Are There Any High Quality Non-Public Domain DVD Collections Of TV Commercials? (1 Viewer)

[greenscreened]

Back in the 1980s, there were quite a few TV specials highlighting mostly vintage, but some newer commercials in the same program.
I think they also had maybe about a half-dozen yearly Clio Awards specials as well.

I taped quite a few of the above on Beta and VHS, but those are gone now, but IIRC, some of the vintage ones they aired were good quality prints, so they do exist.

I did an Amazon search for TV commercials, but they all looked like PD.

IIRC, I bought a VHS of vintage Coca Cola or Pepsi commercials in the eighties, and the quality was good.

I don't know if it's even possible, rights wise, to have a quality collection of misc. commercials with varying sponsors in one collection.

I have an old link somewhere in my saved bookmarks on an ext hd from a site that specialized in selling high quality commercials, which included licensing, but I'm sure they were out of my price point, but I wouldn't my purchasing a pricey DVD or two.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

The best-quality commercials DVD I have is called "Colorshop", available from modcinema.com. All are good 16mm film transfers. There was another one called "The 70s Dimension" made from 16mm commercials rescued from a TV station's dumpster, but that's been out of print for a while. I'd love to see some high-quality DVDs of videotaped commercials also.

 

[greenscreened]

Thanks Jesse, I'll check them out now.

Just out of curiosity, I'm gonna try to find the link to the source I mentioned above.
I never really entered their site, just their homepage, which IIRC, gave me the feeling I couldn't even afford their cover charge!

 

[The 1960's]

Ira Gallen TVDays. No one on Planet Earth has more high quality vintage commercials than he does! I know because I bought hundreds directly from him back in the 80's. Good guy too!

 

[greenscreened]

Wow, he sure does. I had to force myself away from that link till I have more time.
Thanks for the link, Neal.

 

[The 1960's]

He is a one-of-a-kind. Quite a character. Historic!!

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You are welcome!

 

[Mark Y]

The best-quality commercials DVD I have is called "Colorshop", available from modcinema.com. All are good 16mm film transfers. There was another one called "The 70s Dimension" made from 16mm commercials rescued from a TV station's dumpster, but that's been out of print for a while. I'd love to see some high-quality DVDs of videotaped commercials also.

I have both and both are highly recommended. "The 70s Dimension" ends with the anti-pollution PSA with Iron Eyes Cody.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Ira Gallen puts logos and watermarks on everything to "protect" them- he's been doing it even longer than the TV networks. I bought some VHS tapes in the 90s that all had an annoying "VR" logo onscreen constantly, I threw them away.

 

[greenscreened]

Ira Gallen puts logos and watermarks on everything to "protect" them- he's been doing it even longer than the TV networks. I bought some VHS tapes in the 90s that all had an annoying "VR" logo onscreen constantly, I threw them away.

I started going through my old FF bookmarks the other day to find the link to that site I referred to upthread that had broadcast quality commercials, that also mentioned something regarding licensing, one way or another.

Way back when, I didn't enter the site, but the 'L' word gave me the impression that there were no logos or watermarks on them, one was buying ownership on the property(s), to do what they wish with them, but I could be entirely off base on that assumption.

I tried to open several groups of bookmarks (that may contain that link) from around 2015/16, and they couldn't be accessed.
I then tried to revert back to the BMs that I saved earlier that day, and the one's on my toolbar had disappeared, which scared me, so I reverted back to the ones I saved the day before, and everything was normal.

Soon, I will copy the BM folder to a zip, and try to open them up on an older Mac, 'cause now, I am so darn curious.

 

[The 1960's]

Ira Gallen puts logos and watermarks on everything to "protect" them- he's been doing it even longer than the TV networks. I bought some VHS tapes in the 90s that all had an annoying "VR" logo onscreen constantly, I threw them away.

Interesting. Perhaps at some point he got fed up with people heisting his stuff and reselling to others. Ñone of the commercials I purchased from him had any watermarks. But as I stated above that was back in the 80's maybe earlier. It's hard to remember now.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

He's been doing that at least since the 90s. The logos don't stop anyone from 'stealing' his stuff anyways, they just do it regardless. The commercials he provided for the "Television Toys" laserdisc don't have any logos, but those transfers have been ripped off and included on several DVDs- but the transfers are still recognizable as being the same because of the film elements and stuff. Defacing transfers with a logo isn't preservation, it's vandalism.

 

[The 1960's]

Here’s some wonderful old commercials preserved by the great Ira Gallen. Most of these include the stars of classic television!

