Great Sony Walkman TV And Print Ads Of The 1980s
To commemorate the Sony Walkman’s 30th birthday, here are the trippy ads Sony used to promote it in the ’80s. Noble monkeys, off-key kids and sweet-toothed senseis—where’s that f’d up sense of humour now, Sony?
Back in 1983, Sony declared the WM-10 Super Walkman the “world’s smallest cassette player,” and promoted it with ads that appealed to the dudes and to the ladies. There’s the fantasy hardware building demonstration, 1 minute into the following ad compilation (here if you don’t want to wade through Seth Green’s Matchbox spot and the rockin’ Simon hair-band ad):
And then there’s the dancer who’d prefer a slenderer music player:
OK, maybe that second one appealed to anybody with a leotard fixation (which, in 1983, was pretty much everybody).
Most people in their 30s will hate me for bringing this one up: The 1986 My First Sony campaign was responsible for sticking the following song inside the heads of a generation of people who are just now able to forget it. Click at your own peril…
Here’s one of the last cassette Walkman commercials, from 1990 or thereabouts, where a father grills his ridiculously dumb daughter on the pictures that appear on TV. She gets everything wrong—everything—but he let’s her mistaken sighting of a Walkman slide, because Walkmen (Walkmans?) are so cool.
And about that noble monkey, his name was Choromatsu, and he died at the extremely ripe age of 29 back in 2007. Here’s his 1988 spot, in which he grips a (Japan-only?) WM-501 and contemplates nature:
Before the zany TV commercials there were the fat-bucking-insane print ads. For instance:
• A slick-looking posse of urbanites with nice shoes and likely heroin addictions
• A sensei sucking a lollipop while sitting next to a nipply lass 2X his height
• A lady perilously guiding a ten-speed at velocity while holding a Walkman
Special shoutout to Don the Intern for those mad researching skills. Hat tips to Pocket Calculator’s Walkman Museum, to Tim and Nick Jarman’s Walkman Central and to Bing’s image search tool. Try it out—it’s really quite different than Google’s.
Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
@[en.wikipedia.org]
Seriously, they could have easily skipped some of those gens if it wasn't for the greedy need to get the people sucked in who have-to-buy-each-generation.
egyptiansushi
@SeniorPonzologist_GitEmSteveDave: "Nutin?"
@Eddie Jimenez: The concert was in Royal Oak (near Detroit).
@frigg:
Not exactly off topic.
The evolution of the Walkman doesn't appear to happen as fast as the more recent evolution of the iPod because you are forgetting about Moore's law [en.wikipedia.org]'s_law
Because of the exponential increase described in Moore's law the evolution is either about the same or expotentially faster for the iPod; depending on your perspective.
justsomereportingguy
@frigg: Im ordering an iPod touch today, so now I can join the iPod conversations like these :D (off topic)
TurboTexas
@SeniorPonzologist_GitEmSteveDave: I thought of an MJ more, but how the hell would I know.
TurboTexas
I had my super Walkman. I think it was the Walkman 10. It fit in my pocket and didn't rip my jeans. I took it everywhere and it lasted for years until one day the motor died. Thanks Sony.
reddingofish
@Bandit: why not? I watched it. x)
max_
@En0s0ne... Now with auto-tune commenting: nice poem :)
max_
@davinp: Why would you do that?
I remember that the US/English version of the one with the snow monkey had him listening to some kind of opera. Anyone know where I can watch that one? It really took the visual poetry to the next level.
I'll never forget my Super Walkman, that thing was awesome. I used it on my paper route, riding my dirt bike with a milk crate bungie-corded to the handlebars. Auto-Reverse, so that when you reached the end of the tape it would automatically switch sides, man that was great.
Pales in comparison to the mp3 players of today, but I honestly wish I still had that old Super Walkman.
