Today’s installment of YouTube Comment of the Week comes from a Halloween-themed ad for Toys R Us that ran for approximately 900 years. At the end of the commercial, you can see a little “(c) 1983” in the lower left-hand corner, but the tape from which this was digitized was made many years later, and the ad continued to be run each October for several years after that. It was an evergreen reminder of the season, like fake cobwebs on hedges, or dire warnings about evil strangers who might put staples in your candy.
We had no Toys R Us where I grew up, and yet would get ads like this on local TV out of The City, which of course made me extremely envious of relatives who lived within driving distance of one, or friends whose indulgent parents would drive to far, far away places like Paramus to go to one. I don’t know why I wanted to go there so badly, since I couldn’t have afforded to buy anything I wanted anyway. I do know that it was a horrible tease to see commercials for this wondrous fairy land on TV when the closest location was a good 40 miles away. Chuck E. Cheese did the same thing, those cruel bastards.
Today’s installment of YouTube Comment of the Week comes from a Dunkin’ Donuts ad from the mid 1980s. This ad featured Fred the Baker, as did pretty much all of their ads from this period through the early 2000s. Fred was the eternally harassed worker who would joylessly intone “Time to make the donuts.” Once upon a time, it was a TV catchphrase surpassed only the by the likes of “Where’s the Beef.”
For this video, I wrote this description:
This is a reference to ads from the same era, in which the same actor who played Fred the Baker portrayed Sam Breakstone, who was almost exactly the same character except that he made cream cheese and sour cream instead of donuts. Here’s an early example, although this ad in 1977 depicts him as far angrier than I remember. This seemingly innocent observation (I wouldn’t even call it a joke, really) led to this earnest, depressing comment:
For this installment of YouTube Comment of the Week, we turn once again to a McDonalds ad. As you may recall, McDonalds once had a slew of “McDonaldland” characters whose sole purpose was to sell their highly nutritious food to children. They introduced new pals for Ronald McDonald only slightly less often than The Masters of the Universe did.
Here’s an ad that debuted the character of Birdie, who I believe was associated with their extremely healthy breakfast options, followed by one pithy comment.
