It’s the early 1990s, and I am sitting before the TV. No doubt I am watching after-school cartoons, or perhaps early morning Saturday cartoons.
No matter. What has stuck with me
after nearly twenty years is not the content of the show, but of one particular
advertisement. It involved high-stakes action, ninjas and foam darts.
It was an ad for the NERF Bow ‘n’
Arrow, and it blew me away.
Of course, watching it again in 2012
renders it a little more ridiculous than it was back then. A friend of mine
owned one of these devices, and I have to say that it was not quite the
powerhouse weapon that the ad makes it out to be—though it was a great deal of
fun.
I think this ad typifies a wider
90’s trend (that quite possibly began even earlier) of marketing boy’s toys in
as EDGY and X-TREME fashion as possible. A former boss of mine and I were
discussing this a few years ago, particularly in reference to Hot Wheels toy
cars.
In discussion, we noticed a few
common features across these X-TREME ads:
*vaguely heavy metal music, often
(though not necessarily) with vocals related to the product
*narration emphasising the
SERIOUS NATURE of the product
*editing that makes things look
far more intense than they actually are
Thinking back over it now and
watching a few ads on YouTube, it all seems highly cynical and outrageously
outdated. Yet as children we fell for it all, buying up all the cheap plastic
junk we could, largely because of the way it was advertised.
SERIAL OFFENDERS FOR X-TREME
ADVERTISING:
*Hot Wheels
*NERF
*Super Soaker (which are produced
under the NERF brand these days, I might add)
*Mighty Max
*G.I. Joe
Even so, although I look back on
it with different eyes these days, I can’t deny that I did have a lot of fun
with these toys. If anyone has any further suggestions, I’d love to hear them.
Also, do they still do this
X-TREME thing with marketing kid’s toys? Or was it more of a 90s thing?
