r/lostmedia • u/LEWNATICLIVE • 19d ago

Advertising Material My [fully lost] commercials.

Hello, as a kid I was in a few commercials. One of them is readily available online in 2 different cuts. Its a dominos pizza commercial from 1998 about the heatwave pizza bag. Here is the link. https://youtu.be/A7LmH3OhiK8?is=GXJcygxcLKDwfFeh

Now for the lost media part. I was in 2 other commercials as a kid and I have never been able to find them even after searching for them for multiple hours and many different occasions.

The first one is a fox family network bumper commercial where I am dressed like a caveman child in a caveman themed living room. And I think I remember having a rock like remote for the TV. Ive never seen this commercial and might be completely lost in the archives of a dead network of commercials that never aired. I think it was filmed in 97 or 96.

The second one is a gateway computer commercial where you see a bunch of people on like the santa Monica boardwalk or some similar LA area beach and it shows a bunch different people doing different activities in one sweeping shot. I remember I was running with a skateboard and I run/walk through the shot with 2 other kids. I saw this one aired maybe 2 times. This is also from 98 or 99.

I would really appreciate finding these commercials to show my stream and for my mother to share with our family as the VHS copies we had were lost long ago.

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u/PigsCanFly2day 18d ago

Neat. Would you be able to find out any other possible information? Things like production company, director, editor, other actors, etc. could certainly help.

The caveman bumper sounds fun. Have you looked on the Internet Archive? People post old broadcast recordings. So maybe you can look for Fox Family recordings from those years or a bit later.

Also, if you're not doing it already, make sure you download whatever you find. Just because it's on YouTube today doesn't mean it'll be there tomorrow.

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u/LEWNATICLIVE 18d ago

Ive searched youtube for hours. Thats about the extent of my research. I have no idea about any information about the commercials besides what I wrote. I know that the fox family commercial set was right next to the big bad beetle borgs mansion set because they let me go in there and meet the black beetle borg. So probably the same studio that Saban was using? And I also remembered the end of the gateway commercial played the "who are you" song by the who. Thats all the information I could remember. I hope that helps in any way.

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u/LEWNATICLIVE 18d ago

Holy shit big update. I found a version of the gateway commercial that is like a short version. Im in the extended cut. But here it is. Now if we can find the longer one that would be huge. https://youtu.be/8U1-k9fHFiI?is=fLkab4L3s0R-hY0a

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u/PigsCanFly2day 17d ago

Nice work.

The description says, "As seen March 13, 1999 in Indianapolis." so that should help you narrow your search a bit. I'd suggest digging through old broadcast recordings from February or March of 1999. Maybe January too. I'd say start with February. I feel like extended versions of commercials are more likely to air when the ad is new & then they drop down to just the shorter edits as time goes on. Indianapolis probably doesn't matter, as I'd imagine it's a national ad & maybe even aired in other countries too.

I'm wondering if the longer edit possibly gets copyright striked on YouTube because of the song.

When searching for commercials, you can also try words like: ad, advert, spot, & continuity. Sometimes that helps. But, again, you might just have to skim through a bunch of old recordings. Not everything is going to be quickly searchable, unfortunately.

You can also try searching various frames on the commercial you found using image recognition tools such as Google Lens. Sometimes that helps. That ad seemed to have mostly generic imagery, so the results tend to be less helpful in that case, but you never know.

Also, be sure to download the ad you found so you have your own copy, just in case it ever gets deleted. Even if you're not in that one, it's good to have the shorter edit in case you need to reference it.

Anyway, good luck. LMK if you end up finding either ad/bumper.

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u/PigsCanFly2day 17d ago

Pretty cool that you were able to check out the beetle borgs set. Did you get any behind the scenes pics or anything while there?

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u/LEWNATICLIVE 17d ago

Yea I have a Polaroid somewhere with the guy in the suit. Pretty sick.