Why was a new-age music ad playing nonstop on Nickelodeon in the 90's?
May 13, 2018 8:17 AM
Why was an ad for a new-age music CD playing nonstop on Nickelodeon in the 1990's?
In addition to the usual toys, cereal, and snackfood ads, this commercial for a new-age music album called Pure Moods played on Nickelodeon almost round-the-clock in the 1990's, to the point where I have it memorized even 20 years later.
As an adult looking back on this, I'm baffled. How did this happen? Why did this happen? Were 90's kids renowned for their love of new-age music? It's hard to overstate how frequently this ad seemed to appear, what felt like every commercial break on the network over a period of years. Is there any kind of story or explanation out there about this?
In addition to the usual toys, cereal, and snackfood ads, this commercial for a new-age music album called Pure Moods played on Nickelodeon almost round-the-clock in the 1990's, to the point where I have it memorized even 20 years later.
As an adult looking back on this, I'm baffled. How did this happen? Why did this happen? Were 90's kids renowned for their love of new-age music? It's hard to overstate how frequently this ad seemed to appear, what felt like every commercial break on the network over a period of years. Is there any kind of story or explanation out there about this?
Wikipedia says that Warner sold Nickelodeon, MTV and VH1 to Viacom in 1986. Presumably an advertiser could buy a block of time and show their ad on all Viacom channels.
posted by Autumnheart at 9:05 AM on May 13, 2018
posted by Autumnheart at 9:05 AM on May 13, 2018
probably to sell it to parents, looking for relief from Nickelodeon 24/7 in that anodyne ambient sound
posted by thelonius at 10:05 AM on May 13, 2018
posted by thelonius at 10:05 AM on May 13, 2018
ah pure moods. A subject brought up in that Hairpin article k8t linked to above has been coming up a lot in conversations I've had with friends in my generation (as we try to figure out together just how it came to pass that .. time passed) - this subject of nowadays culture and history and information being arranged such that one only comes across things one is already looking for.
In the future, some things are gained and some things are lost.. and this business of being exposed to ideas and information and culture (be it high brow or this pure moods ad) just by chance - by turning on the tv and having limited choices, or going to blockbuster and seeing something next to something else that was out of stock, or standing around in library stacks and finding a new favorite novelist by chance.. is just different. And I miss it and I hope somehow it comes back around. reading ask and metafilter does provide some of that chance learning experience, and for it (and thus you all) i'm super grateful..
posted by elgee at 11:38 AM on May 13, 2018
In the future, some things are gained and some things are lost.. and this business of being exposed to ideas and information and culture (be it high brow or this pure moods ad) just by chance - by turning on the tv and having limited choices, or going to blockbuster and seeing something next to something else that was out of stock, or standing around in library stacks and finding a new favorite novelist by chance.. is just different. And I miss it and I hope somehow it comes back around. reading ask and metafilter does provide some of that chance learning experience, and for it (and thus you all) i'm super grateful..
posted by elgee at 11:38 AM on May 13, 2018
I once was working on a local campaign for state legislature, and we put together a couple of ads that we ran on cable. Depending on what channels we were willing to run and when we were willing to run, space could be had very cheaply. Like $5 a slot. It’s possible whoever was selling this CD just bought up boatloads of cheap time slots and set up a deal to run remnant time. (Remnant for those who don’t know - if you have ad space or time available that you haven’t been able to sell, there’s often advertisers who have standing deals and have ads ready to go who will take up that ad space dirt cheap. They get a hell of a rate and you get money for something that you would have gotten nothing for.)
posted by azpenguin at 9:41 PM on May 13, 2018
posted by azpenguin at 9:41 PM on May 13, 2018
Came here to say what azpenguin did. Basically, the most likely scenario imho is that Pure Moods just put in a "Run of Station" (or, nowadays, "Run of Network" for websites) ad buy where they would basically get a chunk of whatever unsold ad time that Nickelodeon (or, perhaps, any of the Viacom family of basic cable stations) had at rock bottom prices and it just so happened that the shows you watched had a bunch of this remnant time. One further datapoint: this kind of ad with the 1-800 number is generally classified as a "direct response" ad -- as opposed to a "brand" ad like, say, a typical Coca-Cola ad -- which have generally been more amenable to this kind of ad buying.
posted by mhum at 10:24 AM on May 14, 2018
posted by mhum at 10:24 AM on May 14, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
I remember that ad being on many channels at that time. I didn't have cable in the 90s and it was on the local Fox affiliate all the time.
I think that they probably bought blocks of ads.
posted by k8t at 8:53 AM on May 13, 2018