A false and commercial festival, devoutly to be ignored.

I've mentioned this in the last few months, but I've been trying to get back into media archival.

A few years back I scored a backup VCR for free (my current main unit, actually) and the guy threw in a bunch of tapes he had kicking around with it.

One of those tapes was a Maxell 6-Hour T-120 that I immediately wanted to peruse. I quickly discovered it contained a TV recording of A Christmas Carol, featuring George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge. It aired December 1997 on CBC.

Is it possible to get high on old Christmastime TV bumpers?

I desperately wanted to mine the tape for any and all Christmas commercials that it might contain, but like many of my personal projects it was pushed to the background for a few years.

I finished a big assignment at work recently, which freed up some of my time, so I decided it was nigh time to digitize that tape!

A quick note on the George C. Scott version of A Christmas Carol - it's a decent movie, but a little darker than some of the other versions you might come across. You can find it on a lot of streamers and it often airs on TV this time of year. It's worth a viewing if you wanted to switch it up from your usual favourite.

Now, with that out of the way, let's talk about some of the classic commercials that aired alongside the film, back in '97! Honestly, there were so many good commercials on this tape, so I'm likely to return to this well later in the season. For now, let's stick with five (but really six or seven).

THAT Kellogg's Cornflakes Commercial

Oh, you know the one. This juggernaut of an ad started airing in 1990 and I'm fairly certain it ran, although edited slightly here and there, until the early 2000s. It's honestly right up there with the Hershey Kisses ad, which I'm fairly certain is still airing to this day.

The warm, earthy tones, dulcet music, soft-spoken actors, and perfectly lit scenery depict the ideal Christmas. Also, their kid-logic tracks: after a night filled with cookies and trying to squeeze down chimneys, wouldn't Santa like a brief reprieve and enjoy some healthy cereal? Makes sense to me.

I know this commercial has been encoded and uploaded about a million times on the web, but hey - what's one more?

Connect 4 and Guess Who

Alright, it's already time to cheat and break my own rules!

Not only am I including two commercials here, but neither are actually Christmas ads. So why are they on the list?

As I watched this tape, one of the things I had the hardest time grasping was it's recording date; December of 1997. The late-90s had a very distinct feel on TV. Everything had to be edgy and slightly obtuse to catch our attentions. Most of the commercials on this tape felt so early-90s.

And it's because the majority of them, much like the aforementioned Kellogg's ad, aired for like a decade. These days ad campaigns or mostly just related to focused ads on social media and YouTube and they completely disappear from social consciousness in a matter of minutes. Back in the 90s, 30-second ads on TV were the prime way to get a potential customer's attention and the companies that produced these ads went for broke.

In the case of these two commercials for Guess Who and Connect 4, there is no question in my mind that if you were a frequent TV watcher from 1990 to 2000 you have them emblazoned in your brain.

Throughout the duration of this tape, they played on almost every ad-break, back-to-back. It must've been a big year for Milton Bradley or interest in these games was lacking and they decided to throw big money at the problem. I can't speak for everyone, but I can say that it worked on me, because I wanted and owned both of these games as a kid (I was especially a fan of Guess Who) and I received them both as Christmas gifts, so I'm adding them to this list. If you don't like it... well I guess I'm sorry then? (Please keep reading my blog)

Disney Home Video

How's that for wholesome?

This is a commercial that distinctly feels like something from the early-90s, but I know for an absolute fact that it's from 1997, because not only is Disney hocking their other classic movies on videocassette, but they took this opportunity to push their latest Christmas flick, Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas.

Most folks my age ruminate about the lack of quality in the Disney direct-to-video market, but you just know these tapes sold like freakin' hotcakes.

It's not mentioned in this ad, but the pallor of Disney's false scarcity tactics clung to all of these video releases, so you had to get them before they went "back into the vault"! Not only did it likely sell a lot of movies during the holidays, but to this day resellers seem to think their old Disney tapes are worth your firstborn and probably a few limbs for good measure.

Sobey's Christmas

This is a commercial that will hit much stronger if you're a local Atlantic Canadian.

