Let's get a few things out of the way up front: not all the commercials of the past were creative. There were a ton of boring and dull ones and these commercials are not the ones that are sold on Ebay, are uploaded on YouTube or air on TV Land. And, yes, there are a number of great commercials that air in the modern era. However, there is a certain something that is missing from modern commercials and that requires us to look at some of the classic commercials and wonder why they were so great. Here is my take on it: In the old days, there were three network channels and a two or three UHF channels. As such, everyone watched the same thing. That means that the commercials were competing with huge audiences as opposed to heavily segmented audiences. Because of this the need t appeal to the widest possible audience was critical and this mean that the commercials needed to be unique and special.