80's Commercials Vol. 1025

These commercials aired on WFLD on March 9th, 1985
1. "Son Of Svengoolie" Intro/Host Segment (The movie being shown here is the 1968 Hammer film "The Lost Continent": • The Lost Continent / O... )
2. John M. Smyth's Homemakers
3. Lincoln Carpet Co. (You know a business is old when they're still using the ancient telephone exchange number from the 50's in their advertising)
4. Starburst (Good jingle but I was really tempted to sing "The taste the taste the taste is gonna move ya!" over it)
5. 976-3333 Story Phone (This is actually the same kid dressed up in different costumes)
6. "Son Of Svengoolie" Host Segment
7. Swish
8. Meineke Everlast Muffler
9. Grape Nuts (Who brings milk, cereal and a bowl while mountain climbing? Besides this guy of course)
10. Lennox Air Conditioning
11. Metromedia 32 Wrestling Contest (5:56 I was unaware that Cyndi Lauper was "Hulk Hogan's girl" but I did know she was the daughter of Captain Lou Albano: • Cyndi Lauper - Girls J... )
12. "Son Of Svengoolie" Commercial Bumpers
13. Certs
14. First Metropolitan Builders
15. 3 Liter Coke (With Ray Parker Jr. singing "Thirstbuster". Let me tell ya somethin'... quenchin' makes me feel good! For people wondering why the "Ghostbusters" theme was being used to advertise Coke, Coca Cola owned Columbia Pictures at the time and used "Ghostbusters" and later "Ghostbusters II" to promote Coke products both inside and outside of the films. Even Hi-C Ecto Cooler was a Coke product. Also gotta love/hate the Cosby jumpscare at the end...truly spooky!)
16. Nissan (Remember when trucks on the road weren't all huge monstrosities? Me either)
17. Empire Carpet (STELLLAAA!)
18. "Son Of Svengoolie" Commercial Bumpers
19. Dentyne
20. Hyatt Legal Services
21. Central Furniture
22. Promo for "Solid Gold"
23. "Son Of Svengoolie" Host Segment
24. Tic Tac (With Kelly Harmon)
25. Zenith
26. Handy Andy (13:00 this looks exactly like every bedroom closet in the house I grew up in back in the 80's, with even the same kind of folding doors. We were not organized LOL)
27. Church's Fried Chicken (Shots fired at Ronald McDonald and the McNugget Buddies)
28. 1st City Builders (I'm not sure if the cheesy artwork at 14:13 was necessary to illustrate the concept of burglary, but I appreciate it)
29. "Son Of Svengoolie" Commercial Bumpers
30. Halls
31. Harlem Furniture (I can see why this set was on clearance)
32. Reynolds Wrap
33. Premesyn PMS (I would love to hear the conversation that prompted her doctor to immediately hand her the handbook on PMS)
34. Plywood Minnesota (Looks like someone just figured out how to do cheesy video effects)
35. Promo for "Too Close For Comfort" (Ted Knight was previously diagnosed with colon cancer in the 70's and treated for it but it returned in 1985...eventually leading to his death in August, 1986 at age 62. "Too Close For Comfort" concluded with his death. RIP)
36. "Son Of Svengoolie" Commercial Bumpers
37. Top Job
38. First Metropolitan Builders (What is with people being keyed into fake kitchen backgrounds?)
39. WMET 95.5 FM
40. Holiday Star Theatre Giveaway
41. "Son Of Svengoolie" Host Segment (A spoof of Julian Lennon's "Too Late for Goodbyes" • Julian Lennon - Too La... heard earlier in the "Solid Gold" promo. A week after this on 3/16/85 this song peaked at #1 on the US Adult Contemporary chart, spending two weeks at #1 and was the most successful song of Julian Lennon's career)
42. Empire Carpet
43. Coast
44. Halls
45. All American Metro Nissan/Datsun Dealers
46. Promo for "Red Alert"
47. "Son Of Svengoolie" Commercial Bumpers
48. Snuggle Fabric Softener (Hey, it's the bear show!)
49. Lincoln Carpet Co.
50. Crisco Oil
51. First Metropolitan Builders (The crude house map at 26:18 reminds me of the map with all of Kevin's traps from "Home Alone" or at the very least the horrible NES game based on it)
52. WFLD 32 Alcoholism PSA
53. Promo for "Captains Courageous"
54. "Son Of Svengoolie" Commercial Bumpers
55. MTV
56. Nelson Brothers Furniture
57. Nissan Long Bed
58. Promo for "Fame" (This almost makes me want to track this episode down and figure out WHY they're dancing on the wing of an airplane)
59. "Son Of Svengoolie" Commercial Bumpers
60. Lennox Air Conditioning
61. Empire Carpet (WOW, shots fired at Lincoln Carpet…using their own namesake! The Chicago Carpet Wars were BRUTAL)
62. Jones Brown & Serve Pork Sausage
63. Danley's Garage World (It's a whole world of garages!)
64. Halls
65. "Son Of Svengoolie" Ending
66. Promo for "The Stuntman Awards" (Most of the running time of this show was spent on the "In Memoriam" section)
67. WXRT 93 FM
68. Long John Silver's (Sorry about the somewhat long pause after this)
69. Wisk
70. Contour Chair Lounge (No Art Linkletter, no sale! I WON'T take the VCR!)
71. Head & Shoulders

[@VirginiaTombstoneRevival]

God I love how some of these make me feel.

