273) Memory Lane

I've been battling some pretty bad insomnia this past week. For some reason I consistently can't fall asleep until 3AM. For someone who adores sleep and has never had a problem with it, it's the most frustrating thing. It's like my brain doesn't know when to shut down anymore.

When I can't sleep, I usually read, or watch a movie on Netflix. Sometimes I'll call a friend who is conveniently three hours behind. Last night's entertainment between the hours of 1AM-3AM was retro toy commercials from my childhood on YouTube.

I started with Easy Bake, which led me to various Play-Doh products (ice cream, then spaghetti), and then to Fantastic Flowers. Queasy Bake led me to Baby Alive, which opened up a whole world of life-like baby doll commercials (frightening things that eat, pee and poop. I know there's a biological reason, but the natural urge for little girls to pretend they're mommies astounds and scares me). I transitioned into Barbie (one of many, many iterations), then various hair manipulation dolls (streak it, tattoo it, cut it!), to PJ Sparkles (which I actually had at one point). PJ Sparkles segued into all the Little Miss dolls - Magic Hair, Magic Jewels, Magic Makeup. And on and on into the early morning.

As an informed adult working in advertising, I can be analytical of these ads. I can acknowledge their now retroness (check out the hairstyle examples of Totally Hair Barbie, the exaggerated way that the little girls in the spots exclaim about the products (did you and your friends ever squeal things in unison?), and the inane jingles. How all these elements worked towards getting kids hyper-excited about the latest and greatest.

But I swear, something deep inside me still gets pulled a little. Maybe it's just the long-forgotten shadow of a past want. Obviously, these are not things I want right now as a 25 year old, but I find myself strangely fascinated by these old ads. Is it just the nostalgia of a simpler time when I had enough imagination that I could accept the gimmicks that made Baby All Gone "eat" her food?

Try it for yourself. Get on YouTube and search for any old toy commercial or infomercial you can remember. Chances are, it's archived and up there. Then, use the related videos on the right to take a stroll down memory lane. Viewer beware: it's easy to get sucked into a long chain of childhood I-want-that's.