The secret story of an iconic TV commercial for cassettes
If you grew up in the 80s and were making cassette mix tapes, you probably fought with your friends over the best brand to use. I was a TDK diehard, although a couple of friends wouldn’t buy anything other than Maxell.
Maxell, a Japanese company, used to make batteries (the name is a contraction of Maximum Capacity Dry Cell) in the early 1960s but later moved into the cassette market. Their chromium oxide tape formulation was considered superior by some tapers.
In the 80s, Maxell ran a TV commercial that became iconic. If you were into big, powerful stereo systems at the time, this hit home.
A couple of things about this campaign.
- A model was hired to sit in the chair. But for whatever reason, the guy never showed up. The person in the commercial is the make-up guy who the spot. The director liked his long hair. We don’t know his name.
- I seem to recall that you could buy a still from the TV commercial as a poster for your bedroom.
- Peter Murphy (then of Bauhaus) was also part of the campaign, but only for the UK. This spot was called “The Storm.“
I started with whatever my teenage self could find, but ended up using Denon exclusively after high school. I still have a box of unused blank cassettes.
Maxell also made some awesome floppy disks :–)