Sobey's is a grocery store chain that during the 90s would've only existed in a few provinces, like Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and PEI. I don't even think they were in Newfoundland, but I could be wrong. These days, I think they have stores across Canada.

In the early 90s they had a smash hit commercial called "Songs of Christmas" that featured all sorts of holiday wholesomeness to the tune of a children's choir singing what amounted to a very long Sobey's jingle. That ad played on local TV for years and years and I'd dare say if you spoke to anyone from this area they could sing you at least a few bars if not the whole song.

In the late 90s, Sobey's decided to try and catch that lightning in the bottle again with this ad, which I believe ran for a few years, but didn't have near the same impact.

Still, I do love this commercial and have fond memories of it. I'm not sure exactly when it started airing, but it had to be mid- to late-90s. I think they even used some of the imagery and music from this commercial in the rest of their "regular" advertisements that ran during Christmas.

It sounds nuts, but some of these big production holiday commercials sort of felt like TV specials in a way. I'd actually look forward to seeing them on the tube every year and they were an important part of the holiday!

Local Season's Greetings

If you watched any low budget local TV (does such a thing exist any more?) you would've seen ads like this from many local businesses, sending season's greetings to any current or potential customers watching at home. I can recall when there'd be one minute (or more) solid blocks with Christmas-y backgrounds adorned with the fanciest of fonts sending warm wishes from many local businesses.

If you were a small TV station that needed public money and advertisement to keep afloat, I'm sure this was easy money during the holidays. I actually used to love these when I was a kid. It was this weirdly small, solemn moment that felt so calm and Christmas-y, even if you were in the middle of watching a TV airing of Alien or something.

The Coca-Cola greeting at the end is a particularly lavish affair, that even includes a few seconds of Coke's massive commercial with the Christmas lights on their 18-wheeler delivery trucks. La-tee-dah.

Christmas Day on CBC

I thought this was fun, so I decided to throw it in.

Every Christmas my family would go to an extended family get-together on Christmas Day. We'd gorge ourselves on delicious food, open presents, all that good stuff. Come the evening of Christmas Day, it was wide open. I'd usually play with my new toys and video games and my parents would have friends over for drinks and visiting.

I can't say I watched much TV on Christmas Day, because I was busy, but another reason was that it always seemed like blackhole. Nowadays it's become a tradition to air movie marathons and tons of Christmas specials, but back when I was a kid there was lots of religious programming, and old black-and-white movies I didn't yet have the appreciation for.

Case in point is the programming block for CBC on December 25th, 1997, which included back-to-back-to-back Christmas classics from the 40s, capped off a musical special from Canadian royalty, Tom Jackson.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with any of this, but when I was a kid there is about a -1000% chance I would've watched one second of this on Christmas Day.

And there you have it! Just a few of the wonderful Christmas commercials I mined from this tape. I'll hopefully make another post soon with some more of the cool stuff I found on here, but if not I hope you enjoy these clips and the warm fuzzies they bring!

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It was the Boogeyman.

I've forcibly put myself into a post-Halloween cooldown period, but after a few days I feel like it's time to take a moment and chronicle all the greatness that was Halloween 2024!

I don't think I could possibly write meaningful words about everything that dropped this season, but I want to highlight some of my favourite spooky snacks, events, movies... whatever!

Sodie Pop!

There were some fun pops to hunt for this season. I want to say that Fanta took home the gold. Not because the Haunted Apple tasted the best - it's terrible - but between a bright green Beetlejuice soda and the latest film's branding on their other products, it seemed like this was the biggest chase.

Personally, I missed WTFanta, but I guess with VooDEW being the crowned king of mystery sodas, Fanta decided to sit that one out.

Speaking of VooDEW, Mountain Dew finally brought their popular secret soda to Canada... sort of. Instead of releasing the current flavour that dropped in the US, they gave us last year's American offering. It's not that it's altogether awful, but for a guy that imports these every year, it would've been nice to be on par with our American friends. I still haven't come across a can of the US version, but I'm hopeful I will in the coming weeks.

Things look bleak for VooDEW right now - the hubbub is that this was the last year for it and that Mountain Dew will start offering brand crossover sodas next year, but at least VooDEW officially graced Canada at least once.

