Where can I get a copy of an old 1980(ish) Mercury
Capri car commercial?  This particular commercial appeared as a
trailer before the movies at the AMC Southwyck 8 Movie Theaters in
Toledo, OH in or around 1980.

Basically its about a guy wandering through the desert where he spots
the car.  He then experiences a string of "mirages" or hallucinations
such as:

Football players running a play.  The guy who catches the ball stops
to admire the car and then disappears.

A group of nuns walks by.  The last one in line goes wild over the car
and then she disappears.

Cheerleaders appear doing a cheer.

The words "Hot" and "Sexy" flash quickly on the screen.  All the while
a great dance track is playing.

Can you possibly locate a source for this commercial?

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Clarification of Question by mercury_capri_fan-ga on 09 Jul 2002 08:44 PDT

This commercial was NOT the one from the Adfilms site from 1981 called
"Magic II", although it was very similiar.  However, based on this I
believe the commercial's name is "Magic" or "Magic I".  I also learned
from Adfilms that the commercial was made by the advertising agency
"Young and Rubicam".

So perhaps the question should be:  "How do I purchase a copy of an
old "Young and Rubicam" produced car commercial?"

*blink*

I remember that commercial.  In those very theaters.  Teensy little
world, isn't it?  And you're right, it was a great dance track!  If
someone else doesn't beat me to it later, I'll see if I can track it
down for nostalgia's sake.  Shame they closed the theaters, what?

missy-ga  <--Glass City Girl

I'm not able to provide an answer as a researcher just yet (my
application is in progress) but -- if no one can find this one on the
Web for you -- I thought I'd add this possibility to the list:

Try the Museum of TV & Radio, which is both in NYC and Los Angeles.
(This is assuming, of course, that the same ad that ran in theaters
also ran on TV.)  I called the Los Angeles location, and they have 55
Mercury car commercials in their archives -- 10 involving the Capri.

Unfortunately, as their reference librarian told me, the listings are
undated and have no descriptions or titles. To see if the one you want
is in there, you'd have to pay the museum a visit (or get someone to
do it for you).

For information about how to contact the museum, visit its Web site at
http://www.mtr.org/.

Other possibilities include going to the car manufacturer and asking
for the company's archivist, librarian or -- failing that -- a press
information person. Then you could ask if they would happen to have a
copy of the ad in their archives. But that, admittedly, might be a bit
of a wild goose chase. It depends how badly you want the commercial
and for what purpose.

I hope someone finds an easier solution for you, online. That would be
ideal, of course. Good luck!

Dear mercury_capri_fan,

In case the commercial you are looking for dates from 1981, there is a
good chance you can find it on a VHS sampler named "World's Best
Commercials 1981":

http://www.adfilms.com/VIDEO81.htm

It costs, alas, 150 Canadian Dollars and is available here:

http://www.adfilms.com/wbcpage.html

I did not dare to post this as an answer since I was not sure if this
is the right commercial, but maybe it proves helpful for you.

Regards,
Scriptor

You may bid here, if this is it.
http://search-desc.ebay.com/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=1&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&newu=1&srchdesc=y&query=capri+commercials

Unless there were alot of those comercials around that time for a
lincoln mercery capri... then i think scriptor found it if you follow
that link at look at number 19...it sounds like it could be
it...however a desciption on their website would be good before you
slapped down fist fulls of cash!!!