Montage of late-1980s Atlanta to advertise the paper that “Covers Dixie like the dew”.
Montage of late-1980s Atlanta to advertise the paper that “Covers Dixie like the dew”.
A couple of generic commercials for a for-profit vocational training school featuring a faceless taxi fare riding though a rain-soaked park somewhere in Atlanta. The names have been changed, but the script is the same.
Guy Smiley’s unemployed cousin gets a little too excited when Mr. TV Announcer extolls the unbelievable deals at Beef City’s grand opening in Forrest Park!
Where else can you buy THREE HUNDRED POUNDS of top quality meat for ONLY $198?!?
Want it? Rent it! Get it!
Apparently, business was booming in the late 1980s and early 1990s, because they had 17 metro Atlanta locations AND a 24-hour manned telephone line! Who bought furniture, electronics, or appliances–sight-unseen–over the phone, we may never know. These RTO commercials (1st American, Easy Rental, Remco, etc.) were a staple of Atlanta television’s advertising revenue during my childhood, and were probably indicative of the socioeconomic climate of the time (“Having trouble keeping up with the Joneses?” and “Can’t afford it? Don’t buy; rent!”)
Atlanta folk remember Dr. Harry W. Brown of the Brown Arrowhead Clinic–a name that helped legitimize chiropractic medicine in the 1990s. Have you been injured in an accident? Do you suffer from whiplash? Call now for an immediate appointment!
B98.5FM-Atlanta used to run a contest during the weekday 9-5 slots, to increase listenership during sweeps, giving away $1000 every hour.
Anyone in the A know if they still do this? I remember it was a big deal back then!
Atlanta-area attorney Matt Berry asks accident victims to call his law firm and get the money they deserve.
There were a lot of these Chapter 13/Debt Consolidation commercials on during my childhood, too. I guess we hadn’t quite made it yet to the era of prosperity that the late 1990s brought.
Another early 1990s advert for a law firm offering Chapter 13 debt consolidation. It seems like EVERY law firm in the late 80s/early 90s was advertising this plan. Were we all in such dire financial straits?
Following a major renovation at Atlanta Motor Speedway, some forward-thinking real estate developers decided to build a condominium complex adjacent to the grandstand. 1500 Tara Place is, technically, the address for the track, too–which is odd. The condos still stand today, even though they function more as corporate club-level boxes than anything else. I honestly don’t know who would pay $800k to live in a condo in Hampton, GA when they could buy an estate house in an adjacent neighborhood for less than half that price! Even the main selling point–the fact that it overlooks the track–is only good for a couple weekends a year! For the money, I think I’d rather buy a helicopter to fly in on race weekends.
Remember when you had to call or drive to an agent’s office to purchase or even to research insurance coverage?
Nearly 25 years later and I STILL have the damned bed music stuck in my head! The Atlanta Boat Show is a bit of a tradition at the Georgia World Congress Center–a trade show built around one of the region’s favorite passtimes: weekending at “The Lake” (Allatoona, Lanier, Hartwell, Blue Ridge, Oconee….)