My favourite of the seasonal offerings that were new (at least to me) this year was 7-Up Zero Sugar Cranberry. I love cranberry ginger ale and lemon-lime pop, so this was a slam dunk for me. I still prefer Cranberry Canada Dry, but it was nice to switch it up. Also, I do love me a zero sugar!

Bucket List!

This was a big year for buckets! These were the only two I saw available in Canada this year, but I know Dunkin' Donuts did a Munchkins (their version of Timbits) bucket that was very popular.

My favourite was the Timbits bucket. Not only did it come in a spider or ghost variant, but this year it was glow-in-the-dark! I'm not sure when I'll ever desperately need to find my Timbits in the pitch black, but... who am I kidding, we all know I'm sitting in a dark room gorging on fat pills.

The Boo Buckets have been back the last three years and I still appreciate them. This year McDonald's decided to go for something different with all-new designs and honestly, they're pretty great. I'm not going to lie, though. I kinda hope they switch things up next year and bring back Halloween McNugget Buddies and blow the Internet wide open.

Monster Mash!

I knew it was going to be a big year for Halloween when I found Monster Mash fruit snacks on August freakin' 1st. For reference, the Monster Cereal brand has been circling the drain in Canada the last few years. I've been lucky to even find Count Chocula some years.

For 2024, General Mills went all out in the US, with the Monster Cereal characters getting pet marshmallows. Here in Canada we at least got the fruit snacks from last year and finally a new cereal: Carmella Creeper!

It's a bummer we're still getting the same lame boxes with the masks on the back - I'd much prefer the retro-styled ones in the US - but beggars can't be choosers and all that.

Out of the three cereals available, Chocula still remains my favourite. I want to love Franken Berry, but I just find it too sweet, which was mostly how I felt about Carmella. I'm so glad it's there, but it's just not for me.

As for Wedneday, again, I'm elated the cereal found it's way to the Great White North, but I just didn't like it. You'd think cookies and cream would be a solid gold hit, but I wasn't nuts about it.

I'm hoping these all sold well enough, though, and maybe next year we'll finally see another Monster Cereal here in Canada. I'll take Boo Berry at the very least.

Spooky Eats!

There were food promos for Halloween literally left-and-right this year. Honestly, I don't think I could keep up if I lived in the US, that had themed menus at several restaurant chains and cute little Frosty figures at Wendy's.

For me nothing beat the Addams Family Burger King menu. We had Gomez's Churro fries, Morticia's Kooky Shake, and the glorious Wednesday Whopper available in Canadian BKs. I only tried the Whopper, but honestly - that was enough. Look at that beaut!

This was really completely out of the blue as there wasn't a new movie in the Addams Family animated series this promo was tied to, but whatever - anything Addams Family is as hot as Hansel right now.

This seems to be a Canadian exclusive, but for the second year running McDonald's has released a Halloween-themed McFlurry! Last year we had the Trick n' Treat McFlurry, which was black and orange Smarties. This year they kept the same colour scheme with Reese Chipits and Fudge! They dropped the Trick n' Treat name, but they did continue with the spooky packaging, so I'd call it a win.

There were all sorts of other random finds this year, but another I'll mention is International Delight Pumpkin Spice Cold Foam. Tim Hortons, for some reason, opted not to have a Pumpkin Spice Cold Brew this year, so I had to take things into my own hands. I don't think I'd buy it again, but the cold foam and a bottle of Stok scratched the itch.

One big complaint I have is the lack of Reese Werewolf Tracks. Reese (or Reese's, whatever) has been pretty solid in releasing their Halloween-themed treats here every year, including the Frankencups. Heck, I usually find them first thing in August! This year, though, nada. They didn't even have Reese Pumpkins! Of course as soon as we hit late-October I could plenty of those Reese Trees, though. SMH.

Friday, September 13th!

This was the second year-in-a-row that we were treated to a Friday the 13th during the Halloween months. Last year it was in October proper, but September works just as well for me.

I've reached the point where I rarely watch a Friday the 13th when it isn't the actual day (or, what, holiday?). I've just watched them so many times at this point. As a result, it makes the day and the rewatches extra special.

