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Horribly shot commercials & infomercials


Jonathan Bowerbank

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Walter, did I have the timeline right? The earliest spot I could find was the one I linked, but I think they went way earlier.

 

From what I remember, he was a Syrian Jew, and the legend around my Canarsie, Brooklyn neighborhood was that he first lived there (or maybe Mill Basin) with a vanity tag that read "SyrianJew." (Seemed like too many letters to me, but that was the rumor.)

 

The one thing I remember, besides how bad and annoying those spots were, is that they did TONS of them. They never ran the same spot ad nauseum. (Spelling?)

 

Also, what do you know about the announcer, Eddie Carrol? A friend in the radio business told me he actually owned the production company that produced them, and cleverly got recognized as an agency to get the 15% media discount kicked back. I know kicked back is kind of a negative term, didn't mean it that way, but you know what I mean.

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Walter, did I have the timeline right? The earliest spot I could find was the one I linked, but I think they went way earlier.

 

From what I remember, he was a Syrian Jew, and the legend around my Canarsie, Brooklyn neighborhood was that he first lived there (or maybe Mill Basin) with a vanity tag that read "SyrianJew." (Seemed like too many letters to me, but that was the rumor.)

 

The one thing I remember, besides how bad and annoying those spots were, is that they did TONS of them. They never ran the same spot ad nauseum. (Spelling?)

 

Also, what do you know about the announcer, Eddie Carrol? A friend in the radio business told me he actually owned the production company that produced them, and cleverly got recognized as an agency to get the 15% media discount kicked back. I know kicked back is kind of a negative term, didn't mean it that way, but you know what I mean.

 

Crazy Eddie started in '71 I think but don't know when the spots started. What religion Antar is matters little to me. He currently lives in Brooklyn. Jerry Carrol (the announcer) was a DJ in NY when I grew up who went by the name DR. Jerry and was on 102 PIX in the seventies. He currently lives on the Upper West side. My friend Bob Lampel produced those spots and used Jerry as the talent. What they did to make money, I do not know. Look for Bob's name after Nighline and ABC overnight news. I still own two yellow Crazy Eddie shirts. His prices were, "insane"

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As far as I'm concerned after reading this thread, the only good commercials are the ones you see during the super bowl. ;)

 

Effective in what way? In terms of effectiveness they fair no better than any other commercial. In fact I often am disappointed that so much money is spent for effectively no return. Seems I'm not alone. A lot of advertisers want more than just a funny Superbowl commercial .

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Jerry Carrol--now I remember.

 

And if the stores opened in 1971, that's when the spots started.

 

His first store was in Brooklyn on Kings Highway, off Coney Island Avenue. And we were amazed to turn on the TV every day, watching these awful commercials, only to see him announcing yet the opening of ANOTHER new store.

 

And yeah--he had the lowest prices, because he was ripping off his suppliers.

 

Which should kind of make us rethink the effectiveness of these commercials in the first place, or at least the role they played in the "success" of the chain.

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And yeah--he had the lowest prices, because he was ripping off his suppliers.

 

Which should kind of make us rethink the effectiveness of these commercials in the first place, or at least the role they played in the "success" of the chain.

 

Let's not start another false rumor Ira. In the late eighties Crazy Eddie was taken over by a company headed by Elias Zinn. Crazy Eddie was a name not a person and not Antar. And ANtar did not own crazy eddie alone. The company over inflated stock numbers to make them look more liquid. They created a false sales scheme to inflate inventory numbers that THREE OF THEIR LARGEST SUPPLIERS HELPED THEM DO. Basically suppliers sent them merhandise that was not billed till the next accountiung period so that Eddie could show sales that did not exist. This was at the end of Crazy Eddie and not during the better times. For the most part Crazy Eddie was a great store that sold things at great prices, all legit. Antar was arrested not for "stealing from suppliers" rather for stock fraud and not related to this inventory scheme.

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Let's not start another false rumor Ira. In the late eighties Crazy Eddie was taken over by a company headed by Elias Zinn. Crazy Eddie was a name not a person and not Antar. And ANtar did not own crazy eddie alone. The company over inflated stock numbers to make them look more liquid. They created a false sales scheme to inflate inventory numbers that THREE OF THEIR LARGEST SUPPLIERS HELPED THEM DO. Basically suppliers sent them merhandise that was not billed till the next accountiung period so that Eddie could show sales that did not exist. This was at the end of Crazy Eddie and not during the better times. For the most part Crazy Eddie was a great store that sold things at great prices, all legit. Antar was arrested not for "stealing from suppliers" rather for stock fraud and not related to this inventory scheme.

 

I just remember that there was a lot of fishy stuff going on.

 

Is Carrol still alive?

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It's great seeing that Crazy Eddie's ad again, and Walter -- great to hear about the behind the scenes. Everybody in the tri-state knows the ads, everybody knows something went down, but all-in-all its an interesting story.

 

But that Cheerios spot -- that's been driving me nuts for months! I noticed the box composite immediately, but there also seems to be some weird framerate/speed issues in those cuts too (maybe just an artifact from the composite?). The tech issues of the Cheerios spot isn't as bad as the writing though. Is this meant to be a snapshot of a smarmy, tense, loveless relationship, or do I just not get the "humor"?

 

I don't mean to slam anybody's work, of course, so if anybody here did that spot I come in peace. I've done my fair share of crappy daytime TV commercials -- "Need Cash Now?" kinda stuff (can't find any on YouTube, unfortunately, but who doesn't know and love JG Wentworth?).

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Nice link but basically an encapsulation of a lot of stuff that makes it all look like Antar. Once again don't confuse Crazy Eddie with Antar as this Wikipedia does. Problem with the web is that it is often looked at as accurate infomration when in fact it is often not. I always say the web is great because it let's a lot of people who never had a voice have one. At the same time the web is dangerous as it lets alot of people who never had a voice have one.

 

Antar was charged and inprisoned for securities violations and then had others in his organization try to blame him personally for things they did while bleeding his company. Most of those charges did not stick. Let's move on from this topic of Antar. I know him and his family and know about what occured first hand. You do not and only have the web to attempt to use to make it seem like you do. Sorry, I just hate when folks find a web page and say "see". Yea I see a web page. Great!

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