When did the world get so mean..and so serious?

jester77

I remember Coca Cola were doing a cool promo years and years ago. Can't remember exactly what it was, but you had to collect x amount of ring pulls or wrappers and sent them in with 20 or 30 punts and you would get a really neat coca cola mini fridge, perfect for keeping a 6 pack of beer cool next to the couch. I had totally forgotten about it until a month or so later when there was a very apologetic message left in my mailbox regarding the delay due to unprecedented demand and that I would get the fridge in a week or 2. A week or 2 passes and I get a call saying that they don't know when I would get the fridge, so they refunded me the money, gave me 20 punts worth of HMV vouchers and sent me a few slabs of coca cola and then a few weeks later I got the fridge at no cost. Best customer service ever

These days all you get is a lousy MP3 accompanied with a mailbox full of spam

ElleEm

whiskeyman wrote: »

Remember Fizzy Cola Lollys (trebor I think?) that had a hidden number on the wrapper. If it had a 7, you got a free one!!
Little sweet shop near my grans had those Lollies out on shelf where you could easily pick them up and hold up to the light and see if they had a 7. It was free lolly heaven whenevr we went!

They had this with Postman Pat sweets too. I loved them!

Biggins

DrumSteve wrote: »

Ah yeah blame it on us so

I meant we went down that road when things went pear shaped also.
Till then, we didn't notice it as much.

Sin_J

I think the best was cornflakes back in the day. You collected so many tokens from packs and then sent away for the matchbox toys. There was the old kellogs delivery trucks, the 1920/30s racing cars, the landspeed record cars and i think the best ones, the WW2 fighter planes. They were proper die cast metal, not crappy plastic. And you could send away for this massive paper craft airfield with hangers and a runway and tower with the fighter planes.

Good times. Hard to believe that's about 20 years or so ago.

Biggins

Sin_J wrote: »

I think the best was cornflakes back in the day. You collected so many tokens from packs and then sent away for the matchbox toys. There was the old kellogs delivery trucks, the 1920/30s racing cars, the landspeed record cars and i think the best ones, the WW2 fighter planes. They were proper die cast metal, not crappy plastic. And you could send away for this massive paper craft airfield with hangers and a runway and tower with the fighter planes.

Good times. Hard to believe that's about 20 years or so ago.

I sitll have the Weetabix yellow van one.

UsernameInUse

Years ago, I thought people were kinder and more sharing.

These days, probs cause of the recession - even the most decent people I knew have turned into skabby kunts. It's got to the stage were people hang around you because they want you to feed them.

F*cking scumbags

Aglomerado

whiskeyman wrote: »

Remember Fizzy Cola Lollys (trebor I think?) that had a hidden number on the wrapper. If it had a 7, you got a free one!!
Little sweet shop near my grans had those Lollies out on shelf where you could easily pick them up and hold up to the light and see if they had a 7. It was free lolly heaven whenevr we went!

I remember these! I can still taste them...

Aglomerado

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

Monster Munch used to give handy details should you ever encounter a monster, unfortunately the only advise they decided to share was for the Cyclops...always the f*cking Cyclops.

What use to me is that if I stumble across a Minotaur?

Indeed, and there was always, at the bottom of each pack, a Monster Munch that got all the spice (bright red), and tasted nyom. The packs I've had recently were 100% bland by comparison.

LambsEye

There used to be shit on the Loop the Loop sticks as well, I can't remember what though.

Ghetto Cornetto

I remember Rancheros used to have a promotion where you got a free Capri-Sun if it was a winning pack. The notice was printed inside the pack, fairly inconspicuous.

No idea how, but one day my fat little 12 year old fingers realised that the packaging on the winning packs was slightly thicker than normal.

Free drinks in school for a few weeks. Sound.

Capt'n Midnight

6th wrote: »

My favourite were the dinosaur hologram cards in cereal. Any dinosaur related when I was a kid was cool.

Weetabix used to do natural history museum approved dinosaurs

Capt'n Midnight

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

A kid that goes around with a €200 phone isn't likely to appreciate a plastic toy that's free in a box of cereal.