The next Friday the 13th is actually in December of this year! But then we won't see one in the fall for several years, so I'm glad I savoured it and watched the Paramount "Zombie Jason Trilogy". So good.

Making a Scare at the Box Office!

What a year for horror films in general, though! There were so many box office triumphs. These little indie darlings were making big money at movies.

Highlights include the mystery thriller Longlegs, which is making a run at the Academy Awards, Terrifier 3, which is now the highest-grossing indie film of all time, and The Substance which stars Demi freakin' Moore in her comeback era.

I really like Longlegs, except for the ending, and although I'm still not sure about Art the Clown and the Terrifier series, I'm so glad to see horror doing big numbers. You know things are going the right way when a horror icon gets to ring the bell on Wall Street!

TV Tingles!

Let's not forget the (not-so) small screen! With all the UFO talk in the news lately and the resurgence of shows like Unsolved Mysteries, there's been no lack of spooky sci-fi and paranormal shows. In my opinion, these sorts of shows a perfect this time of year.

This season we had a new volume of Unsolved Mysteries, which certainly had plenty of true crime, but actually had episodes on Roswell and cattle mutilations! It felt a bit more like the Stack-era.

Not to be outdone, Disney dropped OUT THERE: Crimes of the Paranomal, which has almost the exact same look-and-feel of the new Unsolved Mysteries series on Netflix, but leans hard into the supernatural.

Speaking of sci-fi and supernatural, probably my favourite horror movie of the year was V/H/S Beyond, which was dropped on Shudder right smack-dab in the spooky season. It's mostly all alien and UFO science fiction themed, which is certainly my wheelhouse. It's honestly my fave in the series. By my estimation this is a series that is actually getting better with age and I hope we get lots of V/H/S for many years to come!

Oh, and one last thing. I picked up the 4K release of A Nightmare on Elm Street, which dropped in October and damn that movie has never looked so good. I don't usually go in for 4K, honestly, but this one certainly sold me on the idea.

Here's to the season!

I can't express to you just how incredible Mother Nature was to us in Nova Scotia this year. Yes, it was uncomfortably hot at the start of September, but honestly the temperatures eventually became quite "normal" for us by the time October rolled around.

We are known for our beautiful autumns here, but in the last few years we've been smashed by multiple hurricanes. As a result, we end up losing most of our leaves far too early and, with that, our fall colours. This year, however, was very mild on that front, which I know is a blessing. For those of you who had to handle extreme weather this year, I feel for you. I don't mean for this to seem like a slight.

Not only did we have beautiful weather, but we were treated with some incredible celestial events. We had several back-to-back supermoons, including the Harvest and Blue moons. I wish I had my telescope prepared, so I could've gotten some proper pictures.

I also got to see the Northern Lights for the first time in my life! I've heard that in some northern and less light-polluted areas of NS that you can see them on occasion, but we had an and incredible showing that was very visible even in the urban areas and it was breathtaking!

I had made a promise to myself last year and this year that I'd try and do more cool outdoor events during the season. While I didn't get to do a haunt that I really wanted to (hard to do with young kids) we did have some incredible days, which included a picnic, hayrides, apple and pumpkin picking, and a jack-o'-lantern carving contest.

That's a (mummy) wrap!

As is typically the case, I did so much, but still had a lot left on the table in terms of things I wanted to do this year. I can't complain, though. This was definitely a Halloween for the books!

As I'm writing this, I know there's a lot of bad stuff going on in the world, but I think it's good to reflect on the things you love and care about: your family and friends, maybe your health, or hell - just a purple burger and a scary movie. Try and find whatever makes you happy and shake the shit out of it.

I hope you had a great fall and Halloween season and I wish you further enjoyment in the coming months!

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Look! It's moving. It's alive. It's alive...

I've made this spiel in the past and I don't want to beat a dead horse, so I'll keep this brief.

/me stands on his soapbox

During the month of October, Turner Classic Movies airs a bevy of amazing horror films! Check your local listings!

And yes, yet again I have tabulated a handy spreadsheet with all of the films on the schedule.

