I have a confession to make: Of all the commercials I have in my personal archives, none of them speak of Valentine’s Day, celebrate Valentine’s Day, or even have a heart in them.
Seriously, no hearts.
And now that I’ve gotten that off my plate…
It’s Thursday, but most notably, the Thursday before Valentine’s Day. And while I do enjoy the celebration of love, I’m like every other cynic known to man. I’ve referred to the holiday as “The Hallmark Holiday” and “The Holiday the Greeting Card Companies Built” in the past. It’s not that I hate the holiday, but I’ve been single more than a few times (including last year). I’ve been in the position where social media is used as a tool for evil, “Evil” being the happy couples who want you to know that their Valentine is the greatest.
The reality is, I feel for anyone who doesn’t have someone to call them “Valentine,” so while I do have someone that calls me “Valentine,” I’d like to extend this to each and every one of you who doesn’t – you are all my honorary Valentines. That’s right – you, you, and you. You’re my Valentine, and you’re my valentine, and you’re my Valentine – you’re all getting an honorary Valentine!
At the risk of sounding like Oprah on a giveaway day…
As I said in the introduction, I don’t possess any Valentine’s Day commercials. It’s not for the lack of trying, it just seems as though every time I taped something back when, it was never around Valentine’s Day. I’ve got Christmas commercials all over the place, but Valentine’s Day-themed commercials…not so much.
However, I did find commercials that mention “love” and show couples in them, so I figured it was good enough for this week’s retro commercial selections. And like last week, they are commercials about foodstuff. I don’t think they’ll disappoint.
So, on to today’s Throwback Thursday selection!
This commercial comes to us from the great year of 1988 (surprise!), and actually was found among my archive of Christmas/Thanksgiving commercials. However, it’s not themed for either holiday, so it’s easy to include here. It comes to us from Campbell’s Soup.
We’re in a library, and we have this nice young man, who obviously practices good table manners…
And we have this nice young lady, whom I’m assuming is either this guy’s study partner, love interest, or both.
And he’s making her an offering.
Of soup and Saltine crackers (I hope they’re Premium or Zesty). Because it’s a meal, of course.
Unless you’re Kenny Banya, then soup doesn’t count as a meal. If you know what I’m referring to, then congratulations, you’re as smart as me. Which is awesome in its own right. 😀
Our Nice Young Man offers the Nice Young Lady a bowl as “his treat.” And Campbell’s reminds you that nothing gets the conversation going quite like Campbell’s Soup…even though there was no conversation at all, just slurping and “Shhh!”
I’d say it’s the beginning of a beautiful relationship, don’t you think?
And, of course, the jingle/tagline under a shot of the famous label:
And now, witness if you will, the magic of hot soup and togetherness on this Thursday before Valentine’s Day.
Magical.
And there you have it – soup, togetherness, and having soup together. And proof that it doesn’t have to be a Valentine’s Day commercial to be relevant before Valentine’s Day. We also learned an important lesson – soup isn’t a meal!
Our weekly offering of retro commercials continues tomorrow with Flashback Friday. I’ll only say it’s about foodstuff and love.
Have a great Thursday, and um, also try their low sodium soups.
Did you think I was going to let that slip past me?