I’ve seen this ad, from the noted fictional Baltimore-area GM dealership known as Big Bill Hell’s, pop up in our comments section over the years, and I just now realized we’d never featured it. Well consider that fixed, and, as the ad says, Fuck you, Baltimore!
Big Bill Hell’s is fantastic, we all agree on that, but where did this come from? It’s subtly VCR-look shows that it clearly pre-dates the modern internet era, which is what makes it even more incredible. Who made this, and why?
Happily, it seems Know Your Meme has some answers:
This highly over the top commercial was originally produced as a joke in 1990 for a faux award show put on be the Advertising Association of Baltimore called The Ad Follies. The AAB searched for agencies willing to produce ad spoofs mocking the top agencies in the city despite the impending threat that people working on these spoofs may place their jobs in jeopardy for doing so. The production was conducted at television studio WBFF and all of the footage originates from car manufacturer promotional videos and generic stock footage. The writer and narrator of the copy are still both unknown.
The video was never intended to be shown outside of The Ad Follies show because of the vulgarity and the possibilities of being viewed by the mocked. Copies were only distributed to people who worked on production and to WBFF employees following the screening.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to work on my Challenge Pissing.
(I was reminded about this by a post from Cody B. Thanks!)