Ever Buy a CD off TV?

This past week, I posted the music video for the song "Nuttin' But Flavor" by Funkmaster Flex as the 20 Years Before 2000 Throwback Jam of the Week. This song reminded me of this "Hip Hop Mix" CD that is currently in my collection. I dug around and found it and myself and my daughter have been listening to it every morning this week as I drop her off at school.

Me and my brother had quite a few of these compilation CDs back in the day. You see this CD was released in 1995, which was about 4 years before Napster was launched, so the only other way to get your favorite songs without all the filler was to pop a blank tape into your jam box and hope your favorite radio station plays the best jams so you could record them for later listening pleasure.

This CD was originally only offered through a television commercial campaign (evidenced by the "As Seen on TV" graphic on the cover) that involved a chunky, bald man getting ready for his untimely demise in an electric chair. Lord knows what that had to do with anything, but it really caught the teenage eyes of me and my brother. Especially my brother. I tried searching the interwebs, so I could post that commercial here, but I was unable to find it anywhere! At least the commercial is sort of represented in the cover art for this disc.

The Hip Hop Mix was more than just a really weird commercial, it actually featured some bangin' jams like "Safe & Sound" by DJ Quik. "Funkdafied" by Da Brat and "Tootsie Roll" by 69 Boyz! My brother ordered the CD and after his interest in it wavered, I grabbed it and still have it to this day! That got me thinking about all of those "Only Available Through This TV Offer" tapes and CDs that were being advertised to us back in the 90's? Did anyone ever buy any? Below are some examples of those classic ads featuring some great songs from back in the day!

When was the last time you saw one of these? Do they even do this anymore? If you did buy one of these CDs, please feel free to let us know what you purchased in the comments below! I'll leave you all off with a video from another hit song off the Hip Hop Mix album..."Tukka Yout's Riddim by Us3! Enjoy!

Ads from Tales of G.I. Joe #7

Back in 1982 Marvel Comics started publishing a line of G.I. Joe comics under the "A Real American Hero" banner. The G.I. Joe cartoon was beloved by millions of kids and the toys were flying off the shelves, so it made sense that someone would want to cash in on this craze with a comic book. Writer Larry Hama crafted such amazing, endearing and legitimately entertaining stories in this so called "Kids" book that it is still looked at with fondness today  by us alleged grown-ups. With the success of the flagship title, Marvel decided to branch out with other spinoff series like "G.I. Joe: Special Missions" (1986), "G.I. Joe: Order of Battle" (1986), G.I. Joe/Transformers" (1987) and "Tales of G.I. Joe" (1988). 

I recently found an issue of Tales of G.I. Joe on the $1 rack at my local comic shop and immediately picked it up. Most of the time when I find old, cheap books like this, it's not for the story or art...it's for the ads! The issue I picked up was from 1988 and features some ads that I honestly had never seen before! I'd like to share those ads with you now! Let me know if you have any memories of these in the comments below.

WOW! Those ads were amazing! Imagine if you could still get some of those deals from that New England Comics ad today? I'd buy almost everything off that page! How crazy would it have been if we got a Contra movie or series based off the video game ad above? Would have blown my mind back in the 80's! Who am I kidding, still would blow my mind today! My other favorite out of the bunch would have to be that Jolly Rancher ad with artwork by Don Martin. Really takes me back to the days of wasting time at the library reading MAD Magazine. I hope you enjoyed checking these ads out as much as I did. Which was your favorite?

TMNT Ads in TMNT Magazine!

One of the great thrills of growing up in the 80's/90's was that every great cartoon had it's own magazine. From He-Man to Garfield to The Real Ghostbusters had their own magazine. It was such a feeling of joy to go to the mail box, or P.O. Box in my case, and pull out a the new month's magazine. This is a joy that sadly kids these days will not be able to have. Anyway, when I was growing up one of the magazine subscriptions my Mom did allow us to have was for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Magazine! We had a subscription for a few years starting with issue #1. 

When I saw a recent ebay auction from the collection of Gary Richardson, CEO of Mirage Publishing, pop up with several of these TMNT Magazine issues, I put in a low bid amount and actually ended up winning! It was incredible to flip through these issues after all these decades. They had posters, exclusive TMNT comics, feature stories and of course ads! What better way to sell TMNT items then in a TMNT magazine. Today I would like to share a few of these ads with you in the hopes that stirs up those good feelings from back in the day. ENJOY!

Kool-Aid & Mutants!

 
A few weeks ago I was placing an online order at the Midtown Comics website and decided to search for some Kool-Aid Man comics. The search came up empty for Kool-Aid Man, but something did pop up. It was an X-Men comic that had the subtitle "w/ Kool-Aid". At first I wasn't sure what that meant, but then I remembered that back in the 90's Marvel comics did a promotion with Kool-Aid where packets of the flavorful sugary drink were included in select Marvel titles. This must have been one of them! I put it in my shopping cart and about a week later the comics arrived!

