Advert Advent 2023

[3 Colours Red]

After trying something like this last year, I hope I've learnt from that and just gone with what seemed to work best - the ads.

I'm gonna stick with an "on this day" format wherever possible, so here's the 1st December, 1990. Granada viewers were "treated" to traffic wardens, twins, tunnels and a total tosspot:

[Simon G]

Fantastic 3CR - I loved your efforts last year

[3 Colours Red]

Thanks for the appreciation.

It's the 2nd December 1985, it's Border, it's a break in The Bill.

Life is a minestrone, served up with cheap smellies and a rambunctious dog:

[San Bernardhinault]

I can't imagine what cheap perfume of the 80s in Britain that "smells of France" actually smelled like. I'd wager it was something close to chemical warfare when someone drenched in it walked past.

[Sporting]

Heavy perfume lingers annoyingly in lifts.

[caja-dglh]

Heavy perfume lingers annoyingly in lifts.

You mistyped stairwells.

[Hot Pepsi]

I’m not sure i get the premise.

[3 Colours Red]

I thought I explained it pretty well myself - I'm pretty sure you lot have Advent calendars that side of the Atlantic.

Here's some USian commercials then. 1992. Hedgehogs, Hershey's, harps, Home Alone 2 and HADOUKEN!:

[3 Colours Red]

HTV West viewers in 1982 had to put up with this. Let's just say that not all tennis players are as natural in front of the camera as Sue Barker:

[Jah Womble]

Jesus, just how unnecessarily long was that True Grit trailer?

[3 Colours Red]

I'm wondering why they added that piss filter as well.

[Jah Womble]

'Piss Filter' has to be a US hardcore band.

[3 Colours Red]

5/12/1987 - Londoners are probably getting that Subbuteo chant stuck in their heads for the rest of time, and who's giving Jerome a recording contract on this evidence? Especially as Michael Ball is right there!

[Hot Pepsi]

I thought I explained it pretty well myself - I'm pretty sure you lot have Advent calendars that side of the Atlantic.

Here's some USian commercials then. 1992. Hedgehogs, Hershey's, harps, Home Alone 2 and HADOUKEN!:

I get it now.

How did you find ads from a specific day?

[ursus arctos]

The YouTubers who upload old UK adverts seem to be more rigorous in including dates and networks in their titles than their US equivalents

[Jah Womble]

I swear that's Mike Flowers singing the sub-Bing 'partridge in a pear tree' refrain in the Heineken ad.

[Hot Pepsi]

The YouTubers who upload old UK adverts seem to be more rigorous in including dates and networks in their titles than their US equivalents

I found some that at least had the right week.

I would think that our technology could do more to get rid of the background hiss on all of these videos, but I guess I should be grateful that somebody preserved these old tapes as well as they did. VHS usually degrades over time.

This one includes an ad for the 84 Plymouth Horizon. I think ours was an 82, but it was very similar.

$5 for an album in 1983 is the same as about $15 today. I know we're all sentimental for albums and cassettes, but that was not good value.

But the business model for home video back then was absolutely bonkers. The VHS for Risky Business was $40!! How badly did anyone want to see Risky Business?

[3 Colours Red]

To 1997 we go, and Channel 4 want you to get out your 90s cliche bingo card.

Beige PCs? Check.
XTREME sports? Check.
New age music AND trip-hop? Check.
60s nostalgia? Check.

[Hot Pepsi]

Is PC World still in business?

BTW, I advise against ever reading the comments under these kinds of videos. It's just sad. All of these people who genuinely think the past was so much better - peaceful, simple, civilized.

[Simon G]

It's merged with Curry's these days, so it's now Curry's/PC World.

[3 Colours Red]

BTW, I advise against ever reading the comments under these kinds of videos.

I mean... that's pretty much true of YouTube in general.

[Hot Pepsi]

It's merged with Curry's these days, so it's now Curry's/PC World.

That's worse.

Was Channel 4 showing soft-core porn? That one ad indicated it might be.

[Hot Pepsi]

I mean... that's pretty much true of YouTube in general.

Yes, I know, and yet I can't help but look. The proverbial train crash.

But I find that particular genre of lament especially distressing because it's people my age doing it and it explains a lot about why people vote for Trump. "The world used to be better." No it didn't. It really didn't. Especially if you were not a white male.

[3 Colours Red]

The porn? No, that was very much a Channel 5 thing at that time (they'd started broadcasting in March of that year).

Channel 4 had never shied away from showing sexual content in its early years but it was always more the arty end, almost always foreign. It was probably a couple of years before this that their late-night schedules became a more eclectic mix.

[San Bernardhinault]

Oh! As a teenager I was always so excited when Channel 4 showed something with the red triangle in the corner, and I was almost always so disappointed