Comments on: Soviet TV advertisements from the 1970s and 1980s

By: Sigmund_Jung

Sigmund_Jung — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 21:23:00 +0000

That was great. Thanks for the time!

By: Its Nice Dn.-Here

Its Nice Dn.-Here — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 20:00:00 +0000

Oh come on, don’t be silly. Two models of radio? http://www.rw6ase.narod.ru/

By: OtherMichael

OtherMichael — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 20:23:00 +0000

They were pretty good at producing commercials!

But… that packaging and label design? Poor large-size pomegranate juice. Poor green onions.

wait, green onions and lemon wedges? Who has to advertise green onions and lemon wedges? Were those for real?

By: abstract_reg

abstract_reg — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:28:00 +0000

Which is true. Mind you, neither should have Germany, but hindsight is 20/20.

By: STELLALUNA

STELLALUNA — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 02:29:00 +0000

Wow, I only watched 10 min. of this but I learned 5 important, life-changing things:

1) The USSR was not protected from 80s hair.
2) It’s totally ok to use electric hair-styling tools while standing in a river.
3) Green onions on toast is delicious.
4) Aerobics are best done in a shoe factory.
5) The Penguin is a pedo. Do not get in his ice cream van.

By: Rich Keller

Rich Keller — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 01:35:00 +0000

And there’s some Art of Noise.

By: Marko Raos

Marko Raos — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 22:54:00 +0000

No it doesn’t. :(

By: Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 21:01:00 +0000

Also Donna Summer’s “Gloria” is in there some place

By: Michael Trei

Michael Trei — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 19:39:00 +0000

@7.08 you see an independent Estonian flag, which was banned during the Soviet era. This commercial must be from 1991 or later.

By: bo1n6bo1n6

bo1n6bo1n6 — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 19:30:00 +0000

In Soviet Russia TV watches you.

By: noah django

noah django — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 19:24:00 +0000

he still hasn’t produced an Estonian birth certificate

By: Kenmrph

Kenmrph — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 19:03:00 +0000

The Spirt of Estonia is the Spirit of the Soviet!

By: Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 18:45:00 +0000

Most Americans would pretty much assume Estonia was a neighbor of Romania, if they even knew where Romania is.

By: Kramski

Kramski — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 18:14:00 +0000

Alright, then I didn’t get your joke? Do people regularly get Balkans and Baltics mixed up? What’s the punchline?

By: Jake Rennie

Jake Rennie — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 17:42:00 +0000

And again at 30:00. 38:25 as well.

By: Dmitriy Zombak

Dmitriy Zombak — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 16:48:00 +0000

Dolzhen byt’ droogoy put’ – Должен быть другой путь.

By: David Weintraub

David Weintraub — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 16:40:00 +0000

It’s no good! Not one commercial about amazing 1983 beet crop and the heroic masses that made it possible. All here is commercial with women without tops which is western decadence designed to make the proletariat forget about oppression under capitalists and glorious revolution.

I report it to central committee. They thanked me for my patriotism and tell me they are investigating it themselves. They would like phone numbers of women for further questioning.

By: E. Arricciatura

E. Arricciatura — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 15:45:00 +0000

Ah ok, thanks. That makes sense … i guess

By: Brendon Bouzard

Brendon Bouzard — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 15:27:00 +0000

Some of these ads use Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones and Beatles songs (almost certainly without licensing).

By: billstreeter

billstreeter — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 15:14:00 +0000

None of those look much worse or more cheesy than American commercials of the same era.

By: Rich Keller

Rich Keller — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 13:47:00 +0000

I blame Ojamaa.

By: jackie31337

jackie31337 — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 12:35:00 +0000

That last commercial for the frost insulation was cheating: it had a web page URL, so it’s much more recent. It’s a nice reminder that the WTF continues though.

By: mrlapage

mrlapage — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 12:10:00 +0000

Is that Molly Ringwald at 16:30? Sure looks like her…

By: jackie31337

jackie31337 — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 11:20:00 +0000

I just skimmed through the commercials, but I think that one was my favorite. In addition to the psychedelic style of the commercial, there were many WTF moments when I saw the serving suggestions for chicken. I think one of the recipes involved coating the chicken in cheese cubes and deep frying the whole thing!

By: jackie31337

jackie31337 — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 11:15:00 +0000

A family friend from Latvia once commented that she had never met a sober Finn, so that may be influencing some people's impressions of the languages. Having learned Finnish as a second language, my impression of the Estonian language is that it's closer in structure to spoken Finnish than "book writing" Finnish. The vocabulary is often similar to Finnish, but has a lot of German influence thrown in. In the old days, Tallinn was an important trading city in the Hanseatic League, so Estonia had more contact with Germanic cultures. If you are familiar with both Finnish and German, I think you can manage Estonian fairly well.

By: renerebane

renerebane — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 10:00:00 +0000

It seems like it yes!

By: dnebdal

dnebdal — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 09:58:00 +0000

If Taavet Ropp is right and it’s been (auto-)translated from Russian, those are probably an artifact of the cyrillic->latin transliteration?

By: niktemadur

niktemadur — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 09:55:00 +0000

In Soviet Russia, a better way’s got YOU!

By: Adam Hrubý

Adam Hrubý — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 08:59:00 +0000

If you want to see more crazy advertising, check the Czech from the socialist era. (No subtitles, unfortunately, but still hilarious.)

Best of generic goods advertising (honey, cabbage, crazy milk, state lottery and desserts made from apples) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc_eF6PIWBo

Generic Watermelon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xg6onLMvJI

Sugar syrup (creepy SFX), 7 delicious flavours and “expresso tea”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2lDCJb1018

Instant Pizza (claim: “A bold accord in the colorful melody of Italian cuisine. Instant Pizza from Vitana”)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnvzU90-SwE

Another mix (generic cooking fat, various jams from LIKO, carpet cleaner TEP, state lottery, BAJO chewing gums, generic sardines in oil, generic washing soap, BARBUS aftershave, TESLA radio, state lottery again)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxfnDjH_3uc

By: CH

CH — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 08:54:00 +0000

Yea… a 53 min video is NSFW. If you can watch that at work then I would guess watching a pair of boobies wouldn’t be much of a problem, either.