Added: 5 years ago
From: ulfkastner
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  • Ali macGraw  is hot..

  • I have this camera.

  • It'd be great if there were some hot chick swingers that say "yes" for only $19.95, I'll "zip it off" all right

  • 0:45 History's first duckface picture

  • Haven't see this one in 40 years. Wow!

  • I still have this camera! --it was my mom's, vintage 1968-1969. And it still works-- just like it says in the commercial. If only I could get film....

  • awesome commercial!! they prob sold zillions of these things.

  • I remember these commercials and I had a "Swinger". I still have some of the pictures here in my apartment. Yes I am OLD...I don't care! The 60s were worth the trip!! By the way, it looks like Ali MacGraw in this commercial.

  • @NellyHanky11 It is Ali MacGraw, and Barry Manilow is doing the singing.

  • i want this camera

  • Love this commercial. Grew up singing this song. Actually in subsequent years, since I was so young when it came out, I later thought it was a commercial for the Dodge Dart Swinger. Thanks to YouTube, I found this great commercial,

  • Comment removed

  • this is before my time. but i love cameras. i'm starting to collect all types. you can still find these cameras at flea markets, goodwill, and ebay, but i don't think you can still buy the flim.

  • @ellikhan you can use fujifilm fp 100b film fir it I think, it's a substitute Polaroid packfilm. Hope it helps:)

  • When it said, "YES" that was so hi-yech magic in it's time.

  • somepunk is like stupid or something

  • another one of those great "60s jingles that you never forget!

  • Yeah, it was a very popular camera. The camera for the youths of that day- not a camera your parent's used ! Probably one of Ali McGraw's first commercials and the woman who played the wife on "Welcome Back, Kotter" was featured too.

  • @amuslima99 Marcia Strassman?! XD

  • @kresblain CORRECT ! Thanks-I couldn't remember it for nothing !

  • @amuslima99 In the commercial: Marcia Strassman was in one of the photos, and in live action, there was a sideview of her laughing looking at one of the pictures.

  • does anybody know were can i find film for this camera?

  • OH MY GOSH!!!! I remembered the words!!! I loved that camera!!!!!

  • I got one for Christmas when I was six. And isn't this Ali McGraw?

  • @mlorson yes that's Ali (Mrs. Steve McQueen)

  • @mlorson Yes, and Barry Manilow is singing.

  • The message is very clear: With our digital cameras, you can now safely take tons of naked pics and not have the entire photo kiosk staff masturbating over them later, which YOU KNOW THEY TOTALLY WERE DOING UP UNTIL THIS VERY MOMENT.

  • Cool. It almost looks like a toy.

  • I remember this commercial and had one of these cameras. And I believe that the brunette (in the middle of the pic) is Ali McGraw.

  • I'm sure this commercial is great and all, but the only thing I can think about while watching it is "Holy shit, this commercial is a full minute long."

  • @DanTheeMan time's perception has evolute a loooot during these decades, not only in TV and Movies, but also in our everyday lives... hopefully it will calm down again one day, or we will be living for nanosecond moments of pleasure :)

  • The woman at 41 seconds (shaking her hair) changed the whole tone of the video. :) I still have a polaroid camera, but now the film is so high, its not worth using anymore. Its in my nostalgia box.

  • Barry Manilow, doing the singing!!!

  • @207nkf You're right! ;-)

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  • @somepunk13

    Greatest youtube comment ever.

  • this is one of the weirdest things i've ever masturbated to

  • @somepunk13 yeah u jerked off to dead people

  • i really love this commercial

  • I got one of these in 1966 when I was 14 years old. I too still have the pictures I took with it and thought I was pretty cool with my "instant" camera. I wish I remembered what happened to the camera. Knowing my mother, it's probably stashed somewhere in her house to this day.

  • OMG I had this camera back in the 70s & remember me & my friend's use to sing this song while walking down the street. We thought we were so cool. lol

  • Commercial had a catchy tune and a young Ali McGraw.

  • 00:47-0:48 is he taking a pic of the couple... doing it?????!

