Video of the Day: Christmas Advertising That's Insane!

There will never be another advertising campaign, national or local, quite like the Crazy Eddie ads in the 1980s. And even though seeing them gives us a slight heart attack each time (and inspires us), this Christmas ad does seem to capture the frenzied spirit of the holidays. Everyone should have an oversized candy cane defend him- or herself against snowballs while claiming "We will not be undersold!"

The actor in the commercials was not Crazy Eddie founder Eddie Antar (who was accused of fraud as the business collapsed) himself but a disc jockey named Jerry Carroll. At the height of the Crazy Eddie advertising during the 1980s, the NY Times reported Carroll's antics could be seen at least twelve times a day.

For fans of the low-budget but effective (who didn't know that Crazy Eddie sold electronics), check out the Crazy Eddie Tribute Page.

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By Jen Chung in Arts & Entertainment on December 24, 2007 4:09 PM

Comments [rss]

JMH

Man, I miss Crazy Eddie. That was always good entertainment.

Kevin Walsh

Ah, remember though, the Crazy Eddie Christmas Sale always took place in _August._

www.forgotten-ny.com

Toby von Meistersinger

These old ads are great.

The two old 80s-90s ads I would love to find are the New York Telephone ads with the "We're all connected" jingle and the ones for Long Island that seemed to air in heavy rotation on SportsChannel with the jingle "Long Island. . . long on innovation." It is always these bad little jingles that stay with you for some reason.

As for The Wiz, I think that P.C. Richard bought them out a couple years ago after the Dolans got their grubby little hands on the company and killed it. So somebody did beat The Wiz and beat them to death and they were named Dolan.

And of course we all know that The Wiz featured in an episode of Seinfeld.