I'm officially going to change my name to Wakko "The Mallet" Warner.

Fun fact, from what I can gather; the Echuca Bargain Centre is now a music store. Quite ironicly, the store's sign is a vinal record.

I think the reason behind why you couldn't find too many interesting local ads from the UK is because of the extremely heavy regulation. The country was split into regions for TV broadcasting, and each region had a single TV company servicing it, and the region would have covered around 4-5 million people. By comparison, in Australia, cities with 3-4 million people had 3 commercial TV stations, and country TV stations usually each covered populations from 100,000 to 500,000 people (these covered vast geographical areas, too). The large number of commercial networks meant cheap advertising space, and so a lot of unique local ads came about. The limited advertising space in the UK obviously priced out anyone looking to advertise on the cheap, and meant that only companies that could afford to advertise professionally were able to access commercial TV advertising. There are heaps of British ads from the 80s on KZread, but they're all from large companies that could afford to advertise like Cadbury and Heinz, etc.

That's actually one of the more subdued Lowel "The Hammer " Stanley commercials. He's usually screaming about bringing the hammer down. He would have made a great 1980s pro wrestler.

Holy crap the sound effects during the Frank Azar commercial had me dying laughing!! Great job with that!!

I’m a retro commercial enthusiast. I was actually looking for American public access commercials also more modern. I actually live near Bendigo, Australia. Love all the old retro Aussie commercials. Makes me feel very nostalgic. Keep this up mate, love your work👍🏻

I am watching this on my iPad and right when you mentioned how much lawyer ads there is, I walked into my living room and saw an ad for a lawyer

@MrWolfSnack

7 жыл бұрын

When you're watching daytime trailer trash talk shows, every commercial break is a lawyer or money loan ad. lol

@albear972

7 жыл бұрын

Or a scam trade school

if you were a judge why would you call yourself "the hammer" and not "stoptimus crime"

7:30 Those dresses look like they were designed by Mrs. Bucket from Keeping Up Appearances.

@AliasUndercover

7 жыл бұрын

It's Bouquet...

@HappySnoutHour

7 жыл бұрын

AliasUndercover only according to hyacinth.

4 жыл бұрын

@@HappySnoutHour Richard says it was "Bucket" before he married Hyacinth.

The "What just happened?" at the end of the Lounge Discounters one had me laughing far too hard.

9:03 Fun fact: The dude in the Focus Video ad was Adelaide's most famous talk radio shock jock, Bob Francis. That said, he became a shock jock a few years after this ad was made. Sadly, Bob passed away in 2017.

Dial A Chicken is the best thing ever!

@chrysanth.5700

7 жыл бұрын

Summer Laverdure I am still not sure why this even existed. Has the nation really changed that much over the years that Dial a Chicken needed to be gone?

@chrysanth.5700

7 жыл бұрын

Summer Laverdure I am still not sure why this even existed. Has the nation really changed that much over the years that Dial a Chicken needed to be gone?

@summerlaverdure

7 жыл бұрын

It's a tragic loss.

@iaincowell9747

7 жыл бұрын

Have you ever tried talking on the phone with a chicken?

@robsimp1436

7 жыл бұрын

I did once, it was a total cock-up

That Dial A Chicken had chicken BREASTS.

@TimelordR

7 жыл бұрын

Freako Funny...

@iaincowell9747

7 жыл бұрын

Never heard of chicken breast?

@jdbarker32

6 жыл бұрын

When will I see an animation from you featuring that chicken?

@childalpha6954

6 жыл бұрын

Freako Do it

@B5DIN

5 жыл бұрын

Furry senses ticking

I actually have a tape full of local ads from Tuggeranong (actual name) in Australia's capital

@iamoutofideas1

7 жыл бұрын

reason I mentioned it was because there's this one ad for a sewing supplies store that's a goldmine

Thank you, Ben! The first local commercial episode is one of my all-time favorite Archive episodes. (I can't drive on the Captial Beltway around DC without thinking of that Wheaton Plaza jingle when I see University Boulevard!) To see it get a sequel is awesome!

