Commercial Compilations
It's been another month. A long one at that.
And here we are, still in quarantine.
Being in the middle of limbo (meaning, not work to do, not being able to get out from the house with exception of 10-15 minutes of sunlight cause... again, I barely go out), when it feels like the city (and my neighborhood) is paralyzed in some capacity messes up my poor sleep schedule even more when I have been already working at home... especially with how current circumstances are playing out in my extended family (and I somewhat have to put some order around when mom is gone).
So, between attempting to draw stuff and other things, I often listen music. Be it whatever is in my computer, the radio, or even looking around in Youtube. But when I REALLY want to distract myself I often see if Ican catch a video by one of many youtubers I follow, or, well... I reccur to watch commercial compilations.
This is a bit on tone with how, in the past two/three years I often listen Vaporwave stuff, which, admittingly, it's some sort of guilty pleasure to me, because most of what I tend to listen is either mallsoft stuff, stuff that remixes the purpose of 80s songs, maybe some futurefunk, etc., etc.... stuff that evokes me into a different era and what not. Ironically, when you think about vaporwave music, some like to rethink of this genre as pure "what if" of a time that never was meant to be... I have seen people discuss the feelings this genre evokes of an era that sadly lasted when 9/11 happened, and... incidentally, when you see all this talk about cvd-19 (I often put it that way so it doesn't catch up in any searching/brwosing web) and how the world is going to change after it... I often think about vaporwave as a whole.
Maybe I'm being silly, lol, and I'm wrong with that. Maybe it's me growing up, being more close to my 30s than what I used to be to my teens, and me simply being nostalgic about an era where I was more foolish and innocent, and younger of course. Of course, I also don't want to live in a worldwide dystopia when you already have enough with the "we aren't already yet, but..." national dystopia I am trapped in. Basically that meme of "surely I don't want to be part of this historical event". I want to remain optimistic, it's hard... but someone has to.
So. There's this subgenre of Vaporwave called "Broken Transmission". If you have heard stuff like Infinity Frequencies', or Hallmark' 87's album "Landmarks / / F O R G O T T E N", it's basically building something new upon recordings (radio ads/TV ads) or songs as if you were listening them in a fever dream... or evoking memories from a past that you may not have lived before, where you are listening to the TV or radio on. Stuff that may have happened... but you barely remember at all.
In a similar way, I kinda want to blame my like to looking at old ads as part of why I like this Vaporwave subgenre.
I don't think it's that "farfetched" too strange to like. Whenever I was doing homework or doing any other of activity, I always had the TV on. I had a TV on my room way back in the day, and I used to watch it all day. I wish some things were widely available (especially on dubs... I wish ALL Nickelodeon dubbed sitcoms/LA series from the 90s/early 2000s were easily as available online as the nicktoons, for example...) than others because not everything is legally available through official streamings (and we don't have many options as the US... and that's becoming a mess already, isn't it? You pull out cable TV... to have exactly that and worse with how many streaming services outthere?, lmao). So. Anyway. Ads, right?
Back in college, in one of my classes (I suppose it was Marketing... because we never saw these in Publicity), they put us a video with a couple of publicity campaigns in a portfolio-like compilation from a creative working at a Publicity agency. Dunno how much relevant it was for the class itself... or if it was simply as an example to see how brands sold their products through these ad campaigns. Interestingly, I suppose, this opened a rabbit hole of curiousity around these campaigns... because (or maybe my bias is showing, lol) most of these Mexican ad campaigns in the mid 90s were quite creative (if I put them in comparison to the US ones... sure, not as extreme as Japanese tv commercials... but... you know...). So, I started looking around...
I don't think I really went further than a couple of videos posted at the time, but I fell through that rabbit hole way later on. And, oh, boy... it has been a very weird experience.
I am not here to talk about history and my country and how their relationships with other countries started to change around the early 90s... or how many national and local brands had to get up with the times, so many disappeared into nothing or they were eaten /adquired by others (especially international ones) and the like, because they couldn't survive alone... Or maybe, about how it looked like a very notorious TV network had a very powerful monopoly over in media products and the like once upon a time... and these commercials are just a time capsule of times that did happen, and we had to move on. Of course, the little bits of news here and there date times that perhaps in my eyes nowadays weren't as bad (lmao) as they are right now... but in some sort of way they kinda were in the eyes of my parents that had to survive those times as well. It's some kind of "we have to learn our story to not repeat it" (and look how far we have gotten... *facepalm*).
It's... somewhat nostalgic. I suppose. My parents usually tell me we didn't see much of what was available in the local TV (especially once we had cable), but I do remember going to my grandparents' houses and catch a brief bit of what was on at the time. Be it either the news, or even a soap opera. Or perhaps the cartoons or TV shows I used to watch that perhaps weren't part of a fever dream of sorts. A nostalgic environment in the middle of the night, mayhaps catching a glimpse of governemental ads about "progress", or alcoholic beverages ads (mixed with tobacco ones... AHHH, different times) or perhaps being sit through a governmental program of 15 minutes before a cartoon or whatever I was watching returned.