In 1971 Cap'n Crunch cereal gave away a plastic whistle known as the Captain Crunch whistle. When blown it makes a 2600 Hz sound. People quickly learned that they could use a Captain Crunch whistle to make free long distance phone calls.


As it turns out the Cap'n Crunch whistle's sound mimics one used by the phone system back then. 2600Hz signalled the AT&T long lines that a trunk line was ready and available to route a new call. In other words, the Cap'n Crunch whistle sidestepped the phone system's billing system back before digital phone switching (ESS) was implemented.

Misty Chaos

I remember as young child, waking up one morning, going downstairs and pouring out some Frosties, not expecting much until something covered in plastic packaging came out of the along with the Frosties, at first I was like ' huh? ' and realised it was the thing they were on about on the front of the pack. ( I'm sure it was stickers for a bike )

Happy out I was, it was my first encounter with freebies from cereals and not my last.

I also remember missing the school bus after school once because the q in the shop to get sweets after school was so long ( good thing I lived in town and was 9 when it happened so it wasn't like I was stuck without a paddle. Turns out it took much less time to walk home then getting the bus. )

I too wonder why the world has gotten so serious, did the current generation of the powers that be go through concentration camps or something as kids!?

Ev84

Aoifey! wrote: »

Remember that amazing day when you got TWO toys in the cereal?!

No God damn it i thought it was a myth. Now i feel deprived of a glorious memory.

What i do remember about being young was everyone you walked past was really friendly, when you said "hi" they replied with a friendly "hello there" or "hiyaaa" with a big beaming smile....

Then my balls dropped and voice changed and instead of friendly faces it was worried looks, and when i said "hi" they seemed to think "why is he looking at me?" or "what does he want from me?" or "why is he talking to me?"...

Oh well, Did all you people who thanked Aoifey really get double prizers?

MASTER...of the bra

abouttobebanned wrote: »

Curley wurlies used to have a little joke on the side. Buttons a little nursery rhyme. Mr freeze's a little number that in some mysterious way could help you win a box of them. You got things free in cereal boxes or you sent away for a cool bit of kit.

2FM had a great giveaway show on a saturday morning. In fact everywhere you turned there were competitions and goodie bags to be won.

When did it all change? When did the world get so serious, and when did we stop getting things for free?

Innocent smoothies have funny stuff wrote all over there packaging OP, I stop and have a read every time Im in the supermarket.

Then I go home and make my own with one of these, fierce handy.

AskMyChocolate

LambsEye wrote: »

There used to be shit on the Loop the Loop sticks as well, I can't remember what though.

They had riddles, with the question on the bit you hold and the answer under the icepop iirc.

"What gets wetter the more it dries? A towel"

Jesus Wept

Good to see I correctly identified when the world turned sh1t.

AskMyChocolate

Aoifey! wrote: »

Remember that amazing day when you got TWO toys in the cereal?!

A double prizer. I never got one, but I remember them being talked about in the schoolyard, with the sort of mythical reverence not seen since Jews heard about a list you could get on that would get you out of the camp.

evercloserunion

Can't remember the last time I found a toy in a box of Kellogg's Frosties

Chuck Stone

Ah yes... I remember there was a competition where you could win a trip to the chocolate factory if you got the 'golden ticket' which was hidden under the wrapper - I'll never forget the day I peeled back that wrapper and...

.... hang on ... no... that was a movie.

Dick Burns

why so serious?

snickerpuss

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Weetabix used to do natural history museum approved dinosaurs

I was just about to post wondering if anyone remembered those dinosaur stickers that Weetabix used to have. They covered every inch of my first bike! Good ol Raleigh. I also got a really cool Weetabix encyclopedia which was my most favourite thing to read. And I'm still a nerd to this day...

Archeron

Aoifey! wrote: »

Remember that amazing day when you got TWO toys in the cereal?!

I remember once getting 12 sheets of stickers in a box of Sugar puffs instead of just one sheet, and they were all different. That was some day!

K-9

Green Shield stamps and the Indo had lottery cards that were crap, they bloody banned both of them.