  • @pinkyblackish no, they are on a surf board in water....

  • I was "into" swinging at that time...the camera helped preserve the memories...oh, boy...a different time and era and...never did get her name!

  • Cracked!

  • Anyone else here who came from cracked and can't believe how naive all the other commentors are?

  • @TheGroovyChannel lol i came from over there too and the people here have no idea of what we just read x]

  • O.K. everyone. Have a situation. Like to know if anyone can help me with it: At my parent's house we came across a old Kodak Instamatic camera-the kind that used the cube flashbulbs. About circa, 1971-72,thereabout. With film in it and pictures have been taken. No places we took the camera that develop pictures have the equipment now so we can see what pictures were taken. Any suggestions?

  • Ali McGraw is the brunette-the first person to take a picture with the Swinger.

  • It's not that $19.95 is so cheap now or was so expensive then. It's just the idea of not only including the price in the commercial (so stores in one part of the country couldn't charge a different price for them), but actually *working into the lyrics of the song*!

  • The "Polaroid Swinger" was the greatest Christmas gift I ever received. Got it in 1966 and it still works perfectly. Thanks for posting this commercial!

  • @007CONROY That's incredible. I think it's the first camera that ever came in white.How could you get the film for it now?

  • @007CONROY how cool that you still have yours. i wish i knew what happened to mine also received in 1966.

  • Mad Men season 5 NEEDS to use this ad!

  • Look at Ali McGraw everyone! My sister's best friend at the time had that camera and I thought it was so exciting being about to have a developed picture from a camera in that SHORT amount of time ! So revolutionary ! But that was Polaroid-remember their Cool Ray sunglasses and the tag they came with it that you could peep through?

  • @amuslima99 wait... ALi McGraw is in this?

  • wow, I remember watching this commercial I was a child in the 60's. 

  • The Camera was cleverly called "Swinger" to encourage people to take instant pictures of their hippy orgy partys. For you youngin's, Swinger was a term that was given to couples who like to have orgy's with other couples.

  • @JENDALL714 "SWING" was also a catch-phrase back in the 60's. There was a dance show on TV where I'm from called, "Swing Lively", to "swing " meant to have a "good time" what people did for FUN ! And as you can see the teenagers were having a "good time" taking pictures of each other! Polaroid was just tapping in on the younger set. The Swing(er) wasn't the camera your father took pictures of you with when you were a baby...it's for YOU ! (Something like that).

  • Ali McGraw is looking hot in this terrific video. That Swinger could be a pain. Thank goodness for digital cameras. We've come a long way baby to get where we've got to today, that was a jingle too. Replace the we've with you've.

  • i love the commercial .. so catchy "swinger .. polaroid swinger" hahaha .. does anyone know where (on the web) i can buy a used one .. i really would like that

  • @vnjegds Definitely look for one on eBay. You won't find film for it but it's a classic. I still have mine from 1968. I actually went on to work for Polaroid's service department and repaired a bunch of them in the 1970's.

  • i don't know if it's been asked here before,but is that Bobby Rydell on the vocal?

  • @66buff It may have been Barry Manilow; after all, he wrote the jingle. Plus, it does sound like him. That price of $19.95 would figure out to be over $100 nowadays, BTW.

  • @elc1960 thanks for the reply.i didn't know barry manilow was in the music biz back in 1965[iirc this is where this ad came from].but imo,it still sounds like bobby rydell.

  • @66buff No problem. I found out since yesterday that it WAS Manilow. He was writing jingles even before this one. He used to do a thing in his stage show where he and his female backup singers would do a medley of some of his better known jingles - like "State Farm Is There" and "I Am Stuck On Band-Aid". Rydell has a somewhat fuller voice, not as nasal as Manilow.

  • I remember to make the swinger say YES, you had to turn the button and at the same time you had to squese it....kind of a pain in the neck.

  • I already invented that, cancel that patent application!0

  • so aweome i want to get a swinger. i just ordered a sx-70 from vintagepolaroids website and some px100 film from impossible project

  • i have a Polaroid spectra 2

  • You are offcially awesome for posting that great ad! Thanks so much

  • Huh, the one I inherited never has YES show up like that. Or at all really.

