For the people that experienced them, the 1980s seemed like a simpler time. The economy was booming, Sam and Diane were the perfect couple, and all you needed to worry about was whether you could tease your hair high enough.
Okay, maybe it wasn’t all that idyllic. It was also in the middle of the Cold War, cultures around the world were experiencing an upheaval, and technology was speeding ahead at a breakneck pace. People didn’t know what the future would look like.
It was an era of some of the most iconic and bizarre ads of all time. The 1980s were all about capitalism. Ad agencies tapped into the idea that sex sells and used it for, well, everything.
Big hair was in, and so were the products you needed to achieve it. Clothing was loud and big, with puffy sleeves, high-waisted jeans, and ruffles everywhere.
The people of the 80s loved technology. To them, it seemed like the stuff of the future. To us, their computers, Walkman radios, and cell phones seem hilariously primitive. Regardless, people thought it was amazing — and to be honest, it kind of was. These 80s ads will give you some serious nostalgia.
This Jordache jeans commercial is wrong in so many ways. Body-shaming? Check. Creepy comments about a teenager wanting to date his friend’s mom? Check. No punchline? Check.
“Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful” has got to be one of the cheesiest commercial lines of all time. Hopefully, that actress got paid well to say those cringey words!
One of the most iconic commercial lines of the 1980s was this one by Wendy’s that featured three elderly ladies trying to connect to management to learn more about their ingredients. Apparently, squawking “WHERE’S THE BEEF?” is enough to knock someone over…on the telephone?
Yes, I suppose Ben Franklin would have that reaction if he time-traveled to the 1980s and saw a computer for the first time. But it’s a pretty primitive device for all of us living in the late 2010s.
Could anything about this ad be more 80s? We’ve got a guy in a blazer with his sleeves rolled up, he has a mullet, and he’s playing a synthesizer. He’s obviously excited about the whole thing, too
The 1980s saw the rise of portable music for the first time. Everybody loved being able to listen to songs while they walked down the street. Of course, that meant carrying something too big to ever fit in your pocket.
Being a stay-at-home mom in the 1980s was hard! Of course, it was easier if you could simply yell, “Calgon, take me away,” only to be transported into a luxurious bubble bath.
Man, commercials don’t give you a full rundown of how to play tabletop games anymore! Of course, it was easier to do when the game could be summarized in a sentence. Pretty sneaky, sis.
These commercials were weird throughout the years. However, they peaked to a new level of bizarre with the 1992 version. In this one, a young boy saw a vision of himself drinking milk and turning into a man, complete with his future girlfriend, who cooed, “Hi Tom, I’m waiting for you.”
Back in the 80s, email was a revolutionary concept. What’s more, it was still referred to as “electronic mail,”. Apparently, it was extremely overwhelming for people like this man here.
12. Have a Coke and a Smile
“Coke adds life” proclaimed this ultra-bouncy commercial of 1980. It also adds short shorts, soccer games, dancing in high-waisted jeans, and cheering for one another from lawn chairs.
Nothing says “health” like a dancer in leg warmers taking a break with a cigarette. These days, you won’t see ads for cigarettes, but they were still alive and well in the 80s.
In 1986, the most effective way to market wine coolers was to have two old men stiffly tell everyone that these drinks go with everything, including doughnuts and fish. I’m not sure that would be effective with today’s audience.
If you were an 80s kid, maybe you had one of these terrifying almost life-size dolls. They were marketed as a type of mini-me for children and followed them wherever they went. It’s totally not creepy at all.
This commercial claimed that Cherry Coke was so good that it had to be brought to people of every decade…well, at least from the 50s to the 2000s, that is.
Can you imagine liking Weird Al so much that you paid almost $30 to watch his video at home? Then again, it does promise to “give meaning to your boring, miserable life.” So, maybe it was worth it.
If you weren’t around in the 80s, you might not be aware of just how huge boomboxes were. Here with a person for size comparison, was the coolest music player of the decade. Yeah, boomboxes were big.
If you wear short shorts, you need to use Nair, claims this commercial. It also advertises Nair for the bikini line, which should make every woman gasp in horror at the thought.
If there is one thing that the 80s are known for, it’s big hair. That’s where products like Dep came in. They were designed to keep hair standing tall for hours on end. If it didn’t feel like barbed wire, it wasn’t enough!
Chocolate, peanut butter, and a popular arcade game — all made for a commercial that had everyone quoting, “Your peanut butter hit my chocolate! Your chocolate hit my peanut butter!”
Madonna was the It Girl of the 80s. So, it’s not surprising that she was featured on an ad for beauty products. With that being said, could anything be more quintessentially 80s?
