1. Betamax Salesman Training Video – You might look at something titled “Betamax Salesman Training Video” and think, snoozefest. You might be right! But not this time.
There’s a lot to love about this video – the fashion and set design of the era, the trumped-up abilities of the video tape recorder and, most of all, the smug salesman pitch that makes me happy I was never on a 1977 showroom floor.
The video encourages salesmen to roleplay their sales pitch to each other, and the tension that appears between the two example salesmen when figuring out who’s going to be the pitch-man is a little awkward and…romantic?
Here it is, every talking point of the beautiful Betamax console unit in 6 short minutes.
2. Perfectly Strange Saturday Morning Preview – Another Prime Time preview special for Saturday Morning cartoons, this time from ABC. These are just the wraparound bumpers for the actual cartoon previews; that fact combined with seeing Cousin Larry and Cousin Balki deliver their trademark quips without a laugh track make for a delightfully strange viewing experience. Almost perfectly strange. See what I did there?
And then, at the end, they sit down to watch THEIR SHOW! This breaks all of the rules!
3. Ray Stevens Comedy Classics – In retrospect, one thing is for sure: Ray Stevens was a pretty big fan of himself. Are you a “Streak” fan, a “Surfing in the U.S.S.R.” fan, or a “Mississippi Squirrel” fan? Or none of the above?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYgbLm0FUPg
4. Downy Ad – I love the layout of this Downy ad, but the “You guessed” part at the bottom of the image kind of confounds me. Do they mean you guessed correctly or incorrectly? Or are they just concerned about whether you were engaged enough to guess at all?
5. Red Lobster Ad – …and here’s another ad, for Red Lobster. This ad focuses on what a great choice they are for road travelers. Guys, I’m not sure you need to be stopping for seafood on your long road trips. If you do, I doubt you should order the raw oysters as the ad seems to be suggesting. Mostly I just love the bold choice of a deep red background for the ENTIRE PAGE.
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