You are now entering Ad Space, a realm of commercials, brought before us so we might examine how they work, and discuss why we both love and hate them so. So it is written …

I’m breaking from our usual format this week, because to appreciate this particular ad, you’ll need some context.

See, in 1983, CBS began airing a cartoon series based on the popular roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons. The premise of the show was … well, like all good 80’s cartoons, it had an intro sequence that explained what the series was about at the start of each episode. Take a look:

In case you didn’t feel like watching, the gist is that a bunch of kids from our world get transported into the sort of fantastical, sword & sorcery world commonly used in the Dungeons & Dragons game. While the kids would do plenty of heroic, saving-the-day stuff as they journeyed across this world, their main goal was simply to get back home, Dorothy-style.

Sadly, after twenty-seven episodes, the series was cancelled, and while an episode that would have resolved the show’s storylines and given the kids a way home was scripted, it was never produced. For fans of the cartoon, they were left with the unsatisfying thought that these plucky youngsters might be forever trapped in a world not their own.

But what no one could have counted on back then was the sheer, indomitable power of 80’s nostalgia. Flash forward more than thirty years to 2019, and something that by all rights should have been impossible occurred. Not only were the Dungeons & Dragons characters back on our screens, but they were being given a live action adaptation, with impressive visual effects, and with our brave heroes finally, finally returning home.

The Product:
Renault Kwid automobiles

The Pitch:
Next, we’re gonna help Sam Beckett leap home.