I remember Jim "The Hammer" Shapiro airing ads in the Rochester, NY market in the 90's. The man in the Lowell "The Hammer" Stanley ads later did ads for Shapiro (early 2000s)

I assumed you had Jim "THE HAMMER!!" Shapiro in a previous Archive entry somewhere, seeing as well-known and infamous his commercials are in the Manitoba/N. Dakota/Minnesota quadrangle. Hell, he could fill an entire entry alone with his sheer bombast. I began seeing them on Fox 12 out of Pembina/Emerson, North Dakota in 1992 while living in Manitoba, and they just get progressively crazier in all aspects as the millennium approached. (Much like life in general, yes? Or no? ...Yesno?) In the background, early CGI ragdoll animation plays a visual medley of misery, as humanoid figures are tossed around by crashing automobiles, fall from ladders, smash through glass panes, and fly into walls, trees, and posts, along with HUGE TEXT BLOCKS, explosions, copious hellfire, raining gold and green dollar signs, and his ubiquitous "foil-wrapped potato" sledgehammer. (While he didn't beat wrestler Greg Valentine to the nickname, the sledge was his visual trademark long before Triple H hefted one.) Of course, he gets LOUDER and ANGRIER, building up a vortex of injustice-fueled rage, then pulls the trigger on his Zeus-like wrath as he howls his holy name and number, unleashing power to shake the heavens and devastate the puny mortals who wouldn't properly settle up for your misfortune. Lo, he shall MAKE them PAY! It's enough of sensory assault to blow you across the room and cause you wicked whiplash...and then, I suppose, he'll take himself to court and SQUEEZE himself for EVERY LAST DIME - for YOUUU. But the strangest Shapiro advert of all ran completely counter to his image. This single commercial showed him as quiet, warm, empathetic, measured, and polite, telling the viewer how he can help. He's seated at his mahogany desk in a book-lined office, with not a lick of CGI and absolutely no aggro. He even refers to himself as "James Shapiro, Attorney", sans "the Hammer". I suppose it was aimed at seniors who would've probably told him, "Your advertisements are simply horrid and filthy, young man! Turn down that awful tone of voice, keep a civil tongue in your head, and don't you dare shake that fist around! You are not a monkey in a zoo!" When he retires, he could make a little additional pocket change by selling DVD compilations of his commercials, along with tracks of candid reflections on life as a (shouting) lawyer.

@brianhebert6152

Жыл бұрын

Never knew that he advertised his legal services in states as far away from the Rochester area as North Dakota...

13:43 Benny Boy, I Knew you were going to say Bob Ross the moment I saw that afro.

@FernieCanto

7 жыл бұрын

You take that joke, and you beat the devil out of it.

13:20 Ben, you read my mind! Almost every ad looks like an SCTV skit.

@TimelordR

7 жыл бұрын

5Rounds Rapid Especially the attorney ads

Jim Shapiro was a legend in central NY state. That wasn't even close to the most over the top ad of his... and his ads ran ALL THE TIME on the local TV stations in the Syracuse and Rochester area. You could almost set your watch to them.

"Introducing Cal Worthington and his dog Spot!"

@SeanDamonGreene

7 жыл бұрын

lol !

Oddity Archive has more of what you're lookin' for! That is gonna be stuck in my head for days.

What the heck did that American Sound commercial do to the Tic Tac Dough theme?

We have a "hammer" here in Kentucky Darryl Isaacs who is suing someone for 4.5 million for running over him while he was on a bike. He is not his own lawyer in this case.

"I get my deals from Frank Azar and Cal Worthington!"

6:59 Plumbers Don't do Car Commercials

"IS THERE ANYTHING WRONG WITH A BIG PILE OF CASH?!?"

@TimelordR

7 жыл бұрын

sirkowski Only if you don't want one!

2 attorneys who have the nickname "The Hammer." I hope they don't sue each other for this.

"Australian invertility epidemic" ffs, dewd, that gem caught me off guard, lol.

@5roundsrapid263

7 жыл бұрын

Marius du Plessis Cleavage wasn't invented until 1995.

