it (I’ll probably start a bit if I do find a source and hear it, just because it would re-start that old reflex from when I was a kid), I still want to see it.

Oh, what about the cerebral palsy one with just a repeated melody (I can’t account for the visuals, obviously)? I think folks were more into PSA’s about various medical issues then more than now.

So, thanks!




Sandra
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Little Prince 


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