This is beginning to seem like a bad horror movie, where just when you think you’ve survived the monster attack, its big brother shows up. And then its cousin. I really thought that first encounter with a 1950s Kellogg’s Corn Flakes commercial on a DVD of old Superman shows -- which led to all four kids gulping down corn flakes after the show -- was a fluke. That was five years ago, and I chalked it up to coincidence as much as anything; I hadn’t bought corn flakes for years, but Bob had just happened to find a big box of Kellogg's Corn Flakes on sale a few days before.
Then a few weeks ago I discovered that Ben’s sudden desire for Ovaltine came shortly after viewing a Joe Namath ad (featuring kids who’d now be a little older than me) on a video of classic sports commercials. And then yesterday as were leaving the grocery store, he admitted that his purchase of a bag of Nips candy -- which he’d talked up as a good choice because each piece had only 30 calories -- was influenced by a commercial from an old VHS tape of “Mystery Science Theatre 3000” episodes we recorded in the late 1990s.
So now I wonder: Are our kids particularly vulnerable to zombie ads because we don’t watch much television? Is nostalgia a factor? Or is simple curiosity about seeing something on a store shelf that you thought existed only in some hokey vintage take on the past?
Ben shrugged as I asked these questions. He was sucking on a Nips lozenge, reporting the change in sensation as the outer toffee coating dissolved, exposing the chocolate center. “Well, it’s only a factor if the product still exists,” he said.
It‘s almost like zombie ad hunting has become a goofy hobby of his. Except I don’t think he’s the one holding the gun.
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