Fred Rated, the spokesperson/advertiser/random crap extraordinare, has done over one thousand commercials for the tech product chain store The Federated Group, and his advertising contract lasted for six years. The once large chain, with a force of 14 stores that grew to 78 different locations stationed in five states, had a huge increase in sales after the Fred Rated commercials started airing. Shadoe Stevens, the man behind the over-the-top and occasionally ridiculous television ads, has always been a genius marketer, and this legendary advertising campaign is probably the best example.
Now, sit back and watch these video montages of the best Fred Rated ads ever, and finally realize what your life was missing- store ads that made you laugh (or cry). Why doesn’t Best Buy, Fry’s Electronics, Circuit City, or any other electronic store have this much awesome in their ads? The world may never know.
If you can still look yourself in the mirror after watching that commercial collage, then please watch this one too:
More inside
This collage starts off with my favorite
And this brutally insane montage will make your head asplode
One day, when I start my own small time business turned big interstate retail chain (or restaurant), I am going to hire Fred Rated to do my advertising, since he is an inspiration to us all. The most ironic thing about these commercials is how much they don’t really make sense. I stumbled across my local public access channel’s 30 minute block of pretty much all of the Federated store commercials from Shadoe, and it was not unlike stumbling across some random episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force or Sealab 2021 at 3A.M. on some idle Tuesday.
Perhaps the creators of the Adult Swim shows were inspired by these commercials when they originally aired in the early 1980’s. Either way, technology just got a whole lot more dumbfounding, epic, and hilarious. I am a better tech geek after watching these. I was too young to see these when they first came through the coaxial cables of epic eighties television, so if anyone can legitimately remember them, please tell me how awesome they made your life.
2 Responses to “Commercials from the best tech store in California”
Those commercials were overwhelming in their hilarity. They speared all the cliches of local ads, which made you a co-conspirator in their subversion.
Nobody had really done anything so frenetic and lightning-quick and in such volume. They threw away more than most teevee ads showed, so they were endlessly engaging. You wanted to see them again to see what you’d missed.
More than one of them left me choking with laughter. Shadoe Stevens was like Phil Hartman or Jim Varney/Ernest P Worrell–you lost track of the actor in the character. And it seemed like there was nothing he wouldn’t do for the laughs.
I heard that Shadoe Stevens is actually the voice behind all the Fry’s Electronics radio commercials. Is this true?
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June 14th, 2007 at 6:50 am
Those commercials were overwhelming in their hilarity. They speared all the cliches of local ads, which made you a co-conspirator in their subversion.
Nobody had really done anything so frenetic and lightning-quick and in such volume. They threw away more than most teevee ads showed, so they were endlessly engaging. You wanted to see them again to see what you’d missed.
More than one of them left me choking with laughter. Shadoe Stevens was like Phil Hartman or Jim Varney/Ernest P Worrell–you lost track of the actor in the character. And it seemed like there was nothing he wouldn’t do for the laughs.
July 19th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
I heard that Shadoe Stevens is actually the voice behind all the Fry’s Electronics radio commercials. Is this true?