I talked about PSA's the other day but there are other kinds besides those aimed at children on Saturday morning. PSA's can be seen for adults also, movie theatres often run psa's before movies, and the radio can be chalk full of public service announcements. Yet another area that always interested me is comic books. This is when an entire comic is trying to raise awareness for a good cause, and advertising at the same time.
I guess it makes sense, kids are likely to pick up any issue that has their favorite character on it even if it is a deliberate advertisement. And yes, a PSA is still an advertisement even if the goal is more sincere. Though some PSA's are less subtle than others. It's actually quite a genre, but once in awhile the comic misses the mark. There will be a goofy element, or just a lame story, which takes the well meaning PSA and turns into a joke because of how silly it is. Here are some examples:
Heroes Against Hunger
In the 80's one of the biggest problems was the famine in Africa, and there were lots of efforts to assist with that. From "We are the World" to this PSA comic in which everyone at DC had a handle in. The problem with the issue is that they created a generic super villain to fight, called "The Master" or some nonsense, which I think was a mistake. It's fine to have a bad guy like a gangster or something realistic but when it's a sci fi based villain like here or aliens as in other PSA's you're diminishing the problem. Then Lex tries to fix the problem with science but is told the situation is to messed up for that.
It was almost ten years ago that I did a look at my favorite PSA's growing up. About five years later, I went over the more memorable PSA characters that have been famous in pop culture. But the 80's gave us a lot of PSA's, and some of them are remembered more than others. We loved the PSA's because they were so silly and goofy.
Here are five more PSA's that I never quite got out of my head.
Bugs Bunny for Kitchen Safety
This is a pretty straightforward one regarding staying safe in your kitchen. Not much to really say about it, though as an adult I realize Mel Blanc did all the characters not just Bugs.
When I was a kid PSA’s were all over the place. I talked before about
how PSA’s were often tacked onto the end of cartoons, but sometimes a
PSA would be its own thing with a cute or memorable character that
managed to make it popular. Here are five of my favorite PSA mascot’s.
The one rule here is that these have to be original characters created
for the PSA, not existing characters. That’s another subject my friends.
#5.Time for Timer
Am I the only one who remembers? It feels that way, it was on all the
time on Saturday mornings! Ok I talked about this a looonnngggg time
ago but here we go again. Timer was a cartoon character who looked like a
matzo ball. He basically promoted stuff like healthy eating habits and
personal hygiene.I remember one where was inside the human body talking
about how food is processed for energy. One was set in a western setting
and he sung about cheese as a good snack (this was a long time ago!).
Another he sung about a healthy snack called sunshine on a stick. It’s
orange juice frozen in an ice cube tray. You put sticks in the juice, and
voila you got homemade orange Popsicle! And yes, I tried this.
So I decided it was finally time to talk about this, even though I am
hardly the first to do so. Why? I’ll answer that as we go. I present
one of the coolest ideas that any kid of the 80’s remembers :
This came along twenty-five years ago, April 21, 1990, and aired on all four networks! That
was a major thing at the time! And if you were a kid, as I was, it was
pure epicness! All of our favorite cartoon characters together? Oh hell
yes! We couldn’t wait to watch this! But did it live up to the hype?
Ummm..let’s talk about it
Oh are we going to have some fun today my friends! I have touched
upon this here and there but never really explored this fantastic PSA
series which aired on ABC in the 70′s and 80′s. ANYONE who was a kid
during then knows about these, I don’t care who you are or how much you
pretend otherwise. And yes I know ABC and Disney re-ran these through
the 90′s so I am sure most here are familiar with these. Of course I am
talking about:
The series began in 1973 and covered included grammar, science,
economics, history, mathematics, and civics. What makes these so
memorable and timeless is the method used to teach these things. Quirky
music videos with memorable lyrics you will never get out of your head!
Before I begin the list, let’s here that opening tune!
Now this is all just opinion, these are my personal favorite episodes
#10.Electricity
This gets the top spot because while the song is memorable…I am not
sure if it’s really good. The song is about, well, electricity! It is
clever and well done for a subject matter that really isn’t very
interesting. In fact when the narrator discusses how electricity works
even at my age I’m going HUH?
WATCH IT HERE
Starting
what I hope will be a new series talking about the great (and not so
great) specials from the 80's and 90's. We just don't get these anymore,
not counting that awful Betty White's 2nd Annual 90th Birthday Special.
I adore Betty White but That was seven kinds of stupid.
Today
I want to talk about a special which has become almost infamous. It
aired on Earth Day in 1990 and was simply claled "The Earth Day
Special". I loved this as a kid because of the all star cast. As an
adult I find it more and more...silly.
My
brother and I videotaped this and I still have it to this day. I have
seen it several time and it gets weirder every time. I will say one
thing, it sure does have an all star cast. I'd be here all day if I
listed everyone who appears in it. Basically the special is a series of
cutaways and cameos. They do try to hammer in a narrative, but it gets
so lost toward the end you forget it.
Ah,
PSA’s! I talked a bit about this awhile back but decided to elaborate a
bit today. There was something special about the PSA’s we had when I
was growing up. They were corny, sure, but they were entertaining and
memorable. I am not sure what they have today, but I feel safe in saying
they just don’t make them like this anymore.
There
are lots I could mention from Woodsy Owl (Give a hoot,don’t pollute!),
to McGruff the crime dog (ah, take a bite out of crime), Smokey Bear
(only you can prevent forest fires!) The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints, The crash test dummies, and even a crying indian!