@Not-TheOne

7 жыл бұрын

5Rounds Rapid luckily for me just in time (age) for when I started to appreciate women. ;)

Kind of like "The Hammer" -- there's also "The Heavy Hitter" which appears to be a nationally available gimmick that can be localized. I've worked in two different TV markets (Albany, NY, and Providence, RI) that have "Heavy Hitters" - they use the same jingle/graphics/music package, just different names/phone numbers.. and of course, the numbers go with the jingle. There's also a set of lawyer ads with David Leisure in them where the voice-over section is really obvious. On a separate note.. I never noticed before how many Rs they drop in Australia. (SO MUCH RUBBAH!) Are they transplants from New England? ;-) Zayre's, Bradlees, Caldor.. ah, the memories..

17:55 Oh my God... this feels like a repressed scene from a porno movie. I could have sworn this commercial was screaming "menage-a-trois!"

@visaman

7 жыл бұрын

Alfredo Rodriguez Reminded me of Boogie Nights!

@MrShiffles

5 жыл бұрын

@@visaman 18:11 Roller Girl!

I used to loathe a lot of these commercials when they came on TV but now I find them very amusing. Snark bait, I guess.

@SnabbKassa

10 ай бұрын

Narm charm

OMG!! I'm from northern California and in 1999 my buddies and I took a road trip to Mexico and in LA we saw this EXACT commercial for Crazy Gideon!!! We constantly joke about it but we couldn't remember what his name was or the store name. Thank God I found this video because I desperately wanted to see this man breaking his tv again

"If at first you don't make it as TV lawyer, try professional wrestling" - Confucius.

I lived in Hampton Roads for four years, and Lowell Stanley's ads have never failed to entertain. He is the most recognized lawyer in the 757 area.

Is that a pre-SNL Leslie Jones in that Franklin D. Azar commercial?

Caldor, Bradlees AND Zayre?!!!! I'm good, you don't need to make another Archive episode for about another year. #CaldorForever

The reason the attorney nicknames are the same is that there are national marketing campaigns for lawyers. They're kind of like franchises - the nickname and messages are taken by lawyers in various markets.

Also some of the Lowell "The Hammer" Stanley commercials used the same hammer animation that the Jim "The Hammer" Shapiro commercial did. I guess there must be a stock "Hammer breaks sound block" animation in their crappy editing software....

Local TV of Britain started out in 1955 with the birth of ITV/ Independent Television. For instance, my areas local ITV station was ATV/ Associated Television in the weekdays and ABC/ Associated British Television (the guys who bought you The Avengers (not the superhero stuff)). Basically, as adverts were concerned, there would be 'ATV TELESPOTS' or 'ABC ALL INCLUSIVE SPOTS' in which you'd find little adverts, usually one still with a voiceover saying something like 'Holiday sales are now on! So come on down because at Stantons Packet Holidays the Price is Right!' And then it would have an address but that was it!

@xenohtype

7 жыл бұрын

Mini Mort 2 They also had these little (what I believed to be called) opticals in-between commercials, something I wished that American TV also had.

@xenohtype

7 жыл бұрын

Mini Mort 2 PS: I think it's safe to say that ATV made some of the best British programmes of all time (i.e. The Muppet Show, Tiswas, Beasts, Crossroads, etc). Midlands for the win!

@RetroGUY77

7 жыл бұрын

Sadly the optics are quite rare on TV now, they're just not needed. I also know that in Europe they were very common too.

@xenohtype

7 жыл бұрын

Well, since the commercial are not in film anymore, I think they became obsolete. They were pretty much present in all English-speaking countries, save US and Canada. I saw them on a compilation of South African ads from 1987 (bonus: all of them were in Afrikaans!).

@xenohtype

7 жыл бұрын

PS: Weekend television is probably the funkiest thing I've ever seen on TV. At the same time, I acknowledge that the glorious LWT wouldn't have existed without it.

Best thing I could possibly watch today. thank you!

22:44 "At Korvette's, you'll find more than just a couple of fucking stereos. We've got fish pie in your pants, we've got saag paneer!"

LOL! On the Bradlees intro! (Yes, the one with the mime.) Great job, Ben. (First time commenting, longtime viewer!)

The water bed ad at 13:27 may be the most disturbing thing ever.

12:36 Who remembers this from Top Gear UK? When James and Jeremy are building the car for old people?

@brianhebert6152

2 жыл бұрын

I do

Yes, i was waiting for another part of local commercials :)

The Focus Video ad is from Adelaide, South Australia. I think the building is a Chinese restaurant now...

