$59 USD! That clone man was silly money, I thought most were 1/2 that price. Why do I like vintage commercials....were they that good at the time or is it just cool to see vintage products?
It's the nostalgia effect basically. I too enjoy watching them and finding out what was going on. Here, for instance, between 12:09 and 12:39 we are instructed on the qualities of the General Electric CR-55, a beast of a carrying compo to say the least
I think there's a little more to it, I remember products were always in a race to be the biggest, loudest, fastest from about 78 to 84 (computers kept at it until the mid 2000's). With less information available, commercials sometimes were the fastest way to see new products and one-up your friends with your knowledge. Now a days I can't remember a good recent commercial or even one that gets water-cooler talk. Maybe the Superbowl will have a few but even that isn't the "commercials" showcase it once was. If we're lucky we'll see the new iPhone, unfortunately it looks exactly like the last 20, just a few mm smaller.
It depends on the year. In 1981 the Binatone Hip-Fi Cloneman was £50. I believe a genuine Sony Walkman was over £100. A year later as competition increased the Hip-Fi was down to £30 but the only Walkman in the catalogue was £90; more than something like a Sharp GF5454 Boombox. Regarding the nostalgia aspect Techmoan summed it up in his Chord Machine video "The 1980s were a great time to be alive if you're interested in technology, because it felt like there was always something new coming out that you hadn't seen before and that's probably because there was always something new coming out that you hadn't seen before." Personal stereos were a good example. Watching the commercials the Fireplace Stereo is something I have never seen before while the Sofa stereo is something I had only seen suggested as a DIY creation. @Mister X You missed the fact that every new phone has a screen that is 1/2" larger than the previous one. Remember the term "Phablet"? All new phones seem to be "Phablets" now with some approaching the size of a tablet making them completely impractical for me. Some of the women at work walk around with half of their phone jammed into their back jeans pocket and the other half sticking out beyond it. There is an old Nokia sat on my desk here that would easily slip into any pocket.
The 80's commercials were even better, a mix of tech, music and bright funky colors. I meant the old phones were smaller, I just got one I can drop from 6' and it will work after being submerged in water. I go through 3+ phones a year with work destroying them. The old phones are nice if they work with your network but mine is so spotty I have to have something newer to get a better signal. Techmoan didn't seem to like the ChordMachine, it did seem kind of lame after he reviewed it. Looking at the guy holding it I didn't realize how big it was. When is Techmoan going to contact Auto and do a video with the clones!
I thought he was a bit unfair on it. On his Patreon page some people commented that the beginning sounded like the start of Phil Collin's 1981 hit "In the Air Tonight". I checked and the Roland drum machine that was used on that cost over $1000 when released in 1978. I think the real problem was that the Casio keyboards that came out at around the same time as the Chord Machine were so much better. A example how a product that would have seemed amazing for the price back in 1980 seemed outdated when it was released just a couple of years later . Back to adverts I wonder if you had adverts in America encouraging you to NOT buy a new TV. The first couple are quite amusing. The company behind them Granada also owned the TV station that has produced the soap opera Coronation Street since 1960. A couple of adverts from Dixon's who did want to sell you a TV or Radio cassette Someone has been playing with the GCI on this one and a Sampler on this
The keyboard wars! When they started putting the little drum machines on them, I was really into them, they were so much fun to mess around with. I'm using a big 3/4 Yamaha right now, the drums are on the left keys, it's still fun but not as much as the drum pads Casio had on the top. I'm not sure what the Cord Machine was trying to accomplish, maybe they were first with some of the technology but the first time I saw one was just a few years ago in a photo. I feel like it was pretty expensive when new and a Casio or Yamaha had more features at 1/2 the price, with a full set of keys.
I think the Sony was aimed at Guitarists. Many years later JVC had a similar idea. http://www.stereo2go.com/topic/index.php?content_oid=193392314111969992&board_oid=193392314111653326 I still recall how pleased a housemate was when I made him a lead so he could plug his electric Bass guitar into a Music centre he had in his room. Like all electronics practice amps were expensive back then.
I love how they used to play fast & loose with the word 'digital' back then. There's a good example in the above Dixons UK TV ad 1988 a "...digital video recorder". In the 80s I think 'digital' was second only to 'turbo' as a meaningless marketing buzzword...
Being pedantic, it looks to me as if the Video Recorder did actually have a frame store in it, so you could do silly effects like the one demonstrated, and get a better still frame. Around the same time Picture in Picture was another expensive Fad. For the price of two TVs you could watch a second channel in a small insert. Too bad if the insert was over the goal when watching the main match . Of course buzz words were around long before that. The Sharp VZ2500 proudly proclaims that it has a "High Speed Four Bit Microprocessor" (which controls the tonearm if you are wondering). As for Turbo, in cars it did have meaning and you could even buy sunstrips saying OBRUT to put on your Porsche 911 TURBO, so that when you raced up behind someone in a normal 911 they would know to pull over . You are right that once they realised that Turbo was associated with high end cars all sorts of manufacturers of completely unrelated products jumped on the bandwagon. You don't get more 1980s than this Of course nowadays when many bog standard cars have Turbos and that other buzzword "Injection" it all seems rather dated.
Turbo! That's one of the cheesiest commercials I've seen. You have to love the old-school effects, now that they can do anything, commercials are getting like MySpace.
Here is another from Philips The Philips boxes only have "Turbo Bass". Whether that means that the Bass comes out as a high pitched whining noise I don't know.