  • @xercess Durf, I need batteries

  • That was Ali McGraw? She was yummy!

  • A total gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssss!!!

  • What a great commercial! I, too, used to sing the tune when I was young. The Swinger was MY first camera, also. I got it as a birthday gift when I was 11.

  • I didn't know that was Ali Mc.Graw. I thought it was Raquel Welch.

  • Nowadays, people use digital cameras. How about Meet the Digitial, Polaroid Digital.

  • I remember this song and all of the words - I got a Swinger when I was in grade school and I still have it!

  • @24nancy24 Wow you still have the Swinger camera? You should take it on Pawn Stars to see what it would be worth now? I had that camera but it crapped out on me years ago. But I always loved that song!

  • @24nancy24 that's great. i'm sure you took care of it & stored it away.

  • That tune has been stuck in my head since I last heard it on TV when I was around ten years old.

    It's great to revisit the past.

    Thanks for posting.

  • boy did that bring back memories. I remember that ad and that was my first camera.

  • Love that swinger. Now it's love that Polaroid a530 5MP digital camera. Got this last December, and loving it to the max!

  • this is when i was groovin. 3rd grade. man i love this song. meet the swinger. love it.

  • Thanks for posting this. Ali McGraw was glorious, but... does anyone know who the other girls in the ad are? :-) Any guess?

  • Love the groovy commercial

  • I remember my mom buying me a Polaroid Swinger when I was 10 years old. I though it was so innovative back then. This commercial brings back great memories.

  • 64,000 plus hits-this was a hit.

  • I had a Singer when I was about 8 years old. The film was only 8 shots on a roll, B&W only and I think it cost like $3.50 plus about $1.50 for a box of single use flash bulbs. It was expensive to use back then. I don;'t think my parents bought me too many rolls of film for it.

  • OMG, it is Barry Manilow. Also Ali MacGraw is in this.

  • Nineteen dollars and ninety-five cents was a lot of money back then. I wanted one of these cameras so bad but wasn't willing to save up my allowance for months to get it.

  • Another great from the good old days! Thanks for sharing!

  • Ah, back in the day when women actually had flesh on their bones...Ali McGraw's legs and rear were slammin'!

  • I got one of these for my 12th birthday in 1967, and I still have all the photos I took....glad I took 'em...especially of my relatives, long gone. (The camera is long gone also)

  • @BeagleRAK55 I also got one for my 12th birthday in '67. Small world, ain't it? I liked the way the laquer smelled. It's amazing I didn't become a huffer at that age!

  • @Bopalena You and me both! I remember storing those "coaters" as I used to call them back them. Hmmmmm....perhaps I DID get high on them.....oooh....I DO remember them smelling "nice"!!!!

  • @BeagleRAK55 Received a Polaroid swinger Xmas 1967 and I was also 12 years old at the time. Took loads of fotos with mine too.

    As far as I know my Polaroid Swinger is stored in the outside shed at my mom's house.

  • That Ali has the cutest ass I have ever seen!!

  • My parents got me one when I was 12 years old!

  • so cute! lovely song! lovely commercial!

  • That was fun. So that was Ali McGraw, eh? Beautiful. And Barry Manolow did the gingle? Amazing.

    I miss Polaroid. I still have that Swinger somewhere in the attic. As a small kid I got it for Christmas. I never treated it as a toy so I never broke it. LOL

  • It's Barry Manilow singing by the way! He wrote many ad jingles.

  • Yeah Baby

  • I say "YES" for Ali

  • and "swingers" could take no-no pics without having to have some idiot at the photo-mat looking at them HEE HEE

  • nice camel toe

  • $19.95 a lot of money in 1969,when gas was 29 cents a gallon,and a new carmaro convetible cost $2500

  • I was devastated when my parents wouldn't give me "only nineteen dollars and ninety five." It was then I realized any chance I had with Ali was dashed to pieces by the surf.

