Advertising memories.

When I was a kid, this is in the late 60s and early 70s, it seemed like the world was falling apart. People were protesting things, burning buildings. Soldiers were shooting students. Students were taunting cops. Authority was a thing of the past.

For a kid--and kids grow up better in worlds that have absolutes of good and bad, this was all very confusing. There was no permanence, no order. No good and bad. It was all uproar.

As a consequence, baseball became very important to me. It was the same game it always was. You could rely on it.

So pretty much every evening, I would turn on the old black and white RCA Victor set we had and watch the Mets or the Yankees play. Being in a city with two ball teams basically meant that from April 'til October there was a game on every night.

Schafer beer was one of the major advertisers. And while most of their commercials sucked, I remember this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8__0FfSR_mw which, for whatever reason, I can't seem to download.

This Schafer spot was a great story. It told a story that was somehow both funny and comforting. Like this Alka-Seltzer spot, which I was able to download.

In a world that was going crazy, these spots made things seem ok.