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[The 1960's]

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[The 1960's]

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[greenscreened]

I finally got a chance to search some older saved bookmarks from 2015 as I said I would from earlier in the thread, and I came up with this one, though I don't know if it is the one I was referring to earlier, as I thought their library included stuff earlier than the mid-seventies, which is where this site's collection seems to start.
I will venture to guess you all are looking for commercials older than that, though.

I just called them and they said the price is $100 for ads with watermarks and $300 for ads without them.
Their source is from 3/4" U-Matic tape.

If you go to their site, they have a top-ten '80s' compilation special for a National Geographic project that the guy on the phone said NG just completed last week, that I'm guessing they supplied some of the commercials for, though I didn't see their name listed in any of the credits.
Maybe it's on his site because he has those commercials for sale?

What I did see, unfortunately, in the credits, were three names under Covid Supervisors category which I've never seen before...double bummer.

Be sure to click on the blue National Geographic :44 button, not the USATVADS 'Play' trailer button.

I'll keep checking my old bookmarks to see if I can find that other link.

Home - USATVADS America's oldest TV Ad Library

USATVADS have been collecting TV commercials for more than 40 years. Nobody has a more extensive library that can match our quality.

usatvads.com

 

[ScottRE]

$300. PER AD?

Yikes.

Remember the days when we taped stuff off the TV and edited commercials out? I spend more time tracking them down now and putting them back in...

 

[greenscreened]

I would barely spend $300 for a 1950s-mid '60s, or even '70s commercial, let alone mid-eighties and later.

There are a few that I would consider, if he gave a hefty discount on multiple buys.


I bought my Sony 2700 Hi-Fi Stereo in 1984, the day it came out, and started taping everything I could, whether I've ever seen it or not.

I think around '85 or so, TV stations stopped showing old obscure movies and television shows, some which never saw the light of day, even to this very day.

With more and more people buying VCRs, I had heard it was to keep them from being taped for free, in hopes they could one day put them out for sale.

I also started hearing it was due to music rights.
In both cases, these decisions were being made by the children and grand-children of the estates associated with the above reasons, not even music rights issues.
I'm guessing those families involved wanted 100% of what they were asking for, or no deal.
Well...they (and the studios as too, as well), finally got their 100%, but it's 100% of n0thing!

There was a tie-in of sorts with the thread title and it's that I've also not seen too many TV specials devoted to showing classic pre-1970s commercials.

Did that stop somewhere in the nineties(?), I don't know, as not only was I not seeking those kind of shows out anymore, I rarely watched any current television shows from that era on.

I had a pretty good video cassette library of television and movies that would occupy my screen time.
I also had a half-dozen or so cassettes of the many shows that were devoted to showing those older classic TV commercials in broadcast quality.

Before I got rid of them, I re-watched them to see if any were worthy of transferring them to digital (which takes up a lot of space on the Mac).
I decided against it, as I thought that they will surely be available for sale on DVD, so I got rid of them.
I think the technical word for that decision is OOOOOPS!

Here's a few commercials the top of my head that I wouldn't mind owning pristine copies of, though certainly not @ $100 a pop, or even for a CDs worth, even sans the watermark.
100$ for a 6 or more DVD collection of pristines, I may be a taker, depending on the content.

Alka-Seltzer...No Matter What Shape Your Stomach Is In (I really wish there was an extended audio version of this exact session, sans the spoken word, but not the commercial T-Bones radio hit version):



Volkswagen Beetle Funeral:



Benson & Hedges Disadvantages Of You (non-existent extended original session audio of this one as well):



1969 AMC Rebel:

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I've found two of someone else's off-air recordings of those "Greatest Commecials" specials, ironically on one of them the regular commercial breaks were cut out- so someone appreciated commercials enough to tape the special but still cut out the regular ones that could have been classics in the future! I have tons of old tapes where the commercials are worth far more than the show that they aired during- one of my favorites is an overnight airing of "A Night at the Opera" on WCBS in New York, in 1978.

Just remembered that one of those later specials called "The World's Funniest and Cleverest Commercials" made it onto DVD from Goodtimes, I bought that just based on the title but was disappointed it was a TV special with talking and laughter over the featured commercials.

 

[Sky King]

Hi all,

That 1955 Vel detergent ad was interesting.
A young Inger Stevens and also if you didn’t notice, a young Art Fleming playing the husband.
The AMC Rebel ad made me laugh out loud. Its been years since I’ve seen it.

John