laowhy86

Retro Commercials

Added 2016-01-16 05:01:49 +0000 UTC

It's been really fun doing this videos with my wife. I feel like she is really getting better on camera.

When sifting through a lot of these commercials to make the video, I realized that China didn't put out a whole lot of original content when it came to advertisements. Most of the ads came from Hong Kong and Taiwan. This is an obvious symptom of the lack of consumerism that was in China at the time. However, after talking with Vivi about it, it seemed that the rampant, entertainment saturated, attention deficit nature of my childhood was missing something.

Sure, I did a lot of playing outside, and exploring etc... but the constant bombardment of ads, toys, and entertainment certainly took something away from the potential pure childhood that I could have had.

This "in your face" attitude that bombarded us with adverts for Ninja Turtles action figures, juice boxes, and the latest video games also cause animosity and competition at recess. The rich kids were always keen on showing off their divorced parent's "love" through the newest Boba Fett action doll, or a gleaming new grey Game Boy; much the envy of a boy like me. This materialistic attitude created cliques, and social grouping. Something children shouldn't have to deal with at such a young age.

Vivi's stories hark back to a simpler time. She told me that they couldn't afford a soccer ball, so they filled a plastic milk jug with fireflies to kick around in order to be able to see the "ball" at night.

When there was no temptation for material objects, there was creativity. When there was no pressure from advertisements and consumerism, there was no competition. So much so that my wife told me that there were no real "cool kids" throughout most of her school days.

I think there is something healthy about that.

Anyways, climbing the hill to chase the chickens, catching snakes, building tree forts, and exploring the jungle sound a hell of a lot more fun than holing up in some kid's basement to play the latest Nintendo game.