This topic literally makes me smile. Big grin!
TOY COMMERCIALS and the Associated Cartoons and Products!!!
Like I have mentioned before. I am a 1980's Boy! TV Toy commercials were so impactful back then. Commercials now are barley noticed as compared to 1980's and even 1990's. Like today, these commercials were geared toward selling a product. Unlike today, back then our minds and eyes weren't swamped with media. So anytime you did see a commercial it was a fresher less congested intake.
As kids my brothers and I had an actual ritual on Saturday mornings that began the night before the cartoons began.
Please see the links:
We would take Nestle Quick
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ksnpz7Y6I4
We would stick it in the freezer the night before.
Waking up the next morning we would take them out and using a spoon over the next hour we would drill into it scooping out the frozen goodness.
While enjoying our treat we would watch:
BRACE YOURSELF FOR AWESOMENESS!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy3RTFFhSYs
While watching this awesome cartoon we would be bombarded with commercials directly connected to these cartoons.
TOY DESIGN WAS HUGE in the 80's
Cartoon characters and designs were based off of Toy Design instead of todays toy releases, which are in reverse.
Here are a strings of commercials while these cartoons were running.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gw1X6PY6dY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF86tnMlFV4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2TnxwSsfy4
There are tons more..
I picked this topic because at this time these shows and commercials influenced my life.
As an adult I became an actual GI JOE in the military, then police and paramedic firefighter.
Now I am going to design Transformers for Hasbro this Summer!
Go figure.
I was a 90s kid so I'll go ahead and throw my opinions in here. While shows were starting to influence toys, there were still plenty such as Beyblades that started as a toy then became a manga and eventually even a TV series. It's difficult for me to compare this entirely because well, I wasn't there in the 80's. So I'll comment on toys and toy commercials in the 90s. One thing that I certainly think of when I think 90s and earlier is stupidly dangerous toys. Giant metal lawn darts, snap bracelets, water rockets that exploded if they built up too much pressure from the hose if you didn't release them soon enough... Moon shoes, I had two friends that broke bones using those. I think the big push for change was that the responsibility for playing safe was put on the companies rather than the parents.
ReplyDeleteI was born in the 90’s, therefore I cannot fully understand how it was in the 80s. I spend most of my time watching cartoons and playing video games with friends, and for entertainment activities, I either play Beyblades or Yu-Gi-Oh with my classmates. I had never had much interest for TV commercials because every time they appear, I would look for something else to do until the program I was watching returns. The only commercials that have caught my attention were movie trailers, animal magazines called Zoobooks, and certain toy commercials, however, most of the time I still ignored them.
ReplyDeleteAs an advertising major I think studying commercials in a Media studies class is a fantastic idea! More than just toy commercials I think products in general offer an interesting look into culture and creativity when it comes to what "benefits" are being pushed in a product or service. For example, recently with advertising it has become more about focusing on brand loyalty through a brand's history and socio-economic stance. People don't just buy because they're told to, they want to know how it affects the world outside of their own personal bubble.
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