A Brief YouTube History of Blockbuster
By Harry McCracken | Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 11:26 am
With the news of Blockbuster’s bankruptcy, I’m wallowing in Blockbuster nostalgia. Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure it’s a temporary condition. But after the jump, a few vintage Blockbuster TV ads–get ready to see lots of shelves packed with VHS tapes in bulky boxes…
That last ad seems to be a US one repurposed for the UK–here’s an original one from over there:
This one shows an angry mob of Blockbuster customers descending on one of its stores–and while it’s supposed to be funny, it rings true. That’s never a good sign. (It reminds me a bit of this AOL ad–though at least the mob AOL showed appeared to be peaceful.)
Okay, fit of Blockbuster-induced nostalgia over. I’m getting back to work…
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September 23rd, 2010 at 11:37 am
Great post, Harry, thanks. When I saw our local Blockbuster shut down a couple years ago, I was saddened, both by the impact on people and on the local economy, and by the passing of an institution. But as I watched the video about "the perfect video store" and its 10,000 titles I was struck by how technologically impaired that business model was, and how long it hung on.
September 23rd, 2010 at 3:06 pm
Ironically, Blockbuster was never the best video store, only the most ubiquitous. Here in New York City, we had some legitimately great rental places like Tower Video and Kim's Video. Those places had all kind of foreign films you couldn't find in most places. Blockbuster was just full of wide releases and straight-to-tape shlock.