The impossible to find clip??

August 2, 2007 3:10 PM

Impossible to find filter: Need help finding a very funny polaroid camera commercial from approx 1995

There is a Polaroid Camera TV commercial that was used in a fundraising conference recently. It starts off with a voice over of a young kid pleeding for money at Summer camp to "Great uncle Phil & Aunt Susie... etc." You find out that the summer camp is a bunch of clever 11 year olds using a polaroid camera to send pictures out to dozens and dozens of old people who then send them money. The kids are stacking up expensive electronics as a result. There was a line about the kid in the photo needing to look more pitiful.

It was a hysterical clip especially in the context of a fundraising conference. I asked the speaker for a copy and he claimed a 10 year old legal agreement between polaroid and the company prevented him from distributing it. (This is what leads me to believe the clip is from approx. 1995)

I did of course the usual, blow the last two hours of my work day searching google with every possible combination with no success.

Thanks in advance for the help!

posted by meta x zen to media & arts (3 comments total)

This won't help you get a copy of the clip, but it's a start: I don't know where you're located, but The Paley Center for Media, formerly the Museum of TV and Radio, which has locations in L.A. and New York, has a huge archive of commercials. I know they did a Polaroid commercial restrospective a year or two ago, too. You won't be able to get a copy of it from them, but you'll be able to watch it. Someone there might also be able to help you find out who to contact to get a copy.
posted by doift at 4:03 PM on August 2, 2007

You mentioned that you googled, but did you try searching in YouTube? Here is a list of videos that showed up when I searched for "polaroid commercial."
posted by amyms at 4:51 PM on August 2, 2007

I found this advertising site with 35 polaroid clips, one of them is called "camp".
posted by goml at 9:59 AM on August 3, 2007