Commercials to Product Videos

 

In this clip of flow from MTV in November 1981, we can find an ad for The Gap that illustrates how MTV contextualized commercials via its promos and branding. 

This clip of MTV flow from 1983 shows that while MTV might not have started playing hiphop yet, advertising agencies were quick to adopt it for themselves. 

In this sequence of flow from August or September 1983, we can see some good examples of what kinds of ads were running on MTV, and how those ads adapted to the MTV style and audience. One features teens talking about acne in an arcade. Another features future TV star Jane Krakowski doing her best Valley Girl accent to help sell the Solar Fox video game. In a promo, MTV tells us there is something different about our TV, while showing clips from a Grace Jones video, "Demolition Man."

This segment of MTV flow from July 1983 offers a number of productive glimpses into the nature of advertising on the network, as well as cross promotion and corporate synergy. After a video from Quarterflash ends, VJ Martha Quinn stands in front of an arcade game on the set telling us about a contest drawing. Next up is a commercial for Atari video games. Atari was own by Warner Communication, one of the parent companies (along with American Express) of MTV at the time. Next is a commercial for records from Fastway and Dave Edmunds, Columbia records artists. Aside from the music videos which were considered promotions by the record companies, many commercials were for recording artists, not all of whom got airplay on MTV. Aside from profiting from such ads, MTV also bartered with the record labels to provide air time for them free. This was the case when MTV struck a deal to help pay the record labels to fund music video production, in exchange for which MTV got exclusive rights to the videos for a period of time. "Paying" the record labels included free airtime for commercials like this, which highlighted local record stores where albums could be purchased. The flow also includes a western themed commercial for Wrangler jeans. MTV did not play country music, and this commercial shows there was a limit to narrowcasting. Here an explicitly western ad is used to appeal to MTV viewers. (The singer sounds like Merle Haggard, but I hope it isn't him.) Finally there is a commercial for the Movie Channel, which was another one of the three cable channels begun along with MTV by the Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment Company (the other was Nickelodeon). Here airtime on MTV supports the other channel by promoting a subscription to it. At the time, MTV was the only one of the three that had commercials.

This segment of MTV flow from 1983 includes a commercial which looks like a music video by the rock group Southside Johnny and Asbury Dukes, but it is actually a Miller Beer commercial.

This flow segment is a good example of the ways in which MTV partnered with movie studios to produce content and sell ads. It is also a good example of the range of ads on MTV in 1983. The segment comes from a Guest VJ episode with Dan Aykroyd, who is promoting his new film Doctor Detroit. After Falco's "Der Kommisar," Aykroyd does an impression, which must have seemed lame even in 1983, then the commercials roll, as well as a promo for MTV's various contests. One of the commercial is for Atari's Centipede, and appears strongly influenced by MTV. It seems a mash-up between a music video, a monster movie, and MTV's promos which often featured black and white film footage. When he returns, Aykroyd discusses MTV's new contest, in which you can win the limousine he uses in the film. Then, he introduces the next video, which is DEVO's original song from the film's soundtrack. 

In this sequence of MTV flow from late June 1985, we can see a variety of ways in commerce and culture mixed, sometimes with fleeting results, sometimes more iconically. This clip begins with the end of a Cyndi Lauper video of an original song for the movie the Goonies, and stars the actors of that film. By the end, however, the video is all about Cyndi's collaboration with professional wrestling, as a brief showdown between Rowdy Roddy Piper and Andre the Giant occurs. Then there is a promo for the upcoming landmark broadcast of the Live Aid concert, which MTV would broadcast in its entirety. Then there are two curious commercial juxtapositions: one for Sun Country wine coolers featuring a partying polar bear. The other is a Honda scooter ad starring Lou Reed. Honda had launched a campaign for its Elite Scooters the previous year with Grace Jones, Adam Ant, and DEVO. At the end, Lou appears and tells us "Don't settle for walkin'."

A number of companies who hadn't previously advertised on television did so first on MTV. In 1985, Benetton did its first US advertising on MTV. This clip of flow includes the ad, which features still images of models in the clothes and a number you can call and get a Benetton catalog for $4 (not cheap!). The flow continues with Commando starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. There's also a music news bit with the singer of Belouis Some, who was sponsored by Swatch, who had a marketing deal with MTV. The singer doesn't say anything about Swatch, but it is quite possible this music news bit was part of that deal (See Below).

In the mid-1980s, Swatch partnered with MTV to sponsor events and purchase ad time. They also made this commercial, which not only features the Belouis Some song, "Some People," but looks very much like the video of the same name. This includes identical shots as the videos, except in the commercial models wearing Swatch clothing appear. Within an hour of this commercial, the music video appeared in MTV flow on the day it was recorded in September 1985.

In this promo taken from during the Pleasant Valley Sunday Monkees marathon in February 1986, MTV make the bold claim that it was the first channel to world premiere a commercial. That was Michael Jackson's Pepsi ad in 1984. Now it will premiere a Pepsi ad featuring Glen Frey, enjoying a little success as a solo artist, and Don Johnson, enjoying success as a star of Miami Vice. Each reportedly was paid $1 million for the commercial. The promo says MTV will premiere prior to it airing during the Grammys. With promoting a commercial, MTV took another step blurring the boundary between commercial and noncommercial content. Miami Vice was regularly described as being influenced by the look and sound of MTV. With this ad, Pepsi targeted more of a rock crowd than its earlier commercials in 1984 and 1985 starring Jackson and Lionel Richie.