I am a child of the 1980s. That means a few things. I played an aggressive amount of Pong on Atari, collected Garbage Pail Kids, and to this day have much love for the Rubik’s Cube — although I have still yet to solve one. It also means I have fond memories of certain television commercials. Commercials like Wendy’s asking “Where’s the beef?” Max Headroom trying to sell me New Coke, and Mikey telling me he likes Life cereal. It is over 30 years later and those images still remain in my head. I hope it is bringing a smile to your face as well.

Of course, television and television advertising has changed over the years. Not just for the national campaigns like I mentioned above, but for local advertising. Growing up in the ‘80s meant you had to sit through those commercials. There was no DVR or TiVo to help you fast forward through the messages. And it is probably hard for our Millennial readers to believe, but there was no flipping. We did not have the remote control yet — at least the Gargaros didn’t — so in order to change the channel during a commercial, you had to get up and go to the TV to do it manually. Often not worth the work. Our payoff? Classic commercials that had a fair amount of entertainment value and an equal dose of cheese.

So one would think that commercials are not as important today. Perhaps. People are not watching regular television nearly as much as they did back in the 1980s. People are consuming media on items such as Netflix, Facebook, and YouTube.

Who among us has not fallen into the YouTube rabbit hole where 10 minutes quickly turns into an hour? I certainly am not immune. In fact, that happened to me recently when I started checking out local HVAC company commercials on YouTube. I guess I take my job home with me.

There was a commercial from All Air and Heat in Florida that had a great ad about the meat sweats … a real thing, by the way. I was also entertained by some talking bells in an ad from Bell Brothers Plumbing, Heating and Air out in California. A lot of these commercials got thousands of views on YouTube.

And that is additional value HVAC contractors can receive from their commercials. They are not just running on television when you buy the time. They can be posted on your website, uploaded to social media, and included in your eblasts. Each place has the opportunity to get some eyeballs.

Now there is another place to showcase these great commercials — The ACHR NEWS Business Management enewsletter. The NEWS is going to be showcasing the best in HVAC contractor commercials in this monthly enewsletter, but we need your help. If your company has produced a commercial that you are especially proud of and you feel it needs to be recognized, please let me know at kylegargaro@achrnews.com.

It does not need to be a funny commercial — although it certainly can be. It just has to be able to bring in an audience and, hopefully, have them remember you company.

If yours is chosen, it will be posted on The NEWS’ website and placed in the members-only Business Management enewsletter. In order to become a NEWS member so you can be sure to see these commercials, simply visit us at achrnews.com and click the blue box titled “Subscription Center.”

I can’t wait to start viewing all these commercials.