So what happened first? Did I stop watching commercials because they were bad, or did commercials become bad because I stopped watching them? From mascot characters to catchy songs and even just odd slogans about how much a little lad likes berries and cream they were a nuisance sure. Though I’d take a catchy tune over the modern 15 second preroll ad you get slapped with on Twitch because your friends need you to validate their self worth by watching them struggle through some new game desperately looking for anything to comment on. Which is exactly what ads are nowadays online. TV ads are pretty average. Usually about boner pills, cars, and grocery stores. I did see a new Pikmin ad from Nintendo. That surprised me. It shouldn’t because Nintendo commercials used to be the best.
Though video games don’t need commercials anymore. We got trailers, digital store fronts, and YouTube reviews so you got options. Just what about that new soda? Does it hit you like a firehose of refreshment? Is it so damn good you’d fight all your friends for a 20oz? Guess we won’t know until you try it. Unlike Surge, we knew exactly what to expect.
Couches, action, sodas? Hey that’s the perfect set up to blow me away. Much like with soda brands, in advertising only the strong will survive. It used to be two and a half minute breaks a few times a show, but now it’s just in the show itself. So you happy? We came full circle. Just like Jack Benny or the Flintstones in the 50s every show now just works in their sponsors. Plugs and product placements taking up well over half the running time of each show. Seriously even anime has gotten into that gravy train and I doubt they are gonna disembark anytime soon. I mean then again anime has done it’s best to keep commercials alive and well still.
Oh but Goku and friends don’t just sling chicken in Japan. Oh no no, they managed to get into the most boring advertisements in America to keep them fun. That’s right car commercials.
I’m not talking about Super Bowl car commercials. Infact let’s just rule out all big game ads. Those are an event in and unto themselves. So what’s the point? Well honestly I guess just like how about those cereal commercials for new flavors? New juice drinks with a focus on snacking not vitamins? I see ’em still they got little toys in domes on them. Good 2 Grow I believe it’s called. Full disclosure I have some in my fridge but I am to lazy to check. Should would be nice to just have a commercial to throw out here like for these Kool-Aid juice boxes.
See these corporate mass produced soulless food like products are not going away. They all mostly taste the same too. We have no better options available to us, and now we don’t even have brand loyalty and fun commercials to make us even slightly enjoy them. I know I’d be more up to work out if they brought back the very best thing of all and put a counter on that ball. Which in this case is not just shilling out sugar water or more fast food. A decent tagline could sell anything. Which I can see why marketing needs limitations and strict guidelines for when and how they can market products. I assume a larger part to the modern dip in commercial quality is they found green pastures using some loophole to trick us into buying something we would otherwise not even bothered with. Plus who watches live TV anyway right? Well as the embedded videos above prove, you can watch them anywhere on your phone. That should be an advertising gold mine. In fact here, have a current commercial that is worth a watch instead of some decade old nostalgia filled advertisement.
That cowboy cat commercial got 5.6 million views in 6 months. I’m sure it more than made it’s money back in sales, I mean I tried it out. So okay look I know it’s sounding incredibly pro capitalist around here right now. So let me cut to my secret agenda. Commercials are my comfort food. I can spend a full day watching the very things I used to do everything in my power to skip. They can remind me about when I was kid. How the world was and how things have changed. Well the world will keep on changing. The kids of today will become the nostalgic middle aged adults of tomorrow. How will they get their nostalgia trips? Shows are timeless, and rarely adequately capture the times they are from. Not in the same way as advertisments do. Websites just update or get deleted. The internet of 2000s is mostly lost already. I haven’t seen much in the way of toy lines that could be the next GI Joe or Ghostbusters. Largely because we still sell the same toy lines. Candy bars come and go without a single ad to show it ever existed. Many fast food items will only be remembered as long as the food YouTuber doesn’t delete their channel. Is it a big deal? Not really. It is however a part of our culture. It’s who we were. So if we aren’t making these accidental time capsules for the future. We will just forget the little things that for a brief moment were a part of our lives.
Remember the Lego Powerpuff Girls? No? It was just back in 2019. No commercials or print ads that I can recall. Same year we lost the Taco Bell Beefy Mini Quesadilla. Ultimately it might not seem like a big deal to us now, but just think how you’d feel if no one remembered the Ninja Turtles Pudding Pies, or when eventually the gumball eyed ice cream bars go away forever. The death of commercials feels like we might just be losing a part of our shared history. So maybe take some time to appreciate the things you enjoy today. Even better to point out the things you don’t understand. Document it somewhere, in someway, for yourself and for everyone else who will be looking back on the 2010s a few years from now trying to remember the little things they took for granted.
It’s why I do my best to pick up the little odds and ends that I find to toss onto here. To try them, share the experience with you, and in some way tell people there was a time when Smuckers made nasty meat pockets. So if that’s something that interests you and you want to help suggest products and shows to look into join our Discord server. Then if you are in a position to help us grow and want your voice directly heard about what you want to see here then perhaps consider joining our Patreon. If not, well we love you anyways.
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