Customer Reviews

The '70s Dimension

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The 70s...big hair, red velour, Technicolor plaid polyester pant suits, smiley faces, boogie vans, roller discos, 8-track tape players, and wall-to-wall shag carpeting...a little film called Star Wars dominated the theaters, American was engaged in a foreign war, and the price of gas went through the roof...er, wait...sounds a heck of a lot the current state of affairs...I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same. The 70s Dimension provides a glimpse into the early, and often painful, rapid expansion of television and its potential in terms of a tool for disseminating information to an increasingly growing and diverse public. According to liner notes on an informational booklet in the DVD case, what is presented here by filmmakers Matt McCormick and Morgan Currie was picked after rummaging through some twenty hours of material, all recovered from the dumpster behind a Portland television station. Back in the day when these ads were originally shown, they were either done live, or the shot on 16mm film. There really wasn't any intent to preserve any of this material for posterity, as it was considered disposable, not meant to live past its brief moment in the sun...the DVD is separated into two main sections, the first called `What the 70s Really Looked Like', the second titled `70s Remix'. Within the first section, which contains material as it was broadcast on TV, there are eight parts, listed as follows;

Appearance (5:54) Exercise enthusiast Jack LaLanne hawked crappy exercise equipment, Farrah Fawcett showed us how easy it was to get the feather looked with her Lady Speed Schick Styler, and Mage the manicurist enlightened millions to the miracle healing benefits of Palmolive dish soap `You're soaking in it!'. We also learn FDS was created for that `unique, feminine need', whatever that is...and if you didn't want people to publicly comment on your ring around the collar, you'd better damn well use Wisk laundry detergent.

Appliance (7:09) Did you know Packard Bell used to make color TVs and stereos? A company called Magnavox did, too...and they were made in America, back when our economy was more manufacturing based rather the current trend towards servicing. After a long day of cutting the grass with your Jacobson lawn mower, with its four blades for twice the cutting action, you could settle back with a mixed drink made from your Oysterizer Cyclomatic blender and enjoy a fine program on your Magnavox color TV, with your Channelmaster Color Crossfire Antenna pulling in a near perfect signal.

Drink (7:43) Fresca didn't want us to be left out in the heat, and Olympia Beer touted that it was `in the water', whatever that meant. Coca-Cola was pushing Tab on females, telling them to be a `mind sticker', keeping your shape in shape by drinking Tab so that your husband won't find you unappealing as you sit around the house all day eating bon bons...we also learned, through the fine people of Folgers, that American men hated their wives coffee, often commenting on it publicly, and usually with little tact (Is your coffee really that bad, Janie?). Ahh, Schlitz Beer was a manly brew, one for men looking for gusto wherever they could find it and if you were headed for fun, you headed for Blitz Weinhard Beer.

Food (6:30) Planters was for `snappy snacking', Crisco helped make digestible fried foods taste not so greasy, Wonder Bread was `rich and fabulous', Blue Bonnet margarine had five kinds of flavor, and everyone thought getting a Underwood Devil ham sandwich for lunch was something special. Also, there must have been issues with the public's conception of the safety of grocery store bought meats as USDA told us products with their stamp of approval meant safety...hot dogs must have gotten a bad rap, too, as we got to experience the `truth' about them...I always thought the truth meant they were made from only the finest leftovers of processed animals...

Military (2:24) It's interesting to see how hard some of these military organizations were pushing to recruit women, especially the United States Air Force aka `The Now Place to Be'...oh, not to be pilots, but to be nurses, data entry personal, and other, non combat positions, as they had plenty of `exciting and glamorous jobs for girls'.

Potpourri (6:31) ABC wanted to welcome us to a bright new world with their primetime, Sunday sports and after school specials programming, and we were told to `let go' by smoking LM cigarettes...unless you were of the independent sort, then Old Gold was the brand for you...I mean, why smoke `em if you can't taste `em? All of which was moot if you lived in Marlboro country, because everyone knew that was where the flavor was...

PSA (9:53) In case you don't know, PSA is an acronym for `Public Service Announcements', something all television stations were required to broadcast back in the day, to which they would usually stick them in the schedule late at night or early in the morning as not to use up prime, valuable airtime. There are a number of spots here involving venereal disease, traffic safety, jobs for ex-convicts, and so on...Henry Fonda and The Department of the Treasury warned us of the use of illicit drugs and the band Chicago hipped us musically to the fact that `shootin' dope' meant `loosin' hope'...oh yeah, various church groups seemed to not like technology, especially The Christian Reformed Church. Also included is probably the most famous PSA from this time period in the anti-pollution one with the Native American, cruising down a polluted river in his canoe, landing on a garbage strewn beach, only to have some throw a bag of litter out their car window which lands across his moccasins...to which he turns to the camera with one, single glycerin tear rolling down his face...