[@TheOnlyLadyBella]

Me too

[@MRF1983]

I hear you. Sometimes while I'm watching, if I close my eyes and let my mind go like you do when you're drifting off to sleep, I can almost feel my older brothers' and younger sister's presences the way we were back then. I can smell what our living room in the Air Force Base housing smelled like. I can hear our family dog Shadow licking the carpet and her paws. It's the fleetingest brush with those times, but it counts to me.

[@yusakug]

5:17 - In the immortal words of JFK, "Ask not what Grape Nuts can do for you, ask what you can do for Grape Nuts"...

[@forevercomescrashing]

Random shot of Bill Cosby in the thirst busters Coke commercial. I appreciate leaving Svengoolie in, he's still a legend around here

[@JFD62780]

Svengoolie - With the little tastes provided in this aircheck, it's easy to see why! XD

[@WilfredCthulu]

The description ripping on Bill Cosby never gets old.

[@marymunkelwitz3917]

That Tic Tac commercial was burned in my brain for almost 40 years. It was another ad I thought I’d dreamt. I was 2 in 1985, so it has to be one of my earliest commercial memories, even if it played for a year or two.

[@MRF1983]

I have that happen with a lot of the commercials in these collections. Really drives home the point about how they were always telling our parents in those days to monitor what we were watching, because we absorb whatever we're exposed to like sponges.

[@kellys5981]

That Sears air conditioning commercial from the 90s is the one for me. That one and the “greatest love songs” and “pure moods” commercials.

[@MyMelodyOfTheHeart]

17. Empire Carpet- 9:07- “Come on, Call Us!” Must be desperate for business if they felt the need to insert a voiceover of their spokesman saying that at the end. Tic Tac- That clock pendulum that the woman is riding on throughout the commercial looks fun to ride.

[@yusakug]

30:40 - To celebrate the great deal they got on carpeting from Empire, the Lincolns decided to take in a show at the Ford Theater...

[@Tr0nzoid]

Ah yes, the Cola Wars were really kicking in and adding 3-liter bottles was a part of it. I can't remember the last time I even bought a two-liter bottle of soda. While a fan of Cyndi Lauper and watching her on MTV, I did not keep up with wrestling so that involvement was a mystery to me. I only heard about it from other kids who watched. I have not eaten Tic-Tacs in many years. They always left a bad aftertaste. I don't remember ever seeing MTV promos outside of MTV. When I moved into a newly-built house in 1990, it had those closet shelves along with the folding doors. "Long John Silvers: Sounds good to me." Not if it had all that eating noise in it.

[@yusakug]

21:24 - It looks like Mrs. Applegate is going to get an unexpected visit from a knife-wielding Cindy, no extra charge from Empire...

[@ken_danerdiest1]

Lincoln & Empire, no two legendary carpet companies in Chicago are alike.

[@trudimarrapodi6722]

The "Story Phone" ad is a reminder of a museum piece of the '80s and early '90s in the pre-internet era: the "976 number" fad, in which companies set up special toll phone lines you could call to catch up on the latest happenings on the soaps, or sports news, or to be connected to perfect strangers to chat, or to hear a story or talk to Santa...Of course these numbers charged by the minute and many a kid racked up a monster of a phone bill calling these numbers without permission...

[@stratoplayer1988]

I did not discover Svengoolie until a few years ago. I don't think his show ever aired on the West Coast back in the day.

[@80sCommercialVault]

It also aired on WFLD's sister stations in Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. It aired on KBHK in San Francisco/Oakland.

[@user-mk6ei9bh6z]

Almost 7 months to the day that I was born all the stuff going on in the world then it really has changed alot in almost 40yrs watching these commercials makes me feel nostalgic because I wasn't here just yet

[@wolfee2754]

Good memories

[@johnbrandon4713]

Son of Svenghoulie is so good. Also weird, I was listening to Julian Lennon today after I was trying to remember who sang Too Late for Goodbyes. (I thought it might be McCartney or Wings, really has his sound)

[@trudimarrapodi6722]

Funny...I always thought Julian Lennon sounded more like John Lennon...go figure.

[@DanZero77]

The Chicago carpet wars are heating up again! After Lincoln let the Empire guy down they go after them! (RIP Lynn Hauldren) Then we have the First METROPOLITAN Builders vs. the First CITY Builders!

[@yusakug]

17:48 - Top Job sure was lucky to find this woman who was so obsessed and overjoyed to talk about the greasy dirt in her kitchen...

[@TTrigg]

Grape Nuts-a good way to torture someone..? Make them eat a bowl of these with no milk😂 Metromedia 32 Wrestling Contest-i believe this was"The Brawl To Settle It All" Solid Gold-good lineup Church's Fried Chicken-back when all the fast food places tried to get in on the chicken nuggets craze Too Close For Comfort- what their grandfather does is his business Empire Carpet-the three of them were like "..and we're also waiting for a straight jacket for Cindy." Fame-this episode probably ended the same way that classic Fresh Prince episode did😢

[@bluetwinkiesaregood]

Handy Andy… I remember them. It was like a fever dream. 😂 Grape nuts. Yuck. Still hate the cereal. 🤮 I miss long John silvers. They’re gone from my area.

[@kellys5981]

$289 for 3 rooms of flooring?! [cries in Millennial]

[@80sCommercialVault]

www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm