It is almost Christmas, as I sit in my study in our beautiful house in Mentor, Ohio. There are still gifts I need to wrap, a couple I need to make, and maybe even a few that I still need to purchase. But, as I sit here, looking out the window into our backyard at the garden, long since being sent to its slumber by the seasons, I reflect on Christmases past. Almost as if the specter of Christmas Past has pulled up a seat beside me and started whispering in my ear. The beginnings of memories, long forgotten, stir in my consciousness and stretch towards the light of day.
Slowly at first, they start to trickle into bite sized clips of events. Sometimes a memory will conjure up smells long forgotten. My mother in the kitchen mixing ingredients for what would turn out to be her most special Applesauce cake she made every year. Or the crisp clean scent as the temperature drops just enough for the first snow to fall. Then those memories stream like a Hollywood blockbuster, fast and dazzling. What memories stick out the most to me, you may ask, Is it the memories of opening the boxes of decoration in anticipation of decorating the might tree? Or is it the first sight of presents under that tree? Or maybe it’s all the food and sweets laid out in the kitchen and on tables, as we entertain and get ready to eat. No, this morning the memories that come racing back to me, like a kid running out of school the first day of summer, are the commercials. Yes, you heard right, Christmas Commercials.
Advertising in the 1980s
The 80s was a decade that sparked changes that had lasting repercussions for the years to come. It seems that people of the 80s were not impressed by the small things anymore, we needed more. It wasn’t about keeping up with the Jones’ but one upping them. And there was also the added effect of technology exploding everywhere. This was, if you remember, the decade in which the internet started. It seems appropriate that it did since this was the first decade that really started the idea of “why wait when you can have it now?” Credit cards bloomed up everywhere allowing people to purchase without thought of how to pay for it. And what is the best way to keep people spending, commercials hawking goods that they have convinced you that you need. And Christmas pulled out all the stops for that.
Decades past, commercials distinguished themselves by their jingles. A jingle is a small tune or melody that associates a memory with a song. A way for you to always remember that item so that you think about it when you see it. We all know them and I am almost sure that if I say, “My bologna has a first name…” that someone out there will finish the sentence. But advertisers learned that you needed more than just a clever song to go along with a product. If you want buyers to commit to your brand, you need to create a connection. With that, the 80s introduced storytelling to aid them.
What changed? Well, the jingle has already proved to make an impact on people’s buying habits. But, there needed to be a way in which the buyer had a personal connection, a way to see they had to have the product. Thus enters storytelling combined with a catch jingle. An example would be the 80s Kit Kat Commercial with the earwig jingle “Gimme’ a break.”These commercials where packed with people doing crazy things and just having fun while eating a Kit Kat bar. It also introduced the idea of sharing to create more fun. It showed you that if you ate this cand, you too could be a part of a world out there having fun with it.
This marketing venture worked perfectly for selling toys at Christmas and what better way to create that connection than by getting kids involved. Marketing executives created stories that filled kids with the need for those products which resulted in them asking their parents and Santa for them.
Childhood, Commercials, Christmas
Commercials and childhood, in most cases, are as far from each other as a country boy is from a city guy. That is except for a few times of the year and the two biggest were 80s Saturday morning cartoons and Christmas. These were the times in which commercials transformed into brightly lit scenes filled with sugary cereals, candy, and the most amazing toys ever to be witnessed by a young child’s eyes.
Picture it. You are sitting two feet from the television screen, a bowl of your favorite cereal being shoveled into your mouth, while watching an episode of the Smurfs. The scene darkens and suddenly the screen is filled with kids playing with Star Wars toys of all shapes and sizes. AT-STs, biker scouts, and heroes are waging a battle in the backyard of their house. Your mind races with excitement as you, too, realize that your backyard is a perfect example of the forests of Endor and you can create battles where the Ewoks reign supreme. Congratulations marketing execs, your commercial has succeeded in creating a need for one of the most influential decision makers in the household. You get up, run to your parents bedroom, where they are still sleeping because its 8am on a Saturday morning, screaming how you want to get Luke Skywalker on a speeder bike so you can save the Rebels from the dark clutches of Darth Vader. Sleepy-eyed, your mother stares at you as if you just sprouted a horn from your head and are speaking backwards.
And that was just from a Saturday morning commercial between cartoons, they hold little power when compared to the contrived creations that would grace our televisions in the days leading up to Christmas. I still remember many of those commercials, from my childhood. I was filled with that childlike wonder when I realized there were entire YouTube channels created by people who also wanted to share their love and memories of those awesome advertising wonders.
Let’s take a look at Five 80s Christmas Commercials that capture the holiday perfectly.
Five 80s Christmas Commercials
5.Budweiser Holiday Greetings
There were few commercials that really let me know that Christmas was coming like the Budweiser commercial did. It sounds a bit off that a childhood memory is filled with a beer commercial. The commercial was shot, beautifully, to elicit associations with Christmas. It opens to a holiday card scene, snowy wonderland with a rustic barn and a house lit up with warm lights pouring from the windows. Then it cuts to people hooking up horses ot a wagon. This is what I pictured “Jingle Bells” to be singing about. The background is filled with snowy images and a theme song consisting of doos and ahhs, making it easy to remember. The wagon is carrying a massive Christmas tree to an unmentioned location, but we see them carrying it through a small village, passing happy couples wandering through the snow and brightly lit houses, almost as if from a Norman Rockwell painting. This commercial usually started airing on Thanksgiving and ran until Christmas was over. It was how I knew Christmas was here and it always made me feel like Christmas.
