Retro Halloween Commercials
November 28th, 2009 by John WolfeBoth Halloween commercials in this entry are from the old Woolworth/Woolco stores. Ironically, I wore The Incredible Hulk costume featured in this first video, either for Halloween ‘78 or ‘79. That was probably the last year I ever dressed as anything other than the undead. From that point forward, my motto became “the spookier, the better.”
Video source: You Tube user, Del655
Video source: You Tube user, TurningGreenTV
A parent had to love going costume shopping at Woolco in the 70’s, only to hear their child say, “I wanna be Timmy ‘The Drunk’ for Halloween!” 
November 29th, 2009 at 2:41 am
Wow! Even back then they were making tie-ins with movies? Cheese-o! I forgot all about Woolworth/Wolco. What memories! I never ever used a store-bought costume growing up. It was up to us kids to come up with something. Mom was completely disinterested (5 kids, kinda numb by the 5th one). I got very good at making costumes. To this day–no store-bought ones, although I admit, I might go as an alpine miss costume from Spirits Halloween because I just think it’s too fun to pass up!
November 29th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
“Timmy, the Drunk!” That is hysterical. Ah, for those more innocent, non-PC days when we could actually go stumbling around the neighborhood acting like the town boozer.
Rich
November 29th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Wow, prices where that cheap??? Amazing!
November 29th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
autumnforest,
The earliest movie/fast food tie-in I can recall from my youth was a whole promo thing McDonald’s had with The Muppets’ Movie. This had to be around 1980 or ‘81. They were giving away drinking glasses (actually made of glass, not plastic) with scenes from the movie depicted on them. Of course, Star Wars had to have had a lot of product tie-ins and merch stuff with fast food places, department store commercials, etc. but I can’t really remember them. And then E.T. hit and the marketing tie-ins were huge.
Honestly, I had never heard of “Turning Green” until seeing this clip.
GhoulishCop,
That whole “Timmy The Drunk” thing cracked me up as well. The lady in the commercial just says it all in a matter-of-fact manner. LOL! “Hey kids, be all your favorite superheroes for Halloween. And guess what? You can also be an alcoholic!”
Goldie,
I love looking at the old prices too. Anytime I watch a movie from the last ten or fifteen years, if it has street scenes in it, then I like looking for gas station signage. I try to see if I can spot the old price per gallon.