I have a love of commercials from the 80s. Early 90s had some good stuff too, but any other era... I don't know. I enjoy them from a historical context, the same way I enjoy reading an old newspaper, but it's not the same. I genuinely love commercials from the decade I was born, which means that Youtube has been not only a lifesaver, but a lifedevourer. Thanks to people holding onto their recorded Miami Vice VHS tapes for decades, I have lost hundreds of hours watching commercials for products that are no longer relevant and are often times completely laughable in today's society.

No other commercial... indeed, no other product represents my love of the 80s better than the McDLT.

I am pretty sure this is the greatest moment in commercial advertising.

What we have here is the perfect storm of TV ad genius/absuridty: a pre-George Jason Alexander (talent), with a company of McDonalds Performers in a smörgåsbord of 80s fashion (now unfashionable), singing and dancing (now seriously unfashionable) about the McDLT (just a hamburger with lettuce and tomato), a burger that keeps your cold garnishes separate from your hot hamburger (seriously just a hamburger with lettuce and tomato) by using a very eco-friendly styrofoam box with a brilliantly engineered dual-compartment design.


I have watched it probably close to 100 times within my life and it still makes me giggle like a school girl.

But look at it! All you need to know about the 80s is right there. Should alien anthropologists discover this video, with no other knowledge about our society, they could quickly determine that this was a time when...

1. Fashion was at an inbetween stage, with forces of conservativism in very similar, dour suits (yuppies) battling against a more asymetrical fashion with a colorful array of pastels and bad color schemes (general youth)
2. People were very loose with the use of song and dance, using to effectively to glorify and sell something as mundane as a cheap meal
3. Society had reached a point of decadence where they were happily sold things they had no conceivable need for, such as a food item where the meat was served "hot hot" while maintaining the lettuce at a temperature of "cool cool."

That is the 80s! And I guess that's why I love old commercials: when it comes right down to it, they're really just tiny little time capsules, giving you a brief look into the daily lives of a bygone era in a way that no other medium can really convey.