Search - Hit Celebrity TV Commercials on DVD

Pretty Good Deal

Bluesy200 | USA | 06/19/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I'm not particularly fond of this label, but the collection of ads (120 of them) is nice and the price is right.Pros: The majority of ads are above-average video quality. Nice assortment. Many celebrity ads show long-forgotten (and astonishingly YOUNG) faces.Cons: Watermarks everywhere on the corners of the screen. Annoying and large celebrity names in the bottom left corners of all ads...take too long to fade out. Distracting and intentional, so that others don't dupe them, I suppose. UPDATE: The buyer above is correct: this DVD does not play properly and does indeed flip you back to the main menu. You can still view all the ads, but it does require frustrating jumping back and forth to view them. Very botched.Bottom line: recommended."

A Classy Collection Of Commercials At A Cut-Rate Cost

sundayclub | 11/21/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Last year, Madacy released a 2-disc "Classic Commercials" package which appeared to have been mastered from third-generation video dubs. Even at its budget price, the package seemed like a rip-off. Collectors griped about the poor-quality video, the hissy sound, and the lack of chapter stops. Until now, it was the only DVD of commercials widely available in stores. Passport Video has risen to the challenge and produced a first-class compilation that puts Madacy to shame.
This budget-priced DVD includes over 120 ads, each one remastered for the best possible picture and sound. Video quality ranges from fair to excellent. Most are mastered from cleaned-up 16mm films, some are taken from newly-discovered color videotapes, and a few were salvaged from Madacy's DVD package. Every ad features a celebrity (hence the title), which makes this disc ideal for casual star-gazers as well as hard-core commercial buffs.
On a technical note, Passport has gone the extra mile by including a chapter stop for each commercial so you can skip past any ad you don't like. There's also two alphabetical indexes which you can use to quickly find any ad by product name or celebrity name. The producers have even taken the time to provide a brief on-screen graphic at the start of each ad to help you play the Spot-The-Celebrity game. Purists have complained about the placement of a transparent logo in the upper-right corner of the screen to 'brand' the picture and discourage thievery, but most viewers will simply ignore it. Other reviewers have been frustrated by typos and minor technical glitches in the indexes, but the overall performance is still above-average for a DVD of this price.
This is the most enjoyable commercial compilation on DVD to date. I recommend it for anyone old enough to remember when a Dove Bar was made with cleansing cream instead of ice cream."

Avoid Passport Video!

Alan Smithee | Hollywood, CA | 06/22/2004

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This WOULD have been good, had it not been for the big watermark at the top of the screen that stays there on every frame!! I'll never buy another disc from Passport again, in fact I should send this back to them.
If that wasn't enough, they screwed up the programming on this disc too- several times it goes back to the main menu then you have to search back to where you were, and selecting individual commercials from the menu sometimes brings you to the wrong part! Several things are misspelled too. Go with the Madacy Classic Commercials DVD instead; even though the quality of that one isn't great, at least there's no added on-screen junk and it actually plays all the way through!"

I call them bugs!!

Mark Pirro | Hollywood, California | 09/27/2004

(1 out of 5 stars)

"It's bad enough that you have to see watermarked 'BUGS' at the lower right portion of network and cable television shows, but I refuse to have to stare at them on a DVD. This otherwise acceptable DVD is marred by a bug at the top right corner of the screen, reminding you of what you're watching. To a video purist like myself, I can't stop staring at it. "Something Weird Video" has this same habit of putting these bugs on their DVDs. Needless to say, I never buy Something Weird Videos as a result (in fact, I returned the first one I bought after seeing it). People buy DVDs to get pristeen copies of whatever they want, and putting a bug on the screen just shows the disregard Passport video has for their customers. I'm going to try and dump this on Ebay."