Inside the X-Men book was this Kool-Aid ad for their new Island Twists drinks. Flavors in this new line-up included Kickin' Kiwi Lime, Man-O-Mango Berry, Oh Yeah! Orange Pineapple and Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade.

The flavor I received was Slammin' Strawberry Kiwi! I can honestly say that I don't ever remember tasting this twisted flavor back in the 90's, but the packaging alone takes me back to those hot summer days riding bikes with a water bottle full of Kool-Aid! Great stuff that I stumbled upon by chance. There were some other great ads included in this X-Men issue that I would like to share with you below. Scroll down and take a quick trip back to 1995!

Cereal ads, candy craziness, a Marvel house ad featuring Domino and of course The Simpsons. This truly is a time capsule of the era. Even the cover of the X-Men book includes an M.C. Hammer "Can't Touch This" pun! I hope you enjoyed checking out some old ads, below you can view the vintage commercial promoting Kool-Aid's new Island Twist flavors. ENJOY!

Every Ad In Muppet Babies #7

Recently I have been organizing my entire comic book collection that I currently have at my home. Of course while bagging & boarding I have been flipping through some of my favorites. A lot of the favorites were put out by Marvel under their STAR Comics imprint. These were some of the best comics put out in the 80s and featured many of our favorite cartoon characters including Thundercats, Silverhawks, Heathcliff and of course Muppet Babies. The stories are fun and nostalgic, but if you really want a blast of memories past you need to check out the ads within these thin paper pages of gold! I have decided to share every ad in this issue from May 1986 since all of them are great! I guess that's enough jibber-jabber...on with the ads!!! ENJOY!!!

NIKE Comic Book Ads

In the 90s basketball was everything to me. I was all-in on Michael Jordan and the Bulls, but still supported my local New Jersey Nets. I attended many games with my family and teammates at Brendan Byrne Arena in the Meadowlands to see some of my favorite players hit the court. I got to see Tim Duncan, Chris Mullin, Shaquille O'Neal, Vince Carter, Drazen Petrovic and so many more! I played on teams since the 5th grade and actually ended up winning 2 championships in that time and was named to the All-Tournament team in '95! So, not to get any longer but I was a basketball card collecting, game watching, sneaker consuming fool! I don't remember seeing these NIKE ads below when they were first used, but I found them recently and I love the looks of them! Comics and basketball...COUNT ME IN! Now it's time for me to stop babbling and for you to enjoy some sweet retro advertising!

Pretty cool right? I couldn't find any on-air advertising to back up this print ad campaign, but while searching YouTube, I did find this animated NIKE ad for the Barcelona Olympics in 1992!

Pictures from the Past

Almost a year ago the television station that I work for celebrated it's 60th anniversary. Part of my job as Promotions & Marketing manager was to help promote the milestone. We had an entire floor of the local historical museum dedicated to the history of television and I produced a 5 minute video showing our past and how we are moving towards the future. In preparation for these projects I had to dig up some historical documents, old props & equipment and search through our old photos to find the things that told the story of the station. I found some great stuff, but some of it didn't exactly fit what I was looking for like this great shot above of the kid in the Coors Light "SilverBullet" car. Here are a few more great pics that I found!

 This picture is from a telethon held at the station in the late 70s/early 80s. The caption said something like "TVs Tracey Gold joined us for this fundraising event". Wow! Tracey Gold that was big time back in the day. I'd be happy if she stopped by for one of fund raisers today!

This kid with the Boglin was pretty lucky. I always wanted one, but never got it. I had to live out my Boglin dreams with my friends toy! The guy looking on was our longtime graphic artist. He worked at the station for over 30 years and went from creating chalk drawings for newscasts to creating graphics using Photoshop and After Effects. He retired a few years back, but was a great guy to work with and learn from. Kind of the Yoda of the station.

Here is a picture of some of the staff back in the 90s at the local theater premiere of Dick Tracy! I haven't seen that movie in years. Thinking I should give it a watch sometime soon. It would be cool if the station hosted movie premieres again. Maybe I'll have to get on that?

Here are pictures from another station hosted movie premiere event in 1990 for DuckTales: Treasure of the Lost Lamp the Movie! I loved this film, but never got to see it in theaters. Maybe Disney should re-release it for it's 30th anniversary in 2020? If you have not seen this movie, you need to! It's got action, adventure, peril, a genie, Mrs. Beakly and Christopher Lloyd as the main bad guy. If that doesn't sell you, maybe this commercial will?