  • Ali was not a young chicky here! She was born if 1937,so she was probably 32 or 33 here!

  • WTF!

  • Everyone alive at the time remembers this commercial and it's lyrics...and Ali McGraw...Great commerical thanks for the memories...

  • Was this the kinda camera where you put that thick cardboard backing on it? There's tonnes of photos of my mom when she was young, taken with a Polaroid, with the thick backing on them.

  • Nope, that came later. This was roll film and the pic peeled away from the cover sheet.

  • Love this one. I remember it sounded like Bobby Rydell.

  • lol sometimes we would sing this on the squad bus on the way to non-home football games

  • Polaroid are dumb fuckers for discontinuing film.

  • Wow Ali McGraw..

  • I had one of these cameras (probably still do) and I gotta tell you, they took GREAT photos!!

  • I just got one of these at an auction sale with 2 rolls of unused film ^.^ Can't wait to use it!

  • GOD! I remembered all of the lyrics!

    I always wondered "HOW DOES THE CAMERA KNOW?"

    when it was okay to take the picture.  It was like holding a little artificial intelligence device when I was a little kid.

  • yeah but the filmstock is as hard to get a hold of as batteries (and ink) .... there has just GOT to be a REASON for this

  • My family has this still, i wonder how much it can sell for now.

  • Go on Ebay and type in a search and I'm sure someone is trying to sell one, you can see how much it is selling for. I still have one too, mom bought it for me when I was a teen.

  • I checked on Ebay and they are selling for about 10 bucks.

  • wow that's a value at half the price!

  • I hadn't seen this commercial since I was a little kid in the 60s, but I remembered all the words to the song. We owned this camera, it was pretty cool. You'd twist a little thingy on top of the camera and it'd say "YES" in green letters, or "NO" in red letters. Ain't tek-no-logicky wonderful?

  • Maybe I'm a little slow...I never saw or used one of these older Polaroids...but what did the "Yes" message mean?

  • The "Yes" indicated correct exposure settings (i.e. there being enough available light for a sharp 1/200 second exposure - 1/200 sec being the Swinger's set shutter speed.)

  • Really peppy music, I remember this ad, mostly the music. I have about ten old Polaroids, somewhere.

  • Sad that Polaroid has ended film production. It was fun stuff, and could even be artistic. RIP Polaroid.

    BTW, my first ever camera was a Polaroid...much like this crazy 'Swinger'. Never had a fun day on the beach with swingin' hot chicks though!

  • ah the good old days....only 19.95..and gas 29.9 a gallon

  • does anyone know what year this was? my guess is 65 or thereabouts

  • you are right, it was 1965

    Hard to believe that Ali McGraw just turned 70

  • I wish my camera was that much fun.

  • I had one of those cameras back in the 60's, yes it was a fun camera. I had the Swinger carry case, which had a place to store the pealed off trash. I still have some old photos from it too.

  • and it's Ali McGraw taking the photos....what a dish!

  • I did a bit of research and found that Barry Manilow wrote or co-wrote this and other songs, including:

    State Farm Insurance (Like A Good Neighbor)

    Stuck On Me (Band-Aid Brand)

    Stridex

    Bathroom Blues (Green Bowlene)

    Theme for Dodge (don't know which one)

    Like others posting here, this jingle has TOTALLY stuck in my mind. Hopefully I won't be singing it on my deathbed :-))

  • kbear1955, I still have a tube of that coating, or as some called it "fix it" solution, and it's STILL damp inside the little canister! I know it isn't the most pleasant smelling stuff, but, each and every time I smell it, it reminds me of that Christmas day that I got my Swinger, wnich I still have. My Swingeris the "Big Swinger" and I can still get film for it, just not the flash bulbs.

  • Heh,heh, I bought one of these things back in 1968 and still have it! Can't buy film for it since the Nixon Administration but it still lights up! The thing they never showed you in the commercials was that each container of film had a little tube that contained a little "swipe bar" immersed in the most fouling smelling chemical ever derived that if you didn't coat your new photo...you would have NO picture left in 3 hours! Also, where were you to put the discarded developing sheet?!