Good times. I won’t get into the drug PSA’s(like the one with R2D2
smoking!!) because Nostalgia Critic covered those very well many moons
ago. Instead I wanted to talk about the PSA’s which aired onSaturday
mornings in between cartoons. Remember when getting up on Saturday
morning was a big deal? I loved to get up and watch the awesome
cartoons. Part of the fun were the cool PSA’s that we got. Here are my
five favorites.
#5.He-Man PSA's
It was a rule that said every kids show had to have a moral lesson, so pretty much every show in the 80's threw PSA's onto the end of their episodes. He-Man was no exception, but everyone did this even Sailor Moon!
#4.Time for Timer
I
am betting this is the one many people have never heard of. Though
Family Guy did do a parody of it. This one is hard to explain but let’s
give it a shot. Timer was a cartoon character who looked like a matzo
ball. He basically promoted stuff like healthy eating
habits and personal hygiene.I remember one where was inside the human
body talking about how food is processed for energy. One was set in a
western setting and he sung about cheese as a good snack (this was a
long time ago!). Another he sung about a healthy snack called sunshine
on a stick. It’s orange juice frozen inan ice cube tray. You put sticks
in the juice, and voila you got homemade orange Popsicle! And yes, I
tried this.
#3.Knowing is Half the Battle! from G.I. Joe
As I noted back in the
80’s all cartoons had to have something educational in them. He-Man's were goofy for the most part. G.I.Joe however, now these were cool! Maybe it was because
G.I.Joe is set in the real world so they could cover real dangers, or
maybe it was because they didn’t force the moral to be tied to the
story, but I still remember a few of these to this day. The format was
simple, a couple kids would get into a situation and a member of G.I.Joe
would pop up and give some sound advice. I loved G.I. Joe and the PSA’s
were a great end of each episode. These are so popular that they still
get made fun of. Is it lame that hearing the tag line on these still
makes me smile? Now you Know!
#2. Schoolhouse Rock
Why
oh why can’t they have stuff like this on today? Is there anyone who
has never heard of this, unlikely since these ran well into the 90’s?
Conjunction Junction, I am just a Bill, The Great American Melting Pot,
Electricity!….I love these! Basically these were shorts about English,
Math,and various other subjects with very creative songs that you can’t
get out of your head no matter how hard you try! My favorite is the
adjective song, the cartoon has a girl camping and she sings about how
she was “Unpacking her Adjectives”. Ok the animation was never much but
the songs were cool and the educational stuff was top notch. It’s not
always easy to make educational content memorable and enjoyable, but
this show does it very well! Unlike the rest of these all of these have
all been collected on DVD.
#1 One To Grow On
I
loved these!! Can I state that emphatically enough? It just wasn’t
Saturday morning without these awesome PSA’s. Basically the concept was
we would see a situation involving kids, for example complaining about
having homework, and suddenly the scene would zoom out to a celebrity
explaining whatever the moral was. After the celebrity explained the
mistake the kid was making the scene would zoom back in and we'd get the
proper resolution to the problem. Not only were these fun and
educational,they were a who's who of who was on NBC at that time! Name a
star on NBC in the 80's, from Michael J.Fox to Soleil Moon Frye, and
they did at least one ofthese. Even Mr.T! Sure not all of them were
perfect, they could be corny and not well acted, but man these bring
back some great memories. If you never heard ofthem, or just feel like
reliving some fun memories, I shared some YouTube links but there are plenty more to check out!
PSA’s
are still around today of course, including CBS Cares and the never
dying NBC classic, The More You Know……. which has been around for ages
(since 1989!) and was even parodied in an episode of Scrubs. At this
point virtually anyone who was party of NBC in the last almost 25 years
has done one. The piano tune with the star logo has become as popular as
the aforementioned G.I.Joe slogan.
Is it just me, or would anyone else kill for a DVD collection of all of these?
Last week I talked about five things I kind of missed by
being an 80’s kid. Today I wanted to touch on a few things I was lucky enough
to experience.
#5.MTV
I know it's hard to believe, but there was a time when MTV
actually showed music videos! All day! I used to sit there for hours watching,
and they even had "v-j's" to introduce the songs. My favorite was
Martha Quinn, man did I like her. I know when they dumped that format it was
still decent; they had Remote Control and Beavis and Buthead among other things.
Still, I miss the good old days. Then VH1 came along and went the same route.
What on Earth do these networks show now? I can’t remember the last time I
turned either on.
#4. Birth of Syndicated Cartoons
Until the mid-80's programmers didn't believe that new
cartoons would work during the week, so kids were stuck with reruns of Saturday
morning stuff. That was until the mid-80's when a little show premiered called
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Not only was this watched, it was a
mega-hit. Yes, I watched it every day for a while twice a day if memory serves.
The success led to other first run cartoons during the week including G.J.Joe,
Transformers, She-Ra, Thundercats, DuckTales, and later on Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles, Batman: The Animated Series and the X-Men cartoon I never watched. But
He-Man was the first, and I enjoyed every second of it. Yes some people say
these shows were just thirty minute commercials for toys, but I never
understood the problem with that. Don't kids play with toys? Are there people
who really thought kids had no interest in the toy area of stores until these
shows came along? And even if it’s true, it's still the parents responsibility
to decide what they are going to purchase, isn't it? These shows were awesome,
how awesome? Well, there’s a reason why Hollywood keeps trying to revive them
as movies. Transfoerms and G.I.Joe sucked, maybe a Master of the Universe movie
will work (oh wait, they did that in the 80’s…) The cartoons were awesome, 'nuff said.
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