MCI Gramercy Press Super Commercial

From March 7th, 1995, this is a late night 5 minute "super commercial" that combines the story lines of the first Network MCI advertisements featuring the fictional publishing house Gramercy Press and the lovely Darlene (Katy Selverstone) as they enter the computer age for the first time. My favorite part (besides Katy, of course) is the old codger who refuses to use e-mail. "Would Shakespeare use e-mail?" he asks. Enjoy the show!

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• advertising
• commercials
• entertainment
• news
• Katy
• Selverstone
• Gramercy
• Press
• Grammercy
• Network
• MCI
• computers
• e-mail

[caspmct]

Does anyone remember another MCI supercommercial from the same era featuring a group of 'international' friends gathered at a french café, all discussing MCI 'worldchoice connect' or something? it aired every morning on NY1. the script was so stuffed with clichés that i nearly wretched every morning. now i'm desperate to find it. "Who makes the best pappadam in Kensington?"

[LNSmithee]

Thanks for posting this. I know I have the Gramercy Press spots in my vast archive of VHS tapes, but didn't know exactly when. Well-conceived, well-written, well-acted. I was reminded of GP when I saw one of those dopey Esurance commercials with its office full of idiots. And I remembered why I had a crush on Katy Selverstone. Whatta babe. 16 yrs later, I gotta be closer to being in her league.

It's always fun to remember people struggling to understand the internet when it was new.

[DrSamba1]

@gbruner Clarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

[bjh1964]

6 weeks after the system was installed, Darlene was laid off, as her position was no longer needed.

[fgldnglbs]

And how. 1994, this was.

I wondered if this campaign/series got high school/college age students interested in going into publishing.

This was the time that AOL was taking off, CompuServe and Prodigy were coming down, and Windows95 was in the can.

Anyone do a "where are they now?" on Katy?

[STUDIOtheSHOW]

katy got a gig from this on a sit com

[lahoward1963]

This commercial was my time to go to work alarm. If i remember right i must have had to be at work at 7:00 AM so this aired every weekday at 5:55-6:00 AM. Think they also made an MCI Christmas commercial with a lot of the same actors. Time sure does fly doesn't it.

[matthewdkaufman]

For some reason I've had this commercial on my mind lately - couldn't remember MCI but I kept remembering the name "Gramercy Publishing", and that there seemed to be an unfinished storyline in the regular commercials - the company was in trouble and it seemed like Martin was going to step forward, harnessing his knowledge and grumpiness with technology to save the day. Hard to believe this aired 13 years ago...

[gbruner]

Can this commercial really be 13 yrs old? I remember it like it was yesterday. Yeah, I was really smitten with Katy in this series. I figured this would launch her into stardom in tv or movies.. Didnt quite happen. As for the subject of the commercial itself, at the time, I found it trite and patronizing - even by 1995 standards. But, after being in the IT field for 15 yrs, I've come to understand that non-technical people view anything technical as if it were magic.