I have this fever dream haunting me about this ad campaign that happened probably in late 1996, early 1997 around christmas and the "cycle of life" of a christmas tree. In christmas, you would see it about someone buying it, and putting the lights, gifts... you know per typical... and around late January or early February, the conclusion to that campaign was when the family got rid off of the tree in the streets, because well, Winter holidays finished. And it haunts me because of the continuity it had. I havent seen it online yet for some reason, so I assume "fever dream" describes it perfectly.
When it is about old commercials, I am more mistified about them. Vague memories of when I was a child, climb back to me. Especially about products that usually were directed for kids (and the afforementioned alcoholic beverages and cigarrettes ones), that existed and perhaps were creative. That is we go by the 90s standards. I also like to see old mid to late 80s ones, just to have a brief idea about those.
2000s ones... are more a mixed bag of reactions from my part, lol. Because those are more vivid and mayhaps a bit embarrassing to watch nowadays. Like... it's also a time where I know more my surroundings... and publicity started to... change. I'm not sure if for good or worse, because while the wine and beer ones started to be more limited in quantity at night, tobacco ones went prohibited for obvious health reasons. Then last decade, because more concerning towards health reasons, food related ones (especially junk food) went to be more... restricted because "we should think of the children!!!!!!11" . But at the same time, we started to have more medicine (and pseudo medicine) ads... telemarketing... cellphone marketing ads... ugh... I dunno.
It's just.. .that... I guess.
Of course, sometimes I watch commercial compilations from the US, since I also have some vague memories of them when we used to have some local receptions of certain local networks' channels around, or when we used to have a pirate US-based DirectTV... but, oh, well...
I dunno, it's also nice background noise, I suppose. Like I mentioned above, I used to have a TV in my room or I also had the chance to work close to the living room (when I had a more personal computer with internet), and I used to have the TV on for background noise when I was doing my homework. I don't have that much nowadays for obvious reasons (instead now I put my radio on... it's not LOTS better, but I guess you can adapt when you have the chance... also less electricity than a TV w/o cable, noice), so... its one thing or the other. Interestingly enough, that's what I use "Broken Transmission" vapowave stuff as well when I have the chance, lol.
And here we are, still in quarantine.
Being in the middle of limbo (meaning, not work to do, not being able to get out from the house with exception of 10-15 minutes of sunlight cause... again, I barely go out), when it feels like the city (and my neighborhood) is paralyzed in some capacity messes up my poor sleep schedule even more when I have been already working at home... especially with how current circumstances are playing out in my extended family (and I somewhat have to put some order around when mom is gone).
So, between attempting to draw stuff and other things, I often listen music. Be it whatever is in my computer, the radio, or even looking around in Youtube. But when I REALLY want to distract myself I often see if Ican catch a video by one of many youtubers I follow, or, well... I reccur to watch commercial compilations.
This is a bit on tone with how, in the past two/three years I often listen Vaporwave stuff, which, admittingly, it's some sort of guilty pleasure to me, because most of what I tend to listen is either mallsoft stuff, stuff that remixes the purpose of 80s songs, maybe some futurefunk, etc., etc.... stuff that evokes me into a different era and what not. Ironically, when you think about vaporwave music, some like to rethink of this genre as pure "what if" of a time that never was meant to be... I have seen people discuss the feelings this genre evokes of an era that sadly lasted when 9/11 happened, and... incidentally, when you see all this talk about cvd-19 (I often put it that way so it doesn't catch up in any searching/brwosing web) and how the world is going to change after it... I often think about vaporwave as a whole.
Maybe I'm being silly, lol, and I'm wrong with that. Maybe it's me growing up, being more close to my 30s than what I used to be to my teens, and me simply being nostalgic about an era where I was more foolish and innocent, and younger of course. Of course, I also don't want to live in a worldwide dystopia when you already have enough with the "we aren't already yet, but..." national dystopia I am trapped in. Basically that meme of "surely I don't want to be part of this historical event". I want to remain optimistic, it's hard... but someone has to.
So. There's this subgenre of Vaporwave called "Broken Transmission". If you have heard stuff like Infinity Frequencies', or Hallmark' 87's album "Landmarks / / F O R G O T T E N", it's basically building something new upon recordings (radio ads/TV ads) or songs as if you were listening them in a fever dream... or evoking memories from a past that you may not have lived before, where you are listening to the TV or radio on. Stuff that may have happened... but you barely remember at all.
In a similar way, I kinda want to blame my like to looking at old ads as part of why I like this Vaporwave subgenre.
