Five Retro TV Commercials, Part 9!
Just like last time, everything in this edition of Five Retro TV Commercials comes from that tape full of 1991 Ninja Turtles cartoons.
(I’ll be putting that cassette to rest after this article, by the way. There are other commercials on it, but nothing you can’t live without seeing again. Except maybe the one where MC Hammer shilled his official doll. Since the doll was made in the precise same scale as Barbie, the crossover possibilities were pretty Kodak-worthy.)
Sprinkled Chips Ahoy! (1991)
Sure, I’ve already written a whole tribute to Sprinkled Chips Ahoy, but now you can see it with that gravel-voiced TMNT bumper as the lead-in. IMO, that’s the only way to see it!
The commercial confirms that Sprinkled Chips Ahoy debuted in 1991, when style guides were still stuck in that weird limbo between ‘80s neon and ‘90s graffiti.
Adding everyday sprinkles to Chips Ahoy cookies was hardly worth so much fuss, but at the same time, I never would’ve bothered with them without that fuss. Mountains were made out of molehills, and I spent the early ‘90s refusing to eat cookies that didn’t look like they’d been infested by rainbow bugs.
(Well, maybe not refusing, but definitely not preferring.) Read More…
Purple Stuff: TV Theme Songs!
I think I got two hours sleep last night, so apologies in advance if I mindlessly segue into a diatribe about how rabbits are really elephants. It was all to bring you this thing in a timely fashion:
In this week’s Purple Stuff Podcast, me and Jay from The Sexy Armpit discuss a dozen of our favorite TV theme songs, covering everything from Growing Pains to Game of Thrones.
I must emphasize that these aren’t necessarily our twelve favorite TV themes — just a bunch that really rock!
Give us a listen by clicking the giant, ugly play button down below!
You can also download this week’s show by right-clicking here.
Thanks as always for listening — we love seeing the Purple Stuff grow! Feel free to talk about some of your favorite TV themes in the comments, too.
(We’ll probably revisit this topic on a future episode… there are just too many great themes to cover in one show!) Read More…
Five Retro TV Commercials, Part 8!
Welcome to a special edition of Five Retro TV Commercials. Special to me, at least.
A tape donated by my pal MZ was simply labeled “Turtles,” and I correctly guessed that it’d be stuffed with old TMNT episodes. What a freakin’ goldmine!
Everything on the videocassette was recorded in 1991, when the white hot Ninja Turtles had episodes running on weekdays and weekends. The light grew a little dimmer by ‘92, but this was still very much during the period when anything with any tie to any Ninja Turtle meant buckets of money and devotional vows.
Below are five commercials that YOU AND ME PERSONALLY WATCHED during Ninja Turtle cartoons back in ‘91. They’ve all aged gracefully.
Sunkist Fruit Rox! (1991)
Guys, this is it. The most impossibly ‘90s commercial of all ‘90s commercials. It’s hard to accept this as something that actually aired in 1991, and not in 2016 as a parody of ‘91.
The “rocks as fruit snacks” gimmick had been tried before, but never with this twist: This time, the rocks (“Rox”) were from outer space AND the future. Wow. Given that concept, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that the commercial is so nuts.
Two skateboarding kids teleport aboard an alien spaceship, because that’s evidently the only place to procure Sunkist Fruit Rox. As if that isn’t weird enough, the lead alien breaks the fourth wall to tell us about we can get a free “Fruit Rox Box” by collecting proofs-of-purchase from specially marked packages. This is literally just a plastic box meant to be worn as a necklace, as said alien demonstrates.
I’ve seen plenty of odd promotions, but “necklace that holds fruit snacks” may take the crazy cake. It’d be curious even if it wasn’t pitched by a space alien who looks like a cross between a Teletubby and a dead tree.
Still, the subtle permission to treat fruit snacks like junk from a museum gift shop was all I needed to temporarily name Fruit Rox both my favorite thing to eat and my favorite thing to play with. Read More…
ECTO COOLER RETURNS!
A few hours ago, I heard a too-gentle knock on the front door. It was the FedEx guy, looking to make a delivery without any pesky conversation. That’s my kind of FedEx guy.
Yes. It has arrived. ECTO COOLER.
Last week, someone from Coca-Cola’s PR firm blessed me with the email to end all emails. I was on THE LIST. A number of Ecto Cooler press packages were being sent out, to encourage everyone from big celebrities (not me) to low-level bloggers (definitely me) to help spread the word.
So here I am, helping to spread the word:
ECTO. COOLER. IS. BACK.
Actually, as of this writing, it’s still on its way back. It’s supposed to hit stores on May 30th, but given the unlikelihood that every store will play by Coca-Cola’s rules, I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple of them have it out already. Either way, don’t worry: You won’t have to wait long.
This ghost trap-themed promo box — which even came with a barrel of slime — is all kinds of awesome. I’ve already called some contractors to get quotes on the airtight, temperature-controlled vault that is so clearly necessary to house a box of this magnitude. I wish I could tell you that the same box will be available in stores, but no, it was apparently made as an exclusive for people who wear Tuesday’s clothes on Thursday afternoon.
If it’s any consolation, you’ll be drinking motherfuckin’ ECTO COOLER in about a week. Get hype, stay hype, make ice. Read More…