Classic Commercials DVD

[Tommy Gun]

Have any of you seen this?  Apparently it was released in January, but I just found it on a random shelf at Best Buy, so I bought it.  It has "200+ commercials -- 3 1/2 hours."  It's a double disc set, and it was only 10 bucks!  So I figured I'd check it out.  It had a picture of a Winston pack on the front, so that pretty much sealed the deal for me.

Some of the commercials are color, and some are black and white.  The quality is pretty poor, but not terrible most of the time.  Just expect it to look like a second generation VHS...because that's probably what it was from.  In fact, there's proof of this, because it's not edited perfectly.  When one commerical ends, sometimes you can see the beginning of a another commercial from a different category (the commercials are grouped into categories on the DVD, like "toys" or "cleaning products").

Some of the commercials that may be of interest:

Winston (with the jingle of course!)

S.O.S -- this is a clip from the Garry Moore Show! (I'm pretty sure, definitely not IGaS) It's this weird skit that they did singing, and then Garry joins in.  They're all wearing Viking outfits...very strange.

Bufferin

Miss Clairol

Lipton Soup -- this is a clip from "Talent Scouts" with Arthur Godfrey (I'm pretty sure).  It's quite funny, it's an on-air plug that he does, and he keeps talking about how there's barely any chicken in the soup ("it's in there, you may not see it, but it's there!").  It's one of the longest clips on the DVD.  He also talks about how "he knows the canned soup is closer to the entrance of the grocery store, but just walk to the back and get some Lipton one time, and I'm sure you'll love it" or something like that.  Man, how lazy were people back then?! They can't even walk to the back of the store....

There are plenty of other great commercials.  I especially love all the Crest commercials where the kids run up and say, "I only have ONE cavity!" as if it's a huge accomplishment.  Didn't people know how to brush back then?

Here it is on amazon, if you want to check it out.  You can probably find it cheaper elsewhere though:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...947853?v=glance

[DjohnsonCB]

I bought this a few months ago solely because someone e-mailed me to say that it contains the old 1968 "Johnny Smoke" anti-smoking PSA in color (one of my website sections has a page about the spot).  You're right--much of it comes from multi-generational prints and dubs, and some look really bad.  There are a couple of spots for Lava soap on this one that I HATED when they were shown on broadcast stations, as well as a number of others I could do without.  But it *does* contain the long version of a commercial for Ideal's Wrestle Around game that I previously got in a 30-second version in better quality on a tape from Ira Gallen's outfit, and a number of other surprises.

I put my *own* videotape collection of old spots (and a few cartoons) together from 16mm films I won on eBay (including promos for Spin-Off, Now You See It and The Joker's Wild), then had the whole thing transferred again to DVD, but this took about three years and was pricey as hell in the long run.  The quality of the films varies greatly, but it's a not-bad effort.

[Jimmy Owen]

So David, you finally did get that "Spin-Off" promo! Congratulations!