Did that American Sound commercial play a warped version of the Tic-Tac-Dough theme?

Video Locomotion is the one video store Minty from Minty Comedic Arts talks about since he's from Australia.

Do you remember the "eagle insurance" TV commercials, from Chicago?

I entered puberty watching a TV ad in the late 70s for GWG Jeans. All it was a sound track of BUM,BUM,BUM, and video of women walking down the sidewalk.

OMG Linda Soundtrak that's a Oklahoma Commercial for sure.

There's a Walmart were Decorator's Gallery use to be,where Parkdale Plaze once was.The old Woolco building next to it is still there,it's a Sutherlands now.

I am a UK viewer and love your channel.You are right about the ads ours are pretty mundane.

@daftoptimist

7 жыл бұрын

Steph L Having watched a lot of archives of ads that ran nationally through the 70s and 80s in the UK, I can say that your commercials had catchier songs than ours did stateside. And yes, I am counting our Mentos ad. The Mentos ad I forgot after a couple years, but that damn "Never In a Month of Sundays" song from the Bisto ad will not. Go. Away.

I assumed you had Jim "THE HAMMER!!" Shapiro in a previous Archive entry somewhere, seeing as well-known and infamous his commercials are in the Manitoba/N. Dakota/Minnesota quadrangle. Hell, he could fill an entire entry alone with his sheer bombast. I began seeing them on Fox 29 out of North Dakota in 1992, and they just get progressively crazier in all aspects as the years pass. In the background, early CGI ragdoll animation plays a visual medley of misery, as humanoid figures are tossed around by crashing automobiles, fall from ladders, smash through glass panes, and fly into walls, trees, and posts, along with HUGE TEXT BLOCKS, explosions, copious hellfire, raining gold and green dollar signs, and his ubiquitous "foil-wrapped potato" sledgehammer. (While he didn't beat wrestler Greg Valentine to the nickname, the sledge was his visual trademark long before Triple H hefted one.) Of course, he gets LOUDER and ANGRIER, building up a vortex of injustice-fueled rage, then pulls the trigger on his Zeus-like wrath as he howls his holy name and number, unleashing power to shake the heavens and devastate the puny mortals who wouldn't properly settle up for your misfortune. Lo, he shall MAKE them PAY! It's enough of sensory assault to blow you across the room and cause you wicked whiplash...and then, I suppose, he'll take himself to court and SQUEEZE himself for EVERY LAST DIME - for YOUUU. But the strangest Shapiro advert of all ran completely counter to his image. This single commercial showed him as quiet, warm, empathetic, measured, and polite, telling the viewer how he can help. He's seated at his mahogany desk in a book-lined office, with not a lick of CGI and absolutely no aggro. He even refers to himself as "James Shapiro, Attorney", sans "the Hammer". I suppose it was aimed at seniors who would've probably told him, "Your advertisements are simply horrid and filthy, young man! Turn down that awful tone of voice, keep a civil tongue in your head, and don't you dare shake that fist around! You are not a monkey in a zoo!" When he retires, he could make a little additional pocket change by selling DVD compilations of his commercials, along with tracks of candid reflections on life as a (shouting) lawyer.

One would think the lady in Frank Azar's ad might learn to use a seat belt!

"If your accident results in your death, call Mike 'The Hammer' Hammer!"

The Focus Video advert was a South Aussie business, as the advert said, it was on the corner of West Terrace and Pirie St.

I can't believe you used a Jim Shapiro ad and didn't use the *best* one. "I cannot RIP OUT THE HEARTS of your enemies! I cannot hand you their SEVERED HEADS!" Seriously, that's how the one after the one you used started. It's... epic.

Is that my mom on the box? whoah!

9:26 -- I love how that store's sign looks like a giant Dymo label...

I remember those Decorators Gallery ads when I was growing up in San Antonio. Whacked out then...whacked out now.

I walked by Crazy Hudson's once when I was younger. It was in LA next to Olvera Street and Little Tokyo. In spite of the heavy advertising it had back in the day there was no cars in the parking lot on Sunday in the afternoon in spite of the fact that it's pretty busy there during the weekend. I regret not walking in when I had my one and only chance.

