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Archive for nostalgia

Cola Wars: Awesome Vintage Pepsi commercials

Posted in 80s, advertising, commercials, Michael Jackson, Pepsi, pop culture, soda, TV with tags advertising, commercials, Michael Jackson, nostalgia, Pepsi, pop culture, soda, sodapalooza, TV on February 25, 2010 by Paxton

Pepsi and The Hoff

Shawn Robare over at Branded in the ’80s is reviewing his trip to the World of Coke in Atlanta and it got me thinking about the Cola Wars of the ’80s. More specifically, soda commercials I loved during the Cola Wars.

I love the battle between Coke and Pepsi during the end of the last century. So much awesome merchandising and memorabilia come out of that time period it’s mind boggling. Both Coke and Pepsi unleashed on our consciousness oodles of celebrities, pop songs, commercials and advertising that sculpted our current pop culture consciousness and is still remembered today.

Let’s take a look back at some of Pepsi’s best soda commercials.

Just this past weekend I watched Michael Jackson’s This Is It on Blu-Ray and loved it. The man new how to perform and he had SO MANY good songs. In the ’80s Michael was a pretty big spokesman for Pepsi and made several commercials (one in which he famously caught on fire). For me, one of the best, if not THE best, Pepsi commercial ever made was Jackson Street (clip above), which premiered on the 1983 Motown 25 TV Special. I still get goosebumps when I watch it. This commercial featured an unbelievably catchy jingle-version of Billie Jean. It also starred a young Alfonso Ribeiro (Carlton on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air). See another Pepsi commercial MJ made called The Chase.

Ray Charles’ “Uh-Huh” commercials were all over the place in the early ’90s. They had 6 or 7 versions of them including Ray in a courtroom and playing his twin brother, Irv. My favorite version came in 1993 which showed other celebrities (Charo, Tiny Tim, Bo Jackson, Jerry Lewis) auditioning for Ray’s singing part.

Around the time Michael Jackson was a Pepsi spokesman, another Michael (J. Fox) was also signed on. Fox starred in several commercials, mainly for Diet Pepsi, that are considered classics. The commercial above is one of his first featuring him in the library trying to be quiet while buying a Pepsi from a vending machine. See another Pepsi classic called My New Neighbor here in which Fox tries desperately to find his hot, new neighbor a Diet Pepsi.

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The Star Wars Holiday Special and its vintage merchandise

Posted in movies, nostalgia, pop culture, Star Wars, TV shows with tags movies, nostalgia, pop culture, Star Wars, TV shows on December 3, 2009 by Paxton

A few weeks ago I wrote about the infamous The Star Wars Holiday Special and its 31st birthday. I also promised a followup discussing toys and items released to promote the TV special. Well, that article is up on Monkey Goggles right this very moment. I discuss the prototype Chewie’s family toys you see above as well as a media kit and several other items released back in the ’70s to promote the horribly received Star Wars special.

So click on over to the article and read about these rare and vintage Star Wars items. Honestly, the Monkey Goggles article is one of my favorite articles I’ve written. I really am proud of it. Take a look and let me know what you think.

And just to let you know, Saturday is Ninja Day! So I’ll have two new ninja themed articles on Friday and Saturday for your enjoyment!

Glorious Glass: A look back at some of my favorite collector’s glasses

Posted in advertising, comic books, movies, nostalgia, pop culture, reviews, Star Trek, Star Wars, Superman, The Flash with tags advertising, Burger King, comic books, glasses, McDonald's, movies, nostalgia, pop culture, reviews, Star Trek, Star Wars, Taco Bell on July 28, 2009 by Paxton

Fast food joints used to give out the best swag back in the day. At the top of this swag list was commemorative collector glasses. These were glasses made from ACTUAL glass (not f’n plastic) with kick ass graphics all over it usually given away as a premium with a purchase of food or drinks. Actually, collector glasses didn’t just come from fast food joints. The convenience store 7-11 as well as soda giants Coke and Pepsi both created collector’s glasses that were distributed in stores, gas stations, supermarkets and/or fast food joints. The heyday of collector glasses was in the ’70s and ’80s, but glasses were also released in the ’50s, ’60s and ’90s. Burger King recently revived the collector glass (real glass!!) tradition in May 2009 with their four glass set for the new Star Trek movie (Thanks, Michelle for finding those for me).

