Strange memories as a kid. I remember as seeing advert for Joseph Heller's novel Catch 22 on a London underground train. I can also remember a large poster advert for a brand of children s shoes that was inaccessible because of the tracks of an illustration of a boy and girl walking up a vista.
It's the AFN (Armed Forces Network) commercials that seem to stick with me the most. I was stationed in Germany 1988-1990 and AFN transmissions were targeted towards our bases. We didn't get standard commercials, they were mostly educational. Sam Waterston and Brooke Shields hosted the "Library of Congress" commercials. They'd tell some interesting factoid from history then end every commercial with, "It's a fact in the Library of Congress. Learn more about it in your local library". OPSEC was big as this was at the height of the Cold War, so plenty of commercials warning us not to give out base directories, unit strengths, training schedules, or phone numbers. They'd show some shady E. German looking guy approaching a drunk soldier in a bar asking for a phone directory or something similar. "Hello Ivan" commercials were somewhat amusing. Our standard phone lines were un-secure so we had to answer the phone with a rehearsed greeting, "This is Charlie Troop, 4th Squadron, 7th Cavalry, Sergeant so-and-so speaking, This is an un-secure line, how can I help you sir or ma'am" every time. They had commercials constantly warning us to be careful what we say on un-secure phone lines. They did this by showing different groups of people calling each other to talk about flowers or vacations or whatever....then smack dab in the middle of the conversation would stop and say, "Oh, hello Ivan", then continue on with what they were saying. The commercials always ended, "Remember....Ivan is always listening". The worst commercial was the "Energy rapper", some soldier doing a rap about saving energy and turning off lights. It was stupid. But we listened to Paul Harvey every night on Armed Forces Radio so it had some redeeming qualities.. Page two......
