"Panasonic Jazzercise Sexy 1980s Camcorder Ad" (4k) Portable VHS Commercial (Lost Media)

1 year ago
20

Sadly, the history of Panasonic isn't as well documented as Sony. This commercial is for their portable video system. I guess just go down to Sears and say the Jazzercise lady sent you. We learn a couple things from this ad. First is the technology at the time... You had to haul around a VCR (though at least this one is made to be portable) with a giant nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) battery. So even the battery is way heavier than we're used to, and then you had the big camcorder itself. In the video you see the tripod with the camera mounted and the VCR just hanging off it. Super stable, obviously. The second thing we learn is that "selfies" have been around quite a while. This lady just drags this VCR to the beach by herself, sets up the camera and starts dancing away. I wonder what that actress thinks about tik tok/instagram/youtube now.

Audio and video have been enhanced. *

Here's another great Panasonic commercial with Conan the Barbarian:
https://youtu.be/oGUPmUd8LFs

Yeah I know. Look, it was filmed on a potato. I wonder if they used that camcorder to film the commercial? The first camcorders were...not good. Though the ad says it was great in "low light" conditions. Somehow, I doubt that.

1985? It has Hi-fi audio which was not present at the start of VHS.

I believe the VCR component to be a PV-9000 & PV-A860. Not sure about the camera. Nice ad with a pretty dancing lady. What was the product for again?
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1261020626/vintage-1984-panasonic-pv-9000-pv-a860

https://spencertified.com/products/panasonic-pv-a860-portable-vcr-vhs-player-vcr-spencertified

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