I still try my best to use broadcast TV and, honestly, some of the movies that TCM plays this time of year are hard to find even on DVD or Blu-ray, let alone on streaming. Heck, there are some films I don't even bother trying to buy, because I just sort of rely TCM to play them for me every Halloween.

So dust off your DVRs if you have 'em or just make sure you tune in! Here are all the films I deemed spooky from TCM's October 2024 schedule - all times in Eastern (with all the colourful Excel flair from prior years!):

I'll take a moment to highlight some of the programming blocks I think you should look out for.

Unfortunately, since I'm posting this a few days late, it looks like a Bela Lugosi block aired on October 2nd. I'm willing to bet, however, that most of those films get a second airing later in the month.

There's a short back-to-back Roger Corman block with Little Shop of Horrors and A Bucket of Blood airing early on October 6th, starting at 7AM.

There's an English horror block airing in the wee hours of October 18th that looks really interesting, which includes The Wicker Man, The Lair of the White Worm, The Reptile, and The Plague of the Zombies. It starts at 12:45AM!

I'm mystified by this block, which has some more contemporary stuff, but only airs once starting at 12:45AM on October 25th. You'd think these flicks would air during primetime, but you'll either have to be a night owl or set these for record: Demon Seed, They Live, The Hidden, and The Shout.

On the 27th, there's a short Val Lewton block starting at 7AM, with Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie, and then a documentary on the man himself, Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows.

There's another solid English horror block with some Amicus and Hammer films starting at 8:15AM on Devil's Night, October 30th, which features From Beyond the Grave, Dracula A.D. 1972, Frankenstein Created Woman, The Mummy, Horror of Dracula, and The Curse of Frankenstein.

This is followed up closely with a serial killer block, starting at 9:00PM on October 30th with Psycho, Peeping Tom, Blue Velvet, and The Strangler.

Then on Halloween, you can enjoy lots of classic Universal horrors, like The Bat, The Wolf Man, The Black Cat, Dracula, Frankenstein, and Bride of Frankenstein beginning at 12:30PM.

There you have it! If you're into old black and white scares, TCM has your back this Halloween. I always suggest you check out the Hammer and English horror films they feature every year. They are excellent and I find those in particular are difficult to get on physical media for a decent price.

So, instead of staring at Netflix for an hour trying to pick something to watch, pop the popcorn and let your TV take the wheel for a change! I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!

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Play the five tones.

This is kiiiind of a weird post for October 1st, but I think it fits.

I ran into something I just had to share. This is a news program produced by CBC Saskatchewan in 1996.

I just love any sort of paranormal TV show from back in the 90s. I started watching shows like In Search Of... well before The X-Files first aired, but you can't argue that the popularity of the latter resulted in UFO and alien specials being produced en masse by just about every network.

What I wanted to point out is that you couldn't even escape these sorts of reports in the news! Just throwing on your local TV station on a random weekday would lead to a spooky little story, complete with eerie music and sound effects! And especially leading up to Halloween.

So, if you're into this sort of thing I'd suggest you give the video a watch. It's a trip! I do want to warn you, though, there are some images of mutilated animals that could be disturbing to some viewers. Viewer discretion is definitely advised!

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You stole fizzy lifting drinks!

Well lookie here! I made another video!

I scored a bottle of Mountain Dew VooDew and the new Oreo Coke about a week ago and they were just sitting in my refrigerator, so I thought it might be fun to record a video trying them out!

Check out the video, if you're so inclined:

Also, now that it's official I hope you're enjoying the fall! I've managed to watch some of my favourite classic horror movies so far, but I haven't had an opportunity to do anything that really suits the season. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify that soon.

I guess VooDew counts, right?

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Just keep swimming.

It's mid-September as I write this and, for me personally, it might as well be fall. The leaves are already changing, the nights are getting cooler, and the PSL is available at Starbucks; it's a beautiful thing!

All that said, I felt remiss just moving on and not acknowledging some of the great summer snacks and promotions I've enjoyed over the last few months.

In my last post, all the way back in (checks notes)... June, I was begrudging the lack of summer promos I was seeing from the usual suspects, like Lay's, Pepsi, and Coca-Cola.