Back in 1989, you could buy your own cell phone! Of course, it was a corded phone that came with a suitcase-like attachment. It could have been yours for the low price of $799.
slideshow type=desc num=26]Get ready for the weirdest commercial for soda you’ve ever seen. Spoiler alert: it involves sultry saxophone music, a dog, and a guy shooting Coca-Cola at a sexy lady from across a boudoir.
I spoke too soon. This one depicts Michael J. Fox braving rain, traffic, vicious dogs, and a literal motorcycle gang all so he can get his sexy new neighbors some Diet Pepsi.
If “frozen pudding on a stick” doesn’t sound good to you, you’re not alone. But essentially, it was just a popsicle, and of course, Bill Cosby liked them. So, consider it a successful marketing campaign.
Ah, the 80s, when no one thought it was weird to have the title character from a children’s movie selling alcohol! To be fair, at least he’s promoting a good message about drinking and driving.
Nothing says “80s” like advertising big hair that’ll stay big even if someone, um…squeezes your head? It seems kind of intimidating, but she looks like she’s having a good time.
The 1980s ushered in the era that thought that athletic was sexy! That meant it was time to throw on your colored leotard and get your jazzercise on. Don’t forget your leg warmers!
For some reason, someone back in the 80s thought this was a good idea. It sounds absolutely revolting, which is presumably why it’s no longer on the grocery store shelves.
A battery-powered car designed to look like the Delorean from Back to the Future? Everything about this ad screams 80s, even down to the store, Toys R Us.
You know what’s missing from breakfast? Ghostbusters and marshmallows. Two things that marketing agencies in the 80s honestly thought kids would go for. They were at least partially right.
“The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup,” says the ad, showing a mother and father blissfully walking through their children’s chaos to get their morning coffee. That would all be fine, except that Folgers is terrible.
For some bizarre reason, people from the 80s were obsessed with Mr. T. No one really understood it then, and we sure as heck don’t understand it now. Regardless, Mr. T had his own cereal!
The 80s loved exercise and technology. So, someone decided to combine them and make this bizarre device! It was essentially an extremely primitive exercise machine that connected to your TV.
Back in the 80s, printing reams and reams of paper that looked like legal documents was luxurious, all because you were doing it at home. Times have certainly changed.
Fast food ads these days are quick notices about new deals or promotions. In the 80s, they were a full-ensemble song and dance numbers with children wearing clown shoes.
In one of the all-time cutest commercials of the 80s, a group of adorable children plays with the coolest toys imaginable while singing about being “Toys R Us kids.” Admit it, this commercial made you jealous back then – you’re still a little jealous now.
Before there was Chuck E. Cheese, Showbiz Pizza Place was the hot spot. There, you could eat dinner with a terrifying man-sized rat. Apparently, he started our interest in rodents as pizza mascots.
In a surprisingly progressive commercial for the decade, this 1987 Nescafe commercial depicted a female electrician working on a telephone pole. They were far ahead of their time!
In 1984, Apple decided to try a new marketing strategy where they made their commercials as disturbing as possible. Then, they vaguely implied that their computers were going to topple Big Brother.
The 80s were the last vestige of flying being considered a luxury experience similar to staying in a hotel. Of course, this was also the age of minimal airport security and flying was considered an adventure.
This ad has so many 80s tropes it’s almost funny. There’s a corded phone, an oversized sweatshirt, garish colors, colored leggings, and of course, those over-the-top sunglasses.
These girls look as though they’re in a TV show set in the 80s and are attempting to look as 80s as possible. From the sideways ponytails to the high-top sneakers, they could be the poster children of the decade.
If you had a Strawberry Shortcake doll as a child, you probably have the smell etched into your memory forever. It had a fake fruit and plastic fragrance and you loved it.
In the 80s, “feeling like you just stepped out of a salon” meant having the biggest hair possible. It also meant wearing old lady earrings and blazers with loud prints.
Barbie in the 1980s had all the things the ideal woman of the time had. That means, of course, that she had big hair and leg warmers since she was into aerobics.
For the people that experienced them, the 1980s seemed like a simpler time. The economy was booming, Sam and Diane were the perfect couple, and all you needed to worry about was whether you could tease your hair high enough.
Okay, maybe it wasn’t all that idyllic. It was also in the middle of the Cold War, cultures around the world were experiencing an upheaval, and technology was speeding ahead at a breakneck pace. People didn’t know what the future would look like.
It was an era of some of the most iconic and bizarre ads of all time. The 1980s were all about capitalism. Ad agencies tapped into the idea that sex sells and used it for, well, everything.
Big hair was in, and so were the products you needed to achieve it. Clothing was loud and big, with puffy sleeves, high-waisted jeans, and ruffles everywhere.
The people of the 80s loved technology. To them, it seemed like the stuff of the future. To us, their computers, Walkman radios, and cell phones seem hilariously primitive. Regardless, people thought it was amazing — and to be honest, it kind of was. These 80s ads will give you some serious nostalgia.
