1978: LOOK-IN TV ADVERT

Here's a rarity from 1978: a British TV spot promoting the comics'n'features weekly LOOK-IN, an essential read for a generation.

This particular spot mentions both MAN FROM ATLANTIS and Universal's Bionic shows.

If you're wondering how a comic could afford a national TV advert (when Marvel plugged the likes of G.I. JOE or THE TRANSFORMERS in the states they were using Hasbro marketing money to circumvent strict rules on TV toy advertising) for anything other than the launch issue, the answer is simple!

LOOK-IN was published by ITV PUBLICATIONS which - as the name suggests - was a spin-off from the ITV network.  Created primarily to publish the ITV listings magazine TV TIMES, ITVP (which was owned by the fifteen regional companies that made up the ITV network) created LOOK-IN as a TV Times spin-off (officially: the junior TV Times).  ITVP were free to advertise their wares every week on the ITV network.  The BBC did exactly the same with their listings magazine RADIO TIMES and other commercial ventures.  Changes in legislation, and ownership, now prevent such obvious cross-promotional synergy.