What I would say is that instead of going for the usual fare, there were some weird swings this summer, but overall it actually ended up pretty okay!

This is just going to be a photo dump of junk I enjoyed over the summer months, but I'll add some commentary.

McDonald's Summer 2024!

McD's never fails to disappoint and I must say, they've been showing Canada some serious love lately. First, we finally got the Grimace Shake, which dropped in the US last year. It didn't knock me out colour-wise, but it tasted great! They also brought us the Orange Cream Pop Shake, which tasted like a Buried Treasure and was a serious highlight.

Finally, I have to mention the Throwback Meal, which came with three retro dipping sauces, Garlic Parmesan from the 80s, Szechuan from the 90s, and Jalapeno Cheddar from the 00s. The Szechuan sauce was amazing - I didn't try the others - but the retro packing that homaged all three eras was the highlight, honestly. It was serious trip!

This was also topped off with McShaker fries, which offered a variety of different flavours over the summer. I only tried Tzatziki and Ramen, but they also offered Masala and Churro. They were kinda messy, but delicious! I hope we get more of these in the future!

Soda Pop!

I think I've gushed about all of these on my social accounts, but at a high level: Sprite Chill Zero Sugar was amazing and was very short-lived. Sprite Chill is still in stores, I believe, but the Zero Sugar (which was far superior to the full sugar version) disappeared quickly.

We got Mountain Dew Summer Freeze! This dropped in the US last year, but we finally got it and it was amazing. I think my favourite of the summer, however, was the Dr. Pepper Strawberries & Cream. This also dropped some time ago in the US, and I actually imported it months ago, but it was nice having it as a regular offering for a while.

I still missed seeing Pepsi Throwback on shelves, but Peach Pepsi was a nice distraction, even if I only tried it the one time. It was tasty, though! I saw the Zero Sugar version once, but didn't buy it and I never saw it again. I would've liked to have tried it!

More Chips!

Doritos dropped a trio of Late Night flavours, which is something they've done in the past. I feel like I've had all these flavours before, but it was nice to have something different on shelves, as least! I think Fully Loaded Nachos was my favourite, but there was also Sizzlin' Cheese Burger and Creamy Jalapeno Popper.

Ruffles dropped another KFC collab! They've offered KFC flavoured chips for a few years now as the occasional promo, but this year they added a Zinger Sandwich flavoured chip, which was just a spicier version of the old flavour, but on a double crunch chip! It was meh.

Miscellaneous!

Wendy's had an orange cream milkshake thingy of their own this year. It was simply white Frosty mixed with orange soda, but it was tasty!

I don't talk about Smarties enough. I know they're only in the UK and Canada, but they are the superior candy-covered chocolate. That's right, I said it. This summer they had a strawberry variety, which was just okay, but I just like to see Smarties taking the occasional swing!

That's probably not everything, but I think it's the big hitters (what's up with the sudden baseball references). All-in-all, it was an okay summer!

I posted a video earlier this week about the return of Hostess potato chips, which although it technically dropped in the summer season, I'm not considering a summer promo. Especially, as it appears that they're here to stay. You can check that video out here, though, if you're so inclined!

Anyway, here's to the autumn proper! It's less than a week away. As I mentioned, I've already started my usual traditions, which includes lots of tiny sized junk food and horror movies, but it was nice to cap off summer and put a bow on it.

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Cheese Squeeze makes my eyeballs itch!

I'm still kind of in shock about all this, but last night I was stunned to find out that my favourite potato chips - a snack I absolutely adored as a kid, but was lost due to a corporate takeover in the 90s - had returned.

That's right, Hostess Potato Chips are back!

Now branded Munchies, the greatest potato chips of all time are back on store shelves in Canada and I'm over the moon!

I think this video says it all. I'm sorry for the poor quality. I slapped this thing together pretty quickly and didn't test any of my equipment first, but I just had to document this moment.

In the video description you can also find links all sorts of blogs I've written over the years gushing over Hostess Potato Chips, if that's your sort of thing.

Anyway, if you're in Canada, get to your local grocery store and snag you some Munchies! And tell 'em RyHo sent you!

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