Rating: 
Summary: Lame
Review: This collection of commercials could have been a masterpiece. I agree with the previous reviews that mention how some of the commercials end and then you see a few seconds of another program before it goes to the next commercial. That's a serious editing no-no. Also, I think it would have been better to have an actor or someone easily recognizable from classic commercials narrate the piece. They could introduce each commercial, let us know what to look for and how things have changed, and perhaps talk about the product a little and make corny jokes about it. There is, of course, no narrator. At the least, it would have been nice if when the commercial comes on, a little box in the corner of the screen lets us know what year the commercial aired. We aren't even granted this much. What we get is an endless stream of old commercials with no break (and no narrator in between them to laugh along with us) that just keeps going, and going, ang going... I don't even know if they're in order. And old black and white commercial advertising soap will come on and that's followed by a more modern looking color commercial for cigarettes. Are these from the same year or did we jump a decade? I watched the first disc for about 3 minutes and got bored after viewing 8 cigarette commercials in a row. I put in the second disc hoping it would get better and it didn't. This along with the
poor editing make this set awful. Save your money and wait for
another company to come out with a set of classic commercials. I'm sure that anyone would be able to do a better job.
Rating: 
Summary: Johnny Smoke Rides Again!
Review: This two disk set has a lot of commercials, most of which are worn with age and hard to make out. There is only one commercial worth a stand out recommendation. It is a legend of commercial lore from the 1960's and that is on disc number 2 about 50.00 into the disc. An early anti-smoking cartoon called "Johnny Smoke"! This classic "Western" anti-smoking ad is a musical treat... "Out of the land of the Tobacco plant comes a tall, fast drawing, long lean look...feared by his friends and enemies alike..and all who come to know the name of Johnny Smoke!" What is left of this gem is still hilarious. The tune is catchy (as all smoking commercials were) and you will never forget it once you have seen it. There is also a classic Hai Karate Shaving Commercial on Disc 1 that is worthwhile. But the real study here is all of the hype that today appears so ridiculous that we all bought into back then. A LOT of commercials were drawing works by ad agencies and nearly all products were introduced with a KEY type of musical jingle that would brainwash you into remembering the product long after the ad campaign was over. For example, I had not seen the "Taste of Kent" commercial in over 30 years, yet I was able to recite the entire work as it was playing on the smoking commercial section on Disc 1. In fact, Tobacco commercials were probably the worst offenders. "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should." "Lucky Strike means fine tobacco (LSMFT)". "You can take Salem out of the country but... you can't take the country out of Salem." "You've got a lot to like in a Marlboro, filter, flavor, pack or box." and then Ricky and Lucy selling Phillip Morris Cigarettes, Whew! Such a lot of nonsense! But the discs are a real lesson in advertising history and would be good for any student majoring in this field.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Commercials
Review: This was a real waste of money. If I could have I would have given it minus 5 stars (- 5 ). The quality was worse than any , DVD, VHS or Beta tape I have ever seen. I ended up throwing it in the garbage , I don't have space for such poor audio and visual quality.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent stuff for your dollar - but be aware!!!
Review: To be very honest, there's no reason to purchase this set unless you're looking for nostalgia or research. The idea of watching three hours of commercials isn't exactly everyone's cup of tea.The mastering is pretty poor, with most of the commercials culled from what looks like a second generation VHS tape. Although some reviewers refer to the fact that the poor quality is to be expected - they are actually missing the point. Firstly 90% of these commercials are fully available in excellent prints (if you know where to look, that is) and secondly any DVD which has been mastered from VHS tape is going to look pretty ropey! Worth the money if you know what you're getting - just don't expect 21st century digital magic to restore what are lousey copies of the commercials in the first place. The quanity, which is great, just about balances out the quality, which is poor...
Rating:
Summary: Typical Madacy quality
Review: Yes, the quality ranges from fair to awful, but so far this is the only way to find some of this stuff. All of it looks like it was transferred from VHS tapes (some in EP speed) which were transferred from 16mm prints. Some digital artifacting too (during the Count Chocula commercial!) and no chapter stops for each commercial, plus the fact that it's a 2-disc set that could have fit on one (they probably wanted to make it look like more). Some great stuff though, including the 'crying Indian' PSA, hopefully a better compilation of commercials will come out someday!
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