4.Polaroid
I cannot think of a single kid that has not, at some point in their childhood, had visions of catching Santa in the act of delivering presents. To this day, I still hold a memory of seeing Santa in our living room, sitting in our big comfy chair, eating cookies, and laughing at his work. It is so real in my head that I am still, to this day, convinced it happened. But I never had the proof to show my friends. This commercial made me want a Polaroid for that very reason, I begged my mother for one because I knew, I just completely knew, that if I had it that I would be able to get that proof of the vision I so dearly cling to. This commercial is proof of how impactful a commercial can be.
The scene opens to two kids sneaking down the stairs and tying a Polaroid to the banister and a string tied from the fireplace to the camera to trigger it to take a picture. As the kids scramble back up the steps, the room is lit up in a flash from the camera and the sound of “Ho! Ho! Ho!” The kids, being truly shocked, return to the living room to find a note from Santa thanking them for the cookies and lovely picture. How cute is that?
3.Cocoa-Cola teach the world to sing
Admittedly, the jingle is what was the catchiest part of this Christmas Commercial. “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. I like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company,” The very words speak of the intention of Christmas, a coming together of people, regardless of their differences. To share in one another and the magic of the Holiday. There wasn’t a single that this commercial came on that myself, my sister, or mother didn’t sing along, at least once.
It opens to a kid holding a candle who lights two more candles. Each one passes along the flame to another who doest have it while culminating at the town center, surrounding a huge and magnificently decorated Christmas tree. The song and the images try to show us how the joy (light) we carry in our hearts can easily be shared to another and in turn to even more. It is a beautiful reminder of how this time of year brings out the best in people.
2.Norelco Santa Claus
Above, I mentioned how the Budweiser commercial was the one commercial that really sent home to me, that Christmas was coming but that wasn’t the only one. The Norelco Santa commercial was the other. I honestly cannot say what about it connects with me. Maybe it’s the claymation still animation or the stylized “Jingle Bells. Whatever it was, when this commercial came on, I would run from whatever room I was in just to see Santa come sliding across the snowy scene in an electric razor head. Call me weird but it really got me excited. The odd part is that you only see Santa for many six seconds of the entire commercial. You see him come sweeping into what looks like either a town or his workshop and then you see him sliding away across the snowy hills as the commercial closes. For me, it was pure holiday magic.
1.Folgers
None of the above mentioned commercials hold a candle to the feelings that this Folgers commercial instilled in its viewers. It is probably the reason why it is the most remembered and beloved of 80s Christmas commercials. Sure, many say that this commercial is overly cheesy, playing to the longing of seeing beloved, distant family members this time of year but Christmas is about those cheesy feelings all wrapped up in wintry greenery with a velvety bow on top. As a kid, I often pictured this is what it would be like with me coming home for Christmas when I went to college.
The scene opens to a man wearing a college sports jacket getting out of a VW Bug, wishing the person a Merry Christmas. It can only be assumed this was a college friend helping him home or maybe he hitch-hiked (don’t try that at home kids). Upstairs, a small child hears the car door close as it drives away. Peter enters the house, flips a switch and a beautiful full Christmas tree lights up. The young girl comes downstairs to greet Peter as he suggests how they can wake the house up. Enter the product placement of brewing Folgers coffee. The smell wakens the house as they sleepily stumble downstairs only to find their son home for the holidays, waiting on them by the tree. “The best part of waking up…” is finding distant family members close for the holidays, oh and a cup of Folgers coffee.
What makes Christmas special
We all have things that make this time of year stand out to us. Television shows, holiday lights, parades, and more, but for me it was the commercials that came out this time of year. Many of them showed perfect families loving each other this time of year, creating lasting memories and just enjoying being together. That didn’t always happen in our family, but on that one magical night we forgot those problems, even for just a few hours. We could enjoy being together, eating good food, exchanging thoughtfully wrapped gifts, and just being together. It was how I wanted us to be all the time. As my childhood faded, I lost those attachments to the commercial and the holiday. I grew to dislike Christmas because I was reminded of what we, actually, were and not those childlike fantasies. Christmas faded from me.
Four and a half years ago, I met a man who loved Christmas in a way that only children can fully relate to. He kept those memories alive and carried them around with him. He believes in the spirit of Christmas and Santa Claus and while I tried to remain steadfast in my dislike of all things red velvety, corny Christmas goodness, he broke me. He brought back to me the wonderment of Christmas in how he views this magical time of year. And too, my love of those old Christmas commercials from my childhood. The icy grip on my heart slowly melted and wonderment has been slowly taking its place. I just hope sharing these commercial memories can bring you some small joys from your past.
What about you, are there commercials from your childhood that just resonated with Christmas to you? What about them made you feel that way? Are there commercials I mentioned that you had forgotten about? Let me know your Christmas memories in the comments below. Let’s see how big of a list of commercials we can make.
Gay in the CLE 