90s gum commercial: How Soon Is Now and skating treadmills?
March 24, 2025 6:13 AM Subscribe
The first place I heard How Soon Is Now was a TV commercial that used to play in the US in the early 1990s. It was just the HSIN instrumental track/soundbed with no vocals, and a boom camera panning across what looked like speed skaters in silver jumpsuits on some kind of treadmill-like training device in a large moodily-lit studio. The performers leaned forward and did their skating motions in place while watching moving landscapes projected on giant screens in front of them.
Can anyone help me find this commercial, on YouTube or similar?
I originally thought they were skiing, but my memory of the way the performers moved matches better with speed-skating. The jumpsuits covered their heads and made them appear somewhat androgynous, but I think I assumed they were women when I was younger. It definitely gave a sense of "How cool, this VR technology of The Future" when it aired.
I thought it could have been a Dentyne Ice ad, but searching through the ones up on YouTube hasn't turned this one up so I'm willing to search further afield. It's possible that it wasn't even a gum advert!
The winter sports theme suggests that it could have been filmed as part of an Olympics media cycle, so it could be that it was a 1988 advert that they kept running on local stations for years after.
I originally thought they were skiing, but my memory of the way the performers moved matches better with speed-skating. The jumpsuits covered their heads and made them appear somewhat androgynous, but I think I assumed they were women when I was younger. It definitely gave a sense of "How cool, this VR technology of The Future" when it aired.
I thought it could have been a Dentyne Ice ad, but searching through the ones up on YouTube hasn't turned this one up so I'm willing to search further afield. It's possible that it wasn't even a gum advert!
The winter sports theme suggests that it could have been filmed as part of an Olympics media cycle, so it could be that it was a 1988 advert that they kept running on local stations for years after.
Response by poster: It's possible it was Canadian TV! I grew up in Seattle, and we did get a CBC channel out of Vancouver that had a Bellingham transmitter or something.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 7:38 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 7:38 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]
I remember the song from a beer commercial and I'm in Canada.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:05 PM on March 24
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:05 PM on March 24
Response by poster: Yeah the song was definitely used in Canadian beer commercials with the Russian ballet dancer, but I also remember it from the ad with the speed skaters on the indoor trainer devices. I'm trying to work out what this specific ad was.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 2:15 PM on March 24
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 2:15 PM on March 24
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posted by misskaz at 7:25 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]