10 awesome old board game commercials

Yahoo! Games

If you’ve ever fired up a decades-old VHS tape, you may have noticed that the old commercials are often more interesting than the shows you or your parents were trying to tape.

A memorable commercial is a magical time capsule, a portal to bygone hair styles, dated social mores, crude special effects, and weird theme songs. Here are ten awesome board game commercials (and quasi-board-game commercials) covering over three decades’ worth of frenzied advertising.

Dark Tower

Legendary filmmaker Orson Welles was obliged to do a lot of side gigging in his sunset years. When he wasn’t vowing to sell no wine before its time, Welles even dipped his formidable toe into the games business. Here he is seriously classing up the joint while pitching the coveted early-80s electronic board game Dark Tower. Take a lesson from the maestro: that’s how you phone it in.

Hungry Hungry Hippos

This perfectly serviceable commercial works more as a nostalgia hit than as anything especially weird or funny. We’re mainly impressed with the bluesy way the vocalist sings “Hippooooo” at 0:05, and with the narrator’s punctilious grammar. (Does anybody say “whosever” anymore?)

Mr. Bucket

This one is, um...nope. We’re not going to say anything. Mr. Bucket, everybody.

Simon

Simon is a classic designed by the late, great games pioneer Ralph Baer. But this ad’s lame Police-knock-off theme song was lucky to avoid a lawsuit. And that’s all we want to say to you.

The Game of Life

Now this is how you appropriate a musical style for a game commercial. This vintage Game of Life spot features a folk-rock jingle so ‘60s you can barely stand it. We’re just trying to figure out whether it sounds more like “Mrs. Robinson” or “Last Train to Clarksville.”

Crossfire

SO INTENSE! It’s hard to know what to love most about this gloriously cheesy ad. The vague, can’t-be-bothered voiceover (“It’s some time in the future”)? The hoverboards? The contorted grimaces? The hair metal screech at 0:25? We love all of it.

Operation

Another clip sure to stir memories for viewers of a certain age, this classic Operation commercial is chock full of unforgettable one-liners. Butterfingers!

Connect 4

It’s perfectly logical to use Connect 4’s grid as the basis for a commercial that mimics the opening of “The Brady Bunch.” Less logical is the attempt to play off words beginning with “for” by adding a medieval knight (“Forsooth!”) and a chef (“Fortissimo!”) to the cast. Why would a chef say “Fortissimo,” anyway? Shouldn’t he be a conductor? For shame!

Mouse Trap

This ‘60s commercial gets props for its insanely over-orchestrated background music, which throws in piccolos, piano glissandi, slide trombones, and who knows what else. Too bad the game never worked correctly.

Jenga

The ‘80s. Yuppies. Hair product. Ugly sweaters. It was a glorious time.

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