Transportation (10:56) The new Cameros were in, along with the Winnebago's...seat belts usage was being pushed, and Caesar Romero informed us that `Airports were America', whatever the hell that meant...we also learned engineers were working on a system of overhead, suspended people movers in order to alleviate pedestrian crowding and traffic snarls within our cities...good job on that one, guys...

The second section, titled `70s Remix', features six experimental video projects utilizing clips and various techniques. The longest runs about 11 minutes, the shortest about two minutes, all very odd, interesting, and even fun...one or two seemed a bit pretentious, but whatever...I thought over all this was an interesting view encapsulating a time many of us might have forgotten (probably on purpose) when television advertising had yet to come into its own...one thing's for sure, regardless the product, advertisers live by a singular constant, sex sells. Overall I though the content on this DVD a little light, but otherwise very good. The picture quality strong throughout, and the menus and content set up very well...also included on the DVD are upcoming releases from Other Cinema titled The Subject is Sex and Tribulation 99: Alien Anomalies Under America (1992).

Cookieman108

First of all, this is an excellent quality DVD, considering these commercials were scavenged from a dumpster at Portland's ABC affiliate. But over 90% of these appear to be from 1971-1973. The ABC fall announcement of Starsky and Hutch and Charlie's Angel's advertising the Schick Speed Styler appear to be from about 1976, and several others such as Crisco shortening, the Color Crossfire Antena, and Jacobsen Lawn Mower appear to be from the mid-1960's. Nice selection for sure, but too Nixon era, before the bicentenial and disco. These were my favorites:

1. Old Gold cigarettes. For "independent people". Probably a way to justify the reason the cigarette was never popular to begin with.

2. L&M cigarettes. The ultimate relaxation cigarette. The people on the commercial all look too old, healthy, or thoroughly clean and decent to be smokers.

3. The one with a 50-something woman advertising window treatments. The commercial itself is not that interesting, but the woman's bright red suit, half-horn glasses, and teased hair are downright scary. Looked like a 70's elementary school teacher, the disciplinarian you were scared of.

4. The military ones advertising the Marine reserves guaranteeing you a beautiful girl, expensive sports car, and good life, and the Air Force catering itself to females more than any other branch (which I agree).

4. The two at the begining and end of the DVD justifying hot dogs as wholesome and nutritious because each weiner has 10% of your daily protein needs and they're USDA inspected by professionals

5. The famous "Keep America Beautiful" one. The stoic Indian looking into the camera and shedding a single glycerin tear scared me when I was little and seemed so out of character.

Anyway, if the filmmakers could take commercials from about 1975 to 1980, it would be wonderful. Hopefully they read this review

Not all the commercials are from the 1970's (Crisco ad looks like it was from the early 60's), but it's a fun watch for (with the exception of 1 or 2 commercials, i.e. the VD commercial) the whole family. It's amazing what psychology was used to sell products in the pre-cynical age from which these ads were culled. I bought this as a gift for somebody else, but after having viewed it, I may have to buy it for myself. The 3 short films, especially "Thine Inward-Looking Eyes", are genius, weirdly-juxtaposed clips that are extremely entertaining.

The "70s Remix" part of this DVD gets my vote for 'Best' Picture of the year. "Thine Inward Looking Eyes" invokes suspense, humor, pathos and satisfaction without a hint of dialogue. The cleverly-edited short subjects, such as "Mark Roth" and "Toastem Pop-Ups" display more creative versatility than "Walk the Line," "Brokeback Mountain" and "Crash" put together. For those of us who appreciate film as art, "The 70s Dimension" delivers, in a spectrum of browns, ochres and avocado greens, a delightful and refreshing retrospective of a doubleknit polyester plaid jacket culture where merchandise could be purchased with cigarette pack coupons; where your "good shape" ensures your status as a "mind sticker".

The commercials are all adult: lots of alcohol, cigarettes and coffee. I was hoping for more commercials for kids, because I was a young kid in the '70's. Where were the Boo Berry ads?

I bought this item because I'm teaching a seminar on 1970s culture and because I recall reading a positive review of it in the music magazine THE WIRE (not the tech mag) when it came out. That review rolled around in my head for years and finally I found this video after some searching. Well, my desire grew as the memory rolled around, but when I got the item it wasn't worth the wait. I guess the lot of videotape appeared after dumpster-diving the garbage bin of a tv station (a charming back-story) but the collection is simply not that terrific, considering the price and the length (only an hour). It reminds me of an old Woody Allen: diner #!: "the food here is awful." "diner #2: "And such small portions!" If you're a hard-core commercial collector (some of these are funny), this dvd is worthwhile. If you're looking for interesting cultural detritus from the 1970s, this is only partly useful. Some of the commercials included are not even from the 1970s, as far as I can tell--which is kind of false advertising about false advertising. So, we are still waiting for a good collection.

