80's Commercials Vol. 1040

These commercials aired on WNYW on December 18th, 1986
1. 7up Commercial Bumper
2. Nintendo Commercial Bumper (The fact that most of the NES Black Box games were out for the Christmas of '86 is kind of a testament to why the console succeeded so much that year. Even though the third party support was still very limited, that is a lot of great games with a lot of variety to have at what is effectively the national launch of your console)
3. Nintendo Entertainment System
4. Coleco Talking Teacher (Sorry, that Speak & Spell design is iconic)
5. Visa
6. Inhumanoids Toys at Child World (You've gotta love such an insane property like Inhumanoids being promoted. Also, the Inhumanoids monster figures were not cheap: $24.99 in 1986 is now around $70 today adjusted for inflation! But they were also around 14 inches tall and dwarfed pretty much every action figure on the market. They now go for several hundred dollars loose)
7. Old Spice
8. Nerf (I'm pretty sure that this kid later played the older brother in this iconic ad for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups: • 90's Commercials Vol. 441 )
9. Key Food (I love the animation at the beginning and end of this ad)
10. TSS Seedman's (This was a department store chain based in New York city that existed from 1918 to 1989, when it filed for bankruptcy. TSS stood for Times Square Stores)
11. "The First Christmas" Commercial Bumper (The 1975 Rankin Bass special)
12. Toys R Us (Featuring My Child Dolls)
13. TV Spot for "Lady & The Tramp" (It would be awesome to see the original CinemaScope version of this on the big screen)
14. The Wiz (Using the King Kong tragedy of 1933 to sell VCR's, almost as bad as the Toshiba Hindenburg ad in Vol. 1036!)
15. Reynolds Oven Cooking Bags
16. "The First Christmas" End Credits
17. Liquid Cheer
18. Decaffeinated Folgers
19. Promo for "Leprechaun's Christmas Gold" (One of the weirder Rankin Bass Christmas specials and probably indicative that they were running out of ideas for new ones...but I like it. It's interesting that they used Bing Crosby's version of "Christmas In Killarney" in this promo. The song is used in this special but it's not Bing's version)
20. "Year Without Santa Claus" Commercial Bumper (AHEM the actual name of the special is "The Year Without A Santa Claus")
21. Nintendo Entertainment System
22. Burger King Chicken Tenders
23. Waldbaum's
24. Trivial Pursuit
25. Buick Skyhawk (I definitely want to drive a car with a name that sounds like an 80's action TV series featuring a flying car. Wednesdays on NBC)
26. Nuprin (With Mason Adams)
27. Caldor

[@yusakug]

I definitely remember seeing that rerelease of Lady and the Tramp that Christmas. I know it’s be pointless now, but getting to see these classic animated films at the theater was always special.

[@MLaker221]

I was there for Jungle Book! 1990? The snake scared me and I hid under the seats

[@80sCommercialVault]

^ I saw the 1990 re-release of The Jungle Book as well, my mom was good about taking me to see the classic animated movies, since most of them were still not out on VHS yet.

[@yusakug]

0:21 - This commercial was the first time I saw the NES. My best friend Tim and I were taking a break from playing Atari, and we were both excited. I remember us being personally excited by the robot, which was a big part of Nintendo’s early marketing strategy. Even though ROB didn’t quite leave an impact, he helped Nintendo big at the beginning.

[@Yo_DynamoJoe]

I find it amusing that this ad *barely* mentions Super Mario Bros! Instead it focuses on peripherals that had little to no support later on, rather than the one title that would be so impactful and renowned.

[@hopegrimsley3427]

Incredible set. This is my 80s sweet spot. Also, it’s so interesting that in certain areas of the country “Child World” was referred to as “Children’s Palace.”

[@Yo_DynamoJoe]

Yep, my area! I think the whole East Coast. Child World was my local toy store. They were early adopters of the World of Nintendo displays that popped up in a lot of stores eventually.

[@WilfredCthulu]

The learning toys' looks are so nostalgic.

[@MyMelodyOfTheHeart]

Coleco Talking Teacher- Every time I see that “Speak And Spell” toy, it always calls to mind for me its appearance in the Disney/Pixar movie, “Toy Story”. Inhumanoids Toys At Child World- The figure on the far left at 1:56 looks like The Swedish Chef from The Muppets.

[@BrewCityChaser]

I had a Speak and Spell but also the math and reading versions of it. But I never heard of the Talking Teacher product. Were the other two variants a response from Texas Instruments to that competition or were they just purposely omitted from that ad?

[@chadkobylenski4193]

(Sees the Child World ad) (Thinks to himself...since when did they have a toy that looks like the Swedish Chef?)

[@shenloken2]

Hey kids!! Master the video games that work with R.O.B. The video robot..…All BOTH of them!!

[@hopegrimsley3427]

The Old Spice ad was iconic.

[@bree9272]

Burger King's chicken tenders were awesome. I preferred them, and the current nuggets, over McDonald's nuggets.

[@BrewCityChaser]

It's incredible how diverse TV commercials were back in the day. Now it's the same 5 ads over and over again from insurance and telecom corporations.

[@Yo_DynamoJoe]

One of my friend's dad was a graphic designer/photographer for advertising firms in NY for many years. He did a bunch of work on commercials for Nobody Beats the Wiz and got stiffed by the Jemal brothers for pretty much all of it. Lol he was a very chill guy but one sure way to rile him up was to mention The Wiz lol. He couldn't stand those guys.

[@DanZero77]

This time of WNYW was right in the sweet spot, still independent before FOX came on the scene in 1987 and still full of Christmas specials like these! Since you mentioned the demise of TSS/Seedman's already, I'll also mention Child World went bankrupt in 1992, Caldor in 1999, Nobody Beats The Wiz in 2003 and Waldbaum's in 2015.

[@crashmoar290]

I still cannot afford Inhumanoids.

[@blackmesacake5361]

Delicious

[@Bewilderebeest]

Was every second boy back then named Billy???

[@dragondaveltd1992]

Nintendo: Now you're playing with Power!