Superior Waterbeds! Been a while since I've seen anything from them. They were a staple of Houston TV ads clear up until the late 90's.

I love the editing for the intro

"I TAKE ALL THE CASES OTHER LAWYERS WON'T TAKE" because he demands cash down

These "hammer" attorney's are nothing. Here in Dallas, we have Jim Addler, The TEXAS Hammer!

@fixman88

4 жыл бұрын

THOSE commercials I remember!

Some of these lawyers remind me of Saul Goodman

@excrono

7 жыл бұрын

anthonyorm 2:53 "Airplane Crashes", that reminded me of Breaking Bad as well.

@dreamypunx

7 жыл бұрын

anthonyorm Only if Elder Law is involved.

The R.A Gabriele ad is one from after the "Call R.A. Gabriele" song lost the lyric, "the lawyer who sends flowers." I'm not joking. For years when I lived in the DFW metroplex, that was his tagline. My brother in Virginia refused to believe me on that. HE, on the other hand, introduced me to the ads of Lowell "the Hammer" Stanley.

When he mentioned "The Hammer" I was hoping to see Lowell The Hammer Stanley! I took a class trip to Virginia in 1996 and all I remember from the TV in the hotel was 1) A rerun of Saturday Night Live on WAVY 10 (w/ Foo Fighters) and 2) LOWELL THE HAMMER STANLEY! Jim Shapiro's potato hammer was also used on the ads I saw for Lowell! But I am saddened that the Samman's ad was from "Ben's Private Stash", because I'd love to know what New York area TV station showed that commercial, I don't remember ever seeing any, but with only 2 locations pretty far from the city, that would make it HYPER-local.

Sydneys Lounge Discounters had a number of stores around Melbourne at the time above the Sydney Road Brunswick one.

YES I grew up on those Lowell "The Hammer" Stanley commercials...

I kept my eyes peeled and both hammers are literally beside each other in this video

I love all these local commercials. Please do more. 😀😃😎😄😊😉😅😆😇🤗🙂☺

Black lady not paying attention while driving while showing her check. His favorite clients

background for Lounge Discounters. They were the bargain version of the local Melbourne furniture chains. Saba furniture was a large furniture warehouse, specialising in large overstuffed lounge suites, they had two cockatoo mascots, Dave and Mabel. Then there was Franco Cozzo, worthy of his own archive episode. He had ads running for decades advertising expensive looking heavy cheap Italian crap, the kind that Donald Trump puts in his guestroom to impress visitors, and having full minute ads saying exactly the same thing in Italian, then Greek, then English, and mispronouncing the name of the suburb "Footscray" as "foot-es-cray" and "Brunswick" as "Brunsawicki", his Brunswick shop being just down the road from our crazy mustache friend in this video. There was also one who did actually cut a lounge suite in half with a chainsaw, but that one sank into oblivion up against the mighty Franco Cozzo, who still has his large furniture store right next to Footscray station, with his mural on the back wall. His son had been convicted of drug smuggling somewhere along the way, that might or might not be related to Cozzo's success.

@dangerouslytalented

7 жыл бұрын

And Bendigo is an old gold mining town, with big old fancy buildings in the middle, surrounded by a run down country town.

@AlexOnTheBus

3 жыл бұрын

Lounge Discounters were, going by the address, up the road from Franco Cozzo’s Brunswick store - which explains the owner’s/pitchman’s pop at rivals with poor English skills.

@TheKnobCalledTone.

2 жыл бұрын

IIRC Lounge Discounters started in Adelaide, until it eventually ended up expanding interstate. The thing is that Ben could make an OA episode featuring nothing but local Australian ads for furniture stores. Lounge Discounters, Franco Cozzo, Mr. Bankrupt... they're just begging for more of the OA treatment.

Funny how there is that exact same Sansui stereo and speaker in a computer lab at my school...

