It’s like a breakthrough performance, but better!
Because it is one step closer to Friday!
I was really going for the gusto when I was planning this week’s theme. I said to myself, “let’s find a product that absolutely is too hard/impossible to find in 2018.” And then it occurred to me, I have commercials for point-and-shoot cameras and film. How could this not be a good idea?
The days of the photo development area are pretty much the way of the dodo at this point. My local Target just underwent a huge renovation (it looks great, by the way, and reminds me a bit of the old store layout from the late 1990s, when this particular location first opened), and one of the things that was removed (aside from the snack bar area, which became a Starbucks) was the photo development area. Gone are actual photo mats and film cameras.
If you want prints of your photos, it is usually digital and websites like Shutterfly and Snapfish are your best friends. Not to say that stores don’t have kiosks for digital development (my best friend framed my engagement photo, but not before saving it from Facebook and taking it to Wal-Mart to print on their digital kiosk), but film development is rare.
I have looked online to see where film can be developed, and sure enough, there is a website (The Darkroom) for that, and CVS still develops film. So, all is not lost.
So I did some digging, and sure enough, 1986 had a few commercials that harkened back to a time when film cameras were a thing. And as this Fuji Film commercial proves, their film provides breakthrough photos!
Provided the nice Fuji sign doesn’t have a breakthrough of its own!
Ooops. They must have thought they were supposed to break through!
Oh well. Watch the action unfold when you hit play.
And my apologies for how abruptly the commercial cuts off – there actually wasn’t any transition between this commercial and the one that immediately followed it. I noticed that with alot of my archives from this particular video. I guess they had to cram a certain number of commercials in over the course of a Saturday Night Live airing?
Tokyo-based FujiFilm, established in 1934, still exists today. It foresaw the switch to digital photography/imaging as early as the 1980s, and stayed ahead of the competition. Today, it owns 50.1% of Xerox, and has made the successful transition to digital. They produce and manufacture cameras, digital imaging, medical imaging equipment, biologics manufacturing, equipment, and services.
And yes, they still make film.
Pretty cool, wouldn’t you say?
So, there you have it. An assumed basically-extinct format that actually still does exist in some capacity, even if facilities to produce the results of this format are limited at best. But, Fuji has kept up with the times (there’s a reason they still exist, and Kodak has struggled against them), and continues to thrive as a company. I should add that Kodak still exists, but they’ve had their struggles recently.
The funny thing was, I was always more partiap to Kodak than Fuji for some reason. I think it was the name recognition and the fact that my parents always bought Kodak film and disposable cameras.
Anyway, I think we can wrap it up here. I’d like to think something developed here, wouldn’t you say?
Well, carefully placed puns happened.
We’ll see what develops tomorrow, but until then, have a great Throwback Thursday!
Hey, come on, it was funny!