All this talk makes me wanna listen to The Walkmen (band(very good)).
oh, i still have my 1st sony walkman somewhere in the garage.
os_2
@SeniorPonzologist_GitEmSteveDave: Dude I had the same thought!
trailingedge
that first one with the cassette case remind me of the macbook air commercial or something. it could have easily been an apple ad.
lltaeho
Walkmans are cool again.
And now they make equipment specifically for iPhones/iPods. That must have been a painful decision (admission) to make.
@CommentingpointlesslyisMeh:
@CommentingpointlesslyisMeh: Oh ...and of course I posted 3 times rather than just replying to my own post. Whole stole my f'ing coffee!!!
You nostalgia, you lose.
Ok. I'm retarded...someone help me
oops trying again
img src=http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l1/Il_dottore/cooldog.jpg?t=1246461188/
img src='[i92.photobucket.com]'/
I've posted a video of two Sony Walkmans that I own
+ Watch video
@SeniorPonzologist_GitEmSteveDave: Lower right? You mean the blonde chick on the bicycle? yeah, that was him, pre-op.
mrburglar
That monkey is the shit
@UnderLoK: Dude, where was this? A friend of mine spoke about a bum who gave the same story.
Eddie Jimenez
@UnderLoK: I know what you mean. At the gym the other day, there was a guy with a walkman walking around trying to look tough. He really just looked like a dork...
Sony Walkman...
You hold a special place in my Heart.
Idiot 13-year olds from the UK
know not what to do with you.
As I rewind to fast forward to the next song.
Young upstarts:
GET OFF MY LAWN.
Happy 30th birthday to the Sony Walkman. We had good times.
En0s0ne... Now with auto-tune commenting
@UnderLoK: FFS why do I have such a hard time typing lately...
***They did evolve over the years, but in retrospect it doesn't seem like ***they did compared to modern technology.
@frigg: The did evolve over the years, but in retrospect it doesn't seem like that did compared to modern technology.
I would venture to guess that in the decades to come we will look back on computers, the ipod, blueray, etc. and think the exact same thing.
@SeniorPonzologist_GitEmSteveDave: Get the clasps ready!
What's with the Shinto priest? "So easy a monk can use it?"
@Purple Monkey Dishwasher: WHAT?? Work? That's ludicrous!!
rDub
Why would I not want to watch the Seth Green Matchbox commercial? My neighbor growing up had that thing, and boy was I jealous.
T-Bone (CoCo the Monkey)
I enjoy how the negated any sense of deepness or wonderment with their Choromatsu by displaying what is possibly the lamest logo for anything ever.
interesting how little the walkman evolved over 3 decades compared to the rapid annual evolution of the iPod.
Looking forward to the 30 year iPod retrospective in... damn there's gotta be an app for that so I don't have to figure out the date in my head.
@+ Watch video
@Purple Monkey Dishwasher: Or try to get into the IT department. the great thing about being in charge of it is you can walk in late "B/c I stay here till 9pm fixing problems sometimes, while you get to go home and have dinner w/your families". Those are usually days I spent all day commenting, and/or messed something up which I will then blame on someone who isn't there or something innocent someone did, and stay late to complete my actual work. Oh Tibor, how many times you've saved my ass.
I like pizza pie, I like macaroni. But what I love is My First Sony.
AHHHH!
turi319
@tok3ninja: I guess you'll actually have to do work instead of read Giz.
Purple Monkey Dishwasher
@tok3ninja: Same here. I see 5 white boxes :(
mosammey
*sigh* if only Youtube wasn't on lockdown at work. Sonofabitch.
Lets not forget about the 1983 Walkman Sears commercial.
Is that Brad Pitt in the ad on the lower right? Not that I look for Brad Pitt, mind you.
I took the wife to see Sonic Youth (gah) Monday and ran into a crack head sporting his new Walkman with big foam headphones... I forgot just hot big the decks were until I watched him try to pull it out of his pocket while explaining to us that he was a celebrity, the paparazzi was following him, and how he just sunk a tanker...
He took off once he saw all the hipsters because he thought there was some kind of gay festival going on (his words).