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Every day on the Internet, I see some article circulating about things only true ’90s kids remember. Well, guess what? Those lists are bogus. The only thing that 100 percent confirms if you were a true ’90s kid (other than your birth date or using the word “bogus”) is if you remember that Sears Kenmore air conditioning commercial.
You know which one I’m talking about, but if your memory is hazy, let me hit you with two words: “another scorcher.” Remember it? Of course you do. It played during every commercial break in the ’90s summers, and sometimes multiple times during the same commercial break. I wanted to escape that commercial even more than the actor in it wanted to escape that relationship.
No joke, during my summer Nickelodeon days, I watched that commercial more than 1,000 times. It made no sense to advertise for air conditioning in between “Hey Arnold!” episodes. It’s not like I was ever going to run to my mom from the living room and say, “Please, please, please, can we get the new Kenmore air conditioning unit?” I was too busy groveling around begging for a Skip It to ever ask about appliances. Also, I was 10. How misguided was their marketing department that I was in the target demographic?
That commercial aired so many times that it became a cultural phenomenon among my friends. I remember playing outside, because that’s what ’90s kids did, and my sister and I would act out that stupid commercial in our backyard. That’s how inescapable it was: two bored kids sitting outside yelling “another scorcher” while dramatically fanning ourselves.
If you had told my 10-year-old self that I would one day become nostalgic about a commercial that played nonstop, I would have laughed in your face. Yet here I am as an adult, seeking out that commercial on YouTube. I’m not surprised that I can still recite the dialogue with perfect timing: “I’ll call today.” “You’ll call now.” “I’ll call now.” Someone could write a psychology Ph.D. dissertation based on that conversation alone.
This commercial is somehow more hypnotic to me as an adult. Maybe it’s the Christopher Meloni lookalike actor or the Michael Bay-style Dutch angles, or maybe it’s just my memories of the jorts and scrunchie look, but I’m hooked again. The vicious love-hate relationship has been renewed.
This commercial is stuck in my head again and it will be for the next decade, but I think that’s…“cool!”
Respond
My friends and I still say “I’ll call now”
The nostalgia from this commercial hit me harder than the impending bankruptcy that’s about to hit Sears.
Now the memories are swirling around…much like the air from my Kenmore a/c.
Oh my god. My brother and I would say “I’ll call now” all the time. It’s good to know we weren’t alone out there.
Damn! Jack and Diet beat me to it.
My question is, why in the hell would Captain Dipshit want to wait to call and his A/C fixed?! If my A/C is out for more than an hour I’m in panic mode and start dial A/C repair guys like a fucking demon.