Good: while not all ads are in fact from the '70s, the quality is better than any other "commercial" compilation that I've ever seen. Clear video, good sound, no flips & jumps like some comps, and they almost seem restored...excellent. Bad: the running time of the ads isn't enough to warrant the price. The other contents of the disc are recently produced, seemingly LSD inspired trip-out shorts, that are just plain old bizarro and a waste of space in my book - I sure would have preferred to see more ads, period. Apparently there was over 20 hours of footage discovered...so, why only release 1 hour worth? What you get is 57 minutes of ads (66 of them) and the rest is moot.

Let's get right to it. First the bad. Many of these commercials are not from the 70's. Half of the disc is commercials and PSA's, the rest is film shorts or student films that seem to use 70's period material in a collage format. One in particular is very entertaining, the rest is in the eye of the beholder.
Now the good! All the commercials and PSA's are of excellent quality (not HD of coarse). I have been collecting vintage commercials since the 90's. I have them on VHS and DVD. Many commercials show up on multiple disc's, and are of excellent (very few) to poor quality (many). I have only a couple of these commercials on my other discs. If you are looking for commercials from the 60's and 70's you will not be disappointed that they are not just 70's era.
If you collect Pop Culture or vintage commercials I recommend this disc. The only reason I give it 3 stars is hopefully, people will read my review so they know they are not getting a disc of all commercials, and can make an informed purchase.
I should also add that there are no water marks on these commercials.

Finally somebody is not only wise enough, but has the resources (meaning the actual footage) to release this cannon of 70's commercials and PSA's. This is by no means the authoratative history of television commercials in the 1970's, but it is a really good start. It's really great how the producers of this disc separated the commercials into general categories (appliances, furniture, health & beauty, etc.) to select from on the DVD menu. There are many random and insignificant commercials and PSA's scattered among many classic ones as well (such as the anti-littering campaign with the crying indian). I think my favorite things were the network broadcast logos and such for ABC, sports, after-school specials, etc. The sounds and visuals really brought back childhood memories. The only drag in my opinion is the fact that in the notes it says that they uncovered hours and hours of footage, however only a mere smattering is available here. One would hope that they would release additional volumes. However, I also get the idea that perhaps this was the best of what they found. And while there is plenty of good stuff here, the fact that there are some things here that aren't so good, makes me think that everything remotely good is on this disc. That being said, I would still love to see the rest. The additional elements on the disc are some "art films" edited together from random commercials that I don't believe appear anywhere on this disc. These are interesting but probably too bizarre for most of the general public. I'm sure the people that made them had fun though. Bottom line, not a flawless collection, but the best one I've ever seen. Enjoy.

Filmmakers Matt McCormick and Morgan Currie should have returned to the dumpster behind that Portland, Oregon television station where they found this collection to see if the station dumped more material from LATER in the 70's as well. A better titling here would have been The Early 70s Dimension.

This collection, fascinating as it is, appears to date mostly from about 1973. The 70's really weren't the 70's until at LEAST 1976 or so. From then on, the Me Decade was in full swing, and the television commercials started to show a little more pizzaz than those on display here.

What IS here is not without interest, but there's just something dull about that 'tween era that fell between the 60's and mid 70's, and these spots--67 in total--reflect that conservative, suburban blandness that hadn't yet been changed by the fallout from watergate, the oil crisis, disco, the American bicentennial and so on. To the untrained ear, it sounds like every single one of these commercials that features a narrator uses the SAME narrator. Well, we do get to hear Ernie Anderson on one lonely ABC promo spot for Starsky and Hutch.

Others here have done an decent overview of the types of commercials included in the set. In addition are six short, avant garde films that utilize additional advertising and PSA footage not found in the collection. These run the gamut from pretentious to pretentious, and, not unexpectedly, don't really say much about an era for which there just isn't much to say in the first place. Of most interest is Damon Packard's "Toast 'ems" which features plentiful snippets of his oafy pal Sage Stallone (Sly's kid) goofing around in front of the camera (guess this is the best work he could land post-Daylight). These are the kind of films that, at best, play underground film fests or are part of "installations" in art galleries, and as such, those not so attuned might find them monotonous.

Overall, this is recommended largely for anyone who lived through the era (I did, but I was only 4 in 1973, so most of this stuff had little impact then, less now). The quality of the clips is generally quite good considering their age, but you just keep hoping that eventually they'll make their way to 1976, 1977, 1978, and so on. There's just so much more to the 70's Dimension once you enter the second half of the decade. One only wishes that Portland station had thrown out more stuff than they did, or that McCormick and Currie had chosen to go dumpster-diving on a different day.