So without further ado, here are a bunch of my favorite collector glasses from the ’70s and ’80s. You can click any of the below images to see it bigger.

Burger King Star Wars/Empire/Jedi Glasses (1977, 1980, 1983) — The most famous of all commemorative glasses, the Star Wars Burger King collector glasses are what everyone thinks of when you mention “collector glasses”. A set of four were released for each movie. Surprisingly, it is not very hard to complete a set of all 12 as they made a crap-ton of them. Here’s a pic of the Star Wars set. Here’s a pic of the Empire Strikes Back set. Here’s a pic of the Return of the Jedi set.

Glasses for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom by 7-Up (1984) — This is probably one of the more obscure glass sets. Made by 7-Up to commemorate the second Indiana Jones movie, the glasses were only released to certain local fast food chains so getting a full set is extremely hard. I don’t care about a set, but I would love the Mola Ram glass (far right hand side) with him holding the still beating flaming heart. That is BAD ASS. A year earlier, in 1983, there was a set of three glasses created by Coca-Cola for Raiders of the Lost Ark but the set was never released. Check those glasses out here.

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Slammy Awards: The 5 most hilariously awful musical albums by professional wrestlers

Posted in Hulk Hogan, nostalgia, pop culture, wrestling, WWF with tags Hulk Hogan, humor, Macho Man Randy Savage, music, nostalgia, pop culture, wrestling, WWF on July 8, 2009 by Paxton

WWF logos I used to watch and follow professional wrestling. In the mid ’80s, the biggest game in town was the WWF. Wrestlemanias I (1985), II (1986) and III (1987) were HUGE. In fact, Wrestlemania III, at the time, had the largest recorded attendance for a live indoor sporting event in North America and is considered the pinnacle of professional wrestling’s popularity. I had it on VHS but I’ve watched it so many times the video tape actually broke. The superstars that competed in those three Wrestlemanias are known to even non-fans today; Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Macho Man Randy Savage and even Mr T made an appearance to wrestle with Hulk Hogan. The most recent Wrestlemania was number 25, held in April of 2009, and while professional wrestling is still wildly popular, it has not kept the mainstream audience it had back in the mid to late ’80s.

Back during the golden years of the WWF, Vince McMahon was in his prime. He marketed the everlovin’ CRAP out of his little federation. True, he does it now, but really, McMahon has become almost a mockery of himself at this point. Back then, he was a marketing genius, now, more a media whore than a media mogul. Vince’s “all over the place” marketing strategies included video games, a line of giant, plastic action figures by LJN and a cartoon. Now, companies do that all the time but back in the ’80s, that kind of cross promotion was unheard of. Then, in 1985, Vince decided to move into the music making space. Wrestlers have always had theme music that accompany them to the ring. Instead of purchasing licensed songs, Vince thought they should record their own songs and market them on music albums. So he gathered pretty much every wrestler he employed at the time and had them record their own theme music. And the results were GLORIOUS.

Here are those first 5 heinously awful music albums as recorded by the wrestlers themselves.

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I have an article on Skooldays blog

Posted in nostalgia, Pepsi, pop culture, soda with tags Crystal Pepsi, nostalgia, Pepsi, pop culture, soda on June 15, 2009 by Paxton

Just a quick note, I was asked by the blog at Skooldays to write a few nostalgic articles for them. So every once in a while I’ll be posting a nostalgic memory about an item from our pop culture past, much like I do right here on this blog. Only, over there, the articles will be a bit shorter. This week, I had an article posted about Crystal Pepsi. Hop on over to their very cool, nostalgic site and take a look at my article, first, of course, then check out the myriad of other remembrances from our pop culture past.

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