‘Chockadooby’. #80sAdvertising #NurseryRhymes

Easier to illustrate in books of children’s nursery rhymes. Because, well, without that? Just read those lyrics. We’re basically just talking about a normal guy who fell off the top of a massive wall, and suffered such brutal injuries that parts of his body were separated from… other parts of their body. Irreparably so. Try illustrating *that* for children’s book! #80sAdvertising #NurseryRhymes

And from there I guess it just… got traction? Made sense? Humpty Dumpty is now an… egg. Yes. Because eggs break. You can’t put *them* back together again. #80sAdvertising #NurseryRhymes

It’s not until Humpty was featured in Lewis Carroll’s ‘Through the Looking Glass’ that he was ever referred to as as looking "exactly like an egg”. But that’s Carroll’s addition, here. Not the original nursery rhyme. #80sAdvertising #NurseryRhymes

Perhaps more disturbing though? Is that if you actually *think* about it? Nowhere (in any commonly recognised rendition of the nursery rhyme) is Humpty Dumpty ever actually described as *being* an egg. He sat on a wall. He had a great fall. Nobody was able to put him back together again. That’s all. You’ll probably find a picture of an egg in your book of nursery rhymes, sure. But it’s not in the words. #80sAdvertising #NurseryRhymes

And I mean who would not find this oddly human-faced Humpty disturbing? It’s pure nightmare fuel. #80sAdvertising #OldBritishTelly

That Kinder Surprise advert I just reblogged is apparently from 1983. I vividly recall it. It was profoundly disturbing (especially for something marketed at kids) but somehow I had parsed that in my head as a Cadbury advert. #80sAdvertising #OldBritishTelly

When you thinking of crackly VHS film grain and bright neon? That’s really the early 90s. Not so much the 80s at all.

#80sAdvertising #80sRetro

And yes, there was a fair bit of electronic synth driven music. But pop culture wise? 80s Britain had lot of two tone. A lot of reggae. A h lot of Ska. A lot of bluesy pretentious saxophone driven music. And good god, spare us all from all the Stock, Aitken and Waterman…

It was a lot more diverse than people seem to be remembering it.

#80sAdvertising #80sRetro

Brown. Grey. Green. Red.

Very occasionally? Navy blue.

80s Britain was the colour palette over a painfully overcast day.

Part of what added a lot of the brown into that colour palette? Was wood panelling. Everywhere. Even TVs and radios were covered in the stuff.

#80sAdvertising #80sRetro

Folks, forget the neon. Forget the pinks and blues.

I don’t think I can adequately convey just how Briwn the early 80s was. And Beige. Seriously, looking back at 80s film and TV you would be forgiven for wondering if blue had been removed from the colour palette entirely. Plenty Red. Plenty Green. Very little blue.

And certainly never *bright* blue. Where you *had* neon signs they were mostly red or green.

#80sAdvertising #80sRetro

I’ve been sliding back down that 80s advertising rabbit hole on YouTube again. It got me thinking.

We have been going through something of an 80s revival in the past few years (kicked off by the likes of Stranger Things). And when we see people embracing this aesthetic it’s generally very bright. Lots of neon. Pinks and blues. A loud colourful electronic synth-wave utopia.

As a guy who grew up through the early 80s, reader? I have some bad news for you…

#80sAdvertising #80sRetro

A vague stumble down a YouTube UK 80s advertising rabbit hole, has reminded me of the needlessly complicated ongoing narrative of Kellogg’s Frosties having a ‘secret magic formula’. A formula which others were endlessly trying to steal, foiled time and again by Tony the Tiger.

Can’t helping thinking you’d have to be a total idiot to know what that formula was.

It’s sugar, isn’t it, Tony? A fuckton of sugar.

#Kelloggs #Frosties #Cereal #SoMuchSugar #80sAdvertising