I don't think it's that "farfetched" too strange to like. Whenever I was doing homework or doing any other of activity, I always had the TV on. I had a TV on my room way back in the day, and I used to watch it all day. I wish some things were widely available (especially on dubs... I wish ALL Nickelodeon dubbed sitcoms/LA series from the 90s/early 2000s were easily as available online as the nicktoons, for example...) than others because not everything is legally available through official streamings (and we don't have many options as the US... and that's becoming a mess already, isn't it? You pull out cable TV... to have exactly that and worse with how many streaming services outthere?, lmao). So. Anyway. Ads, right?
Back in college, in one of my classes (I suppose it was Marketing... because we never saw these in Publicity), they put us a video with a couple of publicity campaigns in a portfolio-like compilation from a creative working at a Publicity agency. Dunno how much relevant it was for the class itself... or if it was simply as an example to see how brands sold their products through these ad campaigns. Interestingly, I suppose, this opened a rabbit hole of curiousity around these campaigns... because (or maybe my bias is showing, lol) most of these Mexican ad campaigns in the mid 90s were quite creative (if I put them in comparison to the US ones... sure, not as extreme as Japanese tv commercials... but... you know...). So, I started looking around...
I don't think I really went further than a couple of videos posted at the time, but I fell through that rabbit hole way later on. And, oh, boy... it has been a very weird experience.
I am not here to talk about history and my country and how their relationships with other countries started to change around the early 90s... or how many national and local brands had to get up with the times, so many disappeared into nothing or they were eaten /adquired by others (especially international ones) and the like, because they couldn't survive alone... Or maybe, about how it looked like a very notorious TV network had a very powerful monopoly over in media products and the like once upon a time... and these commercials are just a time capsule of times that did happen, and we had to move on. Of course, the little bits of news here and there date times that perhaps in my eyes nowadays weren't as bad (lmao) as they are right now... but in some sort of way they kinda were in the eyes of my parents that had to survive those times as well. It's some kind of "we have to learn our story to not repeat it" (and look how far we have gotten... *facepalm*).
It's... somewhat nostalgic. I suppose. My parents usually tell me we didn't see much of what was available in the local TV (especially once we had cable), but I do remember going to my grandparents' houses and catch a brief bit of what was on at the time. Be it either the news, or even a soap opera. Or perhaps the cartoons or TV shows I used to watch that perhaps weren't part of a fever dream of sorts. A nostalgic environment in the middle of the night, mayhaps catching a glimpse of governemental ads about "progress", or alcoholic beverages ads (mixed with tobacco ones... AHHH, different times) or perhaps being sit through a governmental program of 15 minutes before a cartoon or whatever I was watching returned.
I have this fever dream haunting me about this ad campaign that happened probably in late 1996, early 1997 around christmas and the "cycle of life" of a christmas tree. In christmas, you would see it about someone buying it, and putting the lights, gifts... you know per typical... and around late January or early February, the conclusion to that campaign was when the family got rid off of the tree in the streets, because well, Winter holidays finished. And it haunts me because of the continuity it had. I havent seen it online yet for some reason, so I assume "fever dream" describes it perfectly.
When it is about old commercials, I am more mistified about them. Vague memories of when I was a child, climb back to me. Especially about products that usually were directed for kids (and the afforementioned alcoholic beverages and cigarrettes ones), that existed and perhaps were creative. That is we go by the 90s standards. I also like to see old mid to late 80s ones, just to have a brief idea about those.
2000s ones... are more a mixed bag of reactions from my part, lol. Because those are more vivid and mayhaps a bit embarrassing to watch nowadays. Like... it's also a time where I know more my surroundings... and publicity started to... change. I'm not sure if for good or worse, because while the wine and beer ones started to be more limited in quantity at night, tobacco ones went prohibited for obvious health reasons. Then last decade, because more concerning towards health reasons, food related ones (especially junk food) went to be more... restricted because "we should think of the children!!!!!!11" . But at the same time, we started to have more medicine (and pseudo medicine) ads... telemarketing... cellphone marketing ads... ugh... I dunno.
It's just.. .that... I guess.
Of course, sometimes I watch commercial compilations from the US, since I also have some vague memories of them when we used to have some local receptions of certain local networks' channels around, or when we used to have a pirate US-based DirectTV... but, oh, well...
I dunno, it's also nice background noise, I suppose. Like I mentioned above, I used to have a TV in my room or I also had the chance to work close to the living room (when I had a more personal computer with internet), and I used to have the TV on for background noise when I was doing my homework. I don't have that much nowadays for obvious reasons (instead now I put my radio on... it's not LOTS better, but I guess you can adapt when you have the chance... also less electricity than a TV w/o cable, noice), so... its one thing or the other. Interestingly enough, that's what I use "Broken Transmission" vapowave stuff as well when I have the chance, lol.