Old Commercials
I happened upon this youtube page yesterday: http://www.youtube.com/user/RetromercialBilly
It contains commercials from Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, ABC, Fox, etc from the early 90's.
I showed Chris one of the videos from 1995. I was surprised how much I remembered, even though I was barely 9 when it aired. Chris was 5 at the time, so we zoomed to 1999 so he could get the same nostalgic high.
The four-year difference in television commercials was astounding. The animation was cleaner, the picture value was clearer, and the special effects for the movie trailers were more "modern".
At this point, I realized that the difference between 1999 and 2003 would also be astounding. Same for 2003 to 2007 and 2007 to 2011.
What will 9-year-olds today think when they see commercials from 2013 in 2030? Will they have the same reaction, or will they have no opinion? Advertising won't disappear, but Tivo and DVR certainly allow us to skip most commercials. Let's face it, the 8 million people who watch How I Met Your Mother on its weekly broadcast pale in comparison to the 22 million people who tuned into the same season of Friends. American Idol, the most-watched show on TV, has a paltry 15 million live viewers, but that's not counting internet streaming, which is definitely the direction television is heading. So maybe old commercial videos in 2030 will feature Hulu ads and old popups...
It's things like this that help me understand the generational divide. This isn't just between myself and the Baby Boomers, but myself as an early Millennial versus later Millennials. I certainly don't understand the appeal of staring at a smartphone every time I'm bored, but that seems to be the norm for people born 5-8 years after me. When I started college, mp3 players were the big thing. I suppose DVDs were the big thing before that, and CD players before that. I'm amazed how such a short gap in time has such large differences, that something as mundane as television commercials were so radically different for someone just a little younger...
It contains commercials from Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, ABC, Fox, etc from the early 90's.
I showed Chris one of the videos from 1995. I was surprised how much I remembered, even though I was barely 9 when it aired. Chris was 5 at the time, so we zoomed to 1999 so he could get the same nostalgic high.
The four-year difference in television commercials was astounding. The animation was cleaner, the picture value was clearer, and the special effects for the movie trailers were more "modern".
At this point, I realized that the difference between 1999 and 2003 would also be astounding. Same for 2003 to 2007 and 2007 to 2011.
What will 9-year-olds today think when they see commercials from 2013 in 2030? Will they have the same reaction, or will they have no opinion? Advertising won't disappear, but Tivo and DVR certainly allow us to skip most commercials. Let's face it, the 8 million people who watch How I Met Your Mother on its weekly broadcast pale in comparison to the 22 million people who tuned into the same season of Friends. American Idol, the most-watched show on TV, has a paltry 15 million live viewers, but that's not counting internet streaming, which is definitely the direction television is heading. So maybe old commercial videos in 2030 will feature Hulu ads and old popups...
It's things like this that help me understand the generational divide. This isn't just between myself and the Baby Boomers, but myself as an early Millennial versus later Millennials. I certainly don't understand the appeal of staring at a smartphone every time I'm bored, but that seems to be the norm for people born 5-8 years after me. When I started college, mp3 players were the big thing. I suppose DVDs were the big thing before that, and CD players before that. I'm amazed how such a short gap in time has such large differences, that something as mundane as television commercials were so radically different for someone just a little younger...