  • Yes, remember it well. The smell and the mess.I have the original Square Shooter, Polaroid's 1st color camera. It didn't have the mess when developing the photos but you did have to wait 60 secs instead of the 15 secs for the black/white. You also had to watch the air temp. If it was below freezing and you were outside, you had to put the photo into a special metal plate and place it inside your arm pit to keep it warm while the pic developed. And the film alone cost more than reg film + process

  • Nope it's flip it off, as in peeling the photo 180 degrees off the negative (flipping it over). Polaroid only ever used the word "zip" with it's line of electric zip cameras.

  • no, it's clearly "zip" - listen to your ears, not something you have read

  • it does say zip

  • i think the manic street preachers covered this song

  • catchy tune

  • That's Barry Mannilow singing this tune!

  • Are you serious? You sure about this?

  • I'm absolutely positive.

  • Well, this is certainly awesome news. This had to be probably 6 years before he went mainstream in the recording business.

  • I discovered this when I bought a VHS set of old commercials. The voice sounded familiar, and it hit me; Barry Manilow! I have read also that he wrote the tune. Do a Google search "Barry Manilow+Polaroid Swinger", and you'll find some info.

  • I have had this tune bouncing around in my head since I was a young kid. For decades...humming it to myself.

    Then, here in Chicago, they started playing it on vintage TV a few years ago. WOW! They play the one with a winter time setting, but I like this beach one better.

    I love the surf guitar in the commercial.

    Smiles.

    Joe

  • I'm beginning to wonder who wrote that jingle. That it stayed with you for decades is an impressive feat and you're not the first to make such a remark in the comment section here.

  • I remembered this & all the lyrics from my childhood - amazing to see it again!! One thing - it's not "flip it off," it's "zip it off."

  • Yes, thanks - changed it to zip.

  • I had been wanting VERY much to see and hear that commercial for so many years - it was the coolest thing at the time! Thanks again for posting it!! I didn't know Ali McGraw then, but I was only 6 or 7. Still, I remembered the jingle and the checkerboard "YES" display.

  • Boy, that Ali was a HOT one!

  • I found one at a thrift store a couple of week ago with film and batteries. Batteries were old and leaking (cleaned it with gloves and little air in a can). I did what said and it did not work.

    =(

    I had hope but it is a cool find for 2 $

  • That is sad. I have my Swinger I bought new in the late 60's and a number of photos I took.

    I don't think there is any film around for it. It is likely your film that's dead.

  • Ali McGraw was so so beautiful.

  • One of my favorites. Hasn't changed since I first saw it in 1966. Funny thing is, I saw this posted on one of the 'tv commercial' sites which said it was from '68. What an unbelievable mistake. There was, like, a decade of difference between the two years.

  • I have a CD with all classic commercial themes. Was great to find a video that has the actual pictures to go with the music.

  • I remember every single word of that jingle. It's been in my head since I was 4 years old. MANY thanks for posting this!!

  • I cant get it outta my hed...who is singing, sounds lika new yawka

  • I believe Barry Manilow wrote it and he may have been singing as well. Listen and you'll probably think it is him.

  • Yes, I agree after listening again. On Wikipedia states he was born in Brooklyn and sang on jingles..explains the accent

  • It sure sounds like him. One of the most memorable commercials in TV history...with the advertisement being better than the product itself!

    Many thanks for posting my favorite commercial of all time!

  • There were at least TWO Polaroid Swinger commercials with the beautiful Ali McGraw. A second (not now posted on YouTube) shows McGraw and a similar youthful group, and ends with them riding away as passengers on a jeep-like vehicle. It is shown occasionally on MeTV, a retro programming station in the Chicago area.

    Does anyone have access to the second McGraw Polaroid Swinger commercial to post here on YouTube? I'm sure a lot of folks would like to see it.

  • I don't know of an online destination for the particular commercial you describe, but there's another Polaroid Swinger commercial starring Ali McGraw that involves bike-riding and a picnic in a park that you might also enjoy. Go to polanoid dot net (replace the dot with a per