Watches - JCPenney Christmas Catalog - 1988

 

       There's a lot going on in the picture above. I understand if you need to take a minute. What you see is just one of the pages devoted to cheap plastic watches in the 1988 catalog. I chose this one, because it has some of my favorites. The whole top of the page is claimed by The California Raisins. The popularity of the Raisins is something I doubt I'll ever be able to explain to my children. I'm not even sure it's something that would work today. It was just the right idea at the right time that got everyone eating raisins and buying raisin-themed merchandise. Whoever came up with the ad campaign for The California Raisins should be hailed as an advertising god. Just think of the fact that kids all over America wanted to wear watches adorned with raisins! They were asking for them for Christmas! They're the most represented character on the page! Ahhh...good old 1988.
     There's the standby G.I. Joe watch, which continues to prove Mattel's lack of creativity when it comes to anything other than toys. ("G.I. Joe sweatsuit? Make it camouflaged and slap a logo on there. G.I. Joe sleeping bag? Make it camouflaged and slap a logo on there. G.I. Joe watch? Make it camouflaged and slap a logo on there.")
     Moving down the page, we come to my favorite entry: the ALF watch. That's not your average character watch. That's ALF's freakin' head wrapped around your wrist! How cool is that?! It's like a toy and watch in one. Honestly, I didn't realize ALF was still popular in 1988. I was thinking he was earlier than that, but I guess not. You know what it's like when you get old, you start losing track of time.
     Continuing, there's the Pee-Wee Herman watch. Poor Pee-Wee. He was a shoe-in for best watch until that cuddly ALF showed up. You would lift up Pee-Wee's 3-D face to see the time. As cool as that is, my favorite part is actually that they painted his trademark gray suit down the watch band. It's the details, man.
     That brings us to the last items on the page: The Howdy Doody items. I remember 1988 pretty well, and I don't remember any type of Howdy Doody revival. I remember that there was some sort of special on (I guess it could have been that year) that may have celebrated some sort of anniversary*. I think that was the extent of it, and since I was probably one of the only people who watched it, I'm pretty confused as to why they decided to go for the Howdy Doody merchandising. My guess is that the items were already in production before they realized their attempts at renewing Howdy Doody interest fell flat.
     So, I guess that makes this a perfect watch page. There were the big trends, the attempted trends, and everything in between. It's like 1988 summed up in cheap digital watches. Kind of makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, doesn't it?

(*After doing a little research, I can, indeed, confirm that a Howdy Doody 40th Anniversary Special aired that year. In fact, it was even released on video. I guess other people DID watch it.)