I know that a furniture store in cleveland, Ohio called Norton Furniture that has the cheapest looking ads

I tried to find any ads for Buzzo Music in Geneseo, NY, which would have made a great inclusion, but YT has none. There is other footage, though, of the legendary Buzzo from concerts and such. There might be a Real file of one ad somewhere, if memory serves. Al "Buzzo" Bruno, the Big B, had both new '90 sand vintage '70s "rerun" commercials aired on the same Fox affiliate as the Hammer. Two amazing men, as different as plutonium and pickled beets, in the same commercial break was quite a thing to behold. Buzzo and his ads were simple and loveably quirky. Many spots had a chorus of employees, musicians, and patrons happily chanting "Buzzo Buzzo Buzzo Buzzo" roughly to the tune of "Flight of the Bumblebee", while Buzzo, replete with some of the wildest hippie hair you've ever seen, would list off his wares - from 78s to CDs, reel-to-reel to cassettes, instruments to books. From the store photos in the commercials, it must've been Paradise for music lovers. Picture a new and used record and instrument store of the LP era on a downtown street corner in any city, then multiply the whole enterprise by 100. Wonderfully over-crammed with stuff, like something out of Diagon Alley, and with a Dumbledore-like owner.

Ahh ... Gary and Marcy. It seemed like Levine's was going out of business for years. Jake Jabbs came to a party at my house once. No idea why. He didn't bring the lions and tigers.

I know our host is from the Denver area where I am from, too. I still live there, like Ben. I love seeing the Levine's Furniture ad! & Frank Azar! And Jake Jabs!

I moved to Norfolk, VA in 1995 and Lowell "The Hammer" Stanley commercials were all over the TV. I thought they were the best ads ever.

I miss Zayre. That place is light years ahead of Ames.

Schweig Engel in St. Louis had the most bizarre ads ever. Their output was so vast and odd, you could do a Part 3 on just them.

You are right Bennie that there aren't many local UK commercials around (well on the internet anyway). I remember that in the late 1980s as a young kid growing up in Birmingham we were one of the first places to get cable TV when all of our country had only 4 channels! There were local adverts on this - and some of them were awful, mostly on slides with a voiceover. They seemed to be inserted into broadcasts but my memory is a bit bad at trying to remember what channel they were on. Originally Birmingham Cable was a standalone company, merging with Telewest then eventually becoming part of Virgin Media, making all cable national. Nationally ITV channels (the main commercial broadcaster) has national adverts with some (albeit few) local ones for region, Im in the Yorks and Lincolnshire (middle of nowhere) region and you don't see many locally specific adverts! Wish i would have had the foresight as an 8 year old to record the cable on VHS!

"Give us a wing!" HAHAHAHA

when i was a kid....sometimes the tv channel i was watching would go black and show a white grid and looked like the screen on a oscilloscope complete with the curving wave line going up and down...this would last a few minutes and then followed by line after line of what looked like hexadecimal data scrolling down the screen!!!...all of this would last about 2 minutes..then the tv signal would return....sometimes this would happen 4 times a day!!!...this whole mess lasted about 3 years...then one day it stopped and i never seen it again!!!...

@fixman88

4 жыл бұрын

Our cable system in Texas had a dedicated channel that had something like that on it back in the 90s. My father (who is a technician) told me that it had to do with measuring cable system signal strength.

@newstarcadefan

4 жыл бұрын

@@fixman88 I actually remembered seeing that on my local system, it was very weird indeed.

@MichaelPKelly-hg5jo

2 жыл бұрын

Loved it, the OscilloChannel.

22:00 Nice acknowledgement of New England, Ben!

Wow, It’s been along time since I’ve seen an ad for Crazy Gideon’s. They were a staple of KCAL channel 9 here in Los Angeles.

This is amazing.

love these

i so remember lounge discounters and the freebie guy :)

I hope you had the Empire Carpet Man 588-2300!

Hey! Old Bear! I haven't seen his ads in ages. Going out of business will have that effect...

I just noticed that this was the first time I heard Ben laugh

She complains about another driver running a stop sign and she's driving paying no attention to what's in front of her.

Didn't expect to see Ed Bernstein as the first video. He's still a local fixture here in Vegas, though he ditched the "Take the first step." slogan a while ago.

Bargain Bernie is love. Bargain Bernie is life.

TJ Maxx and Nate Lions are my fave local commercials from back in the day

im pretty sure that the dude at around 3:20 also did a commercial for Shapiro as well, using the 